How to stick to your new year’s resolutions and learn French for good

🎉 Bonne année! 🎉

That’s how the French say “Happy New Year”. They just say “good year”: “bonne année”.

We are getting a brand new year - so how about we make the most of it?

Did you make any new year’s resolutions? Or are you someone who doesn’t make resolutions, because they have fallen off so many times already?

We all know the problem with resolutions: it’s just so hard to stick to them and really achieve what you want.

So, today, I’ve got 7 tips that will make it easier to stick to your resolutions and reach your goals this year. Most of my examples are about learning French but all the principles I share can be applied to any resolution you have. So, if you have more than one resolution or goal for this year, make sure you apply the tips to all of them, for optimal results.

If you like this video, click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I make new videos regularly about what it takes to become a French speaker.

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80% of new year resolutions fail by February. I think this just sucks. So, if you are still believing in self-improvement and achieving your goals (kudos to you!) this article and video are for you. I have collected 7 powerful strategies that will help you learn French and become fluent this year. Even better: you can also apply these goal setting and goal achieving tips to any other resolutions you have this year. Are you ready to rock this new year?

1- Don’t make resolutions. Set goals.

And you want to make sure that they are specific, measurable, achievable.

For example, one of my goals for this year is to keep publishing a video every week on my YouTube channel. It’s specific and measurable. At the end of the year, either there are 52 more videos on my channel or there aren’t. Since I’ve been publishing a video every Monday for several months now, it’s achievable, too.

What are you working on? What’s your goal?
Let me know in the comment section below this article, I’d love to read them and cheer you on. Make sure you write it as specific as you can, and as achievable as you can. For example, a specific, measurable and achievable goal for learning French would be to take your daily French bath every day.

2- Don’t make it too drastic

A resolution like “ok starting now I’m only speaking French to my partner”, even though you’ve always spoken English to them, is not likely to happen in the long run.

Another classic example: if you have always eaten junk food, and now you’re going on a super healthy vegan, plant-based only diet - your body will hate it, and you’ll have all sorts of side effects, and it will also be really hard on your willpower.

The same is true for wanting to study French 2 hours a day from now on. It’s just too drastic and you can’t make such a big jump.

Instead, you want to make just a small change, and do something everyday that will have a big compounded effect over time, rather than completely overhauling your life, because this just doesn’t work.


3 - Watch your willpower

You may not know this, but we have a limited stock of willpower every day. Once your stock is out, you won’t be able to make yourself do anything anymore.

So, it’s good to study in the morning when your stock of willpower is high.
If you’re not an early bird, you want to take advantage of your most efficient time-slot. If you know you’re more efficient in the evening, you can study in the evening, but make sure you watch your willpower so you’re not exhausted when the time comes.

4- Leverage your environment

You’ll save a lot of willpower if you make your environment work for you, not against you.

Here’s a typical example from self-development material: if you want to work out first thing in the morning, prepare your clothes and gear the night before so you just have to grab them and go. Don’t make it hard to find your gear because that will lower the chances that you’ll work out at all.

Good news: there are plenty of ways to leverage your environment for learning French:

Etc.

5- Track your progress

There’s nothing worse for your motivation than not seeing the progress of what you’re working on. So you want an easy way to track your progress in French.

I recommend using the worksheet included in this starter kit ⬇️⬇️

A banner offering to download 5 priceless resources to become a French speaker, including a visual of a vocabulary guide and a French YouTube guide, and a red button.


Once you have filled out the worksheet, you have a built in way to track your progress with the columns on the right side.

This is a great way to see how much progress you’ve already made and stay motivated.

6- Track the lead behavior

Your results and your progress, as tracked on the above-mentioned worksheet, are not completely under your control. There are many things that can affect your progress.

So, tracking your progress is great, but you want to make sure that you also track the lead behavior.

The lead behavior is what you do to achieve those results. In the case of learning French, that’s taking your daily French bath everyday, or reviewing your vocabulary everyday, or showing up for your French lessons or your sessions with your coach or tutor.

I like to use a habit tracker or a simple calendar and put a tick on it when I’ve accomplished my action(s) for that day. The great thing about habit trackers is that once you’ve done these actions for a couple of days, you have a little bit of a streak showing up on it. And you just don’t want to break the streak so you keep going. This is a great way to trick yourself into keeping up a behavior even when you don’t really feel like it.

If you’ve ever been addicted to Duolingo, you know it’s one of the tricks they use.

7- Join a group

I’m a huge introvert so joining a group isn’t my first clue to get anything done.

And yet, I have to acknowledge that when I’m part of a group, it’s a lot easier for me to make progress in a particular goal. For example, I go to Toastmaster’s and my public speaking skills improve.

When you join a group, you automatically get accountability, and you get to use peer-pressure to your advantage. When you see your peers working on their goals and making progress, you’ll also want to keep up the good work.

You can look for a French class or study group where you live. There are also lots of groups online which you can be a part of. I love it because it’s very flexible. It doesn’t depend on where you live, or what time you’re available.

One caveat: choosing a group to learn French (or anything) can be quite tricky. You need to take into account the dynamics of the group, do their goals match yours? Do you click with the teacher or group leader etc.

There’s a group which I absolutely love, and you can join it today, no matter where you live or where you’re at in your study: the French Fluency Accelerator.

Obviously I’m a little bit biased because it’s my group program, but seriously these people are amazing. They are so supportive of each other and so dedicated to learning. I’m so happy that I get to interact with them and give them advice everyday in our discord group. It really is the best possible space to learn French.

You don’t have to take my word for it. You can check it out right here. On that page, you can see video testimonials from these students so you’ll see the kind of energy and attitude they have.

We also have group workshops in which we take into account everything on this list, and all the granular details that make French learning super efficient. And every week we have a group coaching class where they practice conversation, and I help them become fluent French speakers.

I strongly recommend you check it out, if you’re serious about learning French.

Alternatively, you can get going now with this free starter kit:

A banner offering to download 5 priceless resources to become a French speaker, including a visual of a vocabulary guide and a French YouTube guide, and a red button.

Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with me as a student or client. Please check out:

Pro tip: you don’t need to choose!

All my 1-1 clients are invited to join the French Accelerator free of charge.

Feel free to book a call with me now to discuss options.

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About the Author

A portrait of Angel Pretot, sitting in nature with his laptop, looking at the camera and using a pen and notebook with his right hand.

Angel Pretot is a French learning coach. He helps English speakers from all over the world learn French fast and become fluent. You can work with him one-on-one (online via zoom or a similar software) or join a global community of French learners in his group program the French Fluency Accelerator.