Motivation and English Fluency – “One Leg At A Time”

The Best Students Learn English “One Leg at a Time”

It’s one leg at a time…”

One summer when I was 10, a counselor of mine told me that.

As I asked Mike the following question, he was surprised and slightly embarrassed at first.

What can I do to become like you?”

I was a small, nervous kid looking up to (phrasal verb meaning to admire) this older man.

Mike had everything to me…

All of us boys thought he had a very hot (attractive) girlfriend.

I expected to hear great advice about weightlifting or how to talk to girls when I asked him how I could be like him.

He just smiled and said, “I put my pants on one leg at a time.”

It means “there’s nothing special about me, or what I do.”.

Like everyone else, I put my pants on one leg at a time when I get dressed.

So I asked him if that was all he could share, and he explained:

There is so much I could tell you about. Fashion. Women. Work. Life.

Either you’d forget everything, or you’d try to do too much and fail.

The simple secret to success is to focus on one thing at a time.

Getting everything done all at once isn’t possible, so pick one thing, work on it until you’re good at it, then move on.

Not so long ago, I was a skinny kid just like you, but by focusing on one thing at a time, I gradually became who I am now.

I’m still not done!

It’s all about how we put on pants that tells the truth!

Funny thing is, when we actually put on our pants, we don’t try to jump into both legs at the same time… But many people don’t get what they want because they won’t follow that same advice for everything else in our lives.

I’m sure Mike is still a smart guy.

When you look at native English speakers, it’s easy to feel far from where you want to be.

Just like you, they had to learn the English language.

You’ll get where you want to go faster if you focus on just one word, phrase, or grammar point at a time.

It’s really that simple to achieve fluency. 🙂

Drew

Your English Fluency Guide