Start Small to Get Further, Faster.

Do you know what is one of the most common pitfalls of language learners, or of any skill for that matter?

STARTING TOO FAST.

More precisely, starting too intensely without:

• establishing a proper learning habit

• having a clear roadmap

• having an established schedule

• knowing your limits

It doesn’t apply to me.

Yeah, we feel you. We like to think that we are different. That we have that little edge that means we don’t need to start at square 1. More often than not, when we finally realize we are not that different, we already have lost some precious time. 

But how to avoid it?

First days of a new language

When you finally decide to take the plunge, you are all fired up. Every new adventure does that. 

If you are here, right now, I can guess you are at this exact place or close to it. 

You want to start all guns blazing. 

That is awesome — and we want this fire to continue to burn and spread to other areas of your life. 

But I’m here to tell you that you should step on the brakes and do way less that you think you can handle. 

Wait a minute, why should I restrain myself when I could use this tremendous boost of motivation to learn even faster?

Take a moment to breathe and imagine this: 

You go all out from the get-go. 

You see outstanding progress the first couple of days and can think about nothing else. 

You add new sources to learn from, watch YouTube videos on tips about your target language (TL), and review what you learned a couple of times a day. 

You do that for, one, maybe two weeks… then life happens and you skip a day. 

You feel bad about it so you try to cram as much as possible the next day. 

You feel like you’ve lost your hedge and cannot recall as much as you thought you would. 

Still, you push on for the day. 

It was not a good one. 

Now, you dread the amount of stuff you ”have” to do tomorrow. 

Suddenly, it doesn’t feel as fun anymore. 

It is a new cause for anxiety, as if you needed another one! Doubt creeps in. 

Maybe I’m just not good at this. 

Do I really need or want it? 

Maybe it is just not the right time. I should wait for X moment when I have more time.

Do you see the tragedy in this? 

You put too much wood in the fireplace — and now you’ve burned the whole house down.

So what’s the alternative? 

Putting just the right number of logs in it so it produces just the right amount of heat. 

When it starts to dwindle, you put more. You repeat this process for as long as you need.

”Let thy step be slow and steady, that thou stumble not.” Tokugawa Ieyasu

Make it a habit, not a chore

First, you want to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible for it to become a habit. 

It should be a no-brainer for you every morning — in fact, you should look forward to it with excitement. 

• Excitement to learn. 

• To improve. 

• To grow. 

Take someone who wants to run a marathon but has never run more than a 5K in his entire life…For sure, you could make him run this 5k, every morning and try to increase the intensity and the mileage every week. 

This way of proceeding may well work for certain, but for the majority of us the probabilities of injuries, burning out or simply quitting after only a short while are pretty high.

This runner would benefit by starting slow, maybe 1 or 2 km at a time and focusing on mastering a proper running form. 

By starting this slow, he would also strengthen his muscles and joints, which would lower his chances of injuries and would benefit him tremendously in the future. 

I suggest you take the same approach with learning. 

Sure, you can try to cram 15 new words every day and listen to 2 hours of podcast in one sitting but I doubt you’ll find this pleasurable for more than a week.

Your brain might retain 6 or 7 of those words. 

By contrast, someone who learns 5 new words every day will normally retain 4 or these. 

So if you spend all that extra energy, and it is no small feat to try to learn 15 new words per day, you will retain only 50% more. 

Expending 200% more mental energy for a 50% improvement is not worth the risk of losing motivation, skipping days or seeing it as a chore to be dealt with. 

Viewed differently, your retention drastically decreases. 

4 out of 5 is 80%. 

9 out of 15 is only 60%. 

I don’t know about you but I take the 80% retention at one third of the effort any day of the week. More, remembering only 60% of what you learned the previous day will left you with a feeling of being pretty bad at this and once again this could lower considerably your chances of success.

Compounding may also be a curse

We are only talking about one day. 

If you triple the number of words you learn in a day it won’t just increase threefold your reviewing.

You will make more mistakes so you will need to review these mistakes sooner.

It all adds up.

By the second week you will have to expand much more than three times the energy compared to someone who learned only 5 new words, just to keep going.

If it is not sustainable, you might as well not start. 

So be smart about it.

The key?

The recipe for success is to start slow and be proud of every daily achievement. 

Stack up the wins. 

That’s how you’ll look forward to next day’s lesson. 

Learn to recognize your limits

If you listen to yourself carefully, you’ll know when you are past your limit. 

With time I have come to know that when I lost attention 2 or 3 times when listening to a podcast, it is time for me to stop and switch to something else. I won’t learn nor retain anything by trying to push against it. 

One curious thing that also occurs is that when I am saturated, I sense a small dizziness, similar to a nausea like feeling, rolling in. 

At this point, I know that I am done for now and possibly for the day. I have reached the limit of what my brain can take without spending unnecessary effort. 

Everyone is different so your warning signals may be something else entirely. Pay attention to how you feel. Experiment and see what your breaking point is and then, do less.

Increasing endurance = more volume

What is amazing about all this is that day by day, week after week this ceiling expands. 

The first year or first couple of months you may be only able to listen to a 10 minute podcast without having enough. 

With time you will be able to increase this time to 20 minutes, then 30, then one hour, etc. 

You probably won’t notice it immediately but after a time you’ll be amazed at how easier it gets.  At a certain point it will become second nature just as you would in your own language.

This means that you’ll be able to increase the volume considerably once you reach a certain point. Or, if your goal is to take it slow and see where it gets you with the same effort and time spent over a long period, then continue as you were doing. You will only use less mental energy going through your routine and have it available for other important things in your life. 

Simplify the process

Fundamentals —> Quality targeted content —> Increase in volume/speed

✅ Action step:

Now that you’ve avoided this giant pitfall, what is the smallest step you can take today that will yield the biggest result?

👉 Got more questions? Head over to our Q&A Section—chances are we’ve already answered it (and if not, we will!).

👉 Ready to start your language journey? Grab our free guide “How to QuickStart Your Journey to Fluency” and take your first steps today!