Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today I am bringing you a small episode about a topic that is very close to my heart but also a topic that I come across with my students quite frequently. That topic is “doing things when you are ready for them”. What do I mean? It is the tendency to postpone things into the future because right now we feel like we don’t have the skills or competency to complete them. We will do it when we are ready. But what if that time never comes? I was thinking about it and I will show you some examples from my own life. Are you ready? Let’s go…

I hear it all the time – 

• I will start English conversations when I feel more comfortable speaking. 
• I will start reading when I understand better. 
• I will start writing when my writing skills are a little bit better. 
• I can speak but I am not ready to look for a job where I have to use English.
• My level of English is not good enough to go abroad for a longer period of time. I am just not ready.

To be honest, I am also guilty of saying all of these things in different periods of my life, concerning not only languages but my intelligence and skills. 

My first encounter with this feeling was when I decided to go and work in a different country for the summer for the first time, five years ago. Oh my god, so long ago, time really does fly. I mean, at that point, I was studying English at university so frankly I wasn’t worried about not being able to understand or speak English but it came down more to my ability to just pack my backpack and go somewhere I had never been to and do a job I had never done before. I was supposed to be mainly a waitress and a housekeeper in a hotel and I told myself that I would learn everything there but I wasn’t really ready to go.

I didn’t show up there with all the skills and confidence. No. I went there, I was scared and insecure and really felt like I jumped into deep waters. The first days were just stressful. They tried to teach me everything and they needed me to learn it fast. They needed me to carry 4 plates at once and while I was trying, I felt like it was impossible for me. I was making mistakes every day. But with every new day, it was getting easier and easier. And after two weeks, it felt like second nature to me. I could carry 4 plates, I was working quickly, I could be on my feet the whole day without feeling tired and I knew that everything was going to be okay. 

Let’s move forward to a few years later when I was leaving to France for my erasmus. Because here it can show you that sometimes you just have to start doing something and thinking about how you are going to do it later. 

Maybe you listened to my episodes about Erasmus, maybe not. So long story short, I decided to go to France because I wanted to improve my French. Actually, the university needed my level to be on level B2 before I went there and let me put it this way – I was speaking French but definitely not on the B2 level. I think my level of French now is approaching B2 so a few years ago it wasn’t like that at all. But I asked my French teacher at the university, since she was the head of the French university department to write me a confirmation that I have this level, since technically, I had subjects in French that were on that level. She was extremely kind and did it and they accepted it. Great, problem solved.

Skipping to my first day in France, it was a cold shower, let me tell you. Even at the dormitory reception, they couldn’t speak any English and I had to communicate in French. It was difficult. Then, during my semester I had subjects where the teachers jumped from English to French and I just had to catch on. One of the exams was an essay where I had to comment on a French translation of an English poem. I remember telling my teacher: “I don’t think I can do it. I can’t evaluate the translation because I can’t speak French so well.” and she just told me: “Just do it. Do it as best as you can and we will see.”

So I did it. And I passed the exam.

Was I ready to live in France and speak in French every day? 

No, I wasn’t ready. But I did it and I had a great time.

If you asked me today – are you ready to live in France for a few months and speak French every day?

No, I am not ready. I am not ready even today, a few years later. If I was waiting for myself to feel ready, I would have never left.

With some things, you will never be ready. 

You might never be ready to start working in a company where they need English. Because your English can always get better and right now, it is not on the level you want it to be.

But you know what? You just do it, you learn and you get used to it.

You might never be ready to start speaking in English with people you don’t know.

You might never be ready to travel alone to a different country and rely only on yourself.

The thing is that it is not a problem of our skill but just our fear. You can do it, you have the skills, you are just scared.

And sometimes life gives you things you were not ready for but you deal with it because you have to.

So take it in the same way with English. You have to push yourself to do things you are not ready for in order to learn. 

Maybe you don’t feel ready to have conversations in English. But will you ever feel ready? 

What is something you have been postponing because you think you will start feeling ready in the future? 

What are you scared of?

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

That is all I have for you today. Thank you for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a five-star rating and share it with your friends. Don’t forget, you can find the transcript and vocabulary list in the podcast notes. See you next time.