How to Improve Your English Daily
It’s just so incredible how time flies when you enjoy what you do! I’m more than amazed to say: I’ve completed a whole year of publishing series How to Improve Your English Daily!
In the past, when I read all over the internet, and heard people say every now and then:
“Find something you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Let me tell you, even though there have been months in which I wasn’t feeling like writing or felt doubt regarding my overall abilities for creating articles which could add value to people, I worked through them and here I am: publishing once again!
Let’s get down today’s topics, shall we?
Index
1 — Work for tomorrow, not just for today
2 — Group activity
3 — Solo activity
I do encourage you to jump straight to the point you find the most attractive rather than reading everything out of behavioral habit.
Work for tomorrow, not just for today
Envision: every effort you make today, every step you decide to take, every negative thought thrown away, sets the foundation for the glowing and amazing success tomorrow holds!
In no way am I stating what’s written above based on any book I read, but based on my own experience, my own neurodivergent human journey.
As any other person, I’ve experienced pleasure, and I’ve experience awful pain, but most of all, I decided to stop the nonsense and take on the rills of my own life. It’s nobody's job to make my journey amazing, no one’s, but me, I’m the sole owner of my life’s path, and that’s not an easy statement to swallow.
Trust me, you’ll find it, you can solve this puzzle.
While crying and blaming others for our circumstances is a much easier rode, the truth is, they aren’t to blame. If you are not finding a comfortable place to read or to study, even to work, and I understand circumstances must be tough af, you must own it and find your own workaround. Trust me, you’ll find it, you can solve this puzzle.
But how?
First off, decide to change, decide to take matters on with your own hands. If you find yourself to be always working too hard on being around the people you surround yourself with, think why that’s happening.
We are who we choose to sorround ourselves with. Not because we mimic them or because we don’t have our own personality, but because if we are always spending our time with negative people, the information that’s getting to our brain is purely: negativity. If we are always hearing to criticism and bad vibes, then, how can we expect our brains to come up with positivity and willingness to be nice people? That’s a thought we should all give some time to.
decide to change, decide to take matters on with your own hands.
At the beginning of the year, I decided I would delete all of the people that only throw negativity to the world, not specifically at me, but to anyone. I decided to not tolerate any more criticism, either to me, or to anyone. I haven’t heard in months sentences such as “oh she’s so ugly”, “he has put on weight in this last couple of months”, or anything like it. Why? Because the people I surround myself nowadays, thankfully, say stuff such as “oh my God!! She made it to Monaco! She deserves it so much.”, “Look! John has conquered another milestone! He got a promotion!”.
how can we expect our brains to come up with positivity and willingness to be nice people?
May I say, I haven’t felt guilt a day since I deleted all the negative people from my life. Did it reduce my social circle? Almost not at all!
Even though at first it seemed as I was reducing the amount of people I knew, actually, it opened so many more doors for me. I will never forget an old dear friend of mine (at least on my end), replying to an Instagram story, yes something so “bane” to most, he replied: “oh come on Denisse, it’s obvious you are recording yourself, you look like a robot”.
Why? Why would anyone decide to write that to a friend, instead of highlighting other stuff. I would’ve never written so many articles if I stayed friends with that person, would’ve made so many critics I would’ve stayed back in the fake comfort zone, and look at me, a whole year of posting and receiving kind feedback from everyone!
It’s never about remaining in the past, but I found it important to share one of the many situations I’ve experienced, not the worst, but might hit home for some of you.
Group activity — Sharing our wildest dreams
Isn’t it just so uncomfortable to talk in a language that’s other than your mother tongue? That’s a feeling the vast majority gets, in my case, it took teaching English for more than a year to stop doubting myself so much.
How talking about my wildest dream could ever make speaking in English less threatening to my self-esteem?! None of those might be easy to do, but for sure the nervousness of sharing your dreams with others will make the English part rather manageable.
You’ll need:
- Pre-cut little papers — make them nice, you’ll deserve them
- A pen per person
- A timer
The how
Starting should be pretty straight forward, papers and pens shall be handed to each person that’s taking part in this activity.
It’s of utmost importance that a volunteer, and I do highlight the volunteer part, not only writes, but also checks on the time that people come to a conclusion together might work. Why don’t I provide a time estimate? Because that’s part of the activity, for people to make the first group decision of coming to a single conclusion of “how much time should we spend on this part of the activity?”.
It’s a group activity, not a me activity.
Once you’ve all settled, (anyways I’d give 7 minutes tops, haha) take the time to write at least one wild dream of yours. It doesn’t need to be incredibly amazing or outrageous, but if for the person it is wild, then we all agree it’s wild af. It’s a group activity, not a me activity.
Now, it’s also up to the group to decide if sharing is with all of the group, or in pairs, or threes even. Make it a safe place to talk and express yourselves. Start sharing!
Now tell me, did you still thought about having to talk in English? Or rather about what would you be down to share? Amazing, isn’t it?
Solo Activity — Daily training
Let’s focus on ourselves for a moment, just us, not anyone else but our own being. How much time do we spend on commuting each day? How long does it take for us to get ready in the morning? Are we scrolling through reels for longer than we wish to accept?
Well, after giving ourselves the importance we deserve and thinking a little bit about what we are spending our time on, I shall introduce today’s activity.
You’ll need:
- A paperback notebook or your laptop
- Maybe a pen
- A timer
Set 15 minutes daily to learning English, make it a starting point. Don’t just commit yourself to a whole hour, you’ll need just 15 minutes to start.
Why just 15 minutes? Because you are making your brain work on developing a neuronal pathway (so to say), you’re not used to taking.
Picture this: you’re committing yourself to an activity you aren’t used to, but today you feel like doing an hour or two of English practice. But what about tomorrow? Or next week when you have a deadline at work, and you need to stay for a little longer? You’ll arrive dreading the day, it might even be with feelings of happiness, but for sure feeling so tired that giving English 2 hours of your spare time turns out to be definitely too much.
Now you give your brain negativity, not keeping up with what you committed yourself to. Then another day comes, and another, and suddenly it’s been months since you last practiced English. Writing this I’m thinking so fondly of Jocko Willink, do listen to him about Extreme Ownership, he has made wonders to my though process.
On the brighter side, if you are taking 15 minutes daily to practicing English, then the habit builds itself.
On the brighter side, if you are taking 15 minutes daily to practicing English, then the habit builds so easy. Putting aside 15 minutes is quite simple, for instance:
- Arrive home.
- Put your keys wherever you normally do.
- Grab a glass of water, hydrate your brain, please
- Grab the notebook you chose, or your laptop (don’t go on social media, please)
- Start the timer: 15 minutes, go!!
That’s it! You’ve already conquered more than before. You’re a step nearer to your destination. Tomorrow’s the same, and so on. Next, you’ll see it’s been months since you decided to start, and you’ve become so much better at the language of your choice. Amazingly done!!
Ultimately,
I feel this moment to be so full circle, it doesn’t even make sense. I’m looking forward to helping people learn a language I feared for so long speaking in. Thanks to every person that gave me feedback, from applauding to leaving a comment, to even hitting me up on linkedin for a special thanks or asking for further advise, note it, I’m here to help as much as I can. I felt so alone in this world for so long, I shall never let in my hands people to suffer.
Regarding the frequency of my posts, I’m still looking for a solution in order to write twice a month instead of one, at the moment it’s still rather hard for me. As soon as I’m able to create valuable posts twice a month, I shall commit to it. Thanks again!
Hopefully, I’ll be posting once a month. Next post: end of October 2023.
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