Frustrated with not reaching your language goals?

There's a 95% chance a toy will help

One toy destroyed my sushi meal plans.

My family and I were heading to our favorite sushi restaurant. And suddenly my daughter remembered that the neighborhood family restaurant had free toys for children.  

And, before I knew it, we were walking away from the sushi restaurant and heading to the family restaurant.  

Secretly, I was angry. But, hats off to the family restaurant. They knew that a little plastic toy would motivate my daughter to come to their restaurant (and ruin my sushi dinner) 

There's also a toy that motivates language learners, too. Okay, so maybe it's not a real toy, but it's just as effective. 

This pretend toy I'm talking about - motivates us - to set aside delicious procrastination and replace it with hard work.  And it’s available to everyone. 

It’s called “accountability”. 

That's a fancy sounding word, but it has a simple meaning. Accountability is somebody holding you responsible for achieving a task. We're accountable at our jobs, but we can also make ourselves accountable with our hobbies, like language mastery. 

What you do is you report to a person or group. And you do it every day, or every week, or every month.  Looking someone in the eye and making excuses for not reaching your goals, it sort of punches your soul. It doesn't feel good. So, having to report to someone makes put away our cell phone or iPad away and get to work. It's pure motivation.  

But, be careful! I don’t mean you tell one person about your big language plans and that's it. This can actually backfire. What happens is sometimes you tell someone your plan, they praise you and boom - your brain releases a hit of satisfaction. Then you nod your head with pride, and quit. You quit  because you feel satisfied, not because you actually completed the goal.  

The core of accountability is consistent communication.

I'm not speculating. According to the American Society of Training and Development, you're 95% more likely to reach your goals when you share them with someone and then give them regular updates. Ninety-five percent is a very impressive number. And the secret sauce to this number is regular contact with another person.  

For example, I belong to a marketing group.  I’m working through all the elements of putting an online business together while keeping my family financinces afloat. Frankly, it's overwhelming sometimes. But, when I know I'm procrastinating I go to the forum and share my goal. Then, I update them on a weekly basis.  

And, it works.

It makes me efficient. I don't want to make another excuse. So, I don't worry about loose ends. I do what needs to be done instead of worrying and wasting time redoing details that change very little. This accountability is excellent for crushing the desire to get everything perfect.   

How about you? Are you dragging your heals with your language goals? Have you spent another week, another month or another year avoiding the work you know needs to be done to raise your mastery level?

Maybe you need to dangle the “accountability” toy in front of you. It’s extremely effective. Hey, it's cheap, too. Reporting to another person moves you - motivates you - to action. It forces you to change time wasting habits.  

You could contact an acquaintance for help. Or, you could join a community of language learners like I’m building at Harris English. Whatever the context, find a person, or a small group of people - report to them and hold yourself accountable to them. 

As just like a child is motivated by a toy, you’ll be motivated by the power of a group.