Warning! These 7 Habits Are Sabotaging Your Spanish Learning Goals
Are you your own worst enemy when it comes to language learning habits?
It’s easy to let self-sabotaging behaviors like procrastination get in the way of your language goals. Sometimes Spanish practice can be exhausting, unmotivating, or even tiresome.
One negative thought, and suddenly your mind starts spinning into worst-case scenarios.
However, language learning doesn’t have to feel this way.
I’m going to lead you through 7 self-sabotaging behaviors to watch out for along with effective solutions to stop them in their tracks.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What Is Self-Sabotage?
- 7 Subconscious Self-Sabotaging Habits and Thoughts
- Stop Self-Sabotaging and Start Speaking Spanish
What Is Self-Sabotage?
You may have heard of self-sabotaging, meaning a tendency to hinder yourself from your goals. Other synonyms for self-sabotage are self-destruction and maladaptive.
Keep in mind that not all self-sabotage is on purpose. In fact, most people don’t even realize that they are sabotaging themselves! Many self-sabotaging behavior patterns come from the subconscious mind.
Self-sabotaging stems from negative beliefs and feelings about yourself. These ideas can be in the form of low self-esteem, lack of confidence, fear of failure, and more.
When you let negative emotions like this control you, you prevent yourself from growing. Self-sabotage keeps you from stepping outside of your comfort zone and achieving your wildest dreams.
7 Subconscious Self-Sabotaging Habits and Thoughts
Here are seven examples of self-sabotaging thoughts and patterns to look out for!
1. Procrastination
Every student and teacher knows about procrastination and the issues it causes.
This pesky behavior involves ignoring your time management skills in favor of unproductive activities.
Procrastinators wait until the last minute to complete their tasks, sabotaging themselves in the process. For example, they may wait to study for tests until the night before!
This behavior involvs an unproductive use of time. It sets you up to believe they you only achieve by putting things off and putting yourself under stress, and never lets you get ahead.
Effective Solution: Start setting mini-deadlines to work toward your goal.
2. Inner Critic
Everyone has an inner voice in their head.
Inner critic talk focuses on analyzing your behavior and beating yourself up for it. It will say things like “You sound like an idiot” or “If you talk, you’re going to mess it up again.”
Your inner critic will ignore all of the positive and exciting language progress you have made. Instead, it works to lower your self-esteem and make you unwilling to push yourself forward.
Effective Solution: Find your inner positive voice. Be compassionate with yourself. Imagine you’re talking to your best friend. How would you speak to them? Try talking to yourself in the same way.
3. Low Self-Esteem
People with low self-esteem judge themselves too harshly and hold on strongly to negative self-beliefs. Why do they do it?
Low self-esteem usually stems from childhood but can be caused by a number of stressful factors. If you have low self-esteem, you probably get anxious or nervous around other people. It makes it feel impossible to speak up for yourself and say your true thoughts.
Effective Solution: Destroy the harsh inner voice that says “I can’t” or “I’m a failure.” Replace it with exciting what-if questions instead.
4. Perfectionism
Don’t let perfectionism hold you back from achieving your language learning dreams!
Perfectionism tells you that you must be perfect at Spanish before you start using it.
But, making mistakes and having imperfect conversations is, in fact, the only way to get better! In fact, mistakes are actually one of the best ways to learn.
Studies show that messing up a little bit helps you learn information better than if you had never made a mistake at all. Brains are wired to remember mistakes so as to not repeat them.
Effective Solution: Take time every day to acknowledge your efforts, what you’ve done well, and what you’re proud of. Be kind to yourself and appreciate your hard work.
5. Avoidance
Avoiders generally keep themselves away from situations that make them nervous or give them anxiety.
However, if you don’t leave your comfort zone, you’ll never be able to grow and evolve. Your language skills will stagnate, or even deteriorate, the more you avoid practicing.
Effective Solution: Expose yourself to your fears, step by step. Afraid to talk to a native Spanish speaker? Find a friendly teacher at Homeschool Spanish Academy and do it anyway. Your future self will thank you.
6. Overthinking
Overthinkers tend to focus on worst-case scenarios.
When you overthink, suddenly every little mistake becomes an emergency disaster. This downward spiraling thought process is indeed a detriment to your language learning.
Overthinking creates constant self-doubt and sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Effective Solution: Do the opposite of what your overthinking is telling you to do. You’ll quickly realize that the situation is not as dire as you once thought.
7. Making Unfair Assumptions
Making assumptions may get you into trouble.
Assumers think that they can predict the future and will even act on those predictions even if they don’t come true!
Making assumptions involves deciding how you are going to feel, what’s going to happen, and how people are going to react—before you even encounter the situation.
This behavior keeps you stuck in your head and doesn’t allow you to prove yourself wrong.
Effective Solution: One of the best exercises for assumers is opposite thinking. If your inner critic is making a negative assumption, think about the opposite aspect of that assumption. The idea here is to show yourself the extremism of the unconscious mind and create a more accurate and balanced perspective.
Stop Self-Sabotaging and Start Speaking Spanish
In the United States alone, approximately 53 million people speak Spanish. According to CNN, 41 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S. speak Spanish in their homes.
If you want to practice better language habits in a safe environment before you impress the world around you, sign up now for a free trial class at Homeschool Spanish Academy.
Let our friendly, compassionate, and professional teachers from Guatemala help you reach your fluency goals, create better habits, and practice Spanish in a 1-to-1 conversation! Check out our affordable pricing and flexible programs!
Join one of the 40,000 classes that we teach each month and you can experience results like these…
“This is the best way for your kid to learn Spanish. It’s one-on-one, taught by native Spanish speakers, and uses a curriculum.”
– Sharon K, Parent of 3
“It’s a great way to learn Spanish, from native Spanish speakers in a 1-on-1 environment. It’s been fairly easy to schedule classes around my daughter’s other classes. The best value for us has been ordering multiple classes at a time. All the instructors have been great!”
– Cindy D, Parent of 3
“HSA offers very affordable, quality, one on one classes with a native speaker. My son has greatly benefited from taking classes. We have seen his confidence increase as well as his pronunciation improve, because he learns from a native Spanish speaker. HSA has quick, personal customer service. Our family has been very pleased with our experience so far!”
– Erica P. Parent of 1
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