Stop Relying on Motivation - Do This Instead

🌟 Episode Highlights

• Create tiny habits: Start with just 2 minutes of English per day—consistency beats intensity
• Make it obvious: Change your phone language to English, use English subtitles, put notes around your house, etc.
• Make it rewarding: Celebrate small wins to release happy chemicals in your brain and create a positive cycle
• Make it part of your identity: You're not just learning English—you ARE an English learner and English speaker (even if you're not perfect yet)

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Transcript

Hello, hello! Welcome or welcome back to another episode. If you're new here, hello, my name is Jean. I am an English teacher, and today we are going to pull a question from my question jar. All of these questions are related to language learning, so let's open it up and see what we get today.

Today's question is: Why is it so hard to stay motivated?

This is a question that I get asked a lot—by my students, by people in my live streams. It's a very common topic. I think there are two parts to this. There's the question of why, but then there's also how to fix this problem, how to stay consistent or motivated.

I think there are several reasons for this, and maybe you have your own reasons. Not every reason I talk about will be true for you, but I think one reason is that progress often feels invisible. You're learning a lot and you're spending a lot of time learning. You're learning potentially thousands of words over months and years, but you only notice a handful, meaning some. You don't notice all of them.

I feel like this is a bias that our brain has. Our brain only notices, or our brain is more likely to notice, when things are bad and not really when things are going well. So I feel like we're more likely to remember when we can't remember a word versus all the times we do remember a word. So progress really feels invisible, like we're not making progress at all.

Another reason is that I think our brains are impatient. The problem with—or not the problem, but rather the difficulty with—learning a language is that it is such a good example of delayed gratification. Delayed gratification means when you're putting in a lot of work now to get something from it later. Another really good example of delayed gratification is eating well to lose weight or going to the gym. These are perfect examples of delayed gratification.

That's what language learning requires. You are putting in so much time, effort, and practice for a future conversation, for a future time. And our brains don't really like that. Our brains prefer instant gratification. That's why things like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are so popular—because they give you instant gratification, instant dopamine, instant entertainment. But with learning a language, you don't get that.

I also think another reason why motivation is so hard is because motivation is not steady. Motivation is usually a burst, meaning you get a big amount of motivation in a short period of time, and it doesn't usually last, meaning it doesn't usually remain over time.

This is why I believe you shouldn't rely on motivation. Motivation should not be the foundation of your habits because motivation is not reliable. Motivation will come and go, but you need good habits to master a language, so you cannot rely on motivation.

I have some tips for you, and these tips come from a very popular, famous book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you have not read this book, I recommend that you do. It's available in a lot of different languages, so it is very likely available in your native language. I recommend reading it or listening to it on audiobook because it is so useful for creating really good habits and letting go of bad habits.

I'll give you some quick tips from this book on the topic of staying motivated in a language, or not relying on motivation to become fluent in a language.

One of the first things you can do is to create tiny habits. What can you do with English for two minutes? Think about what you can do for two minutes. This becomes your minimum. This is something you can do every single day. Just like everyone can do one pushup every day—that's a minimum. What can you do with English for two minutes? Make that your minimum habit every day. Two minutes, not two hours. Two minutes.

The reason this is so useful is because tiny habits stack and compound over time. Remember that consistency is always better than intensity. Two minutes every day is better than two hours once a week. Making it daily—I always recommend this, making it daily. Consistency beats intensity, meaning consistency is better than intensity.

Another thing that James Clear talks about is to make it obvious. Make English an obvious part of your life so you can't forget to do it. Now, this can look differently for everyone, so you will very likely have to experiment with different ways to make English an obvious part of your life.

For example, changing the language of your phone to English, or changing the language of a single app that you use every day to English, or putting notes around your house in English, or making sure that subtitles are always on in English. Things like that. Experiment and figure out what works for you, but with the goal of making English obvious.

Another thing James Clear talks about is to make it rewarding. Your brain loves to be happy, so celebrate small wins. When you can make an entire sentence, that's a win! Woo! Celebrate that! Every small success releases happy chemicals in your brain, and you will want to continue that and do it more. So it is a beneficial, self-repeating cycle. Feed the cycle by celebrating every success, no matter how small. Make it rewarding.

And lastly, I feel like this one is not talked about enough, but I was very pleasantly surprised to read this in James Clear's book. Make learning English part of your identity, meaning make learning English part of who you are. You're not just learning English—you are an English learner. Therefore, you are an English speaker. You don't have to speak perfectly in order to be an English speaker.

English is not just something you do. It's a part of who you are. So if this is part of who you are, then you don't need motivation to do something that you are.

These are just some of the things that James Clear talks about in his book. Again, I highly recommend that you find a copy of Atomic Habits in your native language or try reading it in English, especially if you are around the C1 or even B2 level. I highly recommend reading it in English if you can. It is an extremely useful book. It is packed full of incredible advice.

Because at the end of the day, learning a language, becoming fluent in a language, is nothing more than habits. So what are some of your English habits? This is a question I always ask in the first class with a new student. What are your current English habits?

Let me know in the comments what your current English habits are. And do you think we have to be motivated in order to have good habits?

As always, thanks so much for listening. Until next time, bye!