Lesson Transcript

Intro

Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be hosting today's lesson with my co-host, the founder of Innovative Language... Peter!
Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here.
Becky: Why do most learners fail at their New Years Resolutions or language learning goals?
Peter: Today you’ll learn the top 3 reasons why language goals fail, and what YOU can do to succeed with your resolution.
Body
Peter: So January’s almost over, but let me ask you a question Becky. Have you set a resolution for this year?
Becky: I was interested in learning Italian this year.. but I don’t know... New Years Resolutions don’t seem to work for me.
Peter: Really? I bet we can get to the core of it in today’s Inner Circle Episode.
Becky: Well... it’s almost like a joke nowadays. You set a resolution. You try to do it in January. And by February... there’s no progress and doing it isn’t fun anymore....
Peter: ...so you quit and put it off until next year, right?
Becky: That’s right. Or... for someday in the future.. when I feel inspired to try Italian.
Peter: Sounds very familiar, don’t you think so listeners? Even I failed resolution after resolution of trying learning Chinese. Then I figured out 3 reasons why 90% of learners... including myself... have failed.
Becky: So what’s the problem with setting resolutions and why do we keep failing?
Peter: Well first of all, regardless of what most people say, setting resolutions or goals, is a GOOD thing. You have to know where you’re going and what you want to achieve, right?
Becky: That makes sense. Otherwise, we’d all be floating around aimlessly.
Peter: But with most resolutions... it’s usually something like “I want to master Chinese” “I want to lose weight” “I want to be fluent in Japanese”.
Becky: Those are the typical big goals most people set!
Peter: Exactly Becky. So based on these kind of goals, here are 3 reasons why 90% of New Years Resolutions fail.
Becky: So what’s the first reason?
Peter: First reason, Resolutions fail because they are are unspecific and unmeasurable.
Becky: What do you mean by that?
Peter: Take a goal like...“I want to master Chinese this year.” The problem is... that’s a very vague goal, right? What do you mean by master? And can you measure how much progress you need to “master” the language?
Becky: Well... no, you’re right. It doesn’t tell me anything about how much Chinese I should study.
Peter: The second reason is... New Year’s Resolutions fail because they are unrealistic.
Becky: But isn’t it good to set huge goals? You know, aim for the stars?
Peter: Oh, it’s not bad to want to go far... but if you say “I want to be fluent by September” and you just started learning a language today?
Becky: Sounds like I’d be setting myself up to fail from the start.
Peter: It’s NOT impossible Becky, but are you ready to commit yourself to nothing but language-learning? 6 to 8 hours a day, non-stop?
Becky: I don’t think that’s possible for me or for most busy learners. Okay! What’s the third reason?
Peter: The third one is... resolutions fail because, there is no action plan. The problem is... you will still fail even with a specific and realistic goal if you don’t know when and how you’re going to do it. For example: When will you study? How long will you study for every day? And how will you study?
Becky: Okay. These all makes sense. Then how do we set New Years Resolutions and actually succeed?
Peter: Good question Becky. Listeners, I will give you the 3 rules for successful goal setting, and I’ll use my own personal resolution to show you how to set your goals.
Peter: Listeners, remember,your goals must be specific and measurable,realistic and they must have an action plan.
Becky: Oh, so the complete opposite of the mistakes most learners usually make.
Peter: You got it Becky. Let’s take my Resolution for this year... I’m learning Italian just like you Becky, but my goal is to have a 30 minute conversation in Italian by December 31st. But, here’s the important part listeners. I break my resolution down into monthly goals.
Becky: 30 minutes of Italian conversation sounds a lot more doable than “master Italian.” So what’s your goal for the month?
Peter: My goal is to speak 3 minutes of Italian by March 1st. Now, here’s how I make my goal is specific and measurable, realistic, and has an action plan.
Becky: Listeners, ask yourself this. Is your monthly goal specific and measurable?
Peter: For my goal, 3 minutes of Italian by March 1st is specific. I can time myself and measure to see how far along I am. And I know the deadline of when I need to reach it.
Becky: Then, ask yourself... is your monthly goal realistic? Do you have the time to do this?
Peter: That will vary from learner to learner. But 3 minutes sounds very doable for me. I’m not looking to master the whole language... just reach the 3 minute conversation mark.
Becky: And finally listeners, do you have an action plan for this monthly goal? Answer these questions:
When will you study?
How long will you study every day?
Where do you plan to study?
How will you study?
What is your study schedule?
Peter: This is the most important part listeners because this tells you when and how to study. So...
When will you study? - I’ll study at 9PM on weekdays. After the kids are asleep and that’s 5 days a week.
How long will you study every day? - I’ll study for an hour.
Where do you plan to study? - I’ll study at home, in the living room, on my computer.
How will you study? - I‘ll listen to 1 ItalianPod101.com lesson a day, for 4 days. Then, every Friday, I’ll spend 15 minutes with an Italian tutor on skype.
What is your study schedule?
On Fridays, 15 minute skype lesson, and in preparation, 45 minutes of studying.
On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I’ll study with ItalianPod101.com audio lessons. I’ll listen to the lesson, then go through the lesson notes, for 1 hour each day.
Becky: This makes a lot more sense now, doesn’t it listeners?
Peter: Finally listeners. Reward yourself. Studies have shown that giving yourself a reward after reaching a goal is crucial to creating lasting habits and continuing to conquer more goals.
Becky: And listeners if you haven’t already, set your monthly goal right now.
Peter: We’ve provided a Monthly Goal Success Checklist in the PDF Newsletter. Print it, write your goal down, sign it and keep it in front of you.
Becky: Putting your goal down in paper increases your chances of success by 90%.
Peter: And Listeners, in a month, tell us how you’ve achieved it. Send us an email at inner.circle@innovativelanguage.com. We want to hear your success stories and experiences.

Outro

Becky: Okay, well that’s going to do it for this Innovative Language Inner Circle lesson!
Peter: Bye everyone!
Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you in February.

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