The No.1 Thing You Need to Become Fluent in English This Year (And Why Most Fail)

Hey! This is Jack from tofluency.com and

I bloody love this time of year. It's

early January and by this time a lot of

you have thought about what you want to

achieve this year - now, we can call this a

new year's resolution and this is when

you decide to do something or to stop doing

something. For a lot of you who are here on

this channel this one thing is to learn

English. You're here because you want to

reach a high level of English and I can

see the excitement in the comments at

the moment. People seem really fired up

about reaching a high level of English

and making 2017 the year of fluency. I'm

no different.

I love setting goals and thinking about what

I want to achieve over the next 12

months and, in fact, I actually have a few

goals that I have set myself this year.

This is something I do every year and I

have a pretty good track record of

hitting these goals. Before I share these

goals I've got some bad news for you

because it's estimated that only eight

percent of people who set goals actually

achieve them.

That means over ninety percent of people

don't achieve the goals that they set

out at the beginning of the year. From

experience, you'll know this is true. Maybe

you have done this as well. But it's very

common for someone to say okay I'm going

to give up smoking;

I'm going to drink less; I'm

going to start learning English; I'm going to

get fit and healthy and then by February.

they have given up.

They've lost that initial excitement

have they've lost that initial motivation to do

what they set out to do.

The good news is that there are certain

things you can do to ensure that you

give yourself the best chance possible

of achieving the goals that you set out

for the year so i'll talk about that

soon but first here are my goals 2017...

Firstly, I want to grow this YouTube

channel to 200,000 subscribers. Now on

January the 1st, I had about 21,500

subscribers so this is a big goal. I want

to take this channel to the next level.

This is a goal that I'm most excited

about. This is my number one priority for

the year and it's going to take a lot of

work, it's going to take me making videos,

working hard, promoting the channel...

interacting with you that people who

watch it. I'm really excited about this

goal and I'm sure I'm going to do

everything possible to achieve it.

Another goal I have is to get in the

best shape of my life. So, in 2016, I put

on some weight and I didn't feel very

healthy. But this year, I'm really going

to commit to it and it's my number two

priority. Now, most people say: make health

your number one priority, you know, after

family and friends make health your

number one priority but I'm just being

honest with myself, it's not. My number one

priority is this business and my health

and fitness will come second but that

doesn't mean that I'm going to be

unhealthy,

in fact, i know that I can balance the

two to ensure that they both go together

but when it comes down to it, let's say,

on a Friday afternoon I have the choice

to make a video or go to the gym, I'll

probably make that video. My third goal

is to learn French to an intermediate

level. Now, I already have semi-decent

pronunciation because I took a

pronunciation course. I also have a

little bit of knowledge of French as

well from my time at school but that was

a long time ago and in most schools, you

know that language learning isn't really

done properly.

There's no emphasis on speaking.. it's

very difficult to make progress, so I

know very little French but I plan to

become an intermediate speaker. What's

interesting with this goal is that it's

not my number one or number two priority

it's the third priority on my list of

goals. So, I'm going to take this slowly.

I'm not in a big rush to get fluent

straightaway and that's important to

know as well: when you're planning out

these goals, think about your priorities,

in fact, that is the key of all of this.

In order for you to achieve your goal

let's

say learning English to a C1 level - check

the description to see how you can

evaluate yourself - but let's just say

it's to learn English to a C1 level,

you really need to be fired up about it.

You need to be excited about it.

You need to really just be obsessed with

achieving this - not obsessed in a bad way

but that obsession actually drives you

forward to achieve something special. And

reaching a high level of English is so

special.

Not many people do it. Many people give

up because it's a long journey. But that

doesn't mean it has to be a horrible

journey. You can make this fun, you can

make this exciting and that's why I want

you to do... if your goal for this year is

to reach a high level of English - that C1

level of English - I want you to make it a

priority and I want you to enjoy it as

much as possible. Because for me, I can't

tell you how excited it makes me feel

about trying to reach 200,000

subscribers here on YouTube.

