Let me tell you about me wanting to learn Croatian. It’s a funny story and there is a learning in it too. Well, at least for me.
I love Croatia. I love its people, its beaches, villages, hills and mountains, highways and tiny dirt roads through olive fields. I love its wine and olive oil, its herbs as well as its ferries taking me to remote islands. I love its food and also tiny village shops where you go for social interaction rather than purchase. I love their sleepy villages, but also busy streets, bakeries with fresh burek, evening flair, casual chat ups with total strangers and bored looks of ferry operators. I am realising I could write a much longer love letter to Croatia but that’s not the point of this article. Maybe, I should even be paid by their Ministry of Tourism and am not. So, you can understand it’s no surprise that I am trying to spend my free time there and also I wanted to learn the language to be able to communicate with the locals better.
Easy, many would say. Your language of schooling is Slovak and that is a Slavic language so it’s going to be easy. Plus, you are linguist so what could be easier? Indeed, that’s what I thought too. But, it is always, less about the talent than regular repeated efforts.
“ As much as talent counts, effort counts twice” A. Duckworth
So, what did I do when I set out to learn Croatian in January 2022? You guessed it. Very very little. Why ? Well, let me try to recall my line of thinking and action. I only said to myself that I wanted to learn it but did not pursue with any plan. To give myself a tiny little credit, I did initially arrange one way of learning the language but when that failed, I did not search for an alternative method. I did not put it as my priority and it was not in my agenda even if I know very well that whatever is not on my agenda, simply does not exist. I basically did almost nothing. Not a tragedy, you can say. Definitely not. But exactly one year from my determination to learn Croatian, you know how much I learnt. Two words and even the two words I learnt in the last two days because, I realised in shock that one year has passed and I have done strictly nothing. And that is not a good feeling. All this time I wasted and I could have been communicating Croatian now. I thought.
You can say, maybe it was not important enough, maybe I put too much on plate already, maybe something else has come up. Absolutely. In fact, all of these things are true. Nevertheless, the learning remains:
If you set out to do something make sure it’s on your list. Whatever you call it: priorities’ list ( and there should be only be a very few things in this list); to do list or something that you know works for you. And if it’s not mentioned anywhere, make a plan to put it on your agenda so that it shows that you should regularly dedicate some energy and time to it. It shows your accountability to yourself in the first place. If you don’t have the time, either make time or forget it!
Be realistic with how much you can really do in 24 and be well! We are not robots. We need to enjoy life not be slaves to long list of priorities.
What does it mean for me?
-putting Croatian on my agenda-1x a week( not more, I am being realistic), I found a teacher and a great learning podcast too. Yay.
-I have dedicated a notebook( a Christmas gift) for Croatian language
Let me be clear. This is not one of my top priorities but it’s important. It’s one of those goals that does not need to be on the top of my list. Not even in the middle. But I need to dedicate a bit of systematic effort. Not a massive one, just a systematic one. So, when James Clear says:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals but you fall to level of your systems”.
That means that I created hopefully a better system for myself. Ask me in 6 months, please! Možda ću biti bolji u hrvatskom.
Any system on your end that needs resetting ?
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