There’s a really common expression we use in English to say that we know a person really well.

If I’m talking about my friend Simon, I would say, “I know him like the back of my hand”.

That got me thinking.

How well do you know the back of your hand?

Yes, it’s in front of you most of the time, but do you really know it in detail?

For example, without looking, can you tell me which finger is longer than the other: your ring finger or your index finger?

Probably not, right?

It turns out that the length of these two fingers differs from one person to another.

Which is longer on your hand?

You don’t know, do you?

They’ve been in front of your eyes for as long as you’ve been alive and you have no idea which is longer.

Why not?

“Because I’ve never paid attention to it”, you may say.

Yes, well kind of.

What you really mean is that you’ve never told your brain to look and find out.

The purpose that you give any action is what you get as a result.

If your only purpose is to pick up an object, then that is all you get. Your brain is not interested in getting any more information that doesn’t relate to the purpose.

If you go to pick something up, your brain won’t say, “here’s the object you told me to pick up, and by the way, your ring finger is longer than your index finger”.

This is the same for all actions and activities in life.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

When practising English, you get whatever purpose you give that activity.

Learners rarely start an activity in English with the purpose of actually learning something new. They usually start the activity with, “I want to complete this activity”.

So if their only goal is to complete the activity, then that is all they get.

It sounds silly, but that’s exactly what happens.

They start the activity, finish it, then that’s it.

And they learn very little.

Let’s look at listening and reading.

Every time you read or listen to something in English, how much do you learn? Do you write a list of new language and vocabulary that you would like to practise?

Probably not.

Why not?

There is lots of language that you don’t know in every paragraph of text or minute of dialogue. So why don’t you find and learn any new language?

I always say that you can learn at least five new things from any paragraph of text in English.

At least.

The thing is, most people approach a text or listening with objective of understanding in general.

If you aim to get general understanding, then that is what you’ll get.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Your brain wants to move towards the objective that you give it, and it will make it as easy as possible to get to that objective.

But only THAT objective. Nothing more.

You see, the brain is very good at getting the general understanding without the need to fully understand everything that is there.

The brain only sees what it wants to see.

It only sees what is necessary to get the general understanding and throws the rest away. It’s not interested in processing extra information like tenses, prepositions, or anything else that doesn’t give it ‘general understanding’.

Remember, the purpose you gave the brain was to get the general understanding. The brain will try to make the road to that goal clear.

How can it make the road clear?

By not processing unnecessary information. Anything that is not general will be thrown away.

Can you see how this powerful subconscious process works now?

All YOU need to do is tell the brain what the purpose is, your brain will do the rest and will help you reach that goal.

First of all, forget general.

General is a waste of time. General won’t help you learn.

If you want to make real progress, actually learn stuff, and really improve your English, then you have to get specific.

And it’s so easy to do.

All you need is a purpose.

Next time you have contact with English, make sure that you have the purpose of actually learning something, then you will learn something.

Here’s what you do. Before an activity in English, you need to say aloud, “I’m going to learn at least five new things from this”. And you will see that you will learn five new things.

Yes, it’s that easy.

The brain will naturally go towards the objective that you give it, and will make the road towards that goal clear.

If you don’t look for anything, you don’t find anything. If you look for something, anything, then you will always find something.

What will you find?

I don’t know.

Try it, and see what you find.

What you can do is dedicate ten minutes per day to looking for and learning new language.

I call it purposeful practice.

It’s easy.

Remember, your brain will move towards whatever purpose you give it with an activity. If you don’t give the brain a purpose, it will go on autopilot and move towards general understanding.

All you have to do is say, “I’m going to learn five new things from this” before you start the activity.

Now the brain has a purpose and it will actively try to find five new things, and it won’t stop until it finds five new things.

An example.

You’re reading the news online about whatever. Read it a first time to get the general understanding.

Now choose a paragraph and give yourself the goal of finding and learning five things, or finding five things that you don’t use perfectly or fully understand.

Or your favourite TV series. Watch an episode. When it finishes, rewind and watch five minutes of dialogue with the purpose of learning five things. Have a notepad and pen ready or your mobile phone notes, and write down those five things as you hear them.

Now go learn and practise that list.

From just ten minutes every day of purposeful practice, you can learn five new things every single day.

The best thing is that those five things will be 100% relevant for your needs. After all, you chose to learn them.

Your goal when practising English on your own is to have 100% relevance with the language that you learn. That’s why self-studying a language is so much more effective than paying any English academy any amount of money.

You decide what you learn.

Because only you know what you need to learn.[thrive_leads id=’1049′]

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