So as you begin changing what you do in English each

day, you will begin to produce new results

with what you learn in English. Over

time, those system changes will cause your learning

curve to start moving up again. It might not

happen immediately, but change

will happen if you are consistent. That's

the power of routines. That's the power of habits.

They create results.

Well, hello there and welcome to the speak English

fearlessly podcast. This is the podcast

for motivated english learners who want to speak English

fearlessly and learn practical tips and

strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam. I also

love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people,

people just like you who are working towards

becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their

experiences together. Who am I?

My name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an english

teacher for over 16 years, and I now

help students prepare for the selfip exam through online

classes. If you're just joining us, hey,

welcome. It's great to have you here.

Since the beginning of February or so, we've been taking

a look at something that everyone deals with at

some point in their life and in their learning

journey, especially if you are working to learn

a new language. In our case, learning

English. And that thing that everyone

will experience at some point in their learning journey

is a language learning

plateau. If you're not sure what that is,

a language learning plateau is when all forward

learning progress you are making suddenly,

or maybe slowly, begins to

fall flat, and you go from an

upward learning curve to a flat line,

and no amount of hard work or pushing seems to

help you get started upward

again. You are stuck.

Like I said before, it happens to everyone at

some point in their language learning journey, and maybe it's

happening to you right now. So now that we've

identified what a language learning plateau is, let's

talk about how you can break out of one if

you are stuck right now. So if you haven't

yet, please subscribe to the show and come

along with us as we figure out how to get unstuck

with English together. My friend, we can do

this. So today we're going to be

talking all about routines. We

all have them. And most important of all, we all

follow them. In fact, routines

and habits are what drives a great deal of

our behaviors. From the moment we wake up to the moment

we go to sleep, routines are

everywhere. And let's get crystal clear about

what a routine is. So, according to the

Oxford Dictionary, a routine is a sequence

of actions that are regularly following,

a fixed program. I'm going to say that again. A

routine is a sequence of actions

that are regularly following. It's a

fixed program. Interestingly

enough. Again, according to the Oxford Dictionary,

the word routine comes from both the french

language and the english language. From the english

side, it comes from the word route

or a regular course or procedure. And

from the french side, it comes from a word which means

road. That should give us something

to think about. A routine is like a road we

follow on a regular basis. A

routine is like a road we follow on a

regular basis. Okay, so

what does this have to do with learning English

and dealing with a stubborn learning plateau that we're stuck

on? Well, if you're wondering that, then I'm glad you're

here, because our routines play a huge

role in how we are making progress

or not making progress with our English.

A few months ago, I had the privilege of

attending a leadership development conference through my

workplace. One of my favorite presentations

that I got to enjoy and listen to was by a

writer and speaker named James Clear.

He wrote a New York Times bestselling book

called Atomic Habits. Maybe you've heard of him?

Or the book Atomic Habits. Ever hear of it?

It was and is a

you probably. If you like going to the bookstore, you've probably

seen it around. I have. It's all over the

place. So it's called atomic habits.

And James's presentation was by

far my favorite. It was a two day event. We sat

through a lot of really great presentations. But I

really enjoyed James's presentation because it was

so practical and downright challenging.

His big idea is this. The best way

to make changes in your life is to change your habits

or routines. Change your routines and

your life will also begin to change. Now, I'm

really simplifying his message there, but that's the gist of

it. If you just had like 10 seconds to hear what James

clear talks about in his book Atomic Habits, it

all comes down to the habits that we follow

produce our life. If you want to

change what's going on in your life, start by changing the habits

that you are following day in and day out.

I'd like to share with you a great quote from an article

on his website which I will be linking to in my show

notes today. And before I read it to you, you're going to

hear me reading the word systems.

And just quickly, a system is, again, according to the

Oxford dictionary, it's a set of things working

together as parts of a mechanism

or an interconnecting network.

It's a set of things working together

as parts of a mechanism or an

interconnecting network. In other words, we're also

talking about routines here. They kind of mean the

same thing. Okay, so when you hear me say the word systems,

you can think of the word routine or

you can think of the word habit. All right, they kind of

mean the same. So here's the great quote

from James Clear. He says, achieving a

goal only changes your life for the

moment. That's the counterintuitive

thing about improvement. We think we

need to change our results, but the results

are not the problem. What we really need

to change are the systems that cause those

results. When you solve problems at the

results level, you only solve them

temporarily. In order to improve for good,

you need to solve problems at the systems

level. Fix the inputs and the

outputs will fix themselves.

