Hello!
Honestly, it’s been a quick-fire couple of weeks for me. I’m surprised because January is usually the most sluggish of months – it kind of feels like a long nap punctuated by periods of activity, but this year hasn’t been like that at all. About half of that is down to the fact that I’m working (and working in a job where I have to be at least semi-conscious, lest I miss some of the gems that the students tell me in class) and the other half is that I just have to get everything done myself – there’s no one to pick up my slack.
So although I signed myself up for a bunch of different challenges in those last few days of 2014, I’ve found that I’ve not been making quite as much progress as I’d have liked. Really, what else is new – so I’ve resolved to not worry myself about it too much. However, I have managed to get a few points on the uTalk app for that challenge (Slovak is hard; I’m not used to all those consonants!) and I’ve completed a handful of days for the A Polyglot New Year challenge.
I’ve also finally settled on some tangible goals for the year, which is nice. I’m sure I won’t achieve all of them but it’s something to work towards for the next twelve months.
This is really a short and sweet kind of entry – but I have some more things planned for the rest of January, including how I feel about the uTalk challenge, how my Spanish is going (hint: I definitely need to put in more effort) and, crucially, how I’m planning to motivate myself after this weird New Year slump (as well as some surprises, of course).
How are you feeling about January? Are you racing through the days, feeling all motivated and energised? Or are you in a kind of slump too? Let me know! 🙂
If you are doing several new year language challenges at the same time, then I think you are making brilliant progress! You might feel as if you’re not making ideal progress, but remember that the challenges are not really designed (or intended?) to compliment each other and to be done simultaneously. Keep up the hard work, anyway 🙂
I’ve taken the opposite approach and am simply aiming to reach my own modest daily language goals and am not participating in any public challenges right now. The pressure is off, and I’m actually feeling more energised and motivated than ever!
Ultimately, I think that the real secret to motivation and momentum is to find out what works for you, and be consistent with it.
Haha, thank you! Yeah, a combination of language challenges plus trying to keep myself busy so I don’t sleep entirely through the month of January means that I don’t feel as focussed as I might otherwise – but I don’t think it’s all that detrimental. So long as I’m having fun, anyway 😉
That’s great that you’re so motivated! 😀 I think I might do that in February (though the six week challenge is on then, so maybe not) – it sounds quite relaxing haha. But yes, I totally agree with you, you can try lots of different things but if you find something that works, stick with it for as long as it does. Definitely useful advice 🙂
Nice to hear what you’re up to. I jumped on the Add1challenge at the last moment, and it’s given me a big boost! I look forward to seeing how you get on with slovak!
Oh wow, are you finding the Add1Challenge is working for you? I was very tempted to do that, but I wasn’t willing to pay $97 when there’s a good chance I’d sort of wander away from it… but then maybe the monetary motivation would help haha. Anyway, thank you for commenting! Slovak is… interesting, much more difficult than I’d expected 🙂