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Chi Running Book Review

I read Chi Running years ago. At the time I was doing a lot of running, and reading pretty much every book I could get my hands on. I remember that Chi Running talked about doing away with the heel strike (when you land on your heel and roll your foot to your toes) in running and thought it was interesting. I didn't have time to go further with it then, so I thought I'd revisit it.

Now, it's about 10 years later. The mid-foot strike (landing with a flatter foot) is more in vogue, and I'm a decade older.

I'm getting back into running, so I thought I'd pull out the Chi Running book again and see if there was anything new in there I could learn. I don't have any aspirations of being in the olympics or setting world records, but what I do have is a desire to enjoy running without getting injured.

“Your speed will be a function of your ability to relax more deeply, not your ability to push harder.”

– Danny Dreyer – Chi Running

What is Chi Running?

Chi Running's writer, Danny Dreyer set out in a quest to combine running with tai chi. Tai chi is a martial art that is most commonly know for relaxation and control. It also stresses balance, coordination, and breathing. I did some tai chi when I was in university (24 form, 88 form, sword, fan, and a little Chen style). I got into it for the relaxation, but soon found how it could easily take a lifetime to master, as you worked to spend time making each form just right, and then chaining them together.

Chi Running takes a lot of those key concepts and incorporates then into his recommendations in the book. The basis for the technique is to use good posture, along with relaxation to help you run with less effort, and less stress on your joints.

Danny Dreyer, author or Chi Running, gives the backstory:

YouTube link (2:33)

What I like about the book

There are some great things in the book. There's plenty of good information throughout the book, and it's well explained. I feel like it takes a little searching sometimes to find the information I'm after and would have like to have seen a different layout. Perhaps something that reads more like a manual than a book. Other than that, I'm happy with the content.

Here are some things that stood out for me while reading.

PRE (Perceived rate of exertion)

Danny talks about perceived rate of exertion (PRE) in the book. The PRE really just says how hard something “feels” to you. It's not measuring anything tangible like a heart rate or calories burned. Instead, it just asks you, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard does this feel right now?”

I like how he talks about this and his workarounds. He gives an example of how running bending feels (and is) much harder to do. He then shows how good posture will make your run more enjoyable. The obvious result is that something you enjoy doing has a better chance of happening, because it feels like you're doing less.

The book focuses on the right stuff

He talks about 3 focus areas:

  1. Maintain good posture
  2. Keep joints open and loose
  3. Removing tension from your body

Those areas are pretty much everything I want to get out of running. The rest of the book goes through his tips on how to make all of that a reality. I like that Chi Running focuses on form and relaxation. That's the kind of thinking that helps you enjoy what you're doing and prevent injuries at the same time. It's great.

I remember when I first started running – probably around 10 years ago. I would constantly have tense shoulders and arms. A friend of mine gave me a simple tip of letting my arms drop to my sides and wiggle them gently. Such a simple tip, but it helped me to get rid of a lot of tension during my runs. I still show that tip to people I run with, because it's awesome. A lot of the other tips in the book are like that. Simple, but I could feel the results immediately.

I used to struggle during my runs, but once I learned to relax a bit and enjoy them, my perceived rate of exertion went down, and I felt like I could run forever.

The fundamentals

I love looking at the fundamentals in the book. Here's a quick list of what they are.

  • Great posture
  • Relaxed limbs
  • Loose joints
  • Engaged core muscles
  • A focused mind
  • Great breathing technique

How does it sound to go out and focus on this list for a few hours per week while you run. The book goes on to say that, “The benefits are the same as the fundamentals.” I like that everything you're focusing on while running translates over to pretty much everything else you do in your life.

I also like that connections are made between some of the different fundamentals. Dreyer talks about how tension makes it harder to breathe. So, if you reduce the tension in your body, you breathing automatically improves along with it.

How to learn the new technique

Everything laid out in the book as far as picking up the skills you need are all really reasonable. You pretty much learn all the important things and then you go out on some runs. Each run you choose a few things to concentrate on and try to improve it. It's a lot like tai chi. You start out learning how to do everything and then you try to refine things a little bit each time you're going through the actions.

Once you get your form down, you can start running farther and faster. The cool thing about this method is that it doesn't feel much harder to run faster. Instead of pushing off harder, you focus on relaxing more and lengthening your stride behind you.

I'm still working on my technique, but I've been really happy with how things are going so far.

Chi Running App

There's an app out for Chi Running.

The app focuses on the features you learn about in the book. That's a plus. It can remind you of your focus areas to help you improve your posture and form.

The only thing for me is that I already have a fitness watch with GPS, that tracks runs too.

The Chi Running app:

  • Shows correct posture
  • Reminds you of “Focus” areas
  • Records your runs
  • Has a built in metronome for cadence

The app is $13.99 in the US store.

This is the company's video:

YouTube link

My overall thoughts

I really enjoyed the book. I'm also working to bring my running style in line with the Chi Running philosophy. I'm enjoying it so far, because it all makes a lot of sense. The are time during my day when I do the alignment exercise from the book and straighten my posture. I'm not out running, but I'm already starting to get used to doing everything with better posture.

Chi running is one of those books where you can take as little or as much out of it as you want. I'll let my results speak for themselves as I continue to move through my running challenge of 10k in 40 minutes. I'm well on my way to doing good things, and I know I'll have awesome results before my races in February 2017.

Thanks so much for reading.

 

 

Fitness Challenge Goals Post – 10K in 40 Minutes From Scratch

fitness goal post

Everyone want to be fit, and I'm no exception. I'm setting a fitness challenge of running a 10K race in 40 minutes or less. I also have three other goals I'll be tracking and sharing with you.

