If you find yourself feeling down and discouraged about your CELPIP score or your slow immigration process here in Canada, then this episode is for you...

In this episode of the Speak English Fearlessly podcast, I'll share my recent struggles with transitioning course platforms for the CELPIP Success School, detailing the challenges and frustrations faced.

I'll emphasizes the importance of acknowledging feelings of discouragement, seeking support from others, and taking small, consistent steps toward goals.

I'll conclude with encouragement from personal experiences, practical advice for overcoming obstacles, and a spiritual perspective to uplift you.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Struggles

02:08 Welcome to Speak English Fearlessly

02:49 Understanding Your Frustration

05:33 The Importance of Support

08:59 Taking Small Steps Forward

12:49 Spiritual Encouragement

17:22 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

These past few weeks have been frustrating ones for me. I've mentioned in a few episodes that I'm in the middle of a major transition from one course platform to another one for the CELPIP Success School. Over the past month or so specifically, I've been doing a lot of work moving content from the old space, where I was before, to the new one.

It has been way slower than I hoped it would be. It has been way more frustrating than I thought it would be. And it has been way more difficult than I thought it would be. In short, nothing, nothing, nothing has gone as I hoped it would. I've lost hours of time on this project. A few times working past midnight to try and solve a few of the more annoying problems that were occurring.

It seemed that no matter what I tried, I could not get my website to work properly. Now I must confess that there have been many times over these past few weeks that I felt like completely giving up. I bet you can relate. I bet you know exactly what it feels like to be working hard on something or towards an objective, but you can never seem to achieve what you're working towards.

It feels so terribly discouraging, doesn't it? And if that's you today, if you're the one feeling frustrated, Discouraged and just like giving up, then I want you to sit back and relax, put in your earbuds, put your phone in your pocket if that's what you're listening to this podcast episode on and enjoy today's episode.

I made it just for you.

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Well, hello there and welcome to the Speak English Fearlessly podcast. This is the podcast for motivated English learners who want to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam. I also love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people, people just like you, who are working towards becoming fluent in English so we can learn from their experiences together.

Who am I? My name is Aaron Nelson and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I now help students prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes.

So like I was saying before in the intro, if that's you today, if you're the one feeling frustrated and discouraged and like you just want to give up everything, then I want you to know that I see you. Not literally, of course, but what that means, what I see you means is that I understand and I'm with you.

I had a friend once say to me, after I explained a tough situation that I was in to him, he said, Aaron, I'm in your shoes. Don't worry. It felt so good to hear him say that, that I wasn't alone and that he knew what I was trying to say and that he was with me. I hope I can be that a little bit for you today.

First, I don't know what has you feeling down today. Maybe it's the long process you're working through for your Canadian PR, or maybe it's your repeated attempts to get that right score on the CELPIP, or maybe it's something entirely different.

But whatever it is, I want to say to you this. It's okay to feel discouraged sometimes. The many people I know personally who are working towards those objectives, their PR or the CELPIP, have been pushing towards those goals, often for months and years. And instead of making progress, they've often told me they feel like they're sliding backwards sometimes.

So yeah, know that it's okay to feel discouraged. It's okay to feel like you want to give up. It's okay to feel like you just rather go back home. I'm in your shoes, my friend. I get you. If I were in the same room together with you, I'd offer you a coffee or a tea and invite you to just sit down to talk about what you're going through with me.

And that leads me to my second offering for you today. First, it's okay to feel down about the many obstacles that you're facing and how hard it's been trying to overcome them. That feeling of discouragement just makes you, well, it makes you human. Everybody feels that. I feel that sometimes. And if I were to try to tell you that, you know, you just gotta pull up your socks and work harder, that just wouldn't be real.

It wouldn't be real. Everybody feels down sometimes and it's okay to feel down. But here's my second thing that I want to offer you. Who do you have around you that would lend you their ears for a bit? Remember I was offering if I could, if I was there with you, I'd offer to get you a coffee or a tea or a cup of milk if you wanted that and sit down and I've asked you all about your situation of what was going on.

Who do you have around you that could lend you their ears for a bit? You know, when you're going through a rough time, it's so helpful to have someone around you that you can talk things through with. Why? Perspective. It can be pretty difficult to see straight. when you only have your own perspective on things.

Sometimes getting the point of view of a trusted friend can help you see things differently and not getting that point of view change can lead you to actually giving up before you should. This actually just happened this past week with a coworker of my wife. This coworker had only been in Canada a short time, like I think it was like a month or so, and she was struggling hard.

and quietly to adapt to the culture and her work environment. And when I say quietly, I mean, she didn't let anybody else know what she was going through. And because she was alone with her struggles, she finally decided to buy a plane ticket back home. She gave up. But do you want to know something crazy?

She already had her PR. She already had a job. It just wasn't what she was trained to do, which can be a common situation here and very discouraging. She felt stuck at her job, like she was doing far less than what she was actually capable of doing, but she didn't talk to anyone about it. When my wife found out she was leaving, she reached out and took her for coffee.

My wife knows a whole bunch about what it's like to work at a job that you're overqualified for. She knows how hard it is to get your PR. It took her a few years to get hers. And she had the different perspective that her co worker needed to hear. But unfortunately, I think it was too late. The decision was already made and she went back home.

But if this lady had reached out for support earlier, I am sure things would have gone differently. So don't do that to yourself. If you're feeling stuck or frustrated or discouraged, don't stay there alone. Talk about it with someone you trust. See if you can look for someone who has already attained what you're looking for or working towards and ask if you can share what you're going through.

I bet you they have a similar story. It might not be identical to yours, but it will have many of the same features as yours, like frustration and discouragement and feeling at times like giving up was their best and only option. Listen to their story. I bet you'll see that you're not alone and that they too faced similar challenges just like you and found a way through.

