You’ve tried to learn Italian four times.
Maybe five.
Each time, you think: “This time will be different. This time I’ll stick with it.”
And each time, you make it 3-6 weeks on Duolingo before you give up.
You blame yourself.
You think you’re not committed enough. Not disciplined enough.
But here’s what’s actually happening:
You’re starting Italian at the wrong energy threshold.
Let me break that down:
Every time you restart, you’re starting with HIGH motivation.
You’re excited. You’re optimistic. You’re thinking about Italy and espresso and finally being fluent.
So you build a practice that matches that HIGH energy:
- 30-minute study sessions on Duolingo
- Daily streaks
And for 3 weeks, you can maintain it… because you’re still riding that motivation wave.
But then life happens.
A busy week at work. You get sick etc
And suddenly, that 30 minute practice feels too hard.
So you skip a day.
Then two days.
Then a week.
And now you’re back to zero, thinking “I failed again.”
But you didn’t fail.
You built a practice that requires peak energy, and life doesn’t give you peak energy every day.
Here’s the mistake:
You’re designing your Italian practice for the BEST version of yourself.
The version that’s motivated, energised, and has 30 free minutes every day.
But that version of you only exists 30% of the time.
The other 70% of the time, you’re tired. Busy. Distracted.
You’ve based the goal around the dream version of yourself and so you quit.
Here’s the fix:
Don’t start Italian at your peak energy.
Start learning Italian that requires minimum energy.
This means:
Your baseline practice the thing you do EVERY day, no matter what has to be so small that you can do it on your worst day.
Not your best day…. Your WORST day.
When you’re exhausted.
What’s the Italian practice you could still do on that day?
That’s your base
Ps. Do you want a clearer, more effective way to learn Italian?
My Italian Flashcards & Learning Guides are made for adults who want practical Italian they can actually remember and use — even with a busy schedule.