Try This Tuesday: Be in Alignment

I'm not talking about the chiropractor here...

Be in alignment with what you say you want. If you want it, take action. Otherwise, quit talking and/or complaining about it.

While I was in University, I learned Spanish. I actually got pretty good at it. But not long after (I graduated when I was 8 months pregnant) I had a baby and stopped practicing entirely.

For years I talked about how I wanted to get back into it, yet when every opportunity to practice presented itself (a trip to Mexico; a Spanish speaking friend; a friendly cashier from Latin America) I did absolutely nothing. My fear of saying something stupid or making an ass of myself was always getting in my way.  

The funny thing was that I really believed that I wanted to get back to learning Spanish, yet my ACTIONS consistently demonstrated otherwise. We think it’s too hard so we don’t do it. (And it often IS hard)! In Spanish, it feels like there are a million different ways to conjugate verbs, and don’t even get me started on how many “irregular” verbs there are: Here’s how you conjugate verbs in this tense, except for these ones…oh and these ones are a bit different as well.

But I ended up getting tired of hearing myself SAY what I wanted to do, yet not taking action. So, about a year ago, I signed up for online Spanish lessons through Verbalicity. I started with one lesson per week, and now I am up to two per week. I still have a loooooong way to go, and I still need to practice more throughout the week – but the point is that I am now consistently taking action. Taking action for me just felt so good, and I think it’s because of the alignment between what I said I wanted to do, and actually doing it. I don’t always look forward to my lessons. I feel like I don’t always have time for them, and some days I feel like I just can’t “think” in another language. Other days are great though, and the time flies by. But regardless…every. single. time. (like a good workout) I am ALWAYS glad I did it.

If there’s something YOU keep saying you want to do, then figure out how to start doing it! Ask for help or break it down into the smallest action you could possibly take. What’s something you say you want but haven’t consistently acted on and why?