HOW TO STAY

MOTIVATED WITH
LANGUAGE LEARNING
 When we talk about motivation: there’s the motivation to start
something. For example, people get motivated to learn a new
language because they like to travel or like a certain culture. We
won’t be talking about that.

PART 1 Then, there’s the motivation to keep going and to actually stick
with your goals. And that’s the topic for this eBook: How to stay
motivated and keep on going.

First, here’s a question: If you want to stay motivated with a

language or any goal, what do you usually do?

While you think about your answer, let’s get to the first secret of
motivation...

Number one: Action comes first.

Back to the question above. If you’re like most people, you think
about all the results you’ll get. Then, you go and try it. That’s how
we all start. First, we want to get motivated and inspired. Then we
start doing it. This may be helpful for starting things but not so

THE 3 SECRETS
much with continuing things. Wishing for motivation is like read-
ing about “how to go for a walk outside” instead of going outside
for a walk. Instead of doing the thing, you’re on the sofa, thinking
about doing it.

TO STAYING Action must come first.

So, if you want to stay motivated with language learning, what do

MOTIVATED
you do?

You should jump in and start learning first BECAUSE this will boost
your motivation. Real motivation comes from experience and
seeing results.

So what happens is...

First, you do a language lesson. You learn a conversation, some So, have a go-to study method that you can always start with,
words, and a grammar rule or two. and that way, you can jump in without thinking.

Then, you do a second lesson. You start recognizing words Number three: Always have goals.
based on what you’ve learned in lesson 1 — and that feels good.
Now, you know 2 conversations — and that's progress. You start As an example, think about your friends. Do you have that one
feeling you can do more. So you go and do more. friend that’s always up to something - some project? They’re
working on a song. Or, they’re making videos. Or they’re build-
So, take action first. Press the play button on a lesson and jump ing something.
right into it. The motivation to continue comes after.
They’re very motivated people, aren’t they? Do you ever wonder
Number two: Have a go-to study method. how they stay motivated? It’s because they are always working
on something. They’re always giving themselves something to
What do I mean by that? do. This goes back to “taking action.” If you’re not learning or
working, you can’t stay motivated.
Here’s an example: When you go to work, usually there are tasks
you do first. The easy ones. Like, checking email and planning So, you need to apply this to language learning. How would you
tasks for the day. These are your go-to tasks, right? They’re easy do that?
to do, you don’t have to think too hard, and they get you going.
If work was a highway, the go-to tasks are the onramp that You need goals and things to look forward to.
eases you into it.
For example, if you’ve signed up for a language proficiency test,
With language learning, you need to have that 1 go-to study now you have something to work on. And because the test will
method that is super simple for you. Like listening to an audio be held on a certain date, you’ll always have that date in mind.
lesson and reading along. Or even re-listening to one specific
lesson because you like it, like you would with a song. Or review- You can make it a goal to finish 30 audio lessons on our site.
ing your notes from the day before. Some of our Inner Circle Or, choose 1 easy audio lesson and make it a goal to memorize
members start with writing. They write out the lesson dialog. the dialogue.
And it’s good because... there’s no thinking involved, you just
copy it out. It’s easy to do. So, always have something to do, and you’ll never have to worry
about motivation.
Why do this? What does this have to do with motivation? This
takes the “what am I supposed to do today” thinking out of the Recap:
equation. So, you can ease yourself into language learning
without any resistance. So you don’t need to motivate yourself, 1. Action comes first
you just slide into language mode. 2. Have a go-to study method.
3: Always have goals.
 PART 2
In the last section, you learned about the 3 secrets to staying
motivated.

But what about actually doing the language learning? What

about routines?

Here's a super simple one you can try immediately. It

requires just 5 minutes.

