If you’re learning something new, ask yourself:
How much of my life have I spent not doing this?
26 years of not speaking in Japanese.
37 years of not surfing.
81 years of not writing a memoir.
Of course it’s hard. Of course you’re forgetting steps, falling off your board, and faltering up the stairs. Of course you want to quit. But do you realize that you’ve only spent a miniscule fraction of your life trying to improve at this? And that you’ve spent the other 99.99something% doing other stuff?
The time you haven’t spent improving at this will always outnumber the time you’ve spent working hard to get better.
There’s a fight going on inside of you between an archetypal David and Goliath. In one corner of the ring we have You With Experience. And in the other corner, we have You With No Experience.
You With Experience has 4 days of Japanese grammar tutorials fresh in his head. This is you. You are David. You are naïve. Undisciplined. Untrained. Nobody expects you to win. The odds are against you.
You With No Experience has 26 years of Not-Knowing-Jack-About-Japanese Grammar Experience under his belt. This is also you. You are your own Goliath. You’ve been training your entire life in the ways of not knowing jack about the が particle.
Who do you think will win?
* Guesswork with a very rough ballpark estimate, maybe, perhaps.
Nice perspective. Before I fall asleep, I ask myself everyday what I learned today, and if I want to learn something specific tomorrrow
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Hey Chaitanya, what a wonderful habit to cultivate. That’s going to open up so many doors for you. Thanks for the read and thoughtful comment.
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