Challenges of Setting an Unreachable Goal

my fluent podcast website:

https://www.myfluentpodcast.com/e61-a-corona-overkill-language-learning-failures-and-how-to-cope-with-them/

Podcast episode as video: https://youtu.be/pad01Shktww

Daniel Goodson: I had a plan, a great plan. The Corona virus has ruined that plan, in which I wanted to learn vocabulary in a specific way. I tried to find another approach to learn English. More on this episode...

Ep. 61 has two sections, the first one is about the actual topic in which I talk about a huge mistake. This is for everyone to listen, weather you are an English learner or a native English speaker.

In section 2 (it's on Ep. 61 B), I will go about some English expressions and give additional English tips. That bonus episode is tailored for our English learners. 

This episode is connected to another episode which was released on the 25th of January. 

It's the episode between episode "49 book review, virtual native", and episode "48 What is the Quora series?" On that bonus episode, I explained how I wanted to learn vocabulary through news, to be more precise, through Corona news. 

Further information: 

You may watch this episode (61) on video, too: https://youtu.be/pad01Shktww. That way, you can read along to the subtitles while listening to the podcast. 

Show notes:

You'll find the show notes (you may download subtitles) on www.myfluentpocast.com or you can read along the subtitles/transcript right here:

Right? And then I see the disinfectant, but knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that? Social distancing will be with us through the summer. Don't worry, guys. This episode of my  fluent podcast is whether about the president Donald Trump, nor about social distancing. This time I totally screwed up though I've set myself an unreachable goal and this is a setback for me and had a negative influence on my language learning motivation. You will learn about the details soon. Welcome,  dear language learners for the first time, I will do this episode in two parts. First, I will explain the current topic. After that, there will be a section for our English learners in which I go about some expressions and definitions, and by the way, the whole transcript - this applies to the audio as well as what I say - is available on our show notes or on the website, myfluentpodcast.com let's get started. So what are the takeaways for this episode? I will give them to you beforehand. At the end, I will repeat them again and give additional explanations. So number one, always set yourself SMART goals. Number two, don't stick to your methods by any cost and the focus here lies on the words "by any cost". Number three is more of a general advice. Don't beat yourself up and just be aware that learning a language is a long term process. There are ups and downs, that is normal. And number four is enjoy your language journey. Never forget that: it should be a pleasure. We should see the positive things. And this is something I need to bear in mind always. And to be honest, this is more of a personal episode this time in which I reflect my own decisions or learning approach, and this is a subject  (topic)  that I am a bit uncomfortable to talk about in a way. Well, this is partly because I have set myself a goal, an unreachable goal. I have totally screwed up. Anyway, I will pull myself together now. And just talk about it. Hey buddy, you need to pull yourself together. Pull yourself together. While on Saturday, it was the 25th of January, I published an episode about a topic, vocabulary, retention. Well in my opinion, this is one of the most important topics. When it comes to learning a language, and the name of that episode is Corona virus vocab through news, it seems like as if I already knew it, I did not number the episode back then, and the idea was to number the newer episode when I have followed all my own suggestions. And reached my goal. I wanted to make like a review of that approach, that good things and the bad things. So in a nutshell, back then I wanted to learn new vocabulary by reading compelling content in the news to retain information for good. You need to come across the vocabulary again and again, and then why? Chances are you will remember them for good. Meaning it will go to your long term memory. And that should be our goal. I mean, we want to learn in order to being able  to using the vocabulary and I decided to focus on the information about the coroner virus. That way I would come across similar word combinations and learn more. Of course, I would use flashcards and other tools to support my endeavor. Of course, all turned out in a slightly different way. All right. If you want, you can go back. It's the episode between episode "49 book review, virtual native", and I episode "48 What is the Quora series?" On that episode I explained how I wanted to go about that idea in more detail. So what happened? You'll may already have a guess. I couldn't foresee that this virus would have such an immense impact on our world. It seems to me, today the news are focusing only on that matter. It's always the Corona virus. I can understand that. And actually for my project, it would be perfect because that's what I wanted, right? Come across similar word combinations again and again, sort them out and learn them with different tools. The problem was. I got fed up about it. I couldn't stand it anymore. The matterer is very, very negative and I did not want to focus only on such negative things. So besides that, the goal I've set to myself became very difficult. Once the news wrote only about that matter. It was just too much for me to handle, but why did I not change my goal into some things similar? I don't have an answer to that. I guess I got just a bit depressed about it and left it alone. So let's have a look at our giveaways. Which I mentioned in the beginning. Let's come back to number one, set yourself smart goals. Okay. Perhaps the goal might have been smart at the beginning, but once it became the topic number one of the whole world, it definitely became a very bad goal. Maybe another person would have pulled together and just stick to this plan. For me, I just, I couldn't, because in this situation I had not the right mindset to it and not enough time, not the energy. Poor baby. Oh, you poor thing. So the second takeaway was don't stick to our methods by any cost. We must stick to the plan on welfare as well. Usually it's the other way round. It is set yourself a goal and then stick to your plan. But in this particular situation, I would say it doesn't serve Next up, number three, don't beat yourself up. Be aware that learning a language is a long term process. Even though I said in the beginning of this show that it is a setback for me and I had a negative influence on my language learning motivation. While that was true, but now I'm again on my wife, I am back on track. So there is no worry about that, but I tend to beat myself up a bit. The problem is also that comparing yourself to others who are far better speakers, for example, is not a doll. Good idea. And that's the case with me. I compare too much. No, no. Good idea. Number four, race. Enjoy your language journey. Don't take it too seriously. In the end, it should make fun to learn and once your gut tells you that you absolutely don't, enjoy it, you should change something up. I mean, it's a great hobby and should bring us joy. And actually that's what I am doing. I started out with my podcast back in 2016 and to be honest, I had a huge gap in between, and this was a period in which I couldn't publish due to personal reasons, but the most important thing is that. I didn't give up. There's a little pain going on. Okay. Don't give up. Hang on. This is a test. If you have a mantra called, please don't give up on it, and I'm still podcasting with even more power and more motivation so that I can share all of my tips with you. Dear listeners. And this must have first section of this episode. I'll head over to the second in a minute, but before, a few words to those who are not learning English. Thanks for listening to this rather personal story about my failure. If you have any suggestions for future episodes. If you have a language learning question, please feel free to send me an email to myfluentpodcast@gmail.com. I am Daniel Goodson, the host of my fluent podcast, learn from and with a language learner. So let's have to the English learning part. And for that I ask you kindly to go to episode 61 B. 61 B. Thanks The song you are listening to right now is called road trip by Scott Holmes. The other one you could hear was indie rock by Scott Holmes as well. Oh, and please don't forget to subscribe. I am on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, and all the well known podcast services. If you want to reach out to me, you can also go and find me on Instagram. My nickname oi Instagram is myfluentpodcast, or just send me an email to myfluentpodcast@gmail.com. . Bye.

Your Daniel Goodson. myfluentpodcast@gmail.com

music:

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/coronavirus-words-guide/social-distance

Obama: Screw up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4424&v=E8SFpzWzC2M&feature=emb_logo