What do you think? 5 minutes is a small amount of time,

right? But, that’s all you need to get going with your
language learning routine and stay on track to mastery. If
you’ve had trouble sticking to language learning in the past,

5 MINUTES this is for you.

1. How To Develop a Learning Routine in 5 Minutes a Day

TO LANGUAGE 2. Why This Amount of Time Is All You Need To Get Started
3. How You Can Apply It As Well Based on My Examples

LEARNING
SUCCESS
“AN EASY EXAMPLE OF A ROUTINE”
1
HOW TO DEVELOP A LEARNING ROUTINE
IN 5 MINUTES A DAY.

Where did this number come from? This idea comes Nothing less. Think of it as a small, measurable and
from YouTube. See, it’s very easy to get stuck on a daily goal to hit.
YouTube loop. Time just flies by. One day, as I caught
myself going from video to video, and realizing I was Now, I know a lot of self-help, motivational books say
wasting my time... I noticed one video was 5 minutes it’s all about getting to work in the “morning, morning,
long. morning.” I’m the opposite. This doesn’t work for me.

What was the video about about? I don’t remember. For the first week of this month, language was the last
thing I did, right before bed.
But this number stuck with me. It’s small. It’s specific.

This is where I kind of came up with the idea “5

minutes”

5
See, if I have time to watch videos, and let that time fly
by so easily, I could definitely fit in room for language
studies. So, here’s what I did.
MINUTES
•••••••••••••••••

I applied this to my language studies. I decided to

study 5 minutes a day.
Here’s my process: Surprisingly, I’d often go over the time limit and go as high
as 15 minutes. It was that easy to maintain.
• I’d press start on the stopwatch in the Clock App on my
iPhone. I’d set that nearby. And that’s the ultimate goal here – to make your learning
• I’d start a lesson from the Top 25 Questions You Need to routine super simple to start and super simple to keep
Know pathway. Now, quite a lot of these lessons are less going. Kind of like how it’s easy to start a YouTube
than 5 minutes. watching spree... and keep going.
• I’d review the lesson notes, the vocabulary and flashcards
for that lesson to fill up the time. This routine worked so well in the first week that language
• Or, I’d just continue on to the next lesson. learning went from being the last thing I did in a day to my
• At 5 minutes, I’d stop. lunchtime routine. I’m still not a morning person, but you
can see that the priority went way up.
The goal? Simply to put that time in. That’s it.
I was able to do this every day, for the whole month.
Then, I’d be done. I mentioned our Audio/Video lessons;
that’s just one way to study. If I wanted to learn just vocab,
I’d spend that time drilling Flashcards. Same thing with need a way to actually stick to learning, this is for you.
videos on YouTube. Onward.
2
WHY THIS AMOUNT OF TIME IS ALL
YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

Routines are the cornerstone of success. And there’s simply no excuse not to find 5 minutes in a
day... when a day is 1,440 minutes.
If you can stick with a routine, you’re on guaranteed to
master your language. As mentioned earlier, it’s like your small, measurable goal
for the day.
The nice thing about 5 minutes is that it’s short.
It’s almost psychological trickery that you play on All you have to do is hit that number every day.
yourself. It’s easy. It’s non-threatening. You don’t worry all
day long about having to put in hours and hours of study Then you’re done. Listeners, if you have a tough time
like college students do. And realistically speaking, that getting into a language learning routine, definitely apply
time flies by! this tactic.
3
HOW YOU CAN APPLY IT BASED
ON MY EXAMPLES

As you know, every single day and at first, right before bed, I’d start a stopwatch and start a
lesson in The Top 25 Questions Pathway.

• The only goal was to put in a minimum of 5 minutes of learning.

• You can definitely go over like I did, but 5 minutes is the absolute minimum.
• If your lesson is under 5 minutes, you can simply move onto the next.
• You can also review with the lesson notes and the lesson vocab.
• Send a message to your Premium PLUS teacher for 1-on-1 learning.

The easiest way to apply this is to set aside 5 minutes in a day and jump into
it. And to be honest, you don’t even need to plan to set aside 5 minutes. It’s
that simple.