Wow. What a quote. And

that quote really made me remember

how I was feeling when I was watching his

presentation that day. It just felt like

one light bulb moment after another for me,

as I was just thinking about what he was sharing about how

powerful our habits are.

And he was sharing about how

he tells one story. And I wasn't even thinking about sharing this with you, but

it's quite interesting. He was sharing one story, and this is a true

story of a guy that he interviewed who was way

overweight, like, unhealthily

overweight. And for him, what

he needed to start doing in order to change his life

wasn't to set healthy eating goals. It

wasn't to set going to the gym and working out for hours

and hours. No. The thing that he

did to begin making a change in his life

was to change his routine.

So every day, his new routine

was to go to the gym, get

changed into his exercise outfit,

get out onto the exercise floor, and start working

out for just five minutes. When those

five minutes were done, he'd go back, get changed

into his regular clothes, and go home and do the

rest of his day as per normal.

Now, when I heard him sharing this, I sat back in my seat and I

thought to myself, what good would that do? Going to the gym for

five minutes is not going to change anything in your

life. But then James said something

that blew my mind. He said that the thing

that this guy was working to do

was change his systems. Before

that, he wasn't the kind of guy who would go

to the gym ever like, his day to day

activities had nothing to do with the gym. His day to

day activities had a lot to do with his sofa. It had a lot

to do with driving in his car. It had a lot to do

with inactivity. So he wasn't

the kind of person who would go to the gym.

His system was broken. And that's

why he wasn't achieving the weight loss

goals or the weight loss results. That's the better word. He wasn't achieving the

weight loss loss results that he wanted in his life because he

was following the wrong system. So in order

for him to change the results that he was getting, he needed

to change the inputs or the things that

he was doing day in and day out that were

producing this overweight result.

And one of those things he determined

was not being the kind of person who

goes to the gym. So he decided to go to the

gym every single day for five minutes

at the beginning in order for him to

become the person who goes to the gym every

day. And you know what happened?

You can guess it. You can guess it little by little,

he did become that person who went to the

gym every single day. And once he became

that person that went to the gym every single day, which

was a drastic difference from the guy who didn't get off his

sofa or didn't walk to work, or he

only drove to work and all the other things

that he did on his sofa, day in and day out. Going to

the gym every day was a huge difference. And

once that routine became a regular part of

his life, the length of time that he stayed in the

gym started to grow. And sure enough,

it started to produce those weight loss results that he

wanted. Isn't that fascinating? When

I heard that story, my mind was blown.

I was thinking to myself, that is such a great idea

and such a simple thing that we can

do in order to create results in our life.

Change the habits that we follow each day,

change the routines we follow each day,

and you will change the results you get. So to quickly

summarize that quote for you, and don't worry, that quote will

be included in my show notes if you want to read it, as well as

a link to the article on his website. So you can

follow or read the whole thing that James shared

in that quote and you can find out more about him if you are

curious. But just to summarize, this

is what you can learn from that quote. Don't focus on

changing your results. Instead,

focus on changing the system or routine or

habits you are following that are

producing those results. Change the system

means you'll change the results. I'm going to read that

again. Don't focus on changing your results.

Instead, focus on changing the system or routine

or habits you are following that are producing those

results. When you change the system, you

change the results. Does that make sense?

Now, let's connect this with breaking free from your

language learning flatline. If you are feeling stuck with

your English today. And again, please let me remind you that

being stuck or feeling like you're not making progress no matter

how hard you work on it, it's terribly frustrating,

but it's very normal. Everyone

experiences it, experienced it, or will experience

it. It's just part of the learning process. It

does not mean that you are a bad english student or a

poor english learner. It just means you're

normal. You're normal. And one of

the potential causes of your stuckness.

I know that's not a word, but I'm going to use it anyway.

One of the potential causes of you being stuck might be

because of the language learning practice

system or routine you've been following.

Have you ever thought about that? What is

the english learning system you are following to develop your

fluency with the language? Can you map it out on a

piece of paper? You should be able to if you take a

moment and think about it. When I was an english teacher in

Mexico, here's the typical english learning system

I saw students following. Number

one, they would have a big need

for English in their workplace. That was like the

cause or the thing that started off, their

need to start using an english learning system. They needed

English in order to keep their job or to do their

job well. So number two, they'd sign up for

an english class. And number three, their company

would pay for those classes because it was part of their professional

development and they needed their employees to be able to use

English effectively during their work hours.

Those classes that the company would pay for were

typically two times a week for one and a half

hours each class. So about 3 hours of class time

every week. So because my company is paying

for it, I'm going to go to each of my classes.

