Remember when you were in high school and you tried a little bit of Spanish and a little bit of French and a little bit of ... every language?

What do you get after a little bit of French? Easy- a few words and a couple of catch phrases. For example, I can say in French, "I am the state" and in German, "Thank you" but that's about it.

No ability to speak a full sentence or read long passages of text. Just a little bit...

Unfortunately, a little bit of anything is worth basically nothing.

Real language assimilation takes practice and a lot of it. The best way to learn a new language? Go to the country and immerse yourself in its culture, tradition and language. Read something a hundred times. Say it two hundred times. Then do it again and again.

What does language learning have to do with career advancement? I thought of this when (just last week) I went with my kids to execute a 7/11 run for slurpees. The dry cleaners next door had this sign and I just had to take a picture:

What's great about the sign is that they repeated the exact same thing three times. You can't help but understand that they provide a high quality service at the lowest price.

Clear message, repeated several times.

Consider your work week- do you have repeated habits and rituals that make you more productive? What can you do TODAY that you will want to repeat tomorrow? Are you willing to be seen as eccentric in order to rock your productivity?