When people first contact me and tell me that they need to improve their English my first question is usually ‘Why?’. Many people just have a general desire to be able to communicate in English as part of their general education but the majority of people need it for their work. I suspect this is a pattern that is repeated all around the world. Now we could (and I normally do) ask the question ‘Why?’ a few more times, like a child, or like the ‘5 Whys’ system used in the Toyota Production System for finding out what the real problem is, and its solution. Another way to look at the question would be asking ‘What if….?’ on a repeated basis.
For example:
‘What if I spoke better English? - I could do a better job.’
‘What if I could do a better job? - I could get a promotion.’
‘What if I got a promotion? - I could get more money.’
‘What if I got more money? - I could afford a better school for my kids.’
‘What if……… etc. - as many times as you like.
Try it for your own situation. By working through this process you can start to motivate yourself away from the paradigm of ‘I don’t have the time’ and towards the paradigm of ‘This is really important (so I’m going to reassess my priorities of how I spend my time).’