English Is the Journey
A popular saying, often wrongly linked to Buddha, says: “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.”
If you look closely at your life, you may notice that we are often masters of getting ready for life, but not always masters of living it.
We think we will be happy when we get that job, buy that car, or go on holiday. So we spend most of the year waiting for happiness, and it always seems far away on the horizon. So maybe it is worth trying to be happy here and now, not there and later?
But is this kind of motivation for learning English enough?
Definitely yes!
Justify/motivate your answer – Come on, give an answer, give it!
Steady Motivation for Learning English Instead of a Short-Lived Burst of Energy
If we look at why people give up learning English, it turns out that it often happens because of the big expectations they have about their learning.
Language school ads also promise phenomenal results from their wonderful methods in an amazingly short time. Then it turns out that the promised results do not appear after a week, disappointment comes, and people quit.
A year later (coming soon) we read another ad for a new miracle method, sign up for a new course, get disappointed again, and so on.
Focusing on results motivates us at first, but this “short-lived burst of energy” often turns into disappointment and giving up.
See also: 10 ways how to discourage yourself from learning English effectively? xD (coming soon)
Control the Cause, Not the Result
On business courses, trainers noticed that managers often burn out because they cannot reach the results they expect. We watch too many Disney (coming soon) stories and think everything must always work out.
Not necessarily. That does not mean it is not worth trying. But you must try wisely!
People say: set a goal, and when you reach it, you will be happy. First of all, whether we really feel that happiness is doubtful. Usually, it turns out that we still need this, that, and the other thing to be happy, and the list never seems to end.
What we do have, however, is a full guarantee of disappointment when those expectations do not come true.
So how should we try wisely?
There are days when it is hard to find motivation. There are days when motivation finds you!
Young ambitious managers are advised to take a different approach:
instead of focusing on the result — which we cannot control — experienced coaches advise focusing on the cause — which we can control.
So yes, we set a goal, but we do not need to stress so much if the conditions do not let us reach it. It is not so important whether I reached the goal I set. What matters is whether I did everything I could to make it happen.
I can feel good because I did everything possible. From that I draw conclusions, lessons, and experience that I will use in working toward other goals. In this way, I not only ensure my ongoing development, but also protect my mind from burnout, frustration, and giving up.
This process has no end, so the only happiness I can experience is the satisfaction of growing “here and now,” not the mythical happiness “there and later” at the end of a road that never really ends.
See also: 5 tricks helping with learning English
Realistic Goals
The same thing applies to learning English.
Of course, we choose a goal, but it also needs to be realistic and achievable. Setting “I will learn to speak English perfectly and without mistakes” as your goal sounds nice, but it has some drawbacks. Even the strongest motivation for learning English cannot handle an impossible task!
- First, there are so many words in English that nobody can learn them all. Nobody, and especially not native speakers, uses them all every day. That is why Speakingo’s list of 2,000 most common English words (coming soon) is an ambitious enough goal.
See also: Now imagine that you already know English
- Second, we will always speak with an accent, and that is OK.
In every city in England, people speak with a different accent, not to mention America or other English-speaking countries.
There is no such thing as a “correct English accent” (coming soon)
– of course, textbooks use the standard RP accent (Received Pronunciation) – which is spoken by… only Queen Elizabeth II (coming soon) and a few English teachers.
- What is more, we will usually talk to people who also learned English as a second language and they too will speak “with an accent.”
So it is important not to be afraid to speak, to communicate, and not to freeze because of grammar or pronunciation.
This motivation for learning English will work.
Even the Longest Journey Starts with the First Step
And most importantly: since we cannot control the result, only the cause, we do not know how long learning English will take. Maybe six months, maybe a year, maybe several years. It does not matter.
What matters is that I learn regularly.
What matters is that every day, or twice a week, or as often as I can afford time-wise, I sit down to learn with Speakingo and repeat. I do not give up, and I do not get frustrated that “I do not understand anything.” I just take another small step in the right direction.
You cannot learn English one month before the final exam (coming soon), test (coming soon), or job interview (coming soon). You can only do it over time, making steady, if not spectacular, progress.
With time, you will see how far the road behind you has been.
Let us also not forget to keep motivation for learning English alive.
Motivation for Learning English
To keep going on this road, motivation for learning English is important.
That is why it is worth reminding ourselves from time to time how many opportunities this language opens up for us.
Work, travel, unlimited access to information, new friendships, or helping children with homework – it is good to remember why we started learning in the first place, because those reasons are still relevant.
Even worse, if we stop learning, those reasons will return to us like an unwanted nightmare (coming soon). So we take another step, build another cause of success, and keep our eyes on the goal (but without staring too hard). The carrot and the stick are always within reach.
You do not hit 100% of the shots you never take – a random famous person
The last and perhaps most important thing: this process does not have to be a dramatic road through suffering.
Learning English Is Fun!
It develops the brain (coming soon) and lets you spend time pleasantly and usefully. This is especially true of learning English online with Speakingo (coming soon), where we can look at nice pictures, listen to the smooth voice of the narrator, or read sentences that often contain wisdom from proverbs and sayings, or relaxing jokes (coming soon).
And a relaxed, happy mind learns more easily. So learn English like a Zen master who advises: When you go on a long journey, do not forget to smell the roses along the way!
Sign up for the Speakingo online English course!
English will not learn itself! (coming soon)
I hope that thanks to this text your motivation for learning English has gone way up! If so, share this post with your friends!
