S4E41: What's progress going to look like this week?

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Monday and welcome to 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 before we start, this is just a quick heads up that this is the final week of season 4 of the Language Confidence Project, so, today and four more episodes, and then I’ll be back on the 4th September for season 5.

So as we go into this week, I just want to share a question with you which I find really helpful in separating busywork from the things that will really help me to get to where I want to be.  

And here’s why I’m asking.

I spend a lot of time thinking about reverse engineering my long term goals into a pathway of short term goals, and I also talk a lot on the podcast about celebrating my wins… I can’t say I’m great at doing it, but I’m really trying.

But. There is something in those two questions that still allows us to get onto a kind of language treadmill and sleepwalk on it for weeks before we realise that really busy, we are ticking things off our to do list so we have loads of wins to celebrate, but we’re not making the progress we want to make. Maybe because, our to-do list looks like it aligns with our long term goals, everything on it is relevant, but perfectionism comes in and we overthink snd we overcomplicate or we stay on a certain thing long after we’re really ready to move on. Or maybe it’s because we’re doing the same as last week, and the week before, just because it’s kind of become a routine by this point, and we feel really productive. But in either case, somewhere along the line, our focus must have switched from our long term goal into all the overthinky details of the to-do list, and sooner or later, we feel like a hamster on a wheel again. 

So this time, we’re reframing the question a little.

Today I want to ask you, what’s progress going to look like for you this week?

What wins do you really want to be celebrating at the end of this week? What evidence of progress are you going to be looking for, at the end of the day today, throughout the week, and on Friday? What’s going to make you feel like you’re moving forward and in the right direction? 

And it might be easily measurable things, stuff you can quantify, like learning a certain number of words on a certain topic, having a specific number of conversations, but it might also be completing a small creative project in your new language, exploring a certain topic, or making sure to prioritise a certain grammar point whenever you’re writing this week. Whatever it is, these are things you’ve chosen because they feed directly into what you’re trying to do or where you’re trying to get to.

Because those things are the things that you need to focus on. Those are the things that bring you closer to the results you want, and if you have a really clear idea of what you’re measuring this week, what you’re monitoring this week, it’s so much easier to avoid getting lost in the weeds.

And if you want a bit of extra accountability and company while you work, the Language Confidence Project online Creative Space for Patreon supporters is opening today! It’s going to be a really informal 3 hour costudying or cocreating space every Monday on Zoom, in the morning New York time, afternoon UK or Central European time, and work on assignments or creative projects that we have for the week. Check out my Patreon, the link is in the podcast shownotes and also in my Instagramm bio, and look for Out of the Fog. I hope to see you there!

Have a wonderful day, and I will see you tomorrow.