Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 353.
And today, I'm going to talk about how to get unstuck in your English journey.
Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Happy Friday, this episode airs on Friday.
Even though you may not be listening to this on Friday, but that's okay. Happy Friday anyway.
I'm recording this on the very same Friday that this episode is published on.
And I'm currently recording this from my closet. I'm sitting on the floor inside my closet.
And all of my families in the living room, they're getting ready for the holiday.
We're hosting people for dinner today.
It's the Jewish New Year, so we're celebrating the New Year.
And I just realized that I need to record an intro. So here I am in my closet.
And I'm very excited about today's topic because I think that no matter where you are at on your journey, you have experience.
Whereas maybe you're experiencing it right now, the feeling of being stuck, of being like,
I don't know what to do to reach a breakthrough, or I keep seeing slight progress, but I'm expecting something big.
And getting stuck is a recurring theme for my students.
So today, I have a 10 minute mindset talk exactly about that.
But also, I want to say that if you feel stuck in any way, or if you're ready for a breakthrough,
then I don't know if you've heard this already, but my program New Sound is open for enrollment for a few days only.
So first of all, all the information is in the link in the description.
But let me just tell you really quickly what New Sound is about.
New Sound is designed to help you reach a transformation in English, no matter what your starting point is.
Of course, as long as you understand me in my videos and my content,
and if you're listening to this, you probably understand most of the things I talk about.
And New Sound is designed to take you where you're at.
And through the very unique system that we created,
to take you to a place where you feel freer, where you feel more confident,
or you feel clear, or you feel like you can express yourself,
you give yourself permission to speak, to communicate, to do things, to say yes opportunities.
That's the purpose of New Sound.
And we do it by focusing on three key elements.
The first one is simplified pronunciation.
You're going to get access to effective, efficient, and super easy to digest pronunciation training.
And in that, I'm talking about key sounds, intonation, rhythm, stress,
and all of that good stuff.
But that's not enough to reach a transformation.
You also need coaching and support in community,
because you need to be a part of a community to be able to stick to your habits,
to do the work, to stay motivated, to stay inspired, and to practice.
But you also need guidance, feedback, and coaching,
which is what you're going to get inside of New Sound.
And also, we focus on mindset and confidence work,
which is something that I believe is critical for any sort of transformation,
especially in English.
And this is why I share these episodes weekly that are designed to help you reach that transformation on your own.
But sometimes we need a little more.
Sometimes we need structures.
Sometimes we need accountability.
Sometimes we need someone to tell us what to do.
And with New Sound, you will never feel stuck, or alone, or overwhelmed, or confused.
Which is something that is easy to feel when you are setting on your own.
So with that being said, I'm inviting you to check out the link, or my catchers.
Jumped on me.
I didn't know she was here.
Okay, we might edit out this part.
But anyway, okay, I want you to check out the link with all the information
about New Sound, go to HadarShamish.com, forward slash, join.
Doors are open for a limited time only.
And with that, let's move on and listen to today's episode about how to get unstuck in English.
Today, we're going to talk about what to do when you're stuck.
When you feel stuck, when you feel stuck in a plateau.
What is a plateau?
A plateau is a flat space that is high up.
Okay, so for example, if you're climbing up a mountain and then you reach an area that is completely flat, that is plateau.
So you're progressing, the idea is that you're progressing.
But then you reach a point where you have nowhere else to climb and you're stuck.
So that is usually the definition that people use when they talk about their language progress.
When working on learning another language or becoming more fluent or being more in that sense of fluency.
But feeling stuck is also in emotion, right?
And when you think about feeling stuck, what comes to mind?
What are the emotions that you think about?
To me, feeling stuck has to do with, of course, frustration.
Negative emotions, feeling incompetent, feeling defeated.
Like I'm doing all this work, but I'm not seeing progress.
This is what I feel when I feel stuck because stuck is a result of being in motion before, but then no longer being in motion.
So I want to address those things.
And I'm going to start by talking about being stuck when you are just not seeing progress.
What it feels like when you're not seeing progress.
And I want to address it in two different ways.
One, because probably you're not doing something that is leading to progress.
And two, maybe there is progress, but you're not seeing it.
I'm going to start with one.
A lot of times when we feel stuck is because we are actually not doing the things that would get us to see results.
And I call it the illusion of learning.
When you're watching a lot of videos, when you are practicing things, either these are things that are not critical for you or that you don't actually use in your day to day life.
So you can't even see if you're able to put them into practice.