I've let my health slide over the last few years. Now I'm on a mission to get everything back in order. If you're interested in reading about why I've chosen 4 minute kilometers as a goal, or how I initially got into running you can head over to my Fitness Challenge Kickoff Post.

I'm setting my target date in late February, because there's a race I've thought about running for several years. This will be the year that it actually happens.

OK. Let's talk about each of the goals.

Goal 1: Run 10K in 4o minutes

I'm setting the goal of running 10K in 40 minutes (6:26 min/mile) as a challenge to myself to get back into a healthy lifestyle. I was able to run 4 minute kilometers about 10 years ago, but my commitment to fitness dropped off a lot since then.

Let me say this, because you're probably thinking it. “Yes, I'm 10 years older, and I'm in nowhere near the shape I was a decade ago.”

Being older doesn't make my goal impossible. My underlying goal is to get into amazing shape. Along the way, I'll be focusing on exercise, but I'll do my best to do everything most things right. That means putting a huge emphasis on nutrition, recovery, flexibility, proper technique, and other cross training activities.

The 4 min per KM goal will just be a result of the conditioning I've been building up over the preceding 5 months. I'm including it down so we can see how far I get.

During the time leading up to the races, I'll be sharing my experiences with you as to how my training is going. I also plan on checking out some new techniques and methods to improve how I run. The plan is to use videos, visual maps, and writing to share what I'm working toward, and provide real-life examples of how you can use visual tools to be more effective in the real world.

You'll also get a chance to see what I think of my new watch.

The race I'm targeting takes place in February, so yes, it's going to be a little cold and there will be snow on the ground. The race is called the Hypothermic Half. It's been a race I've been “thinking about” for years, but I never made to time to actually take part. So now this is the year that I finally make good on my intentions.

The goals:

  • Hypothermic half – Feb 12, 2017 – Do 10K in 40 min
  • Hypothermic half – Feb 26 – Do the 1/2 marathon (21.1K) – I'll set a target time closer to the event
  • Use a wearable and apps to improve results

Goal 2: Do the full splits

OK. In case you're wondering, yes I'm trying to be a little sensational when I say my goal is to do the full splits.

In reality, my main desire is to be more flexible overall. Doing the splits will just be the results of doing a lot of good things on a consistent basis.

Another part of this goal is to ensure that the extra flexibility doesn't bring on any instability from what I'm doing that might cause injury. I'll research that aspect as well and share the results.

Where am I at right now?

Right now, my side splits are a disaster. I'm not naturally flexible. A 100 year old granny could probably do a better job, but I'm committed to consistently focusing on my flexibility and finishing what I start. I've managed to get very flexible in the past, so I know it's possible. I just need to be consistent.

The challenge with stretching, like other health fields, is that there's a lot of crazy people out there saying whatever they want. I'll be on the lookout for new ideas, but we'll probably come back to a lot of stretches that we all know and love – or love to hate.

The goals:

  • Full side splits
  • Full front splits – both ways

Goal 3: Take posture from Caveman to Superman

Like a lot of people, my posture could be better. The act of sitting down and typing for long periods hasn't helped me much.

In the past, I've had some issues with my back and forearms. It was aggravated by typing, which meant working was a challenge some days. It started around the time I was spun around in a car accident. Someone drove through a red light and t-boned me – spinning me around. I tried to be tough and didn't get treatment, which was a huge mistake. It took a few years before I got smart and went to physiotherapy.

The physio helped, but my posture was still very “caveman-ish,” especially when I typed.

I eventually heard about a book for back pain. It's called Foundation. The book goes over a few basic exercises that help to reduce back pain.

I was obviously pretty skeptical, but it only took two or three days for me to see results. The book recommends doing three rounds of the exercises, but I only ever did one round. I also only did the first three of the five.

I'm embedding a quick tutorial video for you to see what's involved. I'll remind you that you should consult a physician before attempting anything in the videos.

You also get amazing posture

The best part was that in addition to making my back pain go away, my posture went from terrible to good. It wasn't perfect, but it was way better than what it had been.

A few years after my initial experience, I felt my back again. So, I did the exercises again as well. I didn't have the book anymore, so I did the best I could. Looking back, I wasn't doing them quite right, but they still worked. Sometimes I would just do the main exercise, the founder, for a few days and I'd feel better.

I've got a copy of the book again, and several YouTube links. I plan on going through each phase of the program. You start with the beginner routine for two weeks. Then, it's two weeks at intermediate – which adds a couple of new exercises. Finally you hit the advanced workout. That's where I want to be.  At that point I'll decide where I need to be as far as maintenance exercises and go from there.

Don't forget about the abs

I'll share some sources for quick routines that use the latest knowledge out there. It seems like there are about a million ab routines out there. My goal isn't to overdo ab exercises. I just want to pick a couple of good routines and stick with them for the time being.

The Foundation book has a few “extra” exercises that might help out as well. I haven't tried them yet, but will see how they go.

That's pretty much it. I'll do a few things consistently. Boring, but effective.

The goals:

  • Progress to advanced level in Foundation book
  • Perform Core exercises most days

Goal 4: Nutrition

I'm approaching nutrition from a meat-lovers point of view. I spent some of last year working on adding more plant sources into my diet and reducing the size of my meat portions.

I got hooked on Dal while I was in Sri Lanka and started trying out a bunch of recipes when we got back to Abu Dhabi. The downside to all beans and legumes is that the take a long time to cook.

I have a couple of resources I'll be talking about. I have plenty of advice from all over the place, but I'll also be covering some books and documentaries. I'll go a little deeper on books like, How Not to Die and The Paleo Diet. I'll also talk more about my experience with juicing.