And number four, my english practice mostly comes

through my classes and the times I need to use it

for work. So the only time I'm practicing

my English is when I'm going to my english class. That's my

system. I need to learn English. So I go to my english

class. I need to use English because I use it for

my work. The only times really that I'm coming into

contact with English is when I'm in my class

and the times that I need to use it for work when I'm not

at work. This is the fifth part. When I'm outside of work, I just

live my life. I don't have to think about English.

I try not to think about English. I'm just enjoying

my free time away from work. I've

talked about this system before, many

times in previous episodes, but this

system is broken. It's not working.

It doesn't produce the results that students

need. And here's another system that I've spoken about that

happens to people living here in Canada, where

it's an english speaking country where English is

all around them. So here's how their system

looks. I'm surrounded by English all the time.

Number two, I don't know English very well and I miss

home. So I focus more on finding and

keeping friends from my home country.

I do this, number three, because I can speak

my first language with these friends, and when I'm speaking my

first language with my friends, I feel happy and like I'm not

so disconnected from home.

What do you think the outcome is going to be

of this system? What do you

think? I hope you're thinking

if all you are doing is connecting with

people from your home country who speak your first

language, where when you do get together with them,

you're probably only speaking that first language,

what do you think is going to be the outcome of

those habits or that system or that

routine? I'll tell you right now,

nothing good for your English, my friend. I've

told this story before so many times, but it's worth

repeating. We have very good friends who

have lived here in Canada for

decades, more than ten years,

and their circle of friends are only

people from their home country or only people

who speak their first language and

not English. So the thing is, they don't have

to use English. Somehow they've built a life

for themselves in an english speaking country where

they don't have to use English at all, or at

least very rarely. Guess what

has happened to their english level. It stayed the same. It

hasn't grown. It hasn't developed. And they wonder

why this is happening. Why

is it that I'm living in an english speaking country, but I'm still not

fluent in English? The problem

is what you're doing in English each day, or more importantly, it's

what you're not doing with English each day. You are connecting

with people who only speak your first

language. The system, that

system is broken. So

let's take a look at your english learning system for a

minute. What is the route or routine

that you follow each day from the moment you wake up

to the moment you go to sleep? I challenge

you. Take some time today and just think through

all the different things that you do from the moment you

wake up to the moment you go to sleep. Just jot them down. You don't

have to write a book about it or anything. Just take a piece of paper

or in your journal or in your agenda and

just start writing in point form. You don't have to write in

complete sentences if you don't want to, but write down

what you do after waking

up all the way through the day until you go to sleep

again. Think about the things you do first, and then as

soon as you do that, what's the next thing you do? And then after that,

what do you do? Write it out. And be honest

with yourself. Once you're finished, take

a look at what you see. This, what you're

looking at is your system. It's your

routine. Now, as you look at

your routine, where and how

often are you seeing English practice happening

in it again, be honest with yourself. The only

person who's going to see this is you.

Perhaps you'll notice that English is not really

an active or regular part of your system. And if

that's the case, congratulations. You now

know why you're in a flatline situation where you're not

learning as much as you wish you could be.

And that learning curve is flat. It's not pointing up

anymore. If that's the case for

you, ask yourself, how can I begin bringing

English into my system more,

making it a part of what I do each day, not

an extra thing that you try to add on

that's really important when you're looking at your system. I don't

want you to try to find ways to add

English on to what you're already doing.

Instead, I want you to look at ways you can

include English in the things that you do each day.

Make English bleed into the things

that run your life. Let me give you a

quick example, as if you've been listening to my

podcast for any length of time. You've probably heard

me talk about my back and

the injury that I had about three years ago.

And I don't even know if you can call it an injury, but my back

just stopped working. It hurt. It hurt

so much that I couldn't get up out of bed

for weeks. In fact, I missed work

for two months because I just couldn't do my day

to day activities. And the only way that I was able to

solve my back problem was going to

physiotherapy. Now,

what you might not know is that I've been doing

physiotherapy for over, I would say, almost

a year. I think it would be almost a year that I've been doing

physio. But all of a sudden, about

maybe a month and a half ago now, I went to go for

my regular physio session. And

as I walked into the reception area,

the very nice receptionist stopped me and said,

hey, guess what? Something has changed with

your insurance plan. Your insurance company,

after today, is no longer going to be

covering the kind of exercise and the kind of

visit that it has been covering. So this

benefit is no longer going to be for you.

So if you want to continue taking physio and exercise

with us, you're going to have to pay out of pocket.

Ouch. That was a blow for me.

