An Uncommon Fire — Will Mannon

You have an uncommon fire within. A vision for what life will look like when you speak fluent Chinese. From the moment you set foot in Shanghai, you realized you are on fire for this language. Learning it, speaking it with others, connecting with others in a foreign tongue. The rush of losing yourself in the flow of a conversation in Mandarin. What else can compare?!

You have a singular desire to learn to speak Chinese fluently. You will achieve this goal. That’s what’s so exciting about your vision: When you spend five hours per day over the next two years speaking Chinese and practicing Chinese, you will reach your goal. You will be able to speak fluently. Let me repeat: you will get there. Five hours per day for the next two years. You’ll still be 29. And you’ll speak fluent Chinese. At that point, a world of opportunity awaits. Who knows what could come next?

It’s impossible to say. But your true inner fire isn’t for external outcomes. They will be nice, and they will be many. But the greatest gift, the most precious outcome will be the joy you feel along the way. Think of how you feel after you finish an hour of Chinese class: filled to the brim with joy and excitement. A rush of feeling within your chest and throughout your body. A felt, embodied certainty that this is what you’re meant to do.

Think of the feeling as you sit for an hour and listen to a Chinese podcast: such a rich flow state that you begin to lose your sense of self. Just pure focus on the words filling your ears, surfing the perfect wave of known and unknown, certainty and certainty. You ride that wave with skillful balance. You’re good at it. And you love it. It’s what you do.

In a world designed to keep us shallow, I want to acquire a skill and make it deep. I want to master the skill of speaking Chinese. I want to devote my time, energy, and attention to something that fills me with joy and makes my life rich.

I love speaking Chinese the way a mountain biker loves hitting the trail, the way musicians love writing a song, the way a basketball player gets on a hot streak. I feel alive as the words tumble out of my mouth, as I listen and understand, as I learn new words that I’ll use forever. No one else on the planet knows exactly what my flow state feels like when I’m speaking Chinese. Constant learning, endless communication, the perfect level of challenge. I feel lucky to have found an activity that brings me so much joy.

No one has ever made me learn Chinese. It has always been my choice, something that I’ve been drawn to on my own, something I inherently love. Love for its own sake. In a world that constantly tells us how to be, and who to be, I am taking a stand and saying, “Hey world, listen up. This is who I am! I, Will Mannon, practice Chinese five hours per day. I, Will Mannon, speak fluent Chinese.”

Nothing can stop me. It’s the Age of Abundance, baby! Information rests a thumb tap away. The stakes for how we spend our attention are higher than ever, and yet we toss our attention around more flippantly than ever before.

Not me. When I study Chinese, it’s Christmas every day. Dòngchálì ! Kuàngjià ! What’ll be waiting under the tree tomorrow morning?! It’s an infinite game with infinite gifts, and infinite room for creativity. A life of infinite learning, infinite opportunity, infinite connections awaits.

Five hours per day for the next two years. And I’ll be able to say: “I, Will Mannon, speak fluent Chinese.”