Are you an English Badass?

Let me ask you some questions:

• Are you good at learning English?

• Are you good at speaking English?

• Are you an English Badass?

Congratulations to you if you answered 'yes' to all of these questions! You can stop reading now! However, if your answers were more like this:

• Well, no, I'm fairly average, really

• No, my teacher at school always said I was bad a languages

• I'm kinda okay but my colleague Maria is a lot better

you might want to read to the end of this post…….

See, the problem with these answers is that they limit you so much. They feel true for you (Maria is better than me! She passed CPE last year!), but as beliefs, they are limiting.

They limit your faith in yourself and in your abilities. They limit your willingness and motivation to continue learning and growing. More importantly, they limit how you see yourself - as average, bad or less-than. And this matters more than most people realise.

The problem with limiting beliefs is that they masquerade as the truth. We believe them and repeat them to ourselves endlessly, out of the range of conscious awareness. And because our beliefs limit our potential for growth and change, that growth and change becomes much harder to achieve.

Our beliefs about ourselves decide the thoughts we have, the actions we take and the habits we form. Essentially, our beliefs decide our results and achievements. So, if you're dissatisfied with your English, rather than reaching for the grammar book again (yawn!), what about gently exploring what you think and feel about your English? Do you believe things like this:

• I don't understand this grammar point yet, but I'll work on it until I do

• CAE speaking is challenging, but I'm making good progress

Or do you believe things like this:

• I'll never understand this grammar!

• This CAE task is impossible! I'll never be able to do it!

Which set of beliefs is likely to provide motivation to continue towards success? Which set of beliefs is likely to end with frustration and, possibly, failure?

No prizes for guessing that the first set of beliefs is healthier and will be more likely to lead you to positive results. Healthy beliefs in ourselves and our abilities are essential, but I would suggest that you need more than healthy beliefs.

What would it be like to believe that you are an English Badass?

I can almost hear you protesting!

• I'm not a badass! I'm just average! My teacher said so and I got a terrible score in the IELTS exam!

Believing you are an English Badass means that you know that you are going to succeed. You may have to work for it, but success is yours.

Being an English Badass means that you stop listening to those limiting beliefs about being average or bad or slow or whatever, and take pride in everything that you have accomplished so far.

Being an English Badass means that you don't take on other people's limiting ideas of who and what you are.

Being an English Badass means that you are strong, motivated and invincible!

I am convinced that you are already an English Badass. Are you?

The ideas in this post were inspired by Jen Sincero's book You Are A Badass - highly recommended!