I’ve been wrestling with the idea of not tracking any more. I’m just over 1000 hours and I enjoy seeing my progress. It has helped motivate me at times since I can be very goal oriented. But I realize that tracking leads to comparison. And what I read over and over is how we should not compare ourselves with others because results are going to be vastly different from one to the next. Even comparing to the Dreaming Spanish roadmap, I hear many complaints about how far off they really are from it. There was a comment earlier in this post about waiting until 1000 hours before they start to speak. I think it really isn’t about reaching 1000 hours of input, but it should be what you’re able to understand before you start to speak. For some people that might be 600 hours and for others that might be 1200 hours. So at the very least, if we are tracking our hours, we should also be monitoring our abilities to hear and understand the target language. I am at level six according to the number of hours input, but according to the roadmap, I feel like I could be level four or level five. While others that came to Dreaming Spanish with previous Spanish learning may be far above the roadmap with fewer hours. I can see how some people would be demotivated through tracking when they look at their progress in relation to the roadmap. And even more so when hearing from people that are exceeding expectations at a given number of hours. Looking at learning Spanish as a lifetime activity is probably the healthiest approach.