A goal like that is more of a guideline to keep you on track, you can still take days off. The point is though it's concrete and will train you to be a better writer because you'll be writing regularly. It will also train you to get over writers block. It's amazing how often long term endeavours/projects derail at the first minor hurdle. If you can train yourself to keep going and get past the minor hurdles then you're more likely to get past major hurdles as they present themselves. Perhaps you'll even stop noticing the little hurdles completely, or even better start to see them as to fresh and exciting challenges.

As another example, imagine quitting smoking. It's obviously a difficult and unenjoyable process for a lot of people yet I doubt anyone who has successfully quit regrets its. The same could be said for becoming vegetarian, exercise regimes etc.

nadiatims Wrote:As another example, imagine quitting smoking. It's obviously a difficult and unenjoyable process for a lot of people yet I doubt anyone who has successfully quit regrets its. The same could be said for becoming vegetarian, exercise regimes etc.

Avoiding tobacco today is a doable task. Then, every morning wake up and decide again if you are a non-smoker. In the unlikely event that you wake up and rationalize smoking is a positive way to get through your day, go ahead.
Contemplating the difficulties of a long-term commitment, especially if one has attempted and failed in the past, is overwhelming and perhaps why few are successful.

The same thought process can be applied to diet and exercise. Yesterday I might have lived an unhealthy lifestyle, but today (repeat daily) I am a different person and will improve my health ever so slightly by the end of the day.

I'm having somewhat the same feeling.
I don't seem to understand really simple native material even though i've got some grammar and kanji down (arround frame 1060 with some more kanji learnt through other means, some on yomi etc) untill I start looking stuff in a jisho.org.
This takes away all the fun, there are many many jukugo, they seem to be popping out all the time and many of them seem to be almost exact synonims, etc.
I don't know if japanese is for me anymore.
My knowledge only serves for partial understanding, untill those 3 kanji jukugo appear, when i feel like scrap these japanese bullshit, just go get it translated somewhere

damicore Wrote:I'm having somewhat the same feeling.
I don't seem to understand really simple native material even though i've got some grammar and kanji down (arround frame 1060 with some more kanji learnt through other means, some on yomi etc) untill I start looking stuff in a jisho.org.
This takes away all the fun, there are many many jukugo, they seem to be popping out all the time and many of them seem to be almost exact synonims, etc.
I don't know if japanese is for me anymore.
My knowledge only serves for partial understanding, untill those 3 kanji jukugo appear, when i feel like scrap these japanese bullshit, just go get it translated somewhere

Can you give some idea of what native materials you're looking at and how much grammar you've done? When you say you've done some kanji, do you literally mean just kanji or do you mean vocabulary?

i mean some vocabulary and kanji, both of them. But many mostly kanji?
Grammar i get up to passive form I guess you could say?

Native material like freaking child-oriented POKEMON BLACK. The turn down are the huge ammounts of vocab and the fact that they're written in kanji does not help a little bit.

Well I wouldn't class pokemon as 'really simple native material', just because it's for children doesn't necessarily mean it's easy. All I can suggest is if the difficulty means it's not enjoyable you should probably find some other native material. I don't know that kanji alone will help with reading although it could help with getting a general idea.

You could try the reading section in this thread. If you want to continue with Pokemon, I found a partial script here which might be helpful.

damicore Wrote:Native material like freaking child-oriented POKEMON BLACK. The turn down are the huge ammounts of vocab and the fact that they're written in kanji does not help a little bit.

No matter how many kanji you know or grammar you know, unless you have the vocab to back things up, you won't be able to read. Even if you do, there will be a trial period in where you feel like an idiot.

I haven't done RTK, but I do have about a 1.5k vocabulary, and I struggle in pokemon Black. This one is more orientated towards teens over the normal child base, thus the addition of kanji and the older characters.

Don't beat yourself up over it. Enjoy what you can read, and be happy with the small victories. Eventually they build up.