I know I'm  opening up a can of worms when talking about nutrition, so I'll keep this intro short. We'll get into it more in a follow up post.

The goals:

  • Make a realistic diet
  • Plan healthy food that's quick to make (for busy people)
  • Find vegetable dishes my kids (and wife) will eat with me. So far I'm eating some stuff alone.
  • Cut the coffee. I still like it with cream and sugar. I'll replace with green tea.

The Fitness Challenge

I'm already a few weeks into my challenge. I took a little longer writing this post than I wanted to. I'm having an amazing time and I've got tons of follow-up content ready to go.

I've spent most of my running time doing slow runs to build up my cardio base. It's nothing spectacular, but it's necessary. My longest run has been just over 4K. I feel like I can run a lot further, but I'm trying to do things right by giving my ligaments and tendons time to strengthen. I'll continue to focus on slow runs for a while until my long run gets up around 10K. Then, we'll really start to rock and roll.

My nephew has been running with me most days. That's been a great help. He's also started to take his nutrition more seriously too. If he decides to stick with it, I'll start including him in some of my posts too.

 

 

Fitness Goal kickoff post

fitness goal

There are plenty of things I could have chosen for a fitness goal. For this challenge I'm going to focus on running.

My goal is to run a 10K race in 40 minutes. That means I'll be running at a 4 min/KM pace (6:26 min/mile). That's not lightening fast, but it's also not slow.

I've been fairly sedentary over the past few months/years, so it will take dedication and planning to achieve it.

Why 4 minute kilometers?

The basis behind my 4 minute kilometer goal came from the conversation that got me into running.

It was probably 13 years ago or so that I had a conversation with a manager of mine. He was big into running and we were talking about racing. This manager told me how it would be a challenge to run 10K in 40 minutes. I remember thinking that it sounded easy. I told him so and that night I went out to prove that it could be done.

I've always been athletic. I played a lot of hockey growing up, along with all the traditional ones. I also made the wrestling team in university as a walk-on.

After graduation, I started focusing on work more than exercise. That meant that by the time I had the conversation with my manager, my conditioning was in pretty bad shape. In essence, I was approaching things like I was starting from scratch.

At first, I just focused on getting out most days and going for a run. My results slowly started to improve.

What I couldn't get rid of was the feeling of dread whenever I needed to go for a run. I didn't enjoy running. Not even a little bit. It was different when I had gone for runs in the past to train for other sports.

I was probably only running around 3K at the time. It was a mental struggle to keep going. My body could do it, but I wasn't enjoying the process.  I was never going to hit my goal that this pace.

My local running store

Someone mentioned that I should take a running clinic. They suggested a local store called The Running Room. The Running Room is a company started in my home town of Edmonton Canada and has expanded across Canada and the US. You might not have a store in your area, but you'll probably find a friendly local running store who organizes runs in your area.

Anyway. I picked out a 10K clinic and signed up.

The results were immediate.

Joining the clinic turned my running experience around for me.

I actually learned to enjoy running. I don't have an exact reason why running was any easier. It probably has something to do with training in a group environment. We could talk, laugh, and encourage each other during our runs.

My first “unofficial” half marathon

Something cool happened one day near the end of the clinic.

We were paired up with a group training for a half marathon. Our 10K group was running the same pace as the other group, so we all started out together.

There was a point where my 10K group was preparing to turn around. As we approached the fork in the path, the leader of the half marathon group told us that anyone interested in continuing on with his group could do so. He said they were “Going to do a few more kilometers.”

I was feeling amazing that day. I had built up my training schedule and was running 7K a day at the time. I figured, “Why not.”

I didn't know it at the time, but the half-marathon group was in the process of doing their longest run for their clinic. We kept running farther and farther away from the store where I was parked. We were just cruising along at what I think was a 6 min/KM pace – which was my relaxed slow run pace.

By the time we got back to the store that day, someone with a GPS watch confirmed that we had just run slightly more than 22 KM. To give you an idea of distance, a half marathon is 21.2 KM.

That meant that without even trying I had “accidentally” run a half-marathon.

My continued motivation

Once you know for a fact that you can run a certain distance, the next thing you always wonder is how much faster you can run it.

At the time, I was running ran approximately 6 days/week and was loving it. With a little more training, I improved my speed enough that I was eventually able to run 10K in less than 40 minutes.

I ran consistently for a few years, but eventually stopped when my daughter was born. Things were pretty busy at the time, and unfortunately running was one of my pastimes that gradually faded away.

The marathon

While I was running regularly, I had signed up for a marathon. I had paid my fee about a year in advance and was looking forward to it. My daughter was born a few months later, and I pretty much stopped running cold turkey.

When the time came for the marathon, I still showed up even though I hadn't run at all in over seven months. It was already paid for, so I figured I should go ahead and participate.

All I wanted to do was finish the race. I knew I could always walk it if I had to, but I wanted to give it my best shot.

I remember how nice the first half of the marathon was. I felt good and had a fun time being around all the other people. Of course, the real gut-check came during the second half of the marathon. I got a few blisters, and that, combined with my lack of conditioning meant that the last 10-15K were pretty tough.

I never considered quitting, but I would have liked to have gone a little faster that day. I still had a good time on the course though. My dad drove around and cheered me on from several locations. My Grandma also came to a spot at around 30K and brought me a snack. My fondest memory I have of the race is stopping for a quick bite to eat and and a picture with my grandma.

I finished my first and only marathon in late 2008. I just wish I could have taken part when I was in better shape.

Who knows. Maybe I'll need to look into another full marathon during the coming year.

