This could be a really short article if I just answered the question directly: you cannot stay motivated to study Finnish all the time. The motivation wears off, sooner or later. This happens with pretty much any type of task that requires some kind of effort from you.
But here’s the “good” news: the real problem is NOT that you lack motivation to study.
The problem is that you are too lazy to study without motivation.
I’m being really frank here, I know. ‘Staying motivated’ is nowadays portrayed as something we should always aim for. And if we don’t feel motivated, we don’t get anything done anymore.
However, we will always have to do many things in life that we don't enjoy doing (looking at you, dishes). We can't be in a dopamine haze all the time, even though smartphones and social media try hard to get us hooked!
It feels like we have gone to the other extreme of ‘not demanding too much from ourselves’ – nowadays every moment should feel pleasant, we want this ‘instant gratification’ in everything we do.
And studying Finnish is a good example: you do understand how wonderful your life will be when you can be part of a group of Finnish friends, bond with your partner's family or find a job in Finland.
But studying Finnish at the moment doesn't bring you that much pleasure, so you procrastinate and get stuck.
And you blame it on lack of motivation.
Whereas the REAL trick is to study even when you’re not feeling motivated.
But how to actually do that?
In this article, you’ll learn how to manage your thinking in order to continue your Finnish studies even when you really don’t feel like it. We’ll also go through practical ways to train your brain to consider Finnish as part of your routine and not as a chore – helping you to keep going without relying on motivation.
Because the reason you’re not keep up with your Finnish studies is 99% psychological (in most cases), the solution also has to do with your mindset. A scary word, I know. What does it even mean?
Well, mindset is about how you think about things. And changing the way you think about your Finnish studies makes a huuuuuge difference – because it will also change how you act on your Finnish studies.
Let’s go through the 5 most powerful mindset shifts you can do to stay in your study routine even when your motivation is long gone. Don’t feel like you have to apply all of these tips at once. Just start with one and see how it goes!
This is so powerful. Often (I’ve done this so many times...and still do!) we tell ourselves that we’ll just wait to “feel like it” because then studying will be nicer and more effective.
But if you’re always waiting for that “feeling”, you’ll end up waiting FOREVER.
Not feeling like studying does NOT mean you should not study.
And planning on not feeling like studying makes your brain go “it’s my study time – I don’t feel like it – that means I will study”.
The “dip” is the moment when your motivation is gone, but you don’t yet have the results you wished for.
Most people quit when they’re in the dip.
However, the ones who get results – you can see examples of my students if you scroll all the way down here – are the ones who continue through that dip.
Because when you keep studying for long enough, you will see results.
We all have our go-to excuses – the ones we use most often when we talk ourselves out of doing something.
“I don’t have time.”
“I deserve to rest.”
“I’m too tired.” <---- This is definitely my favourite excuse!
By understanding what your go-to excuses are, you can learn to tell your brain to shut up, and follow your study plans!
Sometimes we do this thing when we’re kind of waiting for the perfect circumstances to study, and if our criteria are not met, we skip it altogether.
“Oh but I only have 20 minutes now, I can’t do my normal 30-minute session so it’s not worth studying at all.”
Wrong!
Even a 5-minute session is better than nothing, because it exposes your brain to Finnish AND keeps you in your mostly-daily routine.
Another way the all-or-nothing thinking can manifest is the “I skipped a day so I’ll start again on Monday”.
Again, wrooong. We don’t wait for Monday, there’s nothing magical in Mondays – just continue normally the next day.
Often we skip our study sessions because the cost of studying seems higher than the cost of not studying.
Let me explain: the pain you feel when you study, when you’re tired or struggle with a video, seems stronger than the pain of skipping your studies and not progressing in Finnish.
So here you need to think about the pain of not being able to speak Finnish – everything you’re missing out on because of that: a better job, a deeper relationship with your in-laws, fun dinner conversations with your friends… Really feel the pain of FOMO (=fear of missing out)!
That will quickly make 20 minutes of Finnish feel like worth the time and energy investment…😉
Now that you’ve learned about how to change your thinking around your Finnish studies, you need a way to apply it into your life and study routine. Here are a few tips that will train your brain to consider your study sessions as part of your daily and weekly routine, which makes it easier to stick to it!
If your plan is to “study 30 minutes 5 days a week”, you’ll quickly start to skip first Monday, then Tuesday, then you only have 5 days left of the week, but you can’t on Friday… And you end up studying only half of what you planned.
But if you know exactly when you’ll study each day and week, it fits your calendar and your life, it will be much easier to stick to it.
If you’re a Finnish Me: Understand student, I explain this in more detail inside the ‘Goal-setting exercise’ you’ll find in the Monthly calls section of the course.
Our brains want to preserve energy, which is why we often do things the same way every day.
Think about your morning routine for example: you don’t have to decide whether you have your breakfast or get dressed first – you just work on autopilot.
The same thing applies to studying Finnish. It is easier to make it part of your routine if you do it at the same time every day.
One student of mine said he always studies at the end of his lunch break – no questions, no second-guessing, just following the routine. Try it and you’ll notice that it really works!
I tend to recommend studying at least a half an hour per day (although I’m thinking of reducing this recommendation to 20 min because I’ve seen amazing results from students who only do 20 minutes per day).
30 minutes might sound like a long time to sit down and focus on Finnish, especially as we have dishes to do, dogs to walk and homework to finish.
If 20 or 30 minutes does not fit in your life at the moment, start with just 10 minutes. As I said before, it’s better than nothing!
And once it’s comfortably part of your routine, increase it first to 15 minutes. Then 20. Then even more if you like!
I hope I’ve managed to explain why relying on motivation is not going to help you get fluent in Finnish, and what to do instead to see consistent progress.
If you apply this advice and still keep falling off the wagon, it could be that you are scared of studying and not seeing progress – which would mean that you are incapable or stupid. This is why you rather skip your studies.
But I’m telling you: it does not mean that.
You might just need a bit more time to progress.
You might just need a proper study strategy and the right material.
You might just need someone else to point out how much you’ve progressed (we can be so blind to our own capabilities!)
If that’s you, I invite you to watch my free video class full of tips for what to focus on in your Finnish studies.
You’ll also unlock a special invite for my online course Finnish Me that will give you the right strategy, material and support to get to Finnish fluency with the least amount of time and effort!
Published on 6 March 2025.