Recently, I’ve been frustrated with certain things about myself.
I’m a big believer that success is about certain habits and behaviours that anyone can adopt. So in this post, I want to explore my past successes and see if there were some common patterns. There’s probably something to learn from MYSELF.
If you want to do something for a long time, find a way to make the process enjoyable for yourself.
When I learned Japanese to near-fluency in 12 months, here were the factors that may have worked to my advantage:
1. Motivation:
- Fear of losing the streak and past regrets about not being fluent (even after 10 years) motivated consistent practice.
2. Consistent Daily Practice:
- Gamified the process to maintain a streak.
- Focused on showing up daily, even for short periods.
- Accepted initial struggles and trusted in gradual improvement.
- Prioritized enjoyment of the learning process.
3. Clear Goals and Mindset:
- Set an ambitious 12-month goal (“fluent in 12 months”) but didn’t stress about it.
- Also defined a clear, exciting, and slightly intimidating activity goal – a 365 day streak of daily study.
- On a day to day basis, focused on lead measures (effort, consistency) over lag measures (fluency).
- Visualized future fluency and adopted a “finished” mindset.
4. Right environment:
- Kept the learning method simple and effective — doing the same things that I’d do when I achieved my goal in the future.
- Tracked progress and shared it publicly.
- Celebrated milestones and surprises.
- Most of my time was spent in the “Goldilocks Zone” of challenge: not easy, not too difficult.