Where I'm at right now

I'm not in good shape right now. The last eight years have seen my fitness levels drop off.

I was having a great time last year taking part in a fitness program called Get Driver Fit. It's scheduled every year leading up to the Abu Dhabi Formula One race. The program was based around the fact that world class racing drivers need to be in amazing shape. They need to be able to handle the tremendous g force created my their cars. They also need to have enough endurance to drive all-out for several hours at a time.

I used to live close to the Yas Marina Circuit, so I would go over there for training a few times a week. It was great. at the end of the program, I got to go through a crazy obstacle course on the beach. It was great.

I've since moved back to Canada, so I wasn't able to take part this year.

I've been pretty sedentary for the last 10 months or so. We traveled a lot and I let that be the excuse for me to stop working out.

I'm doing it right

My goal is to take care of myself while I train.

I've set some goals that would be great to hit, but I'm not willing to compromise my health to do it. That means I need to focus on injury presentation and recovery as much as getting out and running every day.

I've already started doing some base runs and I've noticed that I'm not getting enough rest. When you train, your body needs time to repair itself. I understand that, so I'll be setting some additional goals and focus areas to help me get there.

I'm going to dig up some more information on recovery and napping. I've always rejected taking naps during the day, but I also know that many professional athletes have an afternoon nap before a big game or match. Anyway. I'll dig up some research and report back on that, along with my results.

Flexibility and Posture

I'm setting a goal of being able to do the full splits by race day.

I've been close before in the past, but I'm in bad shape right now. There's a lot of information out there about flexibility and exercise, but like you already know, much of it is junk.

I've found some good sources. I'll show some tips, and I'll demonstrate everything I'm actually using.

I will also focus on overall flexibility, but I doubt you'd ooh and aah if I told you I was going to perform a full quadriceps stretch. So yes. The splits will be the sizzle to what I'm doing and the full body flexibility will be the steak.

The splits will be the sizzle to what I'm doing and the full body flexibility will be the steak.

By there way. There's some absolute goofiness planned for when I hit this goal, so make sure you check back to see what happens when I make it.

Top 10 Van Dam splits

#2 is Time cop – Just saying

P.S. This video might be too corny for work. 🙂

Nutrition

A huge factor in my success is eating right. The trouble with talking about nutrition is that everyone you talk to has a different take on what's important.

I've got some good sources to look at and I'll use this challenge as my “excuse” to move to more of a plant-based diet. I'll do a list of resources for nutrition in a separate post. I'll also look up some of my old recipes for homemade power bars. I think my kids would have making some with me.

The Challenge

This challenge is going to take place over the course of 5 months. That's when the races are that I plan to compete in. I also don't plan on taking any shortcuts.

I'll also continue my work on doing the splits and overall flexibility.

My goal setting post for this challenge will go over all the details about my plan. I'll set everything up and give a baseline as to where my fitness is right now. Then, you can keep track as I progress through my training.

During the upcoming weeks, I'll be including posts on my daily training plan for running and links to all the videos, pages, and books that I'll be referencing. My goal is to make sure that everything is referenced properly.

If you're interested in following along as I work my way through my challenges, you can sign up for my newsletter.

Spanish Level up Goals Post – How I Plan on Improving My Spanish

Improving my Spanish

I've set a goal for myself of improving my Spanish. I'm already fortunate to have plenty of opportunities to Speak the language each day. The issue for me has been that I still cling onto my English too much. That's the reason it's taken so long to get where I am.

I'm using this post to cover the specific goals I'm setting for the challenge. If you'd like to read my backstory, you can follow this link to get to it.

Goal 1: Reduce my accent

The first goal seems simple enough, but of course nothing in life ever is.

My goal is to sound more natural when I speak. I bet this was the first thing to come to your mind as soon as I mentioned anything about improving my Spanish. A thick accent can really stand out, and it's probably the first way we determine how well someone speaks a language when we meet them. That means this is really good for first impressions.

Here's a list of some of the things I'll be focusing on:

  • Pronounce each sound with correct mouth “Formation”
  • Smooth out the rhythm of speech. This is one of the biggest reasons foreigners sound foreign.
  • English puts a lot of stress on the main (tonic) syllable in a word. Spanish usually has less of this.
  • Be more aware of my intonation level. Spanish usually keeps things within two levels – English usually three.
  • Improve my “Enlace.” Spanish speech usually prefers to not end with open vowels. Enlace describes how many words in Spanish flow into the next.

I already have some credible resources for what I've been researching, but I'll try to find multiple sources to cite for you. There's a good book I've read that describes a lot of what I want to focus on. I've already taken extensive notes on it and plan to work my way through most of what it says. The book is called ¡Qué bien suena! – Mastering Spanish phonetics and phonology. The book is in Spanish, but the subtitle is in English. There's some good deals on used books if you look, but jut watch out for the people who have it listed at crazy prices.

How are we going to know if I improve

I know that by focusing on improving my Spanish for three months, there's bound to be an improvement. Unfortunately, we can't really hook me up to a machine and have it tell me I've improved 10%. There's two things I'm going to do.

1. Record myself and self-evaluate

The first is to record myself. I'll take a baseline measurement of where I'm at now. You'll also get to hear me speak Spanish for the first time. I don't think I've posted anything to the blog or my YouTube channel in Spanish yet.

I'll spend three months focusing on pronunciation, rhythm, and all the other tools. Part of the success of my goals will rely on me feeling like I've made improvements. That's the purpose of the self-evaluation. This will also help me figure out what I did that helped, and what potentially helped more. I think everything I do will be useful, but my goal is to obviously focus on what gives me the most bang for my buck.