I'm so fired up - I'm so ignited with

passion about it, I just can't wait to

reach that goal. But I'm going to enjoy

the journey along the way too. What makes

this goal exciting for me and if it's

for you reaching a high level from an

intermediate level, is that it's a little

bit scary when you think about it, you

know, it's quite scary for me to sit here

and say: okay, I want to reach 200,000

subscribers. It would be a lot easier to

say 60,000 or 80,000 or even a hundred

thousand but by saying 200,000

subscribers, it makes me feel a little

bit uncomfortable. I know that I'm going

to have to make changes - I know i'm going

to have to become a different person in

a way in order to reach this goal. But

because this goal is scary and because

it's such a big goal

it makes me excited about it and that's

again the key

it's about getting fired up about this

goal and when something is a little bit

out of your reach

if something is out of your comfort zone

then you can use that energy and get

excited and get fired up.

So, when it comes to learn English, choose

the goal for this year that gets you out

of your comfort zone. Choose a goal that

is going to help you really

really push on because if you just go

ahead on autopilot doing what you're

doing now then you won't make that big

jump.

Now, if it's not a priority for you, it's

not a priority. And you can keep

progressing at the same rate. But if you

want to speak English with confidence

this year; if you want to be able to

understand TV shows and movies and have

conversations with people; then reach

higher, choose a goal that scares you;

choose a goal that really gets you

excited about putting the work in. At this

stage, I need to tell you that if you

haven't got my book already

go download it now. It's "The 5-step Plan

for English Fuency" and it talks about

this five-step progress (preocess) to help you go

from intermediate to advanced or from

advanced to proficient, so, go check out

the description, click the link and

download this book for free. But before

you go, I have some extra tips for you

tips that will help you stick with your

goals for the entire year.

The first one is this: after you have

your goal, research exactly what you need

to do in order to attain this goal and

then create an action plan that is specific

to you. This is what most people miss out,

you know, most people say: okay, I need to

do the Sentence method; I need to repeat

after native speakers; I need to have

conversations with proficient or native

speakers, but they can't do this because

they don't have the schedule to do it;

they don't have the resources to do it.

So, it's really important that after you

know what you need to do, create a

routine based on your schedule not

someone elses not this imaginary

schedule but based on your real-life

situation and then slot English into

this. Going back to priorities,

maybe you need to stop doing something

in order to start doing more English. So,

again, look at your schedule and say: okay,

is this important? Am I spending my time

wisely? If not, do a little bit more

English instead. It's also important to

have that belief that you can do this.

Look at the people who have achieved

this level and get

inspiration from them. This year, I'm going

to invite people onto my channel - those

people who have learned English in a

quick amount of time and I'm going to

interview them. So, that you can see that

this is possible. And if this is you, then

send me an email -

there is a link in the description. And

finally, again, this is so important: make

the journey as enjoyable as possible.

You need to enjoy this process of

learning English. A lot of people do what

they think they have to do instead of

what they want to do.

I've made many videos on things like how

to choose the best book for you and that

just means finding books that are

interesting. There are no books that you

have to read to learn english, only books

that you enjoy reading. So, go onto Amazon,

start reading the books, check them out

see if you're going to enjoy them, and

then choose the ones that you know you

won't be able to put down. One last tip -

is this: focus on the most effective

methods. So, it's ok saying: I'm going to

study 20 hours a week. But it's what you

do with your time as well. And I have a

great method for you called the Sentence

Method. There will be a link in the

description and this just shows you a

great way that you can spend 15 minutes

a day internalizing grammar and learning

new words and phrases, so please check

that out. There's a lot of advice there. I

hope you have found this useful. Again

check out the description - there will be

a summary for you. If you enjoyed this

video, give it a thumbs up. Thank you for

watching - if you're new

subscribe and if you really enjoyed it

then please share it.

Okay, thank you very much - see you guys in

the next lesson!