My phone was stolen again last year (I live in South Africa where distraction usually results in automatic redistribution of your resources …without consultation)… it’s taken me this long to reload WordPress (I’ve been busy steeplechasing real life).
I do not consider myself to be a consistent person … so a 63 day badge of consistency is pretty amazing for me. Yeah we are talking about a learning streak … with clothes on 😉
I have been learning Dutch for FREE on http://www.duolingo.com app for about 2 years. (In anticipation of going to the Netherlands). I am super grateful to Duolingo for offering this service…as the last 2 years have been a challenging period for me financially.
Finances needn’t prevent growth of a person. The internet is full of great resources shared by kind, intelligemt, creative people.
Which is how I found out that one can generate consistency by setting a lower daily goal. Although I abhorred setting my goal low …I soon found out that this did not reduce my desire to achieve ... it just ensured that on bad days I achieved something whereas before I would get really down about missing the daily goal …and it would take a looooong time for me to face my “failure” and get back on track.
Duolingo has taught me a lot more than Dutch.
It has also taught me not to fight and stress about not getting things right.
In school we were taught things and then tested on our retention…receiving big red angry marks to indicate “failure” …read rejection in my mind…to be avoided at all costs.
In duolingo they throw things in but by bit that you haven’t learnt …and you learn by not knowing. There’s an owl that pops up if you get 3 things wrong in a row that says “keep trying you are still learning”
If you fall down … you use different muscles/processes to get up. Your body and mind gets physically stronger with each “failure”. So the lack of success in the attempt is really just a workout…designed to increase your potential for success.
You are learning something everytime you attempt a challenge. Sometimes you level up …sometimes you don’t …but you are growing all the time.
Life is like a steeplechase … lots of challenges … you can stay safe in the stable but there’s an exciting adventure out there for those who join in. God has designed the course just for you … you can do it! Even if some of the jumps are too big or scary the first time round … you will get another chance. Enjoy the ride.
#lifelessons #learning #success #goals #duolingo #dutch #southafrica
#castix 