12 days ago, what were you doing? Me? I was doing pretty much what I'm doing now. I'm even in the same argument I was having with someone 12 days ago. I'm still trying to complete the exact same work projects. Still haven't tidied my desk. That bit of DIY still needs doing. You know what I mean.

The point is, 12 days is almost no time at all. So what if, in the next 12 days, you did something really rather interesting? Something that gave you an asset, something interesting to talk about, something that could find you new friends, save you money, and might even get you promotion at work.

I'm talking about learning Spanish. I know that's perhaps a little off the wall, but stick with me.

Spanish is one of the top four languages on the planet, spoken by 400 million people. That's 1 person in every 16, worldwide .. you're bound to meet some of those. Spanish speaking countries are culturally rich, interesting places.

Learning a language sets you free. It breaks geographic boundaries, lets you roam more widely while on holiday, connects you to new people, and if you can prove to yourself you can do this .. what else can you do in 12 days? Imagine how empowered you'll feel having completed it.

So here's the challenge. Get together with some mates (or you can happily do it alone) and carve out maybe an hour each day for the next 12 days. Mark every day with the lesson numbers and mark the twelfth day to celebrate. Then, commit. Say it: I will learn Spanish in 12 days.

The 'Learn Spanish in 12 days' course isn't complicated, you just need to be able to read, so you can do it in your commute, in your lunchbreak, just before you go to sleep, or while your partner's watching a tv program you don't want to watch. It's downloadable right now, so you can print out each lesson separately and keep it in your back pocket, then use up those odd five minutes here and there through the day.

After 12 days you'll be able to speak Spanish, but more than that. The beautiful thing about this course is the really solid foundation it gives you.

You know how it feels to be a novice at something. You're tentative about what you've done in case you've missed something that's obvious to everyone else. You don't want to make a fool of yourself. That won't happen with this course. Because it gives you a really strong foundation, after 12 days you feel like you do know all the core things you need. You can take Spanish in your stride. What you learn after, whether it's from hearing some conversation in a village market on holiday, from watching a Spanish film, or if you decide to study it further, it will all hang neatly onto your 12-day foundation. So not only is the course fast, it makes future learning more efficient too.

I'd love to hear how you get along. So what are you waiting for? Download the course, get together with some friends, and in 12 days, let me know how it went. I might even write about you next time.