Don't wait any longer to start enjoying the good stuff

Welcome to September: A new month. A new school year is here. A new season is coming.

We're here, in this moment. Still breathing, through the smoke in the air (California) or through our masks (COVID-19).

The question I have for you right now is...

Are you enjoying the journey?

Or are you waiting.

Waiting for this year to be over. Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for a change in the White House. Waiting for whatever is causing you stress, whatever anxiety you feel, whatever it is you're worrying about, to go away first?!

Coaching, Your Best Bilingual LifeNikki BannisterSeptember 4, 2020Social Distancing, Social Media, Positivity, Authenticity, Priorities, LifeComment

How to know if you're doing it right

Do you ever feel like people get the wrong impression of you?

Last week, one of my closest friends told me, "Oh, I feel like I know everything you've been up to lately," because she has seen my stories on Instagram, which I tend to use to highlight any time I spend in nature or exercising. This isn’t really a ‘strategy’…it’s just what I tend to take pictures of on any given day!

Her comment struck me as particularly weird from someone I thought should know better - she knows some of my most personal struggles - than to think that was all I'd been "up to lately", and yet...

I get that a lot - especially in our newly 'socially distant' world.

Coaching, Your Best Bilingual LifeNikki BannisterAugust 28, 2020Social Distancing, Social Media, Positivity, Authenticity, Priorities, LifeComment

Living Your Best Bilingual Life...in the time of COVID-19

Finally, with my 4-Step Guide to Living Your Best Bilingual Life, I found a way to happily marry my two lines of work and offer it to new students: a way to reach your language goals, and how to apply the work on a deeper, whole-life level.

Then, two days after I sent the last step of the guide out to the NBLC eCommunity, disaster struck: lightning and thunder storms lit up California in the midst of a record August heat-wave and sparked myriad fires across the state.

On top of the coronavirus pandemic, ongoing calls for racial justice and reform, and an emotional presidential election, 2020 had brought us devastating wildfires, evacuations, and power outages, months ahead of “schedule.”

Around me, I heard people say, “Nothing can surprise me anymore.” A friend told me she was ready to drive 20+ hours across multiple state lines just to get away from what she saw as “the cherry on top, but in a bad way.”

I realized the evolution needed to continue, because how can we talk about living your ‘best bilingual life’ in the midst of the sh*tstorm that is 2020?!

This is gonna get dirty...

Read anything good lately?

Anything...scandalous?

I have always been a big reader, thanks in large part to my mom's "No TV in the house" rule. [To be clear, yes, we owned a TV, but it was only used for watching movies.]

Books were always a huge form of entertainment, and as a side bonus, they also helped me to build a tremendous vocabulary from early on.

As a language coach, I (and many other teachers) highly encourage reading in your second language because it is the number ONE way to build your vocabulary.

Your Best Bilingual Life, RecommendationsNikki BannisterFebruary 11, 2020Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, Books, El Club de Libros, Book ClubComment

What's Your Budget?

“What’s your budget?” The silver-haired man with the posh British accent, Vincent, asked me.

I smiled at him confidently. “No budget. I’d like to pay cash for whatever car I end up choosing.”

I saw surprise register faintly in his eyes. He held eye contact, unblinkingly, and I noticed how much his pupils had constricted in the middle of his pale blue eyes. They were like tiny, watery-black pinpricks looking back at me.

“You are aware that…” he paused, a hesitation small and polite, “…some of our cars can run as high as one hundred twenty thousand dollars?”

I smiled again. “Yes. I’m interested in trying quite a few.”

Your Best Bilingual LifeNikki BannisterJanuary 17, 2020Vision, Dream, Mindset, Beginners Comment

How Much Can Change in a Year

I have changed so much over the past year, both inwardly and outwardly. I can’t wait to live out more of my best bilingual life in 2020.

I feel like I experienced so much of my life, like I was TRULY ME, in the last six months of 2019 that I lived more than I have in the last five years combined, ALL while doing what I love.

Are you living your life, really living it, not just letting it pass by? Do you feel like you get to be fully YOU?

What will your best life look like in 2020?!