2. Before and after evaluations from other people

I'll have several people listen to me in the next week or two. I'll get feedback from people I already know, so I should be able to get a lot wrapped up in a week or so. I think I'll try to get around 10-20 people listen to me and provide feedback. Then, I'll search out those people again and have another evaluation done. I'll try to get a variety of ages and countries represented.

I'll get rated based on the factors that I'm trying to improve – so pretty much everything in the bullet list a few paragraphs up. I might have to do a whole post on the factors I'm using, but it will be something that people can either do in 2 minutes, or 20 depending on how much effort they want to put in.

The goals:

  • Take an adequate baseline of my current skill level. That will include video and audio of my speech and reading.
  • Practice my new skills at least 30 minutes per day and 5 days per week.
  • Do a self-evaluation of my speaking skills after three months.
  • Have 10-20 native speakers from various countries provide a review of my spoken Spanish at the beginning and end of the three-month period.

Goal 2: Authentic conversations

I made a decision several years ago to speak to my in-laws completely in Spanish. I talk about that decision more in the My Backstory post so check it out if you haven't already. Choosing to get involved in “regular” everyday conversations was one of the best things I started doing.

This goal may seem weak to you, but it encapsulates everything I'm trying to do. The whole point of learning Spanish for me is to be able to sit down with anyone, anywhere, and talk about anything. That's what my “Authentic Conversations” goal is trying to achieve.

I mentioned in another post that I recently helped out with some home renovations. During those renovations, there were times when I was at a loss when when came to the names of the tools or some procedures. That's the type of conversations I'll be looking to have more of. I want to get involved in a broader spectrum of conversations. I'll be making up a few lists of vocabulary for topics that I'd like to be able to describe better, like podcasting, home improvements, and public speaking. I'll also decide on a few topics to go much deeper on.

My goal is to have 30 authentic conversations with a few dozen different people. This goal is mostly to go out and speak with a lot of people, but to take the time to have a deeper conversation on a more consistent basis.  Surface conversations are fine, but I would like to have more practice asking deeper probing questions, as well as improving how I express my ideas and feeling.

I feel a difference when my wife and I are out visiting. If the conversation is in English, I'm good at getting involved in the conversation. When it's in Spanish, I'm more hesitant to say what I'm thinking.

The Goals:

  • Speak Spanish for 30-60 minutes most days
  • Have 30 authentic conversations with different people
  • Create 12 new lists of vocabulary that go deeper on a topic I already know, or should know
  • Learn to distinguish countries accents.  I do OK on some, but for others I need to ask my wife. I'm going to see if there's anything out there on this. I'm doing this knowing that each country also has several dialects within, usually (but now always) based on region. In any case, I'll see how I do and report back.
  • Create 10 videos in Spanish for my other YouTube channel.

10X the amount of Spanish in my life

Over the years, I've noticed the biggest short-term increases in my ability whenever we would travel to Latin America.

Imagine that.

Whenever I've been required to speak, read, listen, and think more, I've responded my getting better.

I know I'm stating the obvious. Most of my goal will be achieved it I can simply up the amount of Spanish I engage with on a regular basis. This goes beyond just having Spanish music or radio playing in the background. I know from experience that surrounding myself doesn't move the needle very much. The difference comes when I add even a minuscule amount of effort to what I'm doing. That small bit of “brain activation” gets things going.

With that being said, my goals in this section will reflect my feelings that I need to do something slightly above no effort to move me forward with my learning. Maybe we can call it 1% effort.

The actions:

  • Describe what I'm doing. I did this with my kids. It's a technique to help babies learn the language faster. You pretty much just describe everything you're doing as you go through your day.
  • Translating both ways. I can translate OK, but I know it's hard to translate well in real-time. I'll spend time finding ways to practice translating from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English in real-time. Those are two separate skills, so need to each be practiced individually.
  • Read Most days. I've probably only read 5 books in Spanish over the last 10 years. I pretty much just read menus, TV subtitles, and the odd news article. I have several novels geared toward juveniles to get started on. I'll also read with my kids.
  • Read News in Spanish. I'll START with Spanish language news in the morning before I move on to my “regular” news services.
  • Write most days. I've barely written anything since University. I'll focus on writing, just for the sake of writing. I'll gradually start writing a few blog posts for one of my other projects.
    Spanish subtitles. Most shows on Netflix Canada don't have Spanish subtitles. That makes things a bit tougher, but I look and see what I can do for TV viewing.

Timeline: 3 Months

Depending on how you look at things, three months may seem like a very long time frame, or it cool seem too short.

Why not make it shorter?

Let me give you an idea of why I've chosen three months to focus on my Spanish.

I can easily read and study how to pronounce sounds in Spanish. In fact, I already have researched that. What I want to do is take my time to do things right. I'd like to focus on how I'm speaking and then go out and get involved in several dozen authentic conversations.

Experience has taught me that after an hour or two of focused Spanish, my brain turns to mush. I'm a big believer that 70 hours over three months will serve me better than going nonstop over a long weekend.

Is three months enough time?

I know I could set a goal for two years and still be learning something new every day. Languages are like that. They have so many levels and so much depth that you truly can spend a lifetime studying just one language.

My goal isn't to become a university professor in Spanish, but I do want to surprise people when they speak to me.

Three months gives me plenty of opportunity to focus on how I say things, while leaving the door open to obviously continue to have authentic conversations well after the deadline has passed.

Spanish Level Up – My Backstory

Sunset in San Jan del Sur Nicaragua
Enjoying the sunset in San Juan del Sur Nicaragua

I have a goal of improving my Spanish.

That's really it in a nutshell.

I know a lot of people talk about learning new languages – and that's great. But, that's not my goal.

