S4E40: Build an inspiration hub

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Friday and welcome to the 200th episode of the Language Confidence Project, the daily dose of language courage for those who love languages and those who really don’t, but have to learn one anyway. And today, I have a really fun challenge for you, based on something I do to help me to keep releasing podcast episodes every day. And that is, to create an inspiration hub.

So one thing that a lot of people ask me, especially on the 100 Conversations calls I’ve been having, is how I manage to get an episode out every day. And I have a few answers to that. One is, work for the Language Confidence Project started almost a year before the first episode was released. That wasn’t actually the plan, but I had so much mental resistance to the tech side of recording and editing a podcast that whenever I sat down to try and record something, I’d just come up with more ideas for episodes instead. As it stands, I have a 20,000 word document, that I’m drafting this episode in now, with more than 150 ideas for future episodes, notes, thoughts. A fun fact is, I draft all these episodes out of order, deliberately, because I worry that if I get stuck in a certain mindset, like maybe I’m feeling lost or confused or demotivated, you’ll get stuck with three weeks of episodes about feeling lost or confused or demotivated. The second answer is, I’ve organised it in seasons so I do get time to recharge. But the third one, and the one that I think you’ll find really fun today, is that I have a hub of inspiration.

It's like a shortlist of all the things that you know you can rely on to inspire you, that you can tap into whenever you need to when you feel that fog or resistance to make you believe that what you’re doing is possible, and to put you in the right mindset to achieve whatever goals you’ve set for yourself. The things they say or the work they do might be nothing to do with your actual goals, but you know that when you read their work or you listen to them, you’ll leave with fresh ideas, or feeling energised, or comforted, or reassured.

So, here’s what’s in mine.

Go-to people

It might be podcasters, youtubers, social media accounts that just really speak to you. They make you feel seen, they make you feel understood or their story motivates you. But here’s the thing, it’s only the very best. It’s not dozens. It’s probably not even ten. It’s the ones that when they come and visit your screens, you feel at home.

Quotes

I read a lot, I’ve read 12 books in the last twelve weeks, about the same the twelve weeks before that, yeah I average about a book a week, and whenever I see a quote that resonates with me, relating to anything: languages, productivity, an interesting reflection about people or cultures or behaviours, it goes into a document of its own. Every book I’ve read has its own section in that document, and I’ve also pulled quotes from podcasts, youtube videos, I’ve got all their page numbers and timestamps in case I want to go back and relisten or find them again. But it means that I have so much wisdom to draw on whenever I’m struggling in life or in meeting my goals and I use it so much when the world feels hard or confusing.

Music

For me, every kind of work requires its own set of music, so I have so many playlists for different kinds of productivity. Having those songs ready to go in playlists means that as soon as I need to work, I can set them going, and I already associate them with the kind of task I’m doing, and then I’m less likely to get distracted. 

And for you, your inspiration hub could be just about one thing, tailored to one goal you’re your language learning. It could be a space filled with prompts and advice and playlists and creative projects for your language learning that you can come to whenever you need a boost. Or it could be, like mine, about all the aspects of life that you spend your time thinking about, a cauldron of learning and life wisdom and personal development and creativity and all your other interests all swirling around together. But whatever it turns out to be, it’s a place you can come to when you’re stuck, you’re uninspired or you’re just thinking “who am I again and what is this project” and see what Past You has found, and revisit the people that made Past You feel better and ready to go again.

And before I go, I just want to thank you all again for your support of the Language Confidence Project. Thank you for your messages, your comments, and for sharing your language learning journey with me. I was so sure, for so long, that I would never get this podcast going and I can’t believe we have hit 200 episodes today.

Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here at 7am UK time on Monday.