I needed that exercise, and I needed that kind

of activity in my life to help me work on the

pain in my back. But now

that my insurance company is no longer

covering that kind of exercise or

that kind of a benefit, I lost

that part of my routine. And that part of my

routine was producing some great results.

The level of pain I was experiencing in my back every day

was going down. I was feeling stronger and

healthier because I was lifting weights. I was doing special

exercises and stretches, and I had a

teacher with me or a trainer who was helping

me do the things that I needed to do to make my

back stronger. But now that that

input was being erased, guess what happened

in my life? Nothing.

I didn't continue with the exercises, even though in

my head, I was thinking, after I got over the initial shock of

not having access to that activity anymore, I was thinking, well,

maybe I can start doing the same kinds of activities at.

I can, you know, Netflix

or Apple TV. I think they have exercise

channels. Maybe I can follow along with a routine

there. I hate to tell you

this, but I didn't do. Couldn't.

Not that I couldn't, because I could, but I didn't make it a part of

my everyday life. I just stopped.

I stopped. I don't have any other explanation for it.

I just couldn't find a way to make time in my life

for this activity anymore. And guess what

happened as a result. Yes. My back.

My back started to hurt more and more each day, and I

was feeling stiff, and it was just feeling

like I was losing all the progress that I had achieved over the

last year or so that I was taking

physio. And I was really frustrated

about that. But the problem was that

my system was broken. My system was. The system

I was following was day to day activity that did not include

any kind of exercise. I was driving to work.

I had limited exercise in walking around the floors

where I work. But that's not really great exercise.

It's very small amounts of movement. In short, I wasn't

getting near enough movement that I needed in order

to have an impact on my back. So the system that I was

following didn't have exercise as a part of it.

And the result that was being produced by

that was a painful back.

I was spending more time lying in bed when I got back home with

ice on my back, and I just wasn't liking

that result. And I knew that something was

missing. I knew that that activity, that exercise piece

was missing. So I started to think about my

system. I remembered that presentation that I sat through

with James clear, and I remember my mind being blown by

just how powerful our systems are. And I

thought to myself, okay, I don't like the

results that I'm getting. If I keep doing what I'm

doing, those results are not going to change. I'm just going to

keep getting the same results. That makes sense, doesn't it?

So I decided that I was going to start

changing the way I run my system.

So instead of driving to work each day,

I started to walk. I started to walk to work. I don't

live very far away. It takes me about 25 minutes to

go from my house to my workplace

walking. So I started to do that.

And last week was the first week that I

implemented this change in my system. And guess what

happened the first few days? Well, first

of all, the first time I did it, I felt great. When I got to

work, I was on a high. I felt excited. I felt like,

yes, I'm back doing the

things that I need to be doing to change the results

that I've been getting. I felt really good during the

day. But as the days went on with me

walking, this was not an activity I was used to. So I started

to feel sore. My ankles were sore, my legs were

sore, because when I was walking, I was trying to walk

quickly, and my walk has me going up and down

hills. So I was

exercising myself in ways that I hadn't exercised before. So

my body was letting me know about it. And the

temptation was, stop doing this. This

hurts. Just like the pain that would happen

after my physiotherapy visits, I would be in pain for the

day after, or even sometimes two days after my

physio exercises. But I knew that

that pain was a good kind of pain because it was the kind of pain

that you get after working out and exercising

different parts of your body, and

that that discomfort didn't last

for long. But the

results that I was getting less pain, less

discomfort in my back, told me that I was doing the

right thing. And I knew that the same thing was

going to be true about my walking. That the more I

walked, the more I practiced this new activity in

my everyday system, the less it would be

impacting me in a pain or discomfort

level, and the more it would start producing the results

that I was looking for for my back. So that's

just like a short little example of how I needed to

include a new activity into my

life, not like, add an additional thing.

I just changed the way I went to work each day. Instead of

driving, I've decided to walk. So

what if you look at your system and you

notice that English is a regular part

of your system? So that previous example was

kind of speaking to that idea of what if you look at your

system and you discover that English is not a

regular enough part of your life, then you

need to find a way to include it in something that you

do on a regular basis as a part of your life.

And that example that I gave, in case it wasn't clear, that

example that I gave was an example of

including something in my everyday routine.

And I was focusing on my routine or the

system that I use to get to work every day instead of using

my car. I've decided to switch that out and

change it to walking. So now I walk to work and I

walk back home again. I've changed part of my system.

So that's something that you can do, too.

So the second question is, what if you look at your

system, you've done that. Look at your

life, and you've written down all the things that you do

from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep

and you realize, hey, you know what? I am

including English and English practice as

a regular part of what I do every day. It's a part of my

system, but I'm still

experiencing that learning plateau. What's going on?

