S4E15: Friday afternoon isn’t the barometer for the whole week
Full transcript:
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the LCP, the daily dose of language courage for people who love languages, and those who really don’t, but have to learn one anyway.
And today, I just wanted to send a quick message to remind you that a bad few minutes doesn’t mean you’ve had a bad day, and a bad Friday afternoon does not mean you’ve had a bad week.
It’s funny how negative events or negative emotions can so easily contaminate the way you remember your time. Because they never stick to their allotted minutes, do they? They spread. Think about, and we all have stories like this I think, where we had an amazing holiday or an amazing day out, only to experience delays or disruption at the end, maybe a disastrous trip home. Or when you’ve had a good day at work, only for a colleague to say something a bit off at the end, and you take it personally, and it not only casts a cloud over your day but also over how you feel about the rest of your colleagues for a while. It doesn’t have to be big thing. It can be really small. But even really small, It really can feel like putting one tiny drop of dye in a whole cup of water. It spreads, and suddenly the whole glassful is blue. And the more we replay it and resent it and blame ourselves for replaying it and resenting it, the more drops of dye we’re putting in that glass.
If you feel tired, grumpy, unmotivated or everything is going wrong today, don’t let your brain try to convince you the whole week has been bad. Be really strict about when things started and when they ended. That stupid thing someone said took 4 seconds. You were really unmotivated for an hour this afternoon, but you got 20 minutes of really good work done before you got stuck. You had a breakthrough yesterday and you were really productive, so, you’re noticing a slump in energy today.
Be really deliberate about reminding yourself what has gone well this week, and today, and remember, just as the things that threw you off don’t have to be big, the things that bring your day back on track don’t have to be big either. You don’t need to be listing big wins and great revelations. What small things made you happy? In what small ways did you show up for your language or for yourself? In what small ways have you connected with your language or with other people? Did you let yourself have a few minutes to dream and visualise good things happening, in language or in life, in the future?
Good days and bad days, ups and downs are normal, language learners, but you are doing so well, and all this hard work will pay off. Be kind to yourselves going into the weekend, give yourself space to rest and to do the things that fill your energy tank back up, and be proud of what you’ve done this week. Remember, every tiny thing you achieve counts. Not all weeks are going to feel life-changing, but over time, it all adds up and gets you closer to your goals.
And if you like what I do, please support me! The Language Confidence project is growing and all sorts of exciting things are happening in the next few months, and I need your help to make all of this happen. There are so many ways that you could lend a hand right now. If you know someone who would benefit from listening to this podcast, send them a quick message with the episode attached. If you work in or know someone in a language school or a university language department, please suggest this podcast for both them and their students. If you can and you want to, support me on Patreon, because I have a Patreon now, and the link is in my bio! And finally, if you’re new around here or I haven’t met you yet, or come and talk to me! Leave a comment on today’s episode on a positit on Instagram, send me a DM, or even better, book a call as part of the 100 Conversations Project with me! The link to that is also in my Instagram bio at @teawithemily. I would love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you back here on Monday.