You see, I already speak Spanish.

Umm. OK Kevin. Exactly how good is your Spanish?

This isn't a brag post. It's far from it.

I just want to take my intermediate level Spanish, or whatever it is, and make a huge jump toward being awesome. As I'll explain, I've got pretty much unlimited resources and contacts to make it happen, so I'm going to do some experimentation to see what moves the needle the most. If you already speak a language, but want to level it up as well, I encourage you to come along with me. I'm sure you'll be able to pick out something new, or at least reinforce what you already know.

If you're thinking about learning a new language, then you're also in the right spot. I'll be sharing a lot of the struggles I've had over the years while learning Spanish.

My real word uses of Spanish

I've used Spanish while traveling, ordering food, watching movies/TV, listening to the radio, striking up conversations, making friends, speaking in front of groups, performing in plays, and a lot of other things.

I speak well, but with some effort, I know I can dramatically improve how well others understand me. A little extra effort would open up a lot more doors for me in my life.

Here's a paragraph from the post I did introducing the challenges I'll be focusing on over the coming months.

I understand that I still have an accent. I also know that sometimes, when I get out of my comfort topics, I struggle to communicate my ideas to others. I can talk about food, travel, and plenty of other topics, but it's times when I get involved in authentic conversations that I need to work harder.

A good example of this just happened recently. I went in to volunteer at my wife's school to record a podcast with the kids. I've done podcasts with several different grades over the years, but this time I had to explain my podcasting expertise in Spanish. My wife is teaching in the Spanish bilingual program, so everything was in 100% Spanish. My vocabulary wasn't up to the challenge, and so although I got the message across, I could have done it a lot easier if I had a wider vocabulary, and if I had spoken with more confidence.

My Backstory

I decided to break the mold and try something different when I went to university. That's when I chose to tackle Spanish. I didn't need a language for my commerce degree, but I figured there was no use going to university without picking up a new language. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

Growing up I had always taken French in school. English and French are the two official languages of Canada, so that means most people take French growing up. I took it for 11 years of my schooling. Unfortunately, after all those years, I wasn't able to say much beyond basic greetings and the weather. There was no way I could use French for travel or any other real-world use.

I figured a change was in order heading into my first year of university, so I picked Spanish. I reasoned that since it was a Romance language like French, that my background would help me pick it up faster. It also just seemed like a cool language.

I ended up taking two courses, and that was that.

I learned a few thousand words and felt like I was pretty smart, but I felt shy speaking it.

I still remember times in my Spanish 200 class when we would go over homework. I usually did my work, but there were a few times where I hadn't. Luckily the teacher would go around the room and ask every student. He'd go row-by-row and seat-by-seat. I would count the number of people ahead of me, and then figure out which question I would have to answer.  As it came to my turn I would do my best to get the answer out right and hope I wasn't asked to explain or do any more speaking. It was terrifying for me.

After that second course, I decided to focus on other subjects and I left my Spanish where it was. I had learned a few thousand words, lots of verbs, and some grammar. I definitely couldn't have carried on any type of conversation at that point. I had only ever done exactly what was asked of me during class. I think I felt like my language experiment was coming to an end at that point.

The girl

Yeah, you guessed it. I ended up learning Spanish for a girl.

About two years after my failed Spanish experiment, I met my wife. Yay. The end.

Alright. The story isn't quite that quick.

My wife spoke Spanish, but she also spoke perfect English. That meant that we didn't need to speak Spanish to communicate. What it did do was get me immersed in the Latin community in the city. I met a lot of people and got to have some amazing experiences. Of course, most of the people we met spoke fluent English as well, so they would usually speak the language that we could all understand.

At the time I was really shy – at least when it came to speaking a new language. When the conversation was in Spanish, I'd just sit there and try to take in as much as I could. When it switched back to English, I'd get involved.

Maybe you can relate. I know I've met a lot of people who've felt the same way. They want to speak perfectly in the target language so much, that they freeze and do nothing. It sounds funny when you say it, but it was the desire to be amazing that caused me to do such a miserable job of learning Spanish for a long time.

There were several times when I told myself that I was going to start, but when the time came, I'd chicken out and not say anything. Or, I'd respond in English when someone said something in Spanish to me. It was frustrating. I'd often get mad at myself for not just going for it.

My worst fears came true

Everyone I had ever met had been incredibly encouraging whenever I spoke Spanish. It was good, but there was always something in the back of my mind telling me that people were going to laugh. I don't know if you've ever had that feeling or not, but it was a feeling that caused me to hold back a lot.

One night we were out with a bunch of friends and two new people showed up. They were new to Canada and barely spoke English. I thought I'd get out of my shell and speak to them. I don't remember what I said exactly to one of them but apparently it was hilarious. This particular individual waved over the other and they had me speak some more.

They both burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that they were falling all over each other. One actually started rolling on the floor because they thought my accent was so funny.

That wouldn't be a big deal for me now, but at the time it was devastating. They could have laughed and poked fun at a million other things and I would have been fine, but for some reason, having my language skills laughed at was too much. I think it was because I felt dumb for not being able to speak better. I'm a smart guy. I guess I felt like I should have learned Spanish in six months like some other people do.

I kept smiling for the rest of the night, but I vowed to never speak Spanish in public again.

That pain stayed with me

That incident took me years to get over.

My Spanish stayed at beginner level for years because of that. During that time I thought it was because “those people” laughed at me, but I was obviously incorrect. The truth is that it was never their fault at all. It had always been my problem. It was completely irrational to stop putting myself out there because two people made comments about how I spoke. Yes there were probably 300 people who had said I was doing good at the time, but I focused on the two people who said something negative.