Or that there are more fundamental things that you need to work on.
And those things that you're actually investing your time in learning.
Or not helpful because there are things that get in the way that need to be addressed before working on the things that you're currently working on.
So basically it's your learning strategy.
If you don't have a good learning strategy in place and you don't know what to focus on, then obviously you're going to be doing the work.
You're going to be learning.
You're going to be doing things, but you'll feel like you're stuck.
Do you know that image of a hamster on hamster wheel, like running running running running running, but then still stuck in the same place because the hamster wheel is stuck and the hamster feels like they're running, but not really.
And that is the same case when we feel stuck.
This is when we feel like, you know, we're doing the work we're putting out energy, but we're not moving.
So like I said, identifying what you need to work on and only working on the things that will make an impact is what's critical.
So that is one reason why you're stuck.
Another reason is maybe you are making progress is just that you are unable to see it.
Sometimes the progress that we make when we do the work, when we work on the right things, when we do it consistently.
Sometimes it's not noticeable. It's internal.
And then you may say to yourself, oh, I'm not seeing progress. I don't feel it, but you are.
So it's really good to look at your progress when you actually look at it throughout time, like when time passes.
Because if you every day try to see progress, it's really hard to see it, especially when there are small changes that happen every single day.
Also, if you know the concept of the compound effect, small, smart actions or decisions that you make every single day that don't provide with noticeable results every single day, but ultimately end up making a big difference at the end.
These are the things that we want to look into to understand that like as long as you keep doing the work and you're doing the right things, you will end up seeing results, even if you can't see it in your day to day.
Now, feeling stuck could also mean that you're just emotionally stuck that you lost your motivation that you're doing the work.
Maybe you are seeing progress, but you're just tired or bored or you just don't find a good reason.
Maybe you thought that you're going to get a job or you're going to go study abroad and all of a sudden it's not happening and you lost your motivation.
But it doesn't mean that you should stop doing the work because English is something that it's always going to be something that opens doors for you.
Some day the opportunity may come and you want to be ready for that opportunity.
I know a lot of people who only work on their English just for a specific deadline or a specific result.
And I want to invite you to think about it differently so that once you feel confident and free in your English, more opportunities will come.
So this is one way of like reframing this concept when you feel like oh, I lost motivation or I don't have anything to work towards.
But if you feel emotionally stuck also one of the things that have worked for me and for my students is to do something different to try something different to practice things in a different way to stop doing what you've been doing and choose to focus on different areas of English.
Find new people to speak to because we got to keep it interesting.
We got to make it interesting. It has to be entertaining.
If you want to study effectively, it's not enough that you focus on the right things.
You have to feel something when you do that. The research shows that the brain is able to retain information a lot better when there is an emotion, especially a positive emotion involved.
So when you feel nothing about the work that you do, you're not emotionally connected to it. You're not enjoying it.
And to me, like it, it has to be fun. Right.
Then it's going to be a lot harder for you to actually see the progress and enjoy it.
And when we don't enjoy it, we don't want to be consistent with it. We don't want to do the work.
So that is something that I really want you to take into consideration.
Even though in school, we might have developed this concept that learning English is boring and we have to plow through it.
We have to get through it and do the work anyway. It doesn't have to be that way.
So make sure you do something different and that you enjoy it and that there is a positive emotion involved in your studying process.
And lastly, remember why you're doing this. Remember the reason why you're putting in this work. You're doing this work.
And don't say to yourself, oh, I just want to be fluent. Let's go back to day one, like why we do what we do here.
It's because you want to imagine a life where everything is possible.
What is possible for you once English is no longer an obstacle?
I want you to answer that question and I want you to think about it.
And every time you feel emotionally stuck, go back to that question and remind yourself why you're doing this.
Get excited about the possibility. Get excited about the potential around this type of work.
And then follow up with the rest of the things that we talked, make it fun.
Make sure it's effective. Don't waste your time and do something different.
Being stuck is a natural part of any process, right?
I've never seen any process or journey towards a goal where there weren't moments where I felt stuck.
If I'm talking about my personal journey, whether it's in, you know, like when I try to achieve something or in my business or definitely in English, right?
So it's a natural part and it's just a matter of how you manage it. It's not a sign for you to quit.
It's not a sign that you're not talented.
It's just a sign that, hey, you're on the right track because being stuck comes after progress and be that you need to do something different.
All right, good. All right, my friends, that's it for today.
Take care of my friends. Have a good day.