Why You Need To Stop Doing Language Learning Challenges in January and What To Do Instead

Self-love is really a foundation for everything, and however you practice or express that is so, so important.

Solange Knowles

The Pressure of Keeping Up with Others

Everybody seems to do some type of challenge in January. I've noticed that sometimes we tend to give up halfway through these challenges. If you start a challenge in January, you've likely already given up and are feeling bad about yourself by mid-month. Did it happen to you again this year? It's happened to me a lot of times before. Why is that?

One word: pressure. It's the collective pressure to finish a challenge in January. To start the new year on the right foot, but completely forgetting that you had two months of grueling holiday bullshit. 

Whether you were cooking, wrapping gifts, or making the house smell like a Scandinavian forest, by the end of December, you're burned out.  Add work and travel to that, and you're beyond spent. 

Oh, and let's not forget you celebrated the new year. You may have gone out, and even if you were one of the very few good people who stayed in and went to sleep early, you are still tired! That doesn't include the recovery time.

Avoid the Polyglot Rat Race

And I don't know about you, but I've noticed that I've had to start about two weeks early to build momentum for the new year. In the middle of the holiday kerfuffle, no wonder we're all stressed out. Last year, I did a language challenge. I posted a video of myself using an app to decide which language to learn, as a way to hold myself accountable. Because I was ambitious, I only put difficult languages on this wheel. *facepalm*

I had Swedish, Mandarin, Tagalog, and, of course, the one that I ended up getting, Persian. I did a 31-day challenge, and I drove myself completely nuts. To begin with, there are limited resources available for the Persian language. Additionally, I didn't quite understand what it would take to complete a 31-day language challenge with Persian. Had this been a language close to English or any of the other languages that I already know, it might have been a little bit easier. But I'm an overachiever; I tend to shoot myself in the foot often because of it. *womp, womp*

In addition to learning this new language, I also posted my daily progress. Several people joined the challenge with me, and I noticed that on the seventh or eighth day, people were starting to drop out. I saw that people weren't opening the emails, and I was receiving emails telling me, “Hey, I can't do this. This is too hard. This is too much.”

Only you know what you can and can't handle. Trying to overexert yourself for some vanity metric is not something you need to do now or ever. Instead, check in with yourself before you take on another task. By the way, I'm also reminding myself!

Check out: Q + A: “How do you start learning a language and stay consistent in learning when you feel overwhelmed?”

Your Learning Style and Why It Matters

If you think about it, I was expecting others to learn like me. Nice one, Elizabeth. So, I learned two things after my experiment. You can do a language challenge, but you can't tax yourself trying to learn three months' worth of stuff in one month. Adding a language learning routine to another “new year, new me” routine is asking too much of yourself. 

That's why they say to make it a habit for 30 days and then start to add more things. This year, I decided to participate in the yoga challenge again. I got sick mid-month. And guess what happened? I started to beat myself up. I did that last year, too, after the 31-Day Challenge language challenge, because I didn't think I retained as much info as I wanted. 

Think about what you're doing. You're learning something new every day, but you're not allowing your brain to absorb that information entirely. Do you know what I mean? 

It's like when you read a book. If you're not taking notes or using the information right away, you've wasted your energy. There are a lot of variables that go into it, and this year, I decided that I wouldn't put myself through that. I also eliminated my language challenge for the same reason, as I didn't want people to put themselves through that either. 

It’s Okay to Take a Break

The thing is, after the holidays, you need a bit of a break. You already have the holiday aftermath to deal with, so why give yourself more tasks? Simplify, man! I figured that from now on, you can start the new year whenever you want and however you see fit. Stop doing what everyone else is doing! 

You don't have to wait until the new year comes around to start a goal or learn a language. You can do it at any time you'd like. Take it from me: don't stress yourself out by trying to crush your life or language goals. AND PLEASE be more kind to yourself. After all, if you're making yourself miserable, you won't enjoy it, and you won't stick to it!

*ugh* Am I the only one that needs pizza after this?

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