S5E15: Keep your sacrifices in check

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’s episode is a super quick reminder that the act of sacrificing is not the thing that leads to success. 

I saw a quote the other day that irritated me a bit, and I wanted to share it with you today. And what it said was “If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, the thing that you want becomes the sacrifice.”

And, the reason I wanted to talk about it today is that I think so many of us have grown up with that messaging, and we’ve internalised it, but we’ve not really thought about it, so actually, we internalise it backwards. We think that the act of missing out on things, of saying no, the act of sitting indoors at our desks when everyone else is outside in the sun, is what makes us successful. 

But it’s not, is it?

Remember, it’s not the act of sacrificing that gets you to where you want to be. It’s the time you save, the money you save, the energy you save, if and only if you then funnel those resources directly into your goal.

Sacrifice the bare minimum to free up the time, money or energy you need, and no more. And then keep that time, energy or money as sacred.

Before you make that sacrifice, see if an exchange or adaptation is possible. Do you really need to give up that online yoga class to study, or can you find a way to do exercise classes in your new language? Do you need to give up seeing your friends on the weekend, or can you just wake up a little bit earlier and get a few hours of study in before you meet them for lunch?

And think really carefully before you sacrifice the things that fill you up. That let you recharge creatively, socially, or physically.

So don’t make sacrifices for the sake of it. Don’t make sacrifices as a form of self-punishment for not being where you think you should be. And for Heaven’s sake don’t make sacrifices and then spend that time scrolling social media instead!

What you’re doing is amazing and it is worth it. But it needs to be balanced. So let yourself do the hard stuff, let yourself study, but then let yourself relax and recharge, and do all the things that are going to give you back that energy to pour back into your language. It’s not just a nice-to-have, it’s 100% essential. This really is a marathon, not a sprint, and you’re going to need all of those things to keep you on track in the long run. So, on that note, have a wonderful Friday, have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you back here at 7am UK time on Monday.