rdearman wrote:PeterMollenburg wrote:I'm honestly just analyzing myself here. You're probably as ridiculous as me!
I'm probably more actually! Still I know what you mean about constantly going in circles. I know you do listen to peoples advice here, you just don't always take it. (Quite rightly). But I'd like to chip in again.
You aren't ready to move, financially. However, my recommendation is that you pick a date. Something which would be hard to achieve but possible. Let's just say you decide you're going to move after school breaks up in 2019, and let me assume that would be in July in Australia. This deadline forces you to do things which you might be procrastinating with at the moment. For example, you might not be putting as much money toward credit card debit as you really could if pushed. (These are only examples, since I don't know your situation). But I feel that having a concrete deadline means you have to re-evaluate the plan based on the new deadline.
I collect self-help and management books like you collect French courses and one thing I know is this:
A goal without a deadline is just a wish.
So you and your wife agree the deadline, you might even make a real commitment like buying airline tickets. But really nothing clarifies a plan like a deadline. If we return to my example; you might evaluate your plan against the July 2019 date and decide to change the date.
It might be that having selected the date of 14th of July 2019 (
) you think you could do it quicker and set your sights on January. This change in date with bump up other problems like changing schools mid-year. Or you might evaluate the 14th of July 2019 and work out you'd need another 3 months to get your debt paid, etc.
What I'm saying to you is you need to evaluate your goal and set a deadline for its accomplishment. Once you have the date set you can work backwards to determine if it is possible, check dependencies, etc.
Well, you
might be more ridiculous than me, but... I think the above post is one of the most important in the entire time of existence of PM's highly exciting, riveting, pivotal, mind blowing logs (referred to in third person as I am the alien that is currently in possession of his vehicular 3rd interactive sensory device, otherwise known as, his body). Seriously, it's a very important post, thank you kindly Rick. So much so, I went off and started thinking about dates, the importance of writing down desired achievements and committing to aims/objectives/targets and stole most of my unique thoughts that no-one else had ever thought of straight from a combination of yourself rdearman and a PDF version of
The Pledge by Michael Masterson Yes I have sinned, the book is in English (I do admit I searched for a French version, but found none). That was last night.
Tonight, after doing little much else than break my diet yet again by giving in to organic carbohydrate loaded sugarless, artificial sweetener-free expensive snacks (Christmas set me off, it's not my fault dammit!), I briefly discussed 'end dates' with my wife. I pushed for mid 2019, she pushed for longer - start of 2020. I then convinced her that the weather is shyte that time of year in Belgium (think Netherlands winter and potentially worse for Wallonia), she gave in but stretched it further out to 1st of March 2020, but with a clause - if I need to leave earlier to organise work, house/apartment etc then I could potentially leave 1st Jan 2020.
So there you have it, an 'end date'. A target, that ought not to move. That's the easy part. The not as easy part is filling in the gaps, the achievable steps to make it to that date, the detailed breakdown. The hard part is committing, since we all know I'm rubbish at sticking to study plans. Here's a loose one in terms of language study (but i'll work on this more, and work out a plan for finances, and employment as well)-
Jan/Feb/March 2018:
French in Action (FIA)
Yabla
Assimil
April 2018:
FIA
Assimil (if not yet completed)
May 2018:
FIA
Super Challenge! (SC)
Other French learning activities
August 2018:
Exam prep for C1
+ other French learning activities
November 2018:
Sit DALF C1
Dec 2018 - May 2019
Exam prep for C2
May 2019:
Sit DALF C2
June 2019:
Restart Dutch despite French standing (see below)
Commence assessment of nursing qualifications
*I think if I am too far off being able to pass the DALF exams I will change my French learning approach and aim to resit the exams at a later date/year in the future post more French exposure and will in the meantime introduce (an)other language(s), such as Dutch.