Do you sometimes feel demotivated and even think about giving up learning English?
Well then this lesson is going to help you to keep on learning
even when you don't have much motivation. And to help we've divided this lesson
into 4 topics: first, we'll take a look at what's behind motivation.
Then we'll take a look at why motivation isn't that essential for learning English.
Then we'll look at no motivation, no learning and whether or not that's true.
And then compare and don't despair, and by the way in case you're new here we are
here to guide you beyond the classroom to live and learn and speak English in the real world.
Just like Mikhail, who says that he's always smiling when watching our lessons
because of the amazing positive energy. So be sure to hit that Subscribe Button
and the Bell down below so that you don't miss any of our new lessons!
So let's first take a look at what's behind motivation and the difference
between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. So intrinsic motivation is something within you,
it's inside of you, it's very personal. This is something that makes your heart beat faster.
Whereas extrinsic motivation is more to do with external sources. Maybe you anticipate
some sort of reward like money or fame or praise when you first think of it.
Relying on extrinsic motivation might seem quite appealing. However it's probably not
the best source of motivation when embarking on a long-term project such as learning a new language.
So for example you might think of the idea of buying yourself something nice when you
complete a task, maybe you buy yourself a nice new set of pens or a notebook and at
that time that's going to give you some momentary euphoria, but it's not going to last very long.
However if you actually enjoy the task itself, chances are you're going to stick to it longer.
For example, if you think about a doctor telling you that you should walk every day
because it's good for your health you're going to feel like it's an obligation,
like it's something you have to do. Whereas if you actually enjoy going out
walking it's not going to feel that way and you're probably going to stick to it for much longer.
So what you actually need to do here is shift your focus and take responsibility for your
actions. This is going to give you lots of power from within so you can develop your
intrinsic motivation in many ways. You can find ways of learning that
you enjoy that are fun, like watching these videos on RealLife English and also watching
our lessons on Learn English with TV Series. You could find ways to measure your progress,
so that you can see how far along on your journey you've come and you can even set yourself
challenges that are going to motivate you too. Some other ways that might help you are not
believing the myths that people tend to believe are true when learning
English and if you'd like to know more about that I highly recommend you check out this
lesson I made by clicking up here or down in the description box below to watch it next.
Seth Godin said, "Fail multiple times until you get it right."
Now he said this in a business context, however it really applies to learning English too.
In order to acquire a language it takes a repetition, it takes making mistakes and
it takes multiple exposure to the language. You also need to have a positive mindset,
so you shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes. Now I know it's easier said than done,
I've been there as well when learning languages, however
this is part of the process of learning and it's something that's really going to help you.
You need to make mistakes, you will learn from those mistakes and that's really going to help
you in your progress. So rather than getting embarrassed or seeing these things as failures,
see them as a part of learning. You just need to change your mindset to a positive one.
Another area that can really help you with this is self-awareness. So this is all about being aware
of what you don't like to learn or maybe what gives you anxiety or makes you a bit stressed.
If you identify these areas then you can find coping mechanisms and by that I mean
you can find ways of coping with it, so that you don't have these negative feelings towards them,
which might hinder your progress. So practicing meditation or mindfulness
can really help in this area, and if you can come against this barrier and break through it
it's going to help you make more progress. Remember, learning happens when you engage
in a topic, build your knowledge on it and then consolidate it. For example, if you find a TV
series that you're really interested in then you will start to watch it and then you might
binge watch it, which means that you watch a lot of episodes within one small period of time,
so you're building your knowledge on it and then you might actually start talking about
it with your friends and telling them about it. So you're consolidating what you've already learned!
So what about no motivation, no learning? Is this true?
So if you develop a really good system, motivation is not going to be essential to your learning.
If your motivation ends then you have a system to fall back on
so you don't need to really be motivated to learn. You want to make English part of your life you
want to enjoy your lifestyle English, so you can start by creating micro-habits and by that
I mean it's very small habits, it doesn't take a lot of commitment or motivation to do it,
but they are small things that you start to do throughout your day to have this system in place.
So we've made lots of lessons about things like this that you could find
out more about and I'll link those down in the description box below.
But it could be something as simple as changing one of your life things to English, so you could
change the settings on your mobile phone, you could change your calendar on your laptop to
English, you could listen to the radio in English. These are very small things but if you make them
habits then it's going to make a big difference and motivation will not be
important, but do remember that motivation grows from starting a task so it's always hard to just
get started so try to make that process easier. For example if you want to start going out
running or for a walk in the mornings make it easier for yourself: fix your clothes the
night before, have them ready in your bedroom somewhere so that you can quickly get changed,
have your shoes by the door so that all you have to do is put your shoes on and leave the house.
If you want to listen to a podcast on your way to work in the morning
download the podcast the night before. That way it's there ready and waiting for you.
This way you're going to make your English a part of your life in a way that is fun,
natural and convenient. It won't seem like a chore and you'll really look forward to it
one way that you can definitely enjoy learning English is with our RealLife Native Immersion
Course, which I highly recommend you check out. This 41-week course will take you on a real-life
adventure of the English language each week, exploring a different topic connected to our goal,
to help you understand and use real native English and make it a permanent part of your life,
in a way that is fun, natural and convenient and the best part is you can try it right now for
FREE with our 3-Part Power Learning Series. All you have to do is click up here or down
in the description box below to learn more and sign up now!
Now what do we mean by "compare, don't despair"? So what lots of learners tend to do
is they look at other learners around them and they compare themselves with them.
Now this is very natural humans do it all the time and sometimes we do it in a negative way.
However you can compare yourself to others in a way that is positive, so you won't worry about
it and that's what I mean by despair. So instead of comparing yourself to
someone and saying, "Oh why am I not at their level? Why are they better than me
at this area of learning English? Don't look at it that way. Look at them as
a role model or a source of inspiration. That's going to help you achieve more too, rather than
focusing on where they are in their learning process try to focus on how they got there.
This is the key, and that's what's going to help you here. Chances are they worked really hard
and maybe they have some great methods and some great tips that are going to help you,
so let's just take a moment to stop and I want you to think about where you are in your learning
journey right now and where you were maybe six months ago, a year ago, five years ago,
whenever you started learning English. So have a think about where you were
when you started and where you are today. Just take a pause, take a moment
and actually reflect and think about that. You're probably surprised at how much you've
accomplished, right? So be sure to sometimes take these moments and actually reflect
and think on how far you've come, and then you can use that to help to guide you further to
make even more progress and achieve your goals. A great way to track your progress is to keep
a journal, this way you can look back and see how much progress you've made.
You can record yourself, so if you're doing this maybe weekly or monthly you can then
listen back and again see the difference. You can also film yourself talking. There are lots
of things that you can do. That's going to help you to measure your progress, so in
thinking about this let's take a look at this quote by Steven Pressfield from The War of Art:
"The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work."
So these small signs of progress in your learning are really going to make a difference
and help you to understand and see how far you've come and want you to achieve more.
So let's just summarize what we've learned here. Now remember
extrinsic motivation can be useful, but it's not going to help you in a
long-term project like learning English. Let's consider the following aspects:
So if you already keep a track of your progress or you want to start now let me know down in
the comments below, because I'd love to hear how you're going to use this video in your learning.
And now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah!!