If you’re commuting and that takes 20 or 30 minutes, that’s a perfect chance to squeeze this
in. Once your stopwatch hits 5 minutes, you’re done.
 Lessons Inside:
1. How Loss Aversion Can Help Boost Your Motivation

A
2. What a Small Group of Dedicated JapanesePod101
Members Did to Reach Their Language Goals

You may not realize but you made a crucial step.

You've parted with hard earned money. You invested in

yourself and consummated your commitment to
fluency. It’s the biggest, and most important step
towards commitment you can make. Why?

What’s so important about paying money?

RADICAL The technical term is loss aversion, and it's a powerful

motivator. The idea is simple. People strongly prefer to

SHOCK avoid losing even more than winning. In fact, a bunch

of really smart guys in white lab coats discovered that
psychologically speaking, losing is twice as powerful

THERAPY TO as winning.

MASTER A In short, it hurts A LOT more to lose $10 dollars than it

does to get $10. In fact, it hurts twice as much to lose
$10 than to get $10.

LANGUAGE So how does this help you learn languages?

Well, you paid for access. Without any discounts, a monthly Premium
subscription is $25. So based on the principle we learned above,
approach your studies this way:

By not using our site, you’re losing your $25 investment every month.

Now, are you more inclined to study after looking at it that way? You
should at least be considering it. Stay with me.

I want to share a powerful personal experience.

One that changed me from skimming through my Chinese studies,

back when I was studying Chinese, to obsessively making sure I was
learning as much as possible.

Back then, I had a private Chinese lesson once a week on the outskirts
of town. It was pretty far and out of the way. And kind of a hassle to get
there. But, I never, ever missed my class.

particular class?

No, my teacher’s appearance and my passion for language are not the
top reasons. Ready for the secret?

My teacher fined me once for missing a class.

Yep. Take - the - cash - out - of - your - pocket - ARE YOU READY TO TRY A RADICAL
right - here - right - now - fine. I’ll never forget. I METHOD TO LEARN 5X FASTER?
missed a class, and didn’t tell her. I showed up the
next week, and she said, “Take out your wallet, and Here’s an Experiment We Did on our
give me $30 dollars.” In disbelief and shock, I JapanesePod101 Website...
managed to mutter, “Come again?” as I looked Many years ago, several passionate students were
around to see if I was on camera or something. determined to not fail again at learning their
language. They decided to join an experimental
She replied, “You wasted my time and yours. $30 program called "Fluency At All Costs Bootcamp,"
now, please.” based on my experience. Mavericks who enrolled in
this course got access to the same website as other
I took out my wallet as if I were in a trance. Took subscribers.
out the money and handed it to her. 3 brand new
$10 bills. I remember every detail. And, this was in Everything was exactly the same, except for one
on top of paying for the class I missed! tiny thing.

And you know what I never, ever did again, right?

I never, ever missed another class. From that day

on, I started to rapidly improve by studying for the
class. Months later...our private 45 minute classes
were 90% in Chinese.
Students that did not access our site at least once In fact, they did 5x better! They loved it! They even
every 5 days were fined $10. That’s right. $10, in enjoyed the course more. And we... well, we were
addition to the subscription fee. stunned.

In case you think this sounds absolutely insane... Want to guess what the average fine was?
You’re right. That’s exactly why we never advertised
this. Imagine the reactions! It was meant only for our Yep. Around $10. People fined once learned their
most serious learners who knew just how powerful lesson. And FAST. Most achieved complete success
loss aversion is as a motivator. and were never fined again. Interesting, right?

So, how do you think this group did? This radical tactic worked for me. A $30 dollar fine
helped me get my Chinese from zero to upper
That’s right. They completed courses faster. Used the intermediate level. I never missed another class, and
site longer. You name it, they did better. Across the the more I went, the faster the progress.
board they outperformed regular users.
What does this all mean? Is this an advertisement for the Fluency
At All Costs Bootcamp?

No. That was an experiment. And, honestly, the concept might

be too shocking for most casual language learners.

