What is your ideal in speaking a foreign language

I grew up in the time of the Soviet Union. Our favorite television series in that time was "17 Moments of Spring". The series portrayed the exploits of Maxim Isaev, a Soviet spy operating in Nazi Germany under the name Max Otto von Stierlitz. He spoke German so well that nobody would guess that he was Russian. The film was so popular in the Soviet Union that city streets were empty during the showing and the crime level dropped almost to zero.

I was amazed by Isaev's ability to speak German so much that I decided to learn the language exactly on the same level as him.

That's why later when I didn't try to learn one hundred German words or one thousand or ten thousand, I tried to learn ALL of them. And I didn't try to remember them only until my next test or exam in German, but to remember them forever.

I think it was my strongest motivational factor that helped me not to be lazy and to derive the maximum benefit from the learning process.

What is your ideal in mastering languages? A famous polyglot? A singer? A spy like in my case? The better your ideal is, the more motivated you are.