Intro
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| Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be hosting today's lesson with my co-host, the founder of Innovative Language... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Becky: Listeners, have you ever struggled to meet your language goal or even failed? |
| Peter: Today you’ll learn how to adjust your routines so you don’t have to fail or change your goal. |
| Body |
| Becky: In January’s Inner Circle we spoke about setting successful goals... |
| Peter: ...and my February goal was to speak 3 minutes of pure Italian conversation. |
| Becky: Peter, can we circle back and get an update on your goal? Did you reach it? |
| Peter: Well, I have some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want first Becky? |
| Becky: Hmm, I think the listeners would want the good news first! |
| Peter: Alright. So the good news is...I reached the 3 minute goal two days ago. I found an Italian Skype tutor. I paid for the lessons, and I reached my goal. |
| Becky: And the bad news? |
| Peter: And the bad news is...it wasn’t easy, and I almost failed. |
| Becky: What happened? |
| Peter: You see, the plan looked great on paper! The goal was clear and realistic. The deadline was set. But life kinda got in the way. |
| Becky: I know that feeling. |
| Peter: And I bet our listeners can relate to that. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example of what happened exactly? |
| Peter: Okay, here we go. The first issue was the time I chose for my lesson. I selected 11PM as my lesson start time. |
| Becky: Hmmmm….11pm? |
| Peter: Hmmm is right. Again it seemed so logical when I chose the time. I mean...here was my thought process: |
| The family is asleep by 9pm. I usually surf the internet or watch TV at that time anyway, so...my plan was to study for a few hours before my 11pm lesson, and the lesson would go great! |
| Becky: So, how did it go? |
| Peter: Not so great. |
| Becky: What happened? |
| Peter: The night of the first lesson, I had to push back dinner because of work. So after the kids went to sleep at 9pm, I ate dinner. |
| Becky: So you started lesson preparation at 9: 30? |
| Peter: Well….not exactly,I got a call from a family member I hadn’t spoken with in a while. |
| Becky: So you started after that, say around 10? |
| Peter: To be completely honest, I was on the phone for awhile, I was also checking email as I was talking, and I saw some high-priority emails related to work. |
| Becky: So what time did you start studying? |
| Peter: At 11: 02. |
| Becky: So not only no preparation. You were late for your lesson. |
| Peter: Late. Preparation none. Niente, as they say in Italian. I mean again, it looked so perfect on paper! |
| Becky: I think many of our listeners that work or go to school can definitely relate. So how did the lesson go? Did you make it through? |
| Peter: The lesson was a disaster. And because it was so bad, my teacher assessed me the lowest possible ranking for every category! |
| Becky: Ouch. Doesn’t seem like such an inspirational story. |
| Peter: It’s funny I didn’t think about it that way but, bear with me. You see floundering through 45 minutes of an Italian lesson, which I was paying for was a very, very good wake up call. |
| Becky: Yes, I bet wasting that money was good motivation. |
| Peter: You can say that again. |
| Becky: So what was the lesson learned? |
| Peter: This next part is very important. You see, I had a good plan, and that didn’t need to change. But I needed to adjust my routines. I had to adjust my mindset and time. |
| Becky: Ummm...that’s a little bit confusing. |
| Peter: Okay. Let me rephrase. For example,at night, I was used to unproductive routines. Watching TV, surfing the net, etc. |
| Becky: Ummm...I do those things, are you calling me unproductive? |
| Peter: Actually Becky, I think I called “us” unproductive. But seriously, we all need down time, and that’s a good thing. But let me give you an example, in the case of TV most people probably watch certain shows on certain days of the week at certain times. |
| Becky: Guilty. I know what shows are on what days. And whether I record them or watch them live, it’s usually at the same time on the same day each week. |
| Peter: But in my case, I created a plan that scheduled me to do something productive during my unproductive downtime. |
| Becky: I see. Why not change the time? |
| Peter: The time I choose wasn’t good, but I chose it because it was the best of a bunch of bad options. It was the only time I had, so I have to work with that. Again, I didn’t want to change the plan. Often the enemy of good plan is a better plan. |
| Becky: I like that: the enemy of good plan is a better plan. So you stuck with 11pm. The first class was a disaster, how did the second class go? |
| Peter: Amazing, in fact it was the highlight of my day! |
| Becky: What changed? |
| Peter: I adjusted my routines. |
| Becky: Give me an example. |
| Peter: Well, I made sure I ate dinner that day at 6PM. Next, I shut off my iPhone from 9pm-12pm. And Becky, that was not easy! |
| Becky: I can imagine. I can’t remember the last time I shut my phone down. |
| Peter: Finally, I found a private place to study and told my wife that I need a few hours. I prepared and I reached my goal. |
| Becky: Congratulations, but how did you prepare exactly? |
| Peter: I simply went over notes from the previous lesson for twenty minutes. Wrote an introduction about myself and family, and then translated it online. That took about 30 minutes. Finally, I read over my homework. |
| Peter: Wasn’t glamorous,wasn’t pretty, but yes. |
| Becky: Most importantly, you carved out the time. |
| Peter: Exactly. I adjusted my everyday routines, so I had the time to prepare. And goal achieved. |
| Becky: It’s a very interesting insight. Hearing this reminds me of a time when I might have changed my goal instead of adjusting my routines to match my goal. |
| Peter: I think a lot of people, including myself are guilty of this. And unfortunately, they wind up quitting whatever goal they’re aiming for. |
| Becky: What should they do instead? |
| Peter: Again, If you’re struggling or just failing with your monthly goal, first assess the goal: ask yourself, is it realistic or not? Second, assess your routines. |
| Becky: Interesting, I had a co-worker who wanted to lose 5 pounds in a month. The goal was good, but each day for lunch he would go to the burger place with his friends. |
| Peter: Good goal, but not a good routine. |
| Becky: He really enjoyed their company, and couldn’t give up going with them and he couldn’t convince them to give up their burger place. |
| Peter: Did he make it? |
| Becky: No. |
| Peter: You see, matching routines to your goals is important. After you finish listening to this lesson, take the time to assess your daily routines. |
| Becky: What can you change to create a routine that will help you get your goal? |
| Peter: It’s an amazing exercise listeners. |
| Becky: Speaking of goals, what is your new goal for March? |
| Peter: For March, I’m aiming for 5 minutes of Italian conversation and will continue to optimize my current routines. |
| Becky: Sounds good! |
Outro
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| Becky: Okay, well that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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