Shadowing-Übung: HOW TO STOP OVERTHINKING (& START DOING) - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

Lektion wird erstellt...
1
If you struggle with taking action because you overthink absolutely everything
2
and you watch other people easily work on their plans without agonizing over every single step, believe me, there is nothing wrong with you.
3
There is a cycle of overthinking happening in your brain
4
that is actually trying to protect you
5
and in this video we're going to learn how to work around it so we can finally pursue our goals with ease.
6
My name is Olga, I just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where I studied computation
7
and cognitive science
8
and after the last four years of studying how the human
9
mind works this is genuinely one of the most interesting things i've learned about
10
there's a common misconception that you overthink
11
because you're just very analytical your brain works just harder than
12
other people's you think too much you're just way too smart
13
and obviously this framing feels kind of good because it turns a problem
14
that people have into kind of like a compliment
15
but imagine a situation
16
so let's take an example from my life i for the longest time wanted to become a youtuber
17
and start a youtube channel but instead of actually creating a youtube channel i spent months
18
and years thinking about what gear i have to get what
19
sort of editing software to use what would i even make videos about
20
so i was just thinking and thinking and thinking about it
21
and overthinking every single step that i have to take to actually start a youtube channel.
22
So explain to me how exactly does overthinking help us here?
23
Because I cannot see why overthinking, over worrying, over researching can be helpful because it basically delays the moment
24
when you actually have to take action and see the result.
25
So if overthinking is not helping, why does our brain keep doing it instead of just taking action?
26
Well because taking action means that you have to face uncertainty
27
and our brains hate uncertainty when you're recording the first video you don't know
28
if it's going to be good you don't know
29
if people are going to judge you you don't know
30
if the idea you've been planning is going to survive contact with reality
31
and our brain hates that uncertainty our brain basically treats
32
that uncertainty as a real threat instead of letting you take action
33
and find out what is going to happen which would actually resolve
34
that uncertainty it offers you a deal your brain says oh
35
do not do this scary thing yet do not do this
36
research a little bit more think about it a little bit more analyze it a little bit more oh
37
and then we're going to have certainty then we're going to know what is the best course of action
38
and your mind creates something that i personally like to call like a certainty loop
39
so first you're faced of the decision or a goal
40
or a plan that has an uncertain outcome and
41
that uncertainty it feels very threatening
42
so in order to resolve the uncertainty you start to overthink you start to overanalyze compare options do planning
43
and that gives you temporary relief from the uncertainty
44
but the certainty never actually arrives because you cannot be certain about an outcome before you've actually lived it.
45
So the uncertainty comes back and it only will be resolved once you're actually done with the action, done with the plan.
46
A researcher named Thomas Borkovitz at Penn State University studied this problem for decades
47
and he actually found out that overthinking functions as emotional avoidance.
48
When you research and you analyze and worry, you're actually engaging with the problem at arm's length,
49
and that protects you from the actual feeling of uncertainty.
50
And there's another reason why this overthinking loop is so hard to escape.
51
So there's a phenomenon in psychology called the Zegarnik effect and it's
52
when your brain treats every unfinished task every unmade decision every unsent message is basically an open tab
53
so if you were to imagine your brain as a browser
54
and you're clicking through different things you're thinking about many different
55
ideas every single unmade decision would stay as an open tab in your brain
56
and you would always see it on the on the top of the browser for example you know
57
when you receive an important email but you do not immediately reply to it
58
and then in the middle of the day you're going to
59
keep remembering about replying to this email in the middle of
60
a conversation with someone in the shower taking a walk you're always going to be getting reminded by your brain
61
that oh there's an email i have to reply to there's an email i have to reply to
62
and it's never going to actually leave you until you go and reply to that email.
63
And it keeps running in the background
64
because it is your brain's way of making sure that important things do not get forgotten.
65
So when you're stuck in the certainty loop, you never actually act on anything.
66
You keep overthinking and trying to reach that certainty, but the certainty never arrives because you never actually complete the action.
67
And that's where the Zagarnik effect comes in
68
because you keep being reminded by your brain about all the plans that you have and it's actually just, it's like a ton of open tabs in your mind that keep cluttering your mental space.
69
So how do we actually close these tabs?
70
You might think that you have to make every decision, finish every task, complete every project,
71
but no. Researchers Baumeister and Mazzacampo found something very interesting.
72
They found that your brain doesn't actually need every task to be done.
73
It just needs to create a plan to resolve it.
74
When people in their study took an unfinished goal and they wrote down a specific plan of how they would complete it,
75
their intrusive thoughts, their overthinking, it stopped.