Well, that is totally possible. You are experiencing it,

right? You can have lots of contact

with and practice of English in your system,

in your habits, in your routine, but you can still be

facing a flatlined learning curve.

Here's something that you can do. Here's

something to think about. It's time to change the kinds of

things you are doing in English inside of your

routine. If what you are doing is not getting you the

results you want to see, continuing to do the same things

won't magically create results that you're

looking for. Here are three simple ways

that you could consider changing the way you use English each

day. See if one of them or all of them could

apply to you. Number one, engage

more with native english speakers.

Engage more with native english

speakers. Now,

I bet that this ingredient is

lacking in your system. I bet it's not

there enough. Maybe it is,

but I'm betting that it's not. But I've got some great news

for you. If it's not there, you, and only

you can do something about it. You're the one who can

add more encounters, more

conversations, more visits, more coffee times,

more going to the movies with more eating out

with native english speakers. Only you can add

that. Only you can bring that in. It's something

that's in your control. So that's one suggestion

I have for you. Create

more spaces, more contact time with native

english speakers. Number two,

change your english inputs. What

kinds, for example, of tv shows or movies

do you like to watch in English? Try

changing what you watch to a new genre,

like if you're used to or you enjoy watching

comedies. If that's your favorite thing to watch,

try switching over to dramas. Or try switching over to

thriller or action. You'll get immediate

access to new words, to new phrases and

new ideas in English, and you might just discover

a new favorite tv show, too. And

that's a good thing, right? A new way to

enjoy your free time.

And finally, number three, what if

you joined a club or an interest group, or like

a hobby group? I've shared about this before,

but in the place where I work, I run a weekly

writers group. And in that group, the people who come,

their commitment or the thing that they do every

week is that they commit to write something. And in

the group, they share what they've written. And that

group is all in English. I wonder if

there are groups like that around you. Maybe there's a book

club, maybe there's a chess club. Maybe

there's, I don't know, a walking club or a

cycling club or a hiking club. There's lots of

different groups around that you could get involved in,

and there's lots of different groups around that would be

centered around an interest that is interesting to

you. And if you get involved in a group like

that, you're going to be able to fulfill that first

suggestion I gave you. You'll be able to find other native english

speakers that you can start connecting with.

Or maybe you'll just find other people who are also

learning English and who are wanting people to practice with.

The thing is, find new groups of people to

hang out with. Find a club or an interest group

that is of interest to you and start

connecting with it. You will have fun.

You will probably learn new things. You'll meet new people. And

best of all, you'll have the opportunity on a regular basis

to begin practicing your English. So

those three things again. Number one, engage

more with native english speakers. Number two, change your

english inputs. What things are you listening to or watching

on a regular basis? Can you change the

kinds of things? Can you change the kind of music that you listen to in

English? Can you change the kind of tv show or movie that you enjoy

watching? When you do those things, you will expose yourself

to new kinds or new ways of using English,

which will give you fresh inputs to work

with. And finally, number three, look

for groups or clubs that interest

you and join them. You

will meet new people, you'll have many new opportunities

to practice your English, and you'll have

fun. So as you begin changing what you

do in English each day, you will begin to

produce new results with what you learn in English.

Over time, those system changes will cause your

learning curve to start moving up again. It might

not happen immediately, but

change will happen if you are

consistent. That's the power of routines. That's the power of

habits. They create results.

And if you want those results to change, you need to

change your routines. So give this a try

and see what happens. And I've got a

special gift for you. If you've found today's episode

to be helpful, and I sure hope you have, I want to

invite you to subscribe to my weekly newsletter during the

month of February. If you subscribe. If you are a listener

and you haven't subscribed, what are you doing? You need

to subscribe, my friend. And if you do, and by the way,

it's totally free to do this. But if you do subscribe,

I will send you my language snapshot

tool that will give you a way to get a clear

picture of how you are using English each

day or not. To grab

yours, just go to

selpipsuccess.com

subscribe. That's

selpipsuccess.com

subscribe and after you put in your information there, you

will get an email automatically with

this resource that I've been telling you about that will help you get a

snapshot or a picture of how English is

a part of your everyday life or not. And it

will help you to determine or see different spaces

in your life where you can begin, including English, where

maybe you are not already. So that's it

for this week's episode. Thank you so much for listening along with

me. Please join me next week as we're going to be

talking about the importance of the kinds of English that

you are connecting with. Thank you for

listening and have a wonderful week. See you next

Tuesday. Bye.