The third thing that I want to offer you is this small steps forward, even microscopic ones, small tiny ones are still steps forward and they add up over time if you keep keep taking them. I'm working through the book Atomic Habits with a few students and we just finished talking about this quote. This is what it says, and I quote, "We do not change by snapping our fingers and deciding to be someone entirely new.

We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit. We are continually undergoing. microevolutions of the self." End quote, and that's by James Clear, and it's from the book Atomic Habits, and that quote was talking about changing your habits and your behaviors, but it also applies to what you are working towards, be it your Canadian PR, your citizenship, your CELPIP score, a stable job, though we want it to be.

These things don't just appear with a snap of our fingers, but wouldn't it be great if they would happen that way that you just snap your fingers or press a button and you just get what you're trying to go after? But sadly, no. And I know you know this. You really do have to put in hard, sometimes long, work towards those things.

And very, very often, those things that matter so very much require us to take. small steps, little by little, small step by small step towards them. It takes a great deal of patience and persistence and pushing through failure, sometimes multiple failures, to get to where you're trying to go. So please don't give up.

Keep pushing forward. So just to review, The three things that I'm trying to offer you today is this number one know that it's completely normal to feel like giving up. It's normal to feel discouraged when you've been pushing and pushing you just can't seem to get what you're trying to go after. It's normal to feel down.

It's normal to get discouraged. It's normal to throw your hands up in the air and just want to go back home again. It's normal. Number two, make sure that you're talking to someone about what you're going through. Don't give up on your dream. Don't give up on your goal of trying to achieve the score that you're looking for on the CELPIP, for example,

don't give up working at a job that you're maybe overqualified for before you've had time. to work towards it. Sometimes you just need another person's perspective. And if you can find someone who has gone before you, someone who has already achieved maybe the things that you are working towards and getting their perspective on things, it can really help you to realize that you're not alone.

And it can also help you to realize, hey, if they did it, I can do it too. I just need to keep pushing. And finally, the last point that I was talking about was remember that many of the important things in life that we try to attain require us to take little small steps over and over again towards them, pushing through and persisting through failure, multiple failures by getting back up and trying again.

And finally, the last thing that I want to leave you with is a Bible verse. I get a lot of my inspiration from the Bible, and I want to share one of my favorite psalms with you. It's in Psalm 121 verse 1, and this is what it says. "I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth."

And my intent here is not to preach at you, but to encourage you spiritually as well. I know exactly what it's like to have done and tried everything, everything in my ability and my power to solve a situation, only to have all that hard work and effort not be enough. That verse that I just shared with you, the one that says, I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. That verse has been so encouraging to me because it reminds me to lean on the one who can do the impossible, who can pick up where I can't reach, who can do what I simply can't. Looking around at mountains, that seems a bit strange, right? But in ancient times, and even in modern times, the most important places to look for and try to get to, if you're about to go to war, if you're about to fight a battle, was to go to the high ground, was to try to get to a mountain.

But the writer of that Psalm, looked to the one who made the mountains and the heavens for his help. And that's what I want to leave you with today. Now, I don't know what you think about God, but I want to encourage you to talk about what you're facing with Him today. The maker of heaven and earth can certainly do what you can't.

I've seen him do it in my own life many times. So I believe for you, my friend, that he can help you with what you're facing today. And I don't know if you'd think it was weird, but I'd like to offer a prayer for you. If you'd mind. I'm just going to pray for you Jesus. Because I know that you know this person who's listening right now.

I know that you can see exactly where they are. I know that you can see if they're sitting down in their car, if they're walking to work, if they're exercising, if they're working, and they're just trying and trying to get a certain objective. Lord, you know what that objective is. You know what they're working so hard towards, but more than anything, I know you know the frustration, and the discouragement and the heaviness that they're carrying inside, because it just feels like no matter how hard they try, they can't get it.

Lord, I want to ask that you would bless them today, that you bless this, this person who's sitting here with me today, and that you'd fill them with your peace, that you fill them with their comfort, with your comfort and with your great strength. And today, I want to ask that you would show My friend, that you would show this one listening to me today, who's maybe praying here with me today.

I asked that you would show the way forward and I ask that you would do what they can't do. If there is a document that they're waiting for, if there's a government worker who needs to sign something for their PR, or if they're just waiting for something to come through that's just not coming through, if they're preparing hard for the CELPIP exam or some other exam that just feels like no matter what they try, they just can't get the score they're looking for, they just can't get the score they're looking for.

Lord, I just want to ask that you'd fill them with strength and courage and hope today, and that you would do far more than what they are able to, and that you'd make a way for them where there seems to be no way. Thank you, Lord, because nothing is impossible for you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So if you're still listening, And, uh, I hope I didn't freak you out by praying with you today.

I hope you didn't mind me doing that with you today. And I hope that you'll come back again next Tuesday. for the next edition of this podcast. But yeah, thanks for listening. If you've made it all the way through, I hope you have a wonderful day. And if you'd like to reach out to me, if you'd like to tell me what you've thought about today's podcast, I would love to hear from you.

You could write me at aaron@celpipsuccess.Com and let me know what you thought. I would love to hear from you. I'll write you back or you can go. to my website and fill out a quick survey. Let me know what you think about the podcast and what I can do to make it better. Just go to celpipsuccess.com/survey.

And yeah, let me know. I would love to hear what you thought of this podcast today. And if there's something that I can do to serve you better going forward, I want to know, I want to make this podcast, something that helps. you. So please do share your opinion with me. Again, just as a review, you can go to celpipsuccess.com/survey, or you can send me an email at Aaron, aaron@celpipsuccess. Com. And I would love to hear from you. Take care and have a great week. And thank you for listening.