Note: this post is primarily around the theme or language learning, but the principles laid out here can be applied to pretty much anything.

A lot of people ask about the “secret” behind learning so-and-so, or the secret behind success. They expect a detailed roadmap, step-by-step instructions, and essentially a recipe that can be copied and reproduced. If this is what you are looking for, please stop reading now.

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Still here? OK. When it comes to language learning, just to serve as an example, it’s hard not to notice those outperformers who learn to speak a language from scratch in the space of a few months, or those hyperpolyglots who have learned over 10 languages, while others have been learning a language for over a decade without being able, yet, to have a normal, natural conversation with a native speaker.

I have been inspired and motivated by a lot of successful people in my life, and when it comes to language learning, it’s no exception. And after having observed several successful language learners over the past several years, I can tell with certainty that a common attribute that they share is that they like what they do.

This is a post I wrote that originally appeared as a guest post on The Polyglot Dream website. I though it might be useful to many of you, and I'd love to hear what you think about it. Enjoy!

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Bob and Jack were two lumberjacks, each given an area of about 10 acres of thick, old growth forest to cut for the year. They were each paid a fixed amount of money for each tree cut, and both had the same equipment and experience in this field of work. Incentives to finish the work faster included a bonus pay for the person that could finish cutting down all 10 acres of forest first.

At the beginning of the year, in early January, Bob was motivated and full of energy, ready to cut down these trees faster than anybody else. His axe was slightly old and rusty, just as Jack’s, but it had served him well for many years. Although Bob was a lazy man, just as the average Joe, he knew his motivation could get him far. And so he began working in earnest, cutting down his first little tree in a matter of minutes. Bob liked to start with easy tasks first, build up his momentum, and keep going strong for long periods of time. It had worked fairly well for him in the past. On the first day, Bob managed to cut 10 trees, and proceeded to earn a fairly decent sum of money. Bob was, for the most part, willing to work hard when he could see immediate results.