You’ve promised yourself for the hundredth time to start seriously studying the language tomorrow (on Monday, next week, …), but something tells me this time too, your studies will soon be abandoned.
Why do we quit what we start?
Most often, because we’re not interested.
Interest is such a crucial component of success in any endeavor that it deserves special attention. Why do many schoolchildren struggle academically? Not because they’re unintelligent, but because they find studying uninteresting. If learning at school were engaging, failing grades wouldn’t even exist.
Interest is the foundation of all growth, the basis of all discovery.
If you find the process of learning a language uninteresting, you’re unlikely to master it. Of course, there are exceptions—people who push through “I don’t want to” and “I can’t” to achieve their goals. Are you one of them?
Even if you can force yourself through reluctance, wouldn’t it be better to switch to a more pleasant and effective way of learning?
A person can—and must—transform the uninteresting into the interesting.
I’m not talking about changing your attitude toward something you dislike (i.e., learning the language). Changing your attitude is adaptation to existing conditions. Adaptation is self-betrayal, conformity, the lot of slaves.
I’m talking about transformation, about remaking the hated and uninteresting into the loved and engaging. I’m talking about a creative approach.
Poor schoolchildren are forced to submit to a (school) system that turns free people into slaves, draining their energy. Yes, that’s exactly what happens in school. When learning isn’t interesting, energy depletes, and negative emotions arise. Negative emotions have never fostered discovery or creativity.
Ideally, learning should bring joy, giving us new strength and energy.
Unlike schoolchildren, we can control our language-learning process because we study independently. The real question is: Do we know how? Do we understand why interest appears—or disappears? Can we reshape our learning process to make it engaging?
Sadly, many people lack this skill. They lack it because they never learned to understand themselves, never practiced self-awareness, rarely apply creativity to life situations or problem-solving, or never do so at all.
I urge you to reflect on this.
It’s never too late to start. Humans are born for creativity—and for nothing else.
If there’s no creativity in your life, there’s no life.