Transcript:

Why does your motivation come and go? 
And how can you make real progress with your English?

Hi, I’m Nick Simcock, a certified Language Coach. I help Italians to unlock their English.

Se sei italiano e vuoi capire ogni parola di questo podcast, vai sul mio sito speakwithnick.it podcast: potrai ascoltarmi mentre segui la trascrizione completa. In più, troverai la sezione “Language Focus” per scoprire le frasi più particolari che uso. Go on my website, don’t miss it!

In this podcast, motivation vs. habits. 

How was your summer? Did you have big dreams about really improving your English? Maybe you were speaking with someone in English, maybe you went to visit an English-speaking country, and you were full of enthusiasm about improving your English. 

So, motivation is what you felt, right? It’s what we have at the start, when we become motivated about the idea to begin something new, something we’re interested and inspired to do, and we see that progress is possible. But motivation is only the beginning.

The problem with motivation is that it’s linked directly to our emotions, to our energy and our circumstances. For example, when you’re tired after a difficult day at work, and your motivation is low, instead of watching a film in English, you’re more likely to choose something in Italian, and probably fall asleep in front of the TV, right? 

Because motivation isn’t constant. It comes and it goes. Some days we feel great, other days we’re not so good, and that’s absolutely normal. But what that means is that your practice, your commitment to what you want to achieve, isn’t constant. 

Acquiring a language requires consistency. Practice that is interesting and relevant to your life. A little bit of speaking, listening, writing, reading or thinking in English every day (not all day, just a few minutes every day), together with a positive and curious mindset, that is the menu that brings success. Relying on the initial motivation isn’t going to give you long-term success. It isn’t going to bring you the progress you desire. 

I want to tell you about the common motivation trap I have experienced, I’m sure many of you have too.

You start with great intentions, you’re motivated to make progress with your English or whatever it is, and you feel excited.

But after a week of practice, something happens. Because life is unpredictable, and our energy levels and emotions go up and down, you miss a week. 

You feel annoyed, you feel guilty about not practising. And then you start to doubt your ability (But the truth is, it’s not your ability that’s in question, it’s simply because you’ve stopped practising, and with no practice you won’t make progress).

All this leads to low self-esteem. 

So you say, “I’ll do it another day”, or you find something else to do, and eventually you can give up on the whole idea. 

So if you’re feeling this right now, if this is an issue, if it’s a problem with your English, then here’s my advice. 

Remember that it’s normal to get lost in emotions. We are humans, not robots. 

Don’t judge yourself. 

Be kind, compassionate and patient with yourself. Take a moment to sit down in a quiet place, and just get in touch again with your inner desire for English, that spark that made you want to learn English.

Because remember, motivation is just the spark, it’s only the beginning. But habits, and here comes the thing, are the engine of your progress. I’m going to say it again, motivation is just the spark, but habits are the engine of your progress!

So use daily habits you have in your life, and attach new English moments to them. So the habits in our lives are what? We get dressed, we cook and we eat our meals, we drive to work, maybe we go to the supermarket, or we go for a walk. And we have no difficulty with these daily habits. There’s no decision stress. They happen almost automatically. 

So what you can do is attach new English habits to what you normally do in your life. This is called integrating English into your life, and it works because it normalises the use of English. 

So at breakfast time, you can decide to dedicate five minutes to reading the news in English, or listening to an English podcast.

You can change the language on your phone to English. Goodness knows we look at our phones so much during the day, I know I do. 

Write your shopping list in English, and in the supermarket, speak to yourself under your breath as you’re choosing the products. Oh, I found the sugar, here’s the meat. Oh, I need to get some salad. 

Speaking out loud in English is essential for building confidence and fluency. If you really want to use English, then you need to speak out loud. Here are some more ideas:

In the kitchen, talk about how you are preparing your lunch.
While walking, describe the surroundings, what you see, what you can smell and hear.
Before leaving the house, here’s a classic, make a verbal checklist of everything you need. I’ve got my bag, my phone, my keys are in my pocket. Oh, the shopping list. 

And last but not least, to accompany these new English habits, or English moments, as I call them, I want to give you some mindset advice, because mindset is so important. It’s your mental approach to your practice, it is your positive and curious attitude. 

Because when you speak, one of the most important things is, don’t aim for perfection. Just aim to get it done. Perfection isn’t possible at the start. If it was possible, you wouldn’t need to practice. 

Be positive and curious, as I said, 

Follow your plan, when you don’t want to. This is also a crucial part of making progress. There are days when it’s not going to feel fun, it’s not going to feel fluid, it’s not going to feel good. But do it anyway, because as you start to do it, you will automatically feel better. And then you can congratulate yourself for doing a little bit anyway. Just a little bit. Because patience and consistency will give you progress and satisfaction. 

If you miss a day, and goodness me, that happens, right? Something stops you from practicing, don’t punish or judge yourself. It happens to all of us. The next day, simply go back to the plan. Maybe even the evening before, you can say, tomorrow I’m going to go back to the plan. And congratulate yourself for getting back on the horse. 

Celebrate every language victory, no matter how small. Maybe it could be a little pronunciation you’ve managed to master. Maybe you understood a new part in the podcast that was eluding you. Celebrate those moments, because they are the passes of your progress. 

So if you’re ready to start again now, enthusiastic, you can feel your motivation, then take the next important step and make your plan. A common reason why people don’t succeed, don’t continue, don’t make progress, is that they don’t have a plan. So in a quiet place, take a pen and paper, start to write down ideas about how you can integrate English into your life around your daily habits. 

People think that English practice is going to be something they have to add to their lives. It can be integrated and become part of your life, normalising the practice. It’s a really strong formula. 

If you want help with that, to start your new journey with English, you can download my free guide to English moments on my website. Go to speakwithnick.it and click on English moments. There’s a video with me, with more great advice, two powerful tools, two PDFs you can download to help you organise your practice.

With English moments, the language will become a natural part of your life. 

And also on my website, as I said at the start of this podcast, you can listen to my voice as you read the transcript. All on the webpage speakwithnick.it podcast. There’s also a language focus at the bottom of the page to help you with some of the more unusual phrases I’ve used. The link is in the description. The only thing I have to do now is thank William Nisi. You can find him online. He’s the guy behind this great music!

Good luck with your English. I’ll speak to you in the next podcast. Ciao for now.