Anyway. The point of the story is that language learning is all about mindset. It's about how you frame things. If you have the language learning framed properly, then the language will come quicker and with joy instead of heartache.

The weird ending to the story

I had the chance to meet up with these individuals a few years later. They were very friendly and we had a great chat. It turned out that they both now spoke English at a super-high level. They also spoke with almost no accent.

It was the complete opposite of my story.

They hadn't cared what anyone else thought so they just spoke and spoke. I'm sure they worked hard on their accents too. In the end, I it was good for me to see how well they spoke English, because their accent was insanely good. It gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get going again.

I bet they never thought twice about that one day all those years ago when they laughed at me.

How I finally started getting it

The best decision I made about learning Spanish was when I decided to speak Spanish to my in-laws 100% of the time.

They both speak English, but they're from Nicaragua and speak Spanish as their first language. I decided to speak to them in Spanish as a sign of respect. That was really my deciding factor. The secondary benefit was that my Spanish started improving.

At the start, my Spanish wasn't very good. I remember going for car rides with my father-in-law and telling him all sorts of stories. I'd tell him what we were going to do on the weekend, what I was planning for my business, and whatever else I could think of. He'd usually just sit there and let me talk, helping me with words from time to time.

I'd get out of the car feeling like I'd conquered the world. Some days I'd walk into the house like a Spanish superstar. Then my father-in-law would walk in right behind me, look at my wife, and ask her what plans we had for the weekend. It turned out that some of the things I was saying were unclear and incoherent, but he just sat there and let me talk because he knew that was the only way I'd ever improve.

The first time my decision to speak 100% in Spanish came into question was when my wife and I were over at my in-laws house.  They had guests over and I needed to ask my father-in-law something. I forget what it was, but it was probably something simple like asking if he wanted coffee. I remember hesitating. I had told myself that I would speak Spanish to my mother and father in law, but I never thought about what would happen if someone else was there.

Fortunately I made the right decision and went for it. It felt like there was a huge weight lifted of my shoulders as soon as the words came out. A bonus was that the guests they had over said some kind things about how I spoke. I thought to myself, “This isn't so bad after all.”

Making the decision to just go for it and speak to someone in Spanish no matter what upped my game and took me from a high beginner level to probably somewhere in the mid-intermediate range.

How I got to were I am now

The final stage in my progress, up to this point, was based on a realization and a decision.

Sometimes the most important things you can do are based around seemingly small decisions.

The realization

Whenever I spoke Spanish, two things would happen. There were probably more than two, but there were two that stood out.

The first was that I'd feel tension in my chest as I prepared to form the words. I'd tense up and take a shallow breath. The second observation, which was a direct result of the tenseness, was that the pitch of my voice would go up a little.

I knew that I didn't get tense when I spoke English, so I knew it wan't a speaking thing. I'd tense up even when I was speaking Spanish to my wife, so that told me that it wasn't from nervousness either.

In the end, I felt the tenseness was coming from the fact that in the past, I used to be nervous when I spoke. That led me to a game changing decision.

The decision

Based on that knowledge, I made two tiny decision that probably upped my Spanish game by 100%.

  1. I decided to speak Spanish normally. I told myself that I would now use my regular voice and relax whenever I spoke to other people.
  2. I also decided that I would speak in Spanish to anyone, anywhere. It didn't matter if I knew them or not. I would just go for it.

Poof! That was it. And it worked.

Those decisions have taken me a long way. I know my accent still needs some work, and I need to smooth out what I'm saying, but not it just comes down to getting a lot of practice, and adding a little refinement along that way.

The Challenge

I would love to tell you that my goal is to speak Spanish without an accent. That would be really cool. But that's not a good goal to set. I'm much more comfortable setting a goal of focusing on what it takes to speak Spanish well. I'll take those enhanced skills and 10X the amount of Spanish in my life. I'll talk to even more people, I'll read novels, and I'll do a bit of writing most days as well. My main goal is to improve my speaking, but since Spanish is such a huge part of my life, I'm going to push forward on the writing and reading as well.

I'm setting my challenge for three month. That will take me until the end of the 2016. The goal is to set some good habits in motion and see how far I get. I have a tremendous number of resources I'll be using to take my Spanish up a notch, and I'll be sharing what I'm using and how well it works for me.I'll also do a recording of me doing some speaking and reading in Spanish. Then we'll compare where I'm at after three focused months of working hard.I have a lot of information stored up already and I can't wait to share it with you.

So let's get underway.

Keep a look out for my goal post. I'll go into the exact detail of what I'll be doing and what I'll be measuring.

And by the way. If you have a language learning story, feel free to share it in the comments below. What worked well for you? What scared you? What helped you turn the corner?

OK. That's it for now. We'll talk soon.

 

My First Three Learning Challenges

learning-challenges

I'm taking a new direction with Visual Productivity.

In the past I rotated my posts around a few topics, most notably productivity. I've also dabbled into writing on persuasion, motivation, tech gadgets, iPhone tips, and a lot more.

Now I'm redirecting my focus in a big way.

Learning Challenges

Going forward, I'm going to be setting up some learning challenges. I'll work my way through each challenge while sharing my thoughts, techniques, and results with you the whole time.

I plan on choosing goals that many of you have probably thought of, or might even be considering attempting now or in the near future. A key point to remember is that every goal I set will be something I'm actually passionate about completing. That's an important factor in achieving whatever goals I set. It wouldn't do me any good to start working toward something that doesn't engage me.

My purpose is to pack in a lot of learning in a short amount of time. That being said, I also don't want to rush any of the goals.

