Cuando tengo ganas de rendirme, recuerdo mis metas y sigo practicando.

When I feel like giving up, I remember my goals and keep practicing.

Breakdown of Cuando tengo ganas de rendirme, recuerdo mis metas y sigo practicando.

• yo: I
• mi: my
• y: and
• cuando: when
• practicar: to practice
• recordar: to remember
• la meta: the goal
• tener ganas de: to feel like
• rendirse: to give up
• seguir: to keep

Questions & Answers about Cuando tengo ganas de rendirme, recuerdo mis metas y sigo practicando.

What does “tener ganas de” literally mean, and how is it different from just saying “to want”?

Literally, tener ganas de means “to have desire to” or “to feel like (doing something)”.

• Tener ganas de + infinitive = to feel like doing something, to be in the mood to do something
  
  • Tengo ganas de dormir. = I feel like sleeping.
  • No tengo ganas de salir. = I don’t feel like going out.

It’s close to “to want”, but it often sounds:

• a bit more emotional / about your mood than a firm intention
• a bit softer than querer (to want).

So Cuando tengo ganas de rendirme is more like “When I feel like giving up” (an emotional impulse), not just “When I want to give up” as a clear decision.

What’s the difference between “tengo ganas de rendirme” and “quiero rendirme”?

Both can be translated as “I feel like giving up” or “I want to give up”, but they don’t sound the same.

• Tengo ganas de rendirme

  • Focuses on how you feel in that moment.
  • Often used for temporary impulses or moods.
  • Sounds a bit more emotional and a bit less strong than quiero.

• Quiero rendirme

  • More directly: “I want to give up.”
  • Sounds like a clearer decision or wish, stronger and more deliberate.

In this motivational sentence, tengo ganas de rendirme fits better because it suggests “when I feel tempted to give up”, not that you truly want to give up as a goal.

Why is it “rendirme” and not just “rendir”? What’s the role of “me”?

Spanish uses rendirse (reflexive) to mean “to give up / to surrender”:

• rendirse = to give up / to surrender
  
  • Me rindo. = I give up. / I surrender.
• rendir (non‑reflexive) usually means “to defeat / to exhaust / to yield” in other contexts:
  • El ejército rindió la ciudad. = The army surrendered the city (made it surrender).
  • Este trabajo me rinde mucho. = This job pays off a lot (yields a lot).

In rendirme:

• rendir = verb in the infinitive
• me = reflexive pronoun (myself)
• rendirme = to give *myself up → *to give up.

So tengo ganas de rendirme = I feel like giving up (myself).

Why is the pronoun attached like “rendirme”? Can I say “tengo ganas de me rendir”?

You cannot say “tengo ganas de me rendir”. That’s incorrect word order in Spanish.

With infinitives, reflexive / object pronouns normally attach to the end of the verb:

• rendirse → rendirme, rendirte, rendirse, rendirnos, rendirse
• Quiero rendirme. = I want to give up.
• Voy a rendirme. = I’m going to give up.
• Tengo ganas de rendirme. = I feel like giving up.

Correct options here are:

• tengo ganas de rendirme ✅
• me quiero rendir ✅ (pronoun before a conjugated verb)

But “tengo ganas de me rendir” ❌ is not grammatical.

Why is it “cuando tengo ganas” and not “cuando tenga ganas”? When do we use the subjunctive after “cuando”?

After cuando, you can use indicative or subjunctive, depending on what you mean.

• Indicative (tengo, recuerdo, sigo)
  Used for:

  • Habits / general truths
  • Repeated or usual situations

  Cuando tengo ganas de rendirme, recuerdo mis metas y sigo practicando.
  = Whenever I feel like giving up, I remember my goals and keep practicing.
  → General, habitual situation → indicative is correct.

• Subjunctive (tenga, recuerde, siga)
  Used when:

  • talking about a future situation not seen as habitual, or
  • expressing uncertainty, hope, commands, etc.

  Example:

  • Cuando tenga ganas de rendirme, recordaré mis metas.
    = When I feel like giving up (in the future), I will remember my goals.

Your sentence talks about what you generally do whenever that situation happens, so indicative (tengo ganas) is exactly right.

Could we use a past tense like “cuando tenía ganas de rendirme”? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you could say:

• Cuando tenía ganas de rendirme, recordaba mis metas y seguía practicando.

This uses the imperfect past (tenía, recordaba, seguía) and means:

• When I used to feel like giving up, I would remember my goals and keep practicing.
• Or: Whenever I felt like giving up (back then), I remembered my goals and kept practicing.

So:

• Present (tengo, recuerdo, sigo) → describes a current habit or general truth.
• Imperfect past (tenía, recordaba, seguía) → describes a past habit or repeated situation, often with a “used to / would” feeling in English.

Why is it “recuerdo mis metas” and not “me recuerdo mis metas”?

In Spanish:

• recordar algo = to remember something (direct object)
• recordarse de algo = to remember something (reflexive + de), but less common in many regions and often more colloquial.

In your sentence:

• mis metas is the direct object of recordar.
• So we just say recuerdo mis metas = I remember my goals.

If you use the reflexive form, it looks like this:

• Me acuerdo de mis metas. ✅ (common, especially in speech)
• But: Me recuerdo mis metas. ❌ sounds wrong in most dialects.

So recuerdo mis metas is the standard and correct non‑reflexive pattern with recordar.

Why is it “mis metas” without an article? Could we say “las metas” instead?

Possessive adjectives (mi, mis, tu, tus, su, sus, etc.) normally replace the article:

• mis metas = my goals
• Not los mis metas ❌

You could say las metas but it changes the nuance:

• mis metas = my goals (personal, specific to me)
• las metas = the goals (could be general goals, known from context, or goals shared by a group)

In this motivational context, mis metas feels more personal and is the natural choice.

What’s the difference between “meta” and other words like “objetivo” or “meta” vs “goal/aim” in English?

In this context, meta is well translated as “goal”.

Common options:

• meta

  • Very common for personal, academic, or professional goals.
  • E.g. mis metas de este año = my goals for this year.

• objetivo

  • Often a bit more formal or technical (business, projects, strategies), but also used in everyday speech.
  • E.g. nuestros objetivos de ventas = our sales targets.

In this sentence, mis metas suggests personal goals / long‑term aims, which fits the idea of motivation and perseverance.

Why is it “sigo practicando” instead of “sigo practicar”?

In Spanish, seguir (to continue / to keep on) is normally followed by the gerund (‑ando / ‑iendo form) when you mean “to keep doing something”:

• seguir + gerundio
  
  • Sigo practicando. = I keep practicing.
  • Sigue estudiando. = He/She keeps studying.
  • Seguimos intentando. = We keep trying.

So:

• sigo practicando ✅
• sigo practicar ❌ (not correct in this meaning)

The structure you want is:

• seguir + gerund = to keep doing X

Could we use “continúo practicando” instead of “sigo practicando”? Do they mean the same thing?

Yes, grammatically both are fine and very similar:

• Sigo practicando.
• Continúo practicando.

Both mean “I continue practicing / I keep practicing.”

Nuance:

• seguir + gerund is more common and more colloquial in everyday speech.
• continuar + gerund can sound a bit more formal or neutral, but it’s perfectly natural too.

In Latin American everyday speech, sigo practicando is probably the most typical choice in a sentence like this.