Why Are You Learning English? The Power of Purpose and Habits

- Hello, everybody.

This is Jack from tofluency.com,

and welcome to this video where

we are celebrating 150,000 subscribers

here on the channel.

So, thank you, firstly,

so much for being here.

Some of you have been here for years,

some are very new,

and this might be the first time

that you're watching one of my videos.

But no matter how long you've been here,

just know that I really appreciate it.

And I'm so happy that you are learning English with me.

So, again, if you're new, subscribe and join this community.

But in this video we are going to discuss willpower,

and wanting to do something,

and going deep into the reason why you are learning English.

Because I think the reason why you're learning

and going into your purpose for learning

is such an important part of staying consistent

and doing the things you need to do

in order to reach a high level of English.

So I tried to do this live,

but the internet connection isn't strong enough

to allow me to do it.

And I was asking some questions in that live stream.

Asking people why they are learning English.

And I've asked this a lot

over the period of time I've been teaching online.

And answers vary here.

A lot of people need to learn English

for their job, for their career, for school,

because they want to live in an English speaking country.

And others want to do it because they love the language,

because they just enjoy learning a new language,

and English is one of

the most important languages out there,

so why not English?

But I want you to think

about a couple of different scenarios, different examples.

So, imagine that you have a test in two weeks,

and if you pass the test,

it means that you're going to be able

to have your dream job.

And you need to pass this test in order to get the job.

Your desire to learn English at this stage is very high.

You don't need the willpower,

you don't make as many excuses about not learning.

You do it.

You do as much as you can

over the next two weeks.

You don't say, "Oh, I don't have the time,

"because I'm doing this and I'm doing that."

Instead, you study really hard.

Or most of you will study really hard.

You'll do what you need to do

in order to reach the level to pass that exam.

You'll stay up late at night,

you'll do things on your lunch break.

You'll listen to English while you are commuting,

you'll find a teacher to help you.

On the other hand, if you have other things

in your life that are higher up on your priority list,

then you won't do as much English.

You won't do as much to learn.

So, think about what your priorities are right now.

And also think about how you spend your time.

And there's no judgment,

there's no right or wrong answer.

But if you prefer to play a sport,

go to the gym, watch something in your native language,

if you prefer to do other hobbies instead,

then that just means at the moment,

those things are a higher priority

than learning English.

And again, that's not necessarily good or bad

because your reason to learn might be low at the moment.

And I'm going to give a couple of tips to help you

just stay consistent over the long term.

But one of the most important things

when doing something new,

or when trying to achieve something amazing

like having a high level of English,

is knowing the reason why it is important to you.

And you can make this stronger

by actually thinking about it.

By thinking about how much it would change your life

if you had a high level,

about how much your career would change

if you could speak English with confidence,

how much happier you would feel

if you had that high level.

And sometimes we need to remind ourselves about that

in order to give ourselves the momentum to learn,

in order to actually do the things we need to do.

So take the time to do this.

Think about okay, how can I...

What would happen to my life if I learned more English,

if I had a higher level of English?

Think about that and take the time

to actually reach that stage

where you are excited about doing it.

And then secondly,

try to cheat at this a little bit.

Okay?

Try to cheat at being excited about learning English.

And think about it like this:

get excited about other things, but do them in English.

So let's say that at the moment

you're really into diet and exercise and fitness.

That's more important to you than learning English.

You want to spend your time

researching diet and exercise and fitness.

You want to watch YouTube videos about this.

Well, do it in English instead.

This is a cheat to ensure

that you're doing things you want to do

but also learning English at the same time.

Think about, okay, I love watching television,

what TV shows can I watch in English?

And I talked about

watching movies and TV shows in English

in the last video so go watch that after this one.

But again, whatever your hobbies and interests are, do that.

Because that is your motivation.

That is the thing you want to do right now.

And again, for me it changes.

It changes.

So sometimes I'm really into diet and exercise,

other times I'm into researching about history and politics,

other times I just want to have lazy days, you know?

And if this is you, do it in English instead.

So whatever you're doing now, do it in English.

And then what you'll do is you'll build up the habits

so that you are doing the right things on a daily basis.

But, like I've said a few times before,

it's not just about the input,

it's about the output.

And if you are truly motivated to learn,

if you truly want to reach a high level,

then you will do the things you need to do.

You won't even think about making excuses.

You'll do things like try to work on exercises

for your mouth so you can make the right sounds in English.

You'll do things like the Tofluency method

so that you can build up your fluency,

your accuracy and your grammar.

You'll find someone to speak with

and you won't care about making mistakes

because the desire to improve is stronger

than your fear of making mistakes.

So think about motivation.

Think about the reason why you're learning English.

And then, use that and apply it to your daily life.

Build the habits to learn English.

Do things that you're doing now in English,

but also know you're going to need that extra effort

in order to reach a higher level.

(upbeat music)