Keep It Burning

This episode will teach you how to maintain consistency in your learning journey. You can also apply this approach to personal development, business, sport, or many other areas of life.

Hey guys, welcome to Voice of Sayar Henry podcast. This is Episode No. 51 and I’m glad that you’re here with me today. 

As I’m working on the script of this episode, we’re in the third week of January and the mornings in my hometown are pleasantly colder than what I’ve usually experienced around this time of the year. So, I’ve been trying to appreciate every morning as much as I can and should. At the same time, I also have to acknowledge the fact that it is about time many of us who have some goals that were set in the new year transition have already given up their new journeys. 

I mean, think about it, if you are still sticking to the impressive schedule that you started out since Day 1 of this year, you are stronger than the majority of the people I know. So you have my respect, buddy. But if you are not keeping yourself on track, for any number of reasons, don’t feel bad though. It just means that you’re a part of the crowd, in the most ordinary way a human can behave. But that doesn’t mean we should let it slide. There should be always room for improvement, right? So in this episode, I’m going to share with you a perspective that can help you stick to your goals and maintain progress.   

Okay, before talking about that, I need to clarify about something first. As you know, I’m a language teacher and therefore, what I’m about to share with you will be illustrated with learning specific examples. However, these can also be translated into the context of business, sport, healthcare, or any other area of life that you want to improve upon. Afterall, we all need a little progress here and there in our life, don’t we?  

So, allow me to start my talk with a very common behavior of many adult language students. At the beginning of every new course, the classes are filled with excitement and positive energy. Based on my teaching experiences and observations, all students start off their learning journey with a lot of motivation and drive to acquire their learning goals. They actively set their study schedule and make various plans for how they’re going to achieve these goals. However, after a few weeks later, there’s always a decline in the number of students who show up.

Now, I’m not talking about classes that give boring or bad learning experiences because of which students feel the need to stop going. And I’m not talking about students who are too lazy and ignorant to come to a good class either. What I’m addressing here is an interesting class, with a good teacher, with engaging learning experiences, and a group of genuinely excited and motivated students. Even in such classes, the same phenomenon occurs. So what could possibly be the reason for the disappearance of those students?   

Well, surprisingly enough, the reasons are all valid and acceptable. Some students get sick. Some get too busy with work. Sometimes, they have too much on their plate in terms of responsibilities. Sometimes, they need to travel. Sometimes they have serious relationship problems. And the list goes on.      

Now here is the deal. 

Naturally, most students in any given class will encounter these problems one or more times throughout the coursework, but only some of them can bounce back to their original level of motivation and enthusiasm afterwards. And that is why the number of students who complete a course is always less than that of students at the beginning.  

In another word, this phenomenon is inevitable and all we can do is manage it to some degree.  

So what can we do about that?

Well, that’s not even the right question to begin with. The right one would be to ask why most people cannot bounce back to their previous momentum. 

And here is what I think.

When students join a course or a training program, most of them tend to have serious learning goals with high expectation. So it’s only natural that they have to follow through with a serious and dedicated hours of study to match with their ambition. For example, if you want to significantly improve your English language fluency, it only makes sense if you want to put in multiple hours of practice every day. Any less won’t do, right? 

But in reality, life gets in the way, and it becomes harder and harder to maintain their study practice. At some point, they really need to deal with various issues of life such as health, stress, money, job, family, relationship, and countless other things. After a while, students start to believe that the limited time they have on those bad days is not enough for study and that studying too little is not going to add any meaningful progress to their journey. From then on, it becomes even more easier to make excuses, such as “I’m too busy today” or “I’m too tired tonight” or “I don’t’ have enough time this week”.  And before they know it, their language learning journey has come to a halt.

This is a real issue that every adult student must overcome if they are to succeed in this journey. 

So in the next few minutes after the ad break, I’m going to give you my advice on how to deal with this problem. So stay with me, I’ll be back in a second.   

[Ad break]

And now, we’re back to the show.

So, earlier I was talking about how a gap in your practice can kill your momentum and leave you unmotivated for the rest of your language learning journey. Here is my perspective on how to work around this. 

Language learning, or any skill acquisition in general, is about forming habits. And consistency is key when it comes to building new habits. This means that in order to make language learning a habit, we need to consistently practice, even on days when we’re struggling to find the time. You know, habits are formed when we repeat a behavior regularly and consistently. So, if we want to make language learning a habit, we need tomake a conscious effort to practice it every day even if it is on a bad day. 

But the most crucial thing here is that on a bad day, you won’t have enough time or energy to go through a full study session. So to make it work, you’re going have to prepare some kind of backup plan in advance. Think about how many minutes you can study on a really busy or tiring day. Maybe it’s 10 mins, or 15, or 20. You define it. After that, determine what you can do with those golden minutes. Maybe you can memorize some new words. Maybe you can read a couple of pages. Or maybe write a diary entry. And then, promise yourself that you will activate this backup plan if your day turns out to be too tight for the full session. 

For example, let’s say you usually study for an hour a day and on a particularly busy day, you can only find 15 minutes. So you switch your mind to the backup plan and study only for 15 minutes. Instead of reading a whole chapter as you previously planned, you decide to read just two paragraphs, and call it a day. If you do that, you’ll have learned something and feel good about yourself too.

The idea here is that it is always better to stick to your regular schedule by reducing the amount of intended practice per session, rather than skipping the whole session entirely just because it doesn’t fit with the available time. 

By studying for 15 minutes at least on that day, you’re not only maintaining your consistency, but you’re also keeping the study habit alive! And when you have more time the next day, you can always pick up where you left off and continue to build on your progress. So that is the best way to maintain your study habit without losing momentum. So I want you to try that from now on. Okay?

Oh, before I forget.

There’s one more advice I should give you.

Try to have a system for tracking your progress. It will give you a sense of accomplishment when you see how far you’ve come. I mean it doesn’t even have to be a complicated system. One simple way to do this would beto keep a journal and note down your progress. For example, you can read your journal and appreciate what kind of new words or usages you’re now familiar with compared to a month or two ago. That way, you can see how much you’ve learned and what areas you need to improve on. And it will also help you stay motivated and on track. Okay?

So, in a nutshell, don’t get discouraged when life gets in the way of your language learning journey. Remember that consistency is key and even a small amount of practice is better than nothing at all. Keep up the good work, and stick to your regular study schedule. And don’t forget to track your progress and celebrate your achievements along the way. Remember that language learning is a journey, and it’s not always going to be easy. But, by consistently practicing and keeping your desire alive, you’ll be able to make language learning a habit and achieve your goals one day. 

Thank you so much for tuning in to my voice today, and I hope to see you again in the next episode. Goodbye for now!