How to find motivation | Mindset Talk with Hadar

Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our first mindset talk inside the seven day pronunciation Challenge. How are you doing today? I'm super thrilled to be here with you. Every day we are going to have a 10 minute mindset talk about different aspects related to pronunciation, but also to English and fluency. I'm gonna wait another minute before I begin just to make sure that everyone joins. It takes a little time for people to see the live, but thank you so much for being here. I'm excited some of you are just watching the replay. Maybe you were sleeping when we, when I went live. So it's all good. Thank you for being here. Today we're going to talk about motivation. Our mindset talk is about motivation and how to find motivation. So that's a big word, motivation. And we know that we need it. In fact, we don't need just motivation to get results and to make things work for us because there's so much more that we need. We need strong habits, we need effective practice. We need the right strategy. We need to know how we're practicing effectively. All of that is needed as well. Motivation is just an element inside of your entire journey. So that is clear. However, I want us to recognize, to go back and try to understand what is your motivation for doing this type of work, for working on your English, for working on your pronunciation in particular. And here's the thing, and here's what I find. A lot of times when we think about motivation, we not always use the things that we want for ourselves, but actually we're very much influenced by messages that we receive from the outside world. And instead of saying things like I want to improve my pronunciation or I want to improve my fluency because. And then you state things that are relevant to you, we end up regurgitating content that. Or messages that we've heard from other people because we are so immersed in them that it's hard to know what we want and what other people say that we want to regurgitate. By the way, that's a fancy word, means to repeat something without thinking about it or analyzing it, or even sometimes comprehending it and asking yourself, is this really true for me? So, for example, a lot of times when I ask my students, why do you want to be fluent or why do you want to improve your pronunciation? Then I might hear things like, I want to sound like a native or I want to be an advanced speaker, whatever that means, or I want people to understand me better. I want to be better understood by native speakers. Right? So, and I don't think These are bad reasons or there is anything wrong with those reasons. But a lot of times it sounds like you are using the perspective of the people listening to you rather than your own reasons for why you want to do what you do. And today, I want to invite you to think about your real motivation for doing this type of work. The way I see it and the way I've seen, you know, my students as they go through this journey of really discovering or really asking themselves these questions. It seems like the act of using the language in an effortless way or reaching fluency in general, not just pronunciation, is so much more profound and deeper than how we are perceived by others. It is so much deeper than how we sound or what people think of us. So, yes, of course, when people don't label you or when people don't put a stigma based on how you sound when they communicate with you, it is easier for us. It is. This is how the world works. I'm not trying to say that everything's perfect and sounding like a native is just a dream. That doesn't change anything. Of course it does. But at the same time, the reason why we want to feel like we are in our own skin and like we own the language goes far beyond how we are perceived. I think there is a big gap between how we feel in our first language and how we feel in a second, third, or fourth language that we weren't born into. And the way it feels in the mouth has a lot to do with it. Of course, it has to do with how quickly you retrieve words and sounds, but it also has to do with how it feels in your mouth. And this is why pronunciation work is so incredibly useful when it comes to that. Because when you feel, imagine like you're always walking in T shirts and Snickers sneakers and or flip flops. And then one day they tell you you have to start wearing suits every day. Every day, even when you go to the grocery store, you have to wear a suit or a prom dress. You wouldn't feel like you're in your own skin because you're not used to it. And on the contrary, if you're used to walking on high heels and someone says to walk in flip flops, you wouldn't feel like you are comfortable because you're used to something and you have made it. Your own language is the same. How the sounds feel in your mouth really matters, how much effort you put into your speaking. And apart from how you are perceived, how you feel when you communicate is so incredibly important. So I want you to think about this act of motivate, like this idea of motivation and ask yourself, what advantage, what is the benefit of feeling like you're in your own skin, in your own body when speaking in English? What would it feel like not to put in a lot of effort? What would it feel like for the words to roll out freely of your mouth? What would it feel, feel like to always be clear and understood and know how to pronounce every single word? Not just for it, for you to be clearer, which, of course, of course is so important because you want to get what you want when you communicate to others, but also to know that you're in control, that you know how to use the language and that sense of ownership is really important. And I believe that when, when you feel like the language is yours, it gives you a lot more permission to use it. It gives you a lot more permission. You give yourself a lot more permission to speak up, to communicate, to do things you normally wouldn't do. You wouldn't make yourself small, you wouldn't keep quiet, you wouldn't start talking and then hold yourself back or bail out on what you want to say because you're constantly thinking about how it sounds or you don't know how you're going to get to the end of the sentence. Now, of course, pronunciation and fluency are interconnected. One does not go without the other. When you work on pronunciation, it definitely boosts your fluency. And when you develop your fluency, you realize how critical pronunciation is, because that is basically the instrument that produces the language. So it's not one thing or the other. They definitely go together. Pronunciation is a key component inside of fluency. So what is your motivation for doing this work for us, keeping your motivation even inside the pronunciation challenge, because even seven days could be sometimes demanding. And we want to make sure that we do the work and why we do this work. So as we're starting before our first day before our core training today, ask yourself these questions. Why is it important to you? And try to speak from the perspective of yourself and not from the perspective of the people listening to you or expecting you to be at a certain level. What freedom would it give you? What permission would it give you? What are the things that you believe would be possible for you? And I want to talk about one more thing, and we will discuss limiting beliefs and how they hold you back. But one thing that I often see when people start doing this type of work, because again, we will go deep into pronunciation work in the next few days. And one of the things that will come up for you is, this feels fake, this doesn't feel like myself, or maybe even, okay, it feels good, I sound different. But then what if I go and speak around my friends or family or colleagues and they will notice that I sound different? And then they would think, who do they think they are? Who does she think she is? Who does he think he thinks he is? Who does he think he is? Right. If these thoughts go through your head, it will affect your motivation to do this type of work. Because no one wants to do something in the sake of feeling more authentic, but at the same time, it may actually make them feel less authentic. So I want to address it right at the start that feeling fake is a natural process and a natural part of. Of working on your pronunciation. Because when you're changing habits and pronunciation is a shift in habits. When you're changing habits, basically it means that you're. When you're changing your pronunciation. Sorry, I started the wrong way. When you're changing your pronunciation, you're changing habits and that is uncomfortable. That is uncomfortable. And getting out of your comfort zone is really the only way to grow. So I want you to remember that it is a part of doing this type of work. But at the same time, if you do the work and if you stay consistent, you end up making it your own. And it does become less artificial and less. It does. It starts to feel less and less fake. So please remember that as you do this work during the seven day challenge, and when that thought that comes up, who do they think they are? Or, you know, they're not American, Why are they speaking like that? Or why they're using the sound? Remember that this. These are just your thoughts that are holding you back. These are not even. Even if people might actually feel that, it's not supposed to slow you down or hold you back because ultimately you do what's good for you and what not, what's good for other people. All right, So I just wanted to touch upon all of those things. This was really short and I hope spend some time before we get to the core training later on today that you'll spend some time thinking about these things and join the first session with new motivation and excitement about the type of work that we're going to do today. Remember, it's all about you and how you feel in this language. Thank you so much for being here and I'm really looking forward to seeing you later on today for day one core training and creating your own framework for your pronunciation work. All right. I'll see you later. My friends. Thank you so much.