How I fixed my struggle with motivation

Being motivated doesn’t always come naturally to me. The good news is that I recently learned what does unlocks unlimited motivation.

I will share it with you today!

---

For me, motivation is not internal.

It’s not an emotion I can generate inside my body.

It’s instead external.

Motivation comes from resources.

If I’m not motivated, it’s likely an indication that I’m using the wrong materials. In my experience, some language learning courses and resources have more motivation “baked in” than others.

3 elements of motivating courses/resources.

Not all are mandatory, but having all 3 is ideal:

• Exciting goals:

  • Provide direction and energy.

• An expert instructor:

  • Provides guidance and moral support.

• Minimum requirements:

  • Provide commitment and accountability.

Necessity drives motivation too.

Necessity puts real stakes on the line.

It’s why immersion and intensive programs have always worked so well for me. Same goes for university language programs: if I don’t pass the course, I cannot move onto the next one and my GPA suffers.

I am motivated to learn Ukrainian.

The reason? Well, it’s simple enough:

I'm using my own Guaranteed Fluency program.

I designed it to be motivating.

This is not a sales pitch.

Far from it.

In fact, all the self-study materials in the program are free anyway. I’m only sharing this because the program I’ve designed over the past 2 years with the help of my team is keeping me motivated and is more effective than anything I have ever done to learn a language in over 15 years.

My mind is actually blown.

Specifically, my motivation comes from…

• An exciting learning goal:

  • Reach an intermediate level

• Minimum requirements:

  • 30-60 minutes of study/day

• Motivating resources (I made them)

  • Fluency Self-Assessment

  • Fluency Roadmap

  • Level-Up Tracker

• Necessity

  • Learning impacts my work

I could be more motivated if…

I’d be more motivated if I had an expert instructor to guide my learning journey. But because I have an exciting goal, minimum requirements, motivating resources, and a real necessity to learn, the tutor isn’t necessary yet.

I will, however, need a tutor soon for:

• Extra accountability and support

• Pronunciation feedback

• Conversation practice

• Level assessments

• Writing edits

To summarize…

For me, motivation comes from external resources, not an internal drive. I’ve been finding success in motivating myself with:

• Exciting goals

  • Provide direction and energy.

• An expert instructor:

  • Provides guidance and moral support.

• Minimum requirements:

  • Provide commitment and accountability.

---

Thanks for reading!

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me.