What it means is... Loss aversion is a powerful motivator if you

take advantage of it. When you invest your hard-earned money
in a language resource, you’re more likely to pull more value
and improve faster.

And it’s not even about money. Money is just one example
since it has value. If you sincerely value your time, you’ll learn
faster than any casual learner because you know you’re losing
time in exchange for mastering a language.

KEY TAKEAWAY: IN SHORT, YOU MUST HAVE

SOMETHING TO LOSE.

A $30 fine helped me get my Chinese from zero to upper

intermediate level. A $10 fine got most of our experimental
members scrambling to improve their Japanese faster than our
regular members.
 Lessons Inside:
1. Why you must adjust to your environment
2. How to take advantage of limited time that you’d

B
otherwise waste

So, what exactly is so motivating about a plane flight?

I’ll tell you! First of all, I really like flying. And I like it
because I get a snapshot of what the average person does
during any given time. Imagine being on a flight. The seat

3 EFFECTIVE
• People are eating
• People are watching TV
• People are getting up to go to the bathroom

LANGUAGE • Or, they’re sleeping

LEARNING
This is what the majority of people all over the world are
doing at any given time. If they’re not at work or school,
they’re eating, sleeping, watching TV or sitting in the

HABITS YOU’LL bathroom. And the airplane gives me a random sample of

what the typical person does.

LEARN ON A Before you ask, you’re right... There’s nothing motivational

about that.

PLANE Don’t worry. There’s more.

First, this is great for adult learners and self-learners
that aren’t learning in class. In class, you can take a
look and see who’s doing well and who’s falling
behind and gauge where you stand amongst them.

But as an adult language learner, you don’t get that

luxury. You’re mostly on your own. So the plane is
nice because you get a random sample of the
population. And 98% are just eating, sleeping or
watching TV.

However, there is always that 2%. There’s always

that one, two or three people on the plane that are
hard at work. You get up to go to the bathroom and
you always spot one. Their light is on. They’re
absorbed in their tasks. You get up 2 hours later,
and they’re still at it.

This is what’s so incredibly motivating to me. This

2%. These hyperproductive people that can get
work done – anywhere, anytime. So let’s get into
the first point. And you will find out how this applies
to language learning.
 1
That 2%. They are those hyperproductive people
who can get work done anywhere, anytime. At
home. On the plane. On the train. And on the plane,
especially, the factors really are against you. It’s
cramped. It’s dark. There’s turbulence.
WHY YOU MUST You might think this is odd, but I like to stop by their
seat and chat with them. Just to see what they’re
ADJUST TO YOUR doing, how they’re able to work and how they get
the motivation. And on one flight, some time ago,

ENVIRONMENT one lady was willing to talk. I asked her how she
could just sit down and do her tasks. What she said
was this: “There’s never a good time or place to do
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• anything. You just do it anyway.” All the people I’ve
spoken to on flights have said something similar.

And you don’t often hear answers like that. Usually,

people give you nice, soft advice like...

“Learn a language when you’re comfortable...”

“Learn a language when you have free time...”

“Learn a language when you’re in the mood...”

Or even... “Maybe language just isn’t your thing...”

But she was right. There’s never a • If you have a smartphone and you’re on the train, there’s no
perfect time or a perfect place. You reason you can’t open up a lesson and start learning
might have work or school. Then you • If you have a notebook open, practice writing out conjugations
have kids. Someone’s birthday or or all of the adjectives you know or want to know
wedding is coming up. Then other • If you’re walking, just listen to audio lessons to train your ear
responsibilities. Sometimes you just • If you’re on the plane and it’s cramped, well, you’re just going to
want to take it easy. Then, you get sick have to do it anyway!
and just want to sleep.

