Hey there! This is TOP episode 137. Keystone Habit to Improve Your English
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. I believe it is achievable for you and it’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello there! Thank you for pressing play and tuning in. You’re in the right place, I don’t believe in coincidence so I’m glad you are here with me today.
If you want to achieve your goal in terms of languages you have to build several habits that will help you get there. Keystone habits. What are they?
Keystone habits are the routines and practices by which someone operates. Rules which govern your behaviour. Those habits take care of other smaller habits. If you master keystone first, they will ease learning other habits. They influence your life immensely. Going to bed at 10 pm is such a keystone habit for me. Without that one habit, it would be extremely tough for me to wake up early in the morning, do yoga, journal, meditate, do some extra work before classes start. Keystone habits have a ripple effect across everything you do in life and business. Today we’re gonna be talking about one keystone habit that will influence your learning process immensely.
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What is the keystone habit you need to develop in order to grow your other skills fast? 🙂 It’s associated with taking breaks. Breaks from learning English.
Get back as fast as possible. Don’t let that break extend. Sometimes it’s necessary, that’s obvious. Life happens, we get sick, outside world impacts us. But recompose yourself after such an earthquake, if you will, and get back on track the nearest possible occasion.
I believe this applies to any habit you’re honing on. If you allow yourself to be lazy for too long it’ll be so hard to get back. First of all, control the break, don’t let it fall between the crack.
How to do it? Well, one practical tip I’ve been using is a habit tracker. As simple as that. I monitor my exercises and violin practice so every day I but a tick on my habit tracker and what it does, it makes me see, with bare eye, because it’s there right, staring me in the face, that the gap between the ticks has appeared.
And just seeing it, noticing it is sort of painful. It gives you that pang of regret and disappointment. I might even argue that without my habit tracker If I didn’t see it, this white gap I wouldn’t notice I skipped the day.
The moment you notice that your chain of ticks was broken is your first achievement. It’s truly a lot. Being aware of what’s happening. You know how we all just sleepwalk through our days. We’re constantly tired, busy, life is hectic. Hence making such a mental note is actually impressive.
But now, to make this victory full you have to do your job, perform that habit, in this case, do your English and put that tick back there. Get back to your habit as quickly as it is possible. Don’t let that one day miss get prolonged to a week gap because it’ll get so much harder to get back.
And of course, the progress is impacted. Maintaining sustainable progress is untenable if you go on and off.
Your habit tracker will not help you much if you don’t see it. I keep it near my bed, it’s on my bookshelf so I see it every night I go to bed. I cannot physically avoid seeing it. So I created my own space to serve me, to assist me in keeping my habits going. Environment plays a crucial part in my case at least. Try placing your habit tracker in a relevant place, in your case it might be someplace else, maybe a bathroom mirror or a fridge.
Summing it all up, if you let your English learning slide (like we all do), get back on track as quickly as possible. Have your habit tracker near you. Don’t let yourself miss two days in a row. If you miss one day and break the chain of ticks, fix it the next day. At least that work in my case. If I let one day slide I need to get back the next day. If the break becomes longer than one day, it usually gets even longer. A week for instance. And that my dear listener poses a danger of not achieving your goal, not building that habit. Maximise your chances and keep your breaks rare and very short.
Now let me give you 10 sentences to repeat out loud. Here they come:
If you want to achieve your goal in terms of languages you have to build several habits that will help you get there.
If you master keystone first, they will ease learning other habits.
Keystone habits have a ripple effect across everything you do in life and business.
I believe this applies to any habit you’re honing on.
First of all, control the break, don’t let it fall between the crack.
It gives you that pang of regret and disappointment.
The moment you notice that your chain of ticks was broken is your first achievement.
Maintaining sustainable progress is untenable if you go on and off.
Your habit tracker will not help you much if you don’t see it.
Environment plays a crucial part in my case at least.
Well done! Now, go to your inbox and grab the worksheet in order to test yourself. Complete the worksheet with translations. If you’re not a member of TOPeople download the worksheet at teacherola.com/137 and become one. It’s free. You can can also grab a whole worksheet set. Buy it at teacherola.com.
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Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you next Wednesday! We’re going to discuss the lyrics of one song by Gotye ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’. Be here next week! Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud! Bye!