Welcome to

The Pending Subject Newsletter

Every Thursday you will receive:

• Tips to improve your English
• English language content to keep you in touch with the language
• A weekly challenge to keep you progressing
• A quote to inspire your learning

For the last edition of The Pending Subject for 2025, I wanted to leave you with some useful advice that you can implement right away when thinking about your future goals. Because your birthday, a Monday, the first day of the month, the first day back at work after your summer holiday (in Spain), and the 1st January are the most popular temporal landmarks that people use to set new goals. Whatever date you like to set new goals on, there are some things that you must consider and apply to give yourself the best chance of reaching your goal.

Firstly, a goal is not an idea. Of course it is not you say. But when many people state their goals they tell me ideas.

People tell me: I want to improve my fluency; I want to improve my vocabulary; I want my company to sell more; I want my team to communicate better; I want to improve my leadership.

These are all ideas. Not goals.

It is very simple to determine the difference between a goal and an idea. A goal answers two questions: How much? By when?

So the idea of improving your vocabulary becomes: I want to learn one word every day until 31/12/26.

Or, I want my company to sell more becomes: I want my company to sell 1000 more units/policies/bottles of wine/rooms/cars by 1/2/26.

Or, I want to improve my leadership becomes: I will ask my team every Friday to give my leadership a rating out of 10 until 31/12/26. If I don't get a 10, I will ask all of them what I need to do the following week to get a 10.

Then, what ultimately determines if you reach your goals will be your habits and systems: Do I have a system in place to learn one word every day? What are we going to do to sell more? How and when will I organise the Friday review meeting?

Until now you are the sum of your thoughts and actions. If you want to change and improve then you must change... your thoughts and actions. It's logical.

Below you will find more ways to set and reach your goals in 2026.

I hope you find the tips and content useful.

TIPS

1. Focus on what you want to do; not what you don't: It sounds obvious but your goal should state: By the end of January, I want to speak more confidently and not say "erm" in every sentence instead of: I don't want to feel nervous. Or, I don't want my team to hold unnecessary meetings becomes: Until 31/1/26 we will hold one one hour meeting per week which is fully prepared beforehand and the rest of our correspondence will be via memos/emails.
2. Break down your goals into manageable steps: In the example of learning one word per day, it sounds much more manageable for the conscious and subconscious ming to say that than I will learn 365 words. Or it sounds more realistic to say this week I will sell 10 more bottles of wine rather than 520 over the next year.
3. Or, break down your goals in one per quarter: You could focus on one goal per quarter instead of focusing on four goals at the same time. Q1 could focus on vocabulary acquisition. Q2 could be about implementing this vocabulary. Q3 could be focused on fluency. And Q4 could be spent increasing your language agility and how you react to different situations.
4. Define your how much/by when: This is a non-negotiable for any goal you or your company want to achieve.
5. Visualisations/affirmations: You need to see yourself having already achieved your goal. For example, if your goal is to give presentations in English by the end of June then you need to see yourself at the end of June confidently standing in front of a room full of people and talking to them. Hear your voice, their questions and you answering them. And affirm this to yourself too. Say: I am confidently speaking in English in front of a room full of people and I am loving it. This helps so much. It must work because all great professional athletes do this.
6. Systems/habits: Make sure you have the correct systems and habits in place. Do you have a notebook where you write your vocabulary? Do you write examples in English? Do you review your words every day?
7. Pivot: If something isn't working, try something else. Don't waste time on things that are not bringing results or on things that you cannot sustain. You won't reach your goals if you do, so pivot!

CONTENT

1. For a more visual explanation about how to set and reach your goals please see the video below...
2. And for more information about how to set and reach your goals see my LinkedIn page where I will be posting more tips and content until the end of the year.

​How to set and reach a goal.mov​

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A CHALLENGE

I respectfully challenge you to think about your goal, write it with the how much/by when method, and then think of all of the actions you can take to reach that goal. Remember to focus on the ones that are the easiest and the most effective. Then do it!

You just need to start...

(A great place to start is the 5-5-5 Progress Plan).

AN INSPIRING QUOTE

"If you can dream it, you can do it." Walt Disney.

Dream this Christmas about what could be in your future. Then, do it.

You just need to start...

If you really want to learn English, you can also read the How to (finally) learn English book:

​https://benpalmercoach.com/books/​

Out now on Amazon!

Find out more at https://benpalmercoach.com/​

Until January,

Happy holidays everyone!

Ben

PS: Keep learning!