Episode 23: FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

10/03/22 • 28 min

In this episode, I share my personal experience with fear of missing out (FOMO) in language learning, as well as tips for recognizing and overcoming it. From using every resource from beginning to end, skipping nothing, doing every exercise (whether I wanted to or not; whether it was useful or not) to hoarding resources and joining all the language challenges, FOMO really disrupted my progress forward because it kept me spinning my wheels on most of the same material or topics, always afraid that I was missing specific vocabulary or grammar if I didn't do it all. I quickly burned out and started believing that I just couldn't learn languages.

Once I finally understood that FOMO was an extension of my perfectionism (which won't be the case for everyone who experiences it), I could start seeing the signs that fear of missing out was crerping into my language life, and I learned how to stop it in its tracks. It's an ongoing battle, though. I don't know that I'll ever experience a language journey not threatened by FOMO, but I can certainly give myself the grace to accept it, work against it, and admit when I've given in to its tempting ways.

Listen in to this part of my journey, struggling with fear of missing out in language learning, and feel free to reach out and share your own struggles with it, as well. Talking is healing. Sharing is healing. Community is healing.

Previous Episode

Episode 22: Am I Even Making Progress?

In this episode, I talk about those times when we wonder if we're even making progress in our languages, even as early as the beginner level. We all know we're learning new things, acquiring new vocabulary, and figuriung out grammar structures. Yet, so often it can feel like all of our hard work isn't paying off. Maybe we feel like what we've learned is just basic stuff and not very valuable or useful. Perhaps we only see how much we don't know and what all there is left to learn, so what we have learned just doesn't seem like much. No matter the case, these thoughts can lead to discouragement, demotivation, and a skewed perspective of how our language journeys are really going.

Today I share an experience that happened to me recently that allowed me to truly see, without a doubt, that I have made tremendous progress in Italian over the last 5 years. It hasn't always felt like that, though. When I'm in the thick of it -- when I'm focused on studying and acquiring and trying and making mistakes -- it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress at all. We aren't always provided with spontaneous opporunities to prove all the advancements we've made, however, so what can we do?

There are so many great ideas out there in the language community for measuring our language growth, but I would add that being mindful of what we're doing and how we're doing is the key to getting the most out of every curated progress point. What does it mean to be mindful of what and how we're doing in our language journeys? Listen in to find out!

Links - Other resources for getting ideas on how to realize and measure your language progress and growth:

Blogs & Articles:

How to Record Your Language Learning Progress by Lindsay Williams of Lindsay Does Languages
Language Learning Progress: 9 Ways to See How Far You've Come by Meredith Kreisa on FluentU
Keeping Track of Your Learning by Lindie Botes
The Ultimate Language Learning Guide Part III: Commitment -- Drops by Shannon Kennedy, published in Languagedrops

Podcasts & Videos:

Signs That You're Making Progress with Language Learning by Grace of Guresu
Don't Let the Intermediate Plateau Scare You by Emily Richardson of The Language Confidence Project
5 Steps for Creating Your Language Habit by Kerstin Cable of The Fluent Show
Tracking Your Language Learning Progress by Lindie Botes

Next Episode

Episode 24: Testing a New Language

In this episode, I talk about my experience testing out a new language, Korean. The thing is, Korean is something I've wanted to learn for over 20 years, but I have two other languages that definitely take priority, so taking on a third language is probably not very reasonable. So I had to ask myself, "Am I thinking about this because I'm afraid of (continuing) to miss out?" "Am I afraid that I've already missed my chance, and I won't get another one?" These are very reasonable questions, especially considering the FOMO I talked about last week in Episode 23.

So this week, I take my own advice for combatting fear of missing out in language learning, and I apply it to this process of taking on another language. By testing it out for 7 days, a bounded amount of time, I was able to objectively assess what my journey with Korean can reasonably look like and what resources to keep at my disposal. Instead of jumping in on an emotional whim (which I've been known to do in the past), I feel like walking myself through this process of testing a new language (or resource or method) with bounds and a plan helped me make a logical decision about my language life, and I don't have to question if I'm missing something or doing too much. I know exactly what I'm getting myself in to, and this confidence makes all the difference.