In a previous blog we spoke about common New Year’s Resolutions and in the Centres I have heard a few of yours this week. Here are some ideas that may help you achieve your Resolution so that you become one of the elite 8% of people who will be celebrating success later in the year.
Some of your language goals may be: Complete a certificate; Practice your French/Russian more; Travelling; Speak to your grandparents in Greek/Italian.
All of these are great goals and one of the best ways you can achieve this is to Clearly define your goal – Make it a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound).. e.g. I want to go to Thailand in June and talk to the locals about daily events; I want to complete my Certificate III (my goal) by the end of the year; I want to start ‘thinking’ in French by March; I want to speak to my family in Greek by Easter. Just make sure you are setting a REALISTIC goal.
1. Track your progress. Measure where you are now and where want to be. A principal of psychology is that if you can measure it, you can change it.
2. Be kind to yourself – have some patience. Progress (especially in languages is never linear). You may see rapid progress and then hit a plateau. You want your language to be natural and subconscious mind and this takes time.
3. Publicise your goal (to family or friends). You have a VLLC family that you can share your goal with. I know this takes courage, but it dramatically increases your odds of success to share your goals.
4. Diarise it. Put it on your schedule. We all choose to spend our time the way we do. Make your language goal a priority and schedule lessons and practice time onto your calendar.
5. Start again, when you slip up… As Vince Lomardi said – “It isn’t whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up” Don’t turn a bad day or temporary failure into an excuse for giving up…
I love hearing students’ goals – and am always happy to give you some personal strategies to help you achieve them. Use the momentum of the New Year to become bi or multi lingual. It will change your life!!!
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