Motivation is required to spend the necessary hours and to learn to do it effectively, while becoming unmotivated can lead to stagnation as you find it difficult to sit and study for the required length of time.
Staying motivated is important because it will cause you to study more frequently, help you study longer, and reduce the chances you will give up.
Your motivation can easily wane over time, so it is important to pay attention to it and find ways to keep it strong.
Have you ever sat on the sofa knowing you need to get up and study, but you can’t move?
Sometimes the only way to break out of an unmotivated funk is to disrupt your behaviour. Rather than forcing yourself to go to your desk, try to summon the energy to do something different. Go outside for a walk, even just round the block. Take a shower or put some loud music on and sing loudly or dance about for a few minutes. These small things might be enough to disrupt the lethargy and get you motivated to get some work done.
Generally speaking, the best way to create motivation is to find ways to enjoy your language. Several principles are aligned with this goal. They are:
• Study in a way you enjoy — Choose a method that you enjoy. This will take the edge off the study process.
• Use content you find interesting — Don’t use boring dialogues if you can’t stay focused and stick with them. There’s lots of interesting content out there. You will find yourself enjoying learning your language a lot more when you find content you enjoy for its own sake.
• Work towards your goals — Striving towards your goals, making progress, and successfully engaging with those parts of the language can be a motivating experience.
Be sure to keep your goals around you. For example, if you are learning to communicate with certain people, try to be around those people more often.
To put it very simply: Focus on what can be done right this moment, and don’t overthink it by imagining how much work you’ll need to do in the future.
