It's been a while since I last wrote a post in English. Honestly, I don't remember when it was. Maybe a couple of years ago.
In this post, I'm going to be talking about why we should learn "How we can do it" instead of merely "We can do it."
You might be asking, "What does that mean?" I'm glad you asked. Take some time to read through this post.
You will learn why we need to focus more on "how" than on "can".
It’s easy to say "You can do it."
It costs almost nothing to say "You can do it." Literally, it just takes four words out of your mouth. It doesn't require you to squeeze your brain to come up with any of the words. It's been said so many times and we've heard it so many times.
Since I'm not an expert in any fields other than English learning, I'd like to talk about it in terms of learning English.
Lots of people in the industry say, "You can learn English easily." or "You can become fluent in English if you keep learning."
How about this?
"The way we learned English in school was totally wrong. Let me show you the right way to do the magic in English learning."
"Don't even bother to open an English grammar book. It doesn't help you improve your English speaking skills."
Before the Internet era, the mentality of "I can do it" used to have tremendous impact on someone's achievements. If you didn’t have the mentality, you wouldn't challenge yourself into the space where you would achieve your goals. That is the first step anybody has to follow in order to achieve something great.
And it is true that there were so many people who didn't know what they were capable of, because they weren't exposed to lots of information about what could be possible and what sort of things were really happening beyond imagination.
Now, in this world of information overload, the mentality is no longer a big step that brings us remarkable progress, because we see and realize every day that so many things we never imagined were possible are being accomplished by someone else out there.
Subconsciously, we already know "We can do it" or "We can do whatever it is that pops into our head."
If you don't know you can do it, just sit down and search online for success stories of any kind.
The problem of the "I can do it" mentality
"I can do it" itself is definitely no harm to us.
The problem can be how we respond to it and how we use it.
As most of us think we can do anything, we tend to attach no urge to it. And it seems like we don't need to have the audacity to go through all the struggles and learn things along the way.
We procrastinate and settle down.
What we can get done today is what can get done tomorrow. Why the hurry? Right?
Even if you skip a few days of learning English, you still think "I can do it."
That's pretty interesting. Even if we don't make much effort taking action, we still think we can do it.
It might trick us into thinking that success comes from the mentality, not from our constant and consistent action.
What we need to do
Then, what do we need to do? What can we do about it?
Here are 8 steps that will help you understand the right mindset and implement the right action.
If you keep thinking about them and taking action on them, your "I can do it" will turn to "I made it!"
1. Learn that possibility is nothing but possibility.
"Well begun is half done."
I wish it was true, but it's not in reality.
I agree that a good start can be significantly meaningful in achieving something, but we know that it doesn't guarantee success.
What guarantees success is our consistent action despite all the obstacles we may encounter, no matter what it looks like in the beginning.
So the possibility of becoming successful is no greater than the possibility itself.
If you want the possibility to come true, you need to have other things that back and nurture the possibility, which are coming up.
2. Setting a goal is the first step.
Possibility is abundant for everyone. That's why it doesn’t seem real.
It's just imagination, belief, or hope every single one of us could conceive.
If we want to take a step forward from it, setting a goal can be a good initiative.
A goal is still an idea or a thought. But it's different from them. A goal makes us think that we need to take action other than just thinking about it.
It is a more advanced concept than possibility, since it incorporates encouragement or pressure that pushes us to do something toward the goal.
3. Learn what circumstances you have.
All right. Now you have your goal set. Now what?
Do you think your goal is realistic?
I mean it doesn't have to be 100% realistic, but when we talk about setting a goal, it's not about dreaming of something. It's more about realizing something. It's more about getting the necessary jobs done.
So the next thing you need to do is try to take a look at all the circumstances you have.
Do you have some free time you can allocate for English learning?
Do you have some money you can spend for your private tutor?
How many kids do you have that need your attention and ask for quality time with you?
How passionate are you about English learning?
How desperate are you about English learning?
There should be more questions you can ask yourself to see what kind of circumstances you have.
4. Start figuring out how to achieve it.
Now you've got your goal and circumstances that could help or obstruct you.
Do you still think you can pull it off?
If yes, how?
How could you overcome all the difficulties you may or may not anticipate under the circumstances?
If no, what do you think you have to do?
It's time for you to think again about your goal and circumstances, and try to figure out how to achieve your goal under the circumstances.
Don't expect that you can figure it out all at once. I just picked the word "start", because it can take you more time than you think.
But at the same time, it doesn't mean you have to do nothing before figuring it all out. If you find one or two narrow lights in the darkness, those can be your starting point.
As time goes by, your circumstances can change. Then, you may need to think about how to achieve your goal with a different approach.
5. Make a daily learning schedule.
With your goal and circumstances in mind, you're not going to be mistaken when you sit down and begin to write down your learning schedule. You don't want to write down 5 hours of study when you know your circumstances don't allow for that.
This is the moment you try to dig deep into how to achieve your goal with limited resources.
Action is the fuel to move the car. But a well-made car is also crucial. You wouldn't be happy to see your car running with only three wheels or with the tank leaking.
6. Take action.
What would it be like if well-manufactured cars never made it out of the factory?
They are supposed to run on the streets.
If you've got your well-planned schedule in hand, the next and most important step is take action.
Taking action is what guides you to becoming successful.
Sometimes, it doesn't turn out as well as expected. But it will be all right.
If it's meant to be a failure, it should be done faster. Then you will want to modify your approaches or methods, or just move on to another important project you'd think of instead of learning English.
Without taking action, you never know whether your HOW works or not.
7. Go back and review your goal and progress based on your daily schedule.
You started taking action and spent a decent amount of time learning English according to your planned schedule.
Roughly, a couple of months will be a good time period for you to check your progress and review your learning schedule.
At this point, you need to be open to your own criticism and ready to tweak a little bit of your schedule so that you get more out of your learning patterns.
It's not hard to guess most of you have failed to stick with the planned schedule for the past couple of months. But you don't have to get so frustrated. It's normal. It's expected.
What you have to do is see why it didn't work out that well. When you created your own learning schedule, you might have assumed that you would have much more time than you could actually have. Or you might have trusted your consistency too much. You might not have guessed there would be roadblocks that get in the way.
If you've spent some time figuring out what other factors should be considered, it's time for you to work on how to make your schedule better and more realistic.
8. Get back on track and start running again.
Once you get your updated and smarter schedule in hand, it's another chance to take action on it.
Take action with more passion, with better approaches.
Wrapping up
In this ever-changing, digital world, you can be anything and you can get anything.
But there is one condition that we need to keep in mind.
We have to figure out "how".
Figuring out "how" is not like solving an easy math problem. It's more complicated than that.
However, along the way, you will get to know more about yourself and gain intelligence to become successful.
People who become fluent in English not only know how to use English words and apply grammar rules, but also know what they have been through with the limited resources.
Hope this post helps you take a step further in English learning.
Effort First, Then Methods.
