S5E17: If you still don’t feel ready to start

Full transcript:

Good morning, happy Tuesday and welcome to the Language Confidence Project, 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’m just popping in with a quick reminder, because we can never hear this enough, that you do not need to have mastered all the skills before you start using your language, creating your things, or doing the things you have always dreamt of doing.

I really struggle to get started on things, I know I’ve talked about this before… there’s no real sense of new and shiny with me. I get caught up in endless over-researching, over planning, over everything, and even though I know this about myself, I still can never quite shake the feeling that if I just knew a little bit more, I’d be better prepared to go into the new and daunting thing. And right now, I need to be doing new and daunting things to help the Language Confidence Project grow, and yet again, I don’t wanna. So guess what today’s episode is about?

Yeah. Let’s give ourselves permission today to put the researching to one side and make sure we’re balancing it out with action.

Researching is great, it really is, and knowledge is power, and reading is good, and webinars are good, and all the rest of it. But not when the endless supply of knowledge is actually being used to defer any kind of actual application of it.

You only need enough skills to learn the next skills. You only need enough skills to identify what you need to make the next tiny step. You only need enough skills to start that project, to outline what you want to achieve with enough clarity to figure out what skill you need to gain next. 

John Wooden said “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do” and that absolutely applies here. The more you’re waiting to know exactly what you’re doing, to have ironed out all the details and perfected every last part of your plan, you’re creating more snd more space for fear to get in and to make this whole road feel so much longer and windier and more treacherous than it really is. 

You don’t need to know everything before you start. And doing the things will help you to progress so much faster than reading around the things. But more than anything, doing the things will show you that actually, once you can get settled into it, it’s going to be okay. That some of it is intuitive. Some of it comes with great support or people that have the answers when you hit a roadblock. Some of it you’ll be able to work out yourself through trial and error.

Start with what you know now. Let that knowledge have its moment to shine. Then let it introduce you to its friends later.

You already know so much more than you think you do, language learners, you’re just doubting yourself. You don’t need to do another minute of research, read any more blog posts or watch any more top tip videos to start taking the action you know in your heart you need to take.

So be brave today, and know that I’m being brave on this end too.

Let’s just all wish each other a whole lot of luck, take a deep breath, and get going!

I’ll see you tomorrow.