S5E35: If this week hasn’t gone as planned

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 if this week hasn’t really gone to plan, and you haven’t been as productive as you’d like or achieved what you wanted to, I just wanted to record a message especially for you.

To say, it’s not a disaster. That even if this week has felt like an uphill struggle the whole time, even if you feel like you’ve got nothing done, or you just couldn’t motivate and couldn’t encourage and couldn’t force yourself to do all the things you wanted to have done by now, it’s okay.  

There’s always next week. Take a break anyway. Don’t let the guilt about that to-do list drain even more of your energy through the weekend and bleed into your rest and social and family and creative time. Don’t be angry with yourself. Don’t punish yourself by taking away things you enjoy this weekend.

Keep believing you’ll do it. Keep giving yourself chances to make yourself happy and keep believing you are the kind of person that can do this, and will get these things done, it’s just that creativity and learning are up and down kinds of journeys. You haven’t failed, you aren’t lazy, you aren’t behind. And you still have time.

Monday is the start of a new week. So please please please don’t steal Monday’s energy by trying to work all weekend, to make up for lost time, or by letting this week hang over you. If there are any quick wins you can grasp for yourself today, go for it. Give yourself the best chance today. But once you’ve done the absolute essentials, and by all means, prioritise those, if it still feels like drawing blood out of a stone, just stop. Let yourself do other things. There’s always next week. 

And if you like what I do, would you consider leaving a review on whatever podcast app you use, or telling someone you know about my work? The Language Confidence Project is tiny but growing and I need your support to help more people to find me, so that I can support and encourage as many people as possible through their language learning and keep bringing you ways to make the process creative, compassionate and above all meaningful. And if you know someone who works in a language school or a university language department, please recommend this podcast to them as well. Your help makes all the difference.

Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful weekend, and I will see you on Monday.