I know you probably want to learn how to do things as fast as possible. So do I. But there's no use setting unrealistic timelines, just to say I was fast. The most important thing to me is being effective at whatever I do. One we take care of the quality, we'll look into speeding things up as much as possible.

You can join me as we see what works and what doesn't.

To begin with, I'm setting three learning challenges. Spanish, Running, and Writing. I'll give you a short version now, and I'll follow up this article with three separate launch posts to describe everything in more detail.

Goals #1: Level up my Spanish

The first of the learning challenges I'm going to target is to level up my Spanish. I want to phrase this goal in a way that let's me clarify what I'm after.

I already speak Spanish. If you asked me, I guess I would say I'm fluent, but that word has a lot of different meanings to different people. My wife is from Nicaragua, which means I've had the “Built-in” opportunity to travel to Latin America, meet a lot of great people in the Latin community, and have conversations in Spanish each day. In the past, my issue was always that I was shy when it came to speaking anything other than English, and it's held me back from doing the things I want.

This challenge is for me to smooth out my Spanish, and my ability to communicate during authentic conversations.

I pretty much want to take my Spanish from 70% or 80% up to 90%. That's a goal you don't hear most people talking about. I know I could tell you I'll talk more, and that's definitely part of what I'll be doing, but I want to place my focus and effort on what will give me the most noticeable improvement.

I'll get into my story in the kickoff post. I'll also talk about some about some of the concrete goals I'll make for myself including which dialect I'll focus on. There's a lot to consider and I'll try to cover off as much as I can think of before we get underway.

I'll also include tips that can be used to help you improve any language, even if your target language isn't Spanish.

Roughed-in Goal ideas:

(My checkpoint goals will be finalized in the launch post)

Challenge length: 90 days.

Read and Write most days in Spanish – I don't do much writing or reading in the language. I'll be reading novels, and doing daily free writing in Spanish. I'll gradually move into writing some blog posts for one of my other projects.

Reduce my accent – This includes working on pronunciation, rhythm of speech, intonation level, “enlace,” and several other factors. I'll work on a goal for this, but it could be having several people from different countries listen to me and give me a rating based on a scale of factors.

Prep for authentic conversations – I do great when speaking to people, but sometimes need to learn words as I go. I recently helped out with some home renos and was at a bit of a loss when when came to the names of the tools or some procedures. I'll choose some topics that friends of mine are interested in and then go out and have conversations about these topics. I'll have to think a bit more about how many interviews and how many countries I want cover during my conversations. It might even be several done during the final month.

Goal #2: Improve my Writing Skills

The second of the learning challenges is to amp up my writing skills.

I love communicating. I've spent a big chunk of my adult life in the communication business. I've done a lot of professional speeches and learned a lot about communicating verbally. I currently have two books in print, but I know I can make some huge improvements with my writing skill. That's the purpose of this goal in the challenge.

I'll do some obvious things like write every day. The daily writings I do won't necessarily be published, but I'll leave that possibility. I have a lot of tips I've collected on writing. I'll spend some time going through many of those tips and I'll see which ones I get the most bang for the buck on. My overall goal will be to help you improve your own writing as quickly as possible by knowing what to focus on.

Roughed-in Goal ideas:

Challenge length: 3 months.

Write a novel during the month of November – The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming up. I've always wanted to write a book for it. Looks like this year I'll get it done.

Write daily – One of my big goals will be to write daily on whichever topic I choose.  One of the biggest challenges to this blog over the years was that I always had a lot to say, but didn't want to sit down and put my thoughts into words. I'll figure out how many words will work best for me and I'll let you know if this helps me become more prolific and a better read.

Study persuasive writing techniques – I'm looking for additional ways of making what I write more engaging. I have a huge list of ideas to go through.

Goal #3: Energy (AKA fitness, running, exercise)

I'm calling the third of my learning challenges an energy goal. I don't really want to call it fitness, or running, or exercise. That's what a lot of my goal will come down to, but I want to leave things open enough that I can add a lot of better principles than just telling people to eat less and exercise more. I think that would be a was of our time together.

I might weight myself before things get going but I don't want this challenge being focused on weight. I'm heavier than I want to be right now, but I know that if I put my focus on the right areas, I won't need to be watching my weight bounce around on the scale.

I'll set out some clear goals in my launch post for this challenge. There might even be an extra mini-goal that gets added.  I just saw a book talking about doing a pull up challenge, but  I'm not sure if I want to add something else to my plate.

Roughed-in goal ideas:

Challenge length: 5 months. I'm going run a 10K and half-marathon in February. I've wanted to take part in this race for years, so it's happening this year.

Run 10K in 40 minutes (4 minute kilometers) – I first got into running around 10 years ago when a co-worker mentioned how challenging it would be to run 10 in 40 minutes. I thought it sounded easy, so I set off to prove that I could do it. I eventually got that fast, but it took a lot of effort and dedication to get it done.

Do full splits – The idea behind this goal is that I want to put a big focus on flexibility. I've come close to doing full splits in the past, but never been quite there. I'll need to consistently focus on my overall flexibility for this to be a reality. The splits is just a way to indicate that my flexibility is high. I'll research some techniques that will help me progress quickly and see what helps me the most.

Posture – This is a huge thing these days. With more and more people working in front of computers, there's a lot of bad posture going around.

 

Wearables – I'll also be deciding how much of a factor I want to make wearables. I'll probably buy at least one and test it out along the way.

What do you want to go from here?

So there we are. My three learning challenges. Is there a particular one you're going to follow?

I think the goals of health and communication are pretty universal. I.m excited about what's coming up and I can't wait to share my experiences with you.

Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what your top goal is for the new months.