Writing challenge

Firstly, don’t be scared by the word ‘writing’! I promise there is very little writing involved.

My students are always asking me about how they can get better at English or they say things like “I can’t speak English” even though they are already using English speaking with me…but I know what they mean. I feel their pain! Everyone wants to see their own success and with language learning it can so often feel like you are making no progress at all.

I am going to share one of my keys to success with you, probably the most important of all. However, you’re not going to like it, I don’t even like it. You’ve probably heard it before too. But there is something all successful and hardworking (that’s a hint) people do.

Be consistent!

This advice goes for everything really, if you want to be good at something you have to do it often. Ten minutes of study every day is always better than five hours once a week. Those numbers are random but you know what I mean. Everybody knows this, but we don’t do it. Why?

Well for me, I think I often set my goals too high. When my motivation kicks in, I give myself goals like…’I’m going to study for three hours every day’ or ‘I’m going to read twenty Japanese books this year’ or something. Now by themselves these goals don’t seem that crazy, but sometimes life takes over and they get left behind. Once the consistency drops, the motivation drops too as you start to feel like you are failing. This is often my problem, I’m sure others have different problems too.

Anyway, my advice here is obvious. Set your goals a little lower and then they are easy to accomplish. For example, ‘I’m going to study every day’ or ‘I’m going to finish a Japanese book this year’. These goals are much more attainable, if I get busy, that’s ok! I can still achieve these goals and feel like I am making progress. Also, these goals give me some room to do even better. Once I finish that Japanese book, I am going to feel very proud of myself and probably start another! I’m an over-achiever!

Now for my writing challenge.

It’s simple. Write one sentence every day in English.

It doesn’t have to be long, or difficult. It doesn’t even have to be interesting. Just do it every day, and I mean it, every day! Once it becomes a habit, those sentences will become longer, more difficult and more interesting. But only if you are consistent.

There it is, not so scary right? Give it a try.