So, when IS a good time and place? I do this at the gym with audiobooks. And not only do I get to work
out, but I also keep my language on track, as well as take care of
In terms of language learning: there’s the books I want to read… err, listen to!
never a good time or a good place.
What do you do?
This is a fact. Years and years of
surveys sent to our users show us the You need to internalize that fact: there will never be a perfect time
same result – Time is the #1 reason or place to learn. Don’t wait for that perfect moment – just start
people don’t learn a language. anyway. But I know that it’s one thing to say this, and another thing
to actually do it.
There’s never a perfect time. There’s
never a perfect place. So, I wanted to know exactly how they could sit down and work.
Let’s get into the second point.
This is why you must learn to adjust
to your environment.
 2 When you fly, what do you do with your time? In other
words, how do you designate or label that time?
In my case, flight time means entertainment time. If
my flight is 7 hours,
HOW TO TAKE I normally think “I can fit about 3 movies” into this
space of time. I label it as entertainment time.

ADVANTAGE OF Language learning doesn’t come to mind – at least, it

hasn’t until now.

LIMITED TIME Another example would be if you were on the train for
30 minutes.

THAT YOU’D How do you, consciously or subconsciously, label that

time? Most people see it as “necessary” yet wasted

OTHERWISE time that they use to stare at their phones. So, what do

asked the lady on the plane how exactly she’s able to

WASTE sit down and work, she asked me....

What’s the first thing do you think of when you get on

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• a plane? How do you see your next 7 hours?

You already know: in the past, my answer would have

While most people imagine watching a ton of movies, she How can I put these next 30 minutes... or 7 hours...to use?

can I get done in the next 7 hours?” This is definitely not a What is your answer?
question you’d ask yourself if you weren’t at work or at
school. A lot of people don’t. That’s why it’s only one or In my case, my answer would be: I would learn language.
two people doing work on a plane. If I’m classifying my commute time as wasted time, it’s a
good chance to reassess the value of that 30-minute train
It’s the same with language learning. ride and see how much I can learn. If I have 4 hours of free
time after work and am automatically marking it as “family
There’s plenty of time that we waste because of how we and TV time,” I need to see if I can fit in at least 30 minutes
label it. Commutes become ‘necessary wasted time’. of extra study time.
Walking from point A to point B becomes ‘necessary
wasted time.’ That time after work or school is often In other words, that 2% of people you encounter on the
labeled as “thoughtless entertainment.”
using time otherwise wasted to your advantage as well.
At least for me, I know that at 8PM after work is done, it’s
family time. No work. No languages. And like most people, “How can I put these 7 hours of flight time to use?”
I’ll be eating, watching TV, going to the bathroom and
sleeping! Just like the people on the plane. We don’t take So, what did I do after asking this question? Let’s move
advantage of the limited periods of time we have. So, if onto the final point.
you can reassess how you spend your time, whether
you’re commuting, at home or at lunch, and then ask
yourself the question...
 3 On the flight back, I asked myself how I could put this
limited 7-hour time frame to use. The answer is
obvious – by studying Spanish.
THE IMPORTANCE What did I do next? I stopped thinking. I switched my
mind into study mode and dove right in. And 4 out of
OF DEVELOPING the 7 hours went into studying Spanish. The rest of
course, were used for sleeping, bathroom and eating.
What exactly did I do?

• I listened to SpanishPod101 lessons with the

MINDSET Innovative Language 101 App
• I read the reading assignments from my
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Premium PLUS teacher
• I switched over to reviewing words with the
Custom Lists App
• I wrote out vocab and sentences in my notebook
for extra review
• And I alternated as soon as I got tired of one method
Every person that I see working with the light on... they Seeing them working while the majority of people were
always say the same thing: Don’t wait. Start. Don’t spend just eating, sleeping and watching TV was incredibly
time thinking about it. Don’t say “I’ll do it in 5 minutes.” motivating. So I put in the work.

Again, this is all easy to say and write about, but hard to do.
What do you do?

Essentially, you

stopping all thought and getting to work.

top, you just need to get to work. That’s it.

This habit can only be built like a muscle. Consistently and

over time.

Reading about it might give you a small ounce of

inspiration. Doing it again and again will give you much
better results. And in my case, seeing the 2% hard at work
was enough to snap me back to reality.