On January 1, 2019 I put this note on my fridge:

Learning Spanish is something that gets kicked around in my head semi frequently.

The reasons are more than valid:

• I want to bike tour in Mexico, Central, and South America someday.

• I have Latino neighbors and live in a city with plenty of Spanish speakers.

• I feel a duty to learn a 2nd language.

I don’t want to Google APP this out either – speak into the phone in English and have the audio come out in whatever language needed.

I want the Steve APP (my very own brain) to learn Spanish.

Less phone – not more – is always my trend.

Today is October 5, 2019.

My Spanish vocabulary consists of exactly 87 words (Yes, I tested myself then counted them).

You know what that means:

F A I L !

Yeah, yeah – I understand the year’s not over.  Plenty of time to dig in and get after it…use online teaching resources…watch video clips on YouTube…Go outside my condo and say “HOLA” to my neighbors.

None of this is happening.

Mental Defeat.

It’s important for me to recognize this and understand it.

Look around this this silly blog.  It’s strewn with a motivating (sometimes preachy) narrative …

…Make your own Fit Index, eat this not that, go hard in the mountains, ride your bike far…..Blah, Blah…

But, here I am with a new challenge.

A mental challenge that I can only succeed at using my Brain Muscles.

My fit body can’t help me ask in Spanish –

“Is it okay to camp here?”

On a nice stretch of beach on the Baja Peninsula.

HABIT 

This is a word I’ve embraced lately.

I run, ride, and exercise out of habit now.  It’s just part of my day like going to work and making dinner.

You never miss dinner right?

It feels weird.

That’s where my head is at with physical stuff.  A piece of my day is missing without it.

I thought if I could just commit to a minimum of 10 minutes of Spanish learning a night during the week that it would become a habit – Get stuck to my routine like everything else.

And, to be accountable, I made a whole new column on my Fit Index page.  Miss a day and lose a point (just like with the usual physical exercise).

You can see I started great – 358 minutes – 6 hours in January.

But, look at that taper.

All the way to a full flat nothing in July.

Note: I ended up not using the “lose a point” method as motivation – too crushing for my fragile ego – Clearly.

So why do you need to know all this?

What’s the problem Steve?  You obviously suck at this new language learning stuff.

Well, it’s shed some light on how hard it is for some people to maintain their wellness.

To eat better and stick to some kind of fitness routine.

It showed me that, yeah, it takes some mental bargaining – some positive inner dialogue to keep that routine – to just do 10 minutes of something that’s good for me, but mildly challenging.

Sure, this is not a 1:1 comparison – Spanish with Exercise/ Eating / Wellness.

Leaning to say, Como se llama, with the proper enunciation isn’t going to lower my blood pressure and cholesterol.

But you get what I’m saying.

This whole Spanish thing, just like an exercise routine, is going to take a couple attempts before it sticks.

I’ll probably fail again on the next one.

But, I’m going to try.

Try and build that habit – to get over the hump and force myself into conversation.

What I’ve learned is that I need to find the right recipe – the right combination of Spanish exercise to become competent.

I should know how to do this already.

I was bangin’ on you Readers 2 years ago in the Fit Index Compared post about how to succeed at sticking to an activity plan.

TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE DUMMY!

What I need to do is build a catalogue of different language learning exercises.

When my brain is tired, weak, and unmotivated, I just need to pick the easiest Spanish task – like reviewing 10 words on my vocab list….

5 minutes!

NO EXCUSES!

The takeaway here is, again, the consistency.  Something every day.

Habit, Routine, Consistency.

This works for my physical life.

Now, I need to apply it to my mental life.

Tomorrow is Sunday – I’m starting again.

I’ll update sometime down the road to let you know if the plan was successful.

IF – I built a Spanish learning habit.