025 - No Hablo Ingles

Welcome to 1 Minute Tips! Today’s episode is about facing the fear of not being good enough. Learning a new language isn’t exactly easy. This varies from person to person. I personally have always liked English, even when I knew nothing about it. I thought it sounded amazing in movies and music. So that’s where I first started to learn more about the language. Then I had to opportunity to live abroad for a few years, and that’s when I really learned it… the practical way. As you can tell, my English isn’t that good. I have a hard time because I allowed my pronunciation to get rusty. I stopped practicing it. I’ve managed to keep making progress by continuously consuming information in English (reading and writing, watching movies, listening to podcasts, etc.), but I’ve failed for not including “speaking” in my plans. Just having regular spoken conversations would have done the trick. This is not a big deal, I know my English is not the best. But it’s good enough, and for today, that’s all I need. It will improve because I’m dedicating myself, I want to get better. But right now, all I can do is the best with what I know. And you can do the same, no matter what others say. Ignore the naysayers and give yourself permission to be good enough. I’m Rod Gomes and I’ll come back with another 1 minute tip soon. Take care, stay active, stay positive!