How to achieve the perfect mindset for learning French

When you have a growth mindset, you can achieve your French speaking goals.  What is a growth mindset? Keep reading and let's take a look!

No two of us will ever think the same, but one thing that IS the same is that without a growth mindset, your learning will be an uphill struggle and it will take much longer to achieve your fFrench speaking goals. 

I want you to recognise negative self sabotaging behaviours, move quickly past them, and achieve your dreams so much faster. 

MINDSET and GROWTH are words that are used often as if you can pick either one of them as if they are a piece off a plate and then you’ll have the right mindset.  But it isn't that simple. 

And if you’re thinking "But I’m fine, I’m not broken. I don’t need fixing", and we have all been there, but you’re still not achieving your French speaking goals, then there is all the more reason to read on...

What is the path to mindset success?

How can this help you speak French faster? 

We go through 4 main zones when trying to achieve our goals and by the way  these could be any goals, not just french speaking ones. They are:

• COMFORT
• FEAR
• LEARN(ING)
• GROWTH

A lot of my members come to me because they are struggling to speak French, but when we get to the root of it , it is not to do with French at all.  It is because they are stuck in one of these mindset zones and don’t know how to move forward.    

Let’s have a closer look at each of them. 

1.  COMFORT

... where your mind is focused on safety and control. 

When you tell yourself “I can’t” or “It’s too hard”, listen to what you’re saying.

Chances are that you stop your internal conversation right there. This choice focuses your energy away from progressing towards your goals and keeps you safe and comfortable.

This is because part of your brain is telling you to stay like that. It’s happy there and doesn’t want to make the effort. Change is difficult and requires energy. Staying in your comfort zone is easy.

Listen to yourself. Bust through and make the change.

Choose growth and you can finally speak French. Choose comfort and you'll remain struggling. Which one do you want?

It’s not always an easy choice. Your brain is constantly defending its comfortable position and trying to resist the effort. It wants to stay in control and stay safe. 

Your mind does this by telling itself stories.

Stories like “I’m too old to memorise French”, “It’s too complicated”, “I sound awful when I try to speak French” or “nobody will ever understand me”. However, I want you to hear this for what it is - a disempowering story that is stopping you from achieving your goal of speaking French - keeping you in the comfort zone and keeping you safe.

This is where you have a CHOICE. The choice to decide if you want to listen to these stories and remain in the comfort zone, or actively pursue your French speaking goals so you can fulfil that dream of traveling to France, forming great relationships in French, getting that promotion at work, or whatever your goal may be, in fact. 

For some of you, this might be an awakening as you realise YOU are in fact in control and that it is a choice to stay in the comfort zone or take your mindset and french speaking to the next level. 

We are so often told that the magic happens outside the comfort zone… this is the reason why! 

2. FEAR

The second zone you might encounter is fear.

Some of you may pass through this zone really quickly. However, some people come to me because they are stuck in the fear zone. They have chosen to go after their dreams of speaking french but something is still stopping them from moving forward.

Fear could be holding you back. You may have ...

• fear of what other people think of you, your goals, your dreams, your french accent
• fear of getting it wrong - of people judging you and your efforts
• fear of what might actually happen if you succeed and can speak french. The unknown future and additional possibilities in life for many people is new and can be scary.

These fears often stall your learning as you make excuses or rationalise why you can’t work towards your goals. 

You hide behind comments like “I don’t have enough time today” or “maybe tomorrow I will feel more like speaking French” and then you agree with yourself to put off your french speaking dreams until another day, rather than facing your fears. 

Sometimes you may not actually have the time to prioritize your French goals, or you are genuinely too ill. However, most of the time it will because you choose not to make the time or you choose to feel safe which sends you right back into the comfort zone. 

Like moving forward from the comfort zone, the way to move past fear is to look it in the eye! 

Embrace your fears. We are all human and we all have them, but to let them stop us from achieving our dreams is a travesty. It is time to choose yourself and your dreams  rather than choosing fear. 

Once we have moved past comfort and fear then this is where we can actually start to learn. We have the mindset to be open to what we need to do.

3. LEARN

In the third zone which is the LEARN zone we see an increase in confidence, fear and comfort are no longer holding you back. You are going after your dreams and know that it is now time to get to grips with new phrases, grammar, words to start achieving your goals!

This is where all the STUFF you have put IN your head has a fighting chance of coming out in your conversations. 

One thing I can promise you is that you can learn to speak French.  You learned to speak your first language, didn’t you. It's all about consistent progress and building the basic skills you need to speak French. Why put it all in your head without giving it a chance to come out?

However, this is where is where a lot of you stall especially if your learning has only been for exams. To move into the GROWTH zone you need to use those skills not keep adding more of them.

You don’t learn to ride a bike so you can cycle round the yard or pass the local cycle test. You learn to ride a bike so you can go places, explore, get to a new destination. It gives you freedom. That is the same as the French language. In order to move from the LEARN zone to the GROWTH zone you have to start using your new skills. And use them regularly.

The true deep magic happens in the fourth zone of the mindset success journey - the GROWTH zone.

4. GROWTH

This is where you get to go after your dreams. In the LEARN zone you focused on building the language skills you needed to speak French. In the GROWTH zone you use them to 

• travel to France 
• build meaningful relationships
• open the door to workplace opportunities requiring French (like a promotion) 
• adapt and joyfully play with the language to fit with the conversation 

In the GROWTH zone you are enjoying the journey. You are using your French to create new opportunities and experiences in your life. You know you don’t have to be perfect or be right - just that you are moving forwards. You know you can update and change your speaking goals and you have the self-belief and confidence to make it all happen.

This is what I want for you. And remember that you don’t have to have learnt much for this to happen. You just need the mindset. Many of my members started with just the basics, but because they have a built a growth mindset they used what they had learnt to dive in fearlessly, confidently and they started having the conversations they have always wanted.

Thank you so much for reading this post to the end. It’s now time for you to step out of your comfort zone.

Comment and tell me what zone you're in now and what you plan to do next.

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