76
So the first exit from the certainty loop is very simple.
77
So you sit down, you take pen and paper
78
and you write down every single open tab that you have in your mind.
79
So every unmade decision, every plan, every dream you have, everything that you keep thinking about.
80
Also, very minor things as well.
81
Every random email that you forgot to reply to, every message you forgot to reply to, and just write it down from your mind and onto paper.
82
Then for each one of them, write a concrete next step of how you're going to resolve it
83
and how you're going to turn a thought into an action.
84
Personally, I love to write a brain dump like this on my iPad.
85
It's where I write my notes, my plans, my tasks I have to do, plan my videos.
86
I use a screen protector called Paperlike 3, which has this nano dots surface and it gives you real friction when you write.
87
So it basically feels like you're writing pen on paper instead of writing pen on glass.
88
And they spent years testing and producing this nano dots technology
89
that has this paper feel experience without actually compromising the clarity of your screen.
90
I also have to mention installation because I definitely ruined screen protectors before,
91
but Paperlike 3 has this butterfly application system that basically makes it impossible to mess up.
92
It keeps your screen sealed from dust until the exact moment the protector goes on,
93
and there's also an interactive guide on your iPad that walks you through everything step by step, so I got it perfect on the first try.
94
If you want to try it, I'll put my link in the description.
95
And they also have a 100-day money-back guarantee, so there's genuinely no risk.
96
And it comes in a pack of two, so you always have a spare.
97
And thank you to Paperlight for sponsoring this video.
98
Fix number two, shrink the action until your brain can't resist it.
99
Remember, the loop spins because the action feels way too big.
100
Starting a YouTube channel, launching a whole business, having a whole difficult conversation.
101
Basically, the bigger the action, the more uncertainty it carries.
102
So if you're going to shrink the action, make it very small and cut it down into very small achievable chunks,
103
you're going to feel less uncertainty when you try to complete that like one small step.
104
Fix number three, act for evidence.
105
The certainty loop makes you a promise.
106
It says that if you think about it a little bit more, you're finally going to achieve certainty.
107
But it doesn't work this way.
108
You will never analyze your way into knowing whether your business idea is going to succeed.
109
You have to go and you actually have to do it and then you're going to find out.
110
So you're never going to know whether your goal or your plan is going to be successful.
111
You have to go and actually turn it into the physical reality.
112
I also love this related idea from procrastination research and it says that procrastination is not a time management problem.
113
It is an emotion regulation problem.
114
And I talked about it extensively in this video.
115
I'm going to link it somewhere here.
116
But it's very interesting because we productively procrastinate on our goals and on our dreams
117
because we just want to avoid the negative emotions of thinking about potential failure
118
and the uncertainty of the outcome that we're going to reach.
119
Now I have given you all the fixes
120
that have helped me with dealing with overthinking that I've learned through my personal experience, or talking to people, reading books and articles.
121
And these fixes probably are going to help if you actually know that you're overthinking.
122
But some people overthink without actually realizing that they are overthinking.
123
So I think it's very helpful to know about different types of overthinking and how it can show up in our lives.
124
So now I'm going to give you four overthinking types.
125
And let me know in the comments
126
if you recognize any of them in yourself
127
and maybe you don't recognize some of them in yourself be very curious to hear.
128
Number one is the replayer.
129
Imagine you had a conversation with someone three days ago and you're still thinking about it.
130
You're still playing it over in your head and thinking, oh, I should have said this.
131
Maybe I said something wrong.
132
Maybe I said something insensitive.
133
Maybe I should say something else next time.
134
And you keep overthinking it despite the fact that it already happened and the conversation has already taken place.
135
So you cannot actually change anything you said in that conversation.
136
Of course, a lot of us do it in our daily lives, especially if we accidentally say something that we did not mean to say.
137
But if you find yourself doing it constantly with a lot of conversations, you're definitely the replayer.
138
Number two is the catastrophizer and it's when you have a certain goal
139
or a certain plan and before you even started pursuing it you already imagine 20 different ways
140
that is going to go wrong so you're constantly pre-living different disasters
141
and worst case scenarios so that
142
if they do happen you're not going to be surprised by them
143
and you're not going to be too disappointed number three is the over planner it's
144
when your plan has a other plan
145
when your backup plan has another backup plan you've been getting ready to do something for
146
so long that the preparation itself becomes an entire new project even of itself
147
so you're basically wasting time on preparation instead of doing the actual original project.
148
Number four is the overanalyzer.
149
And this one is me and it's basically when you want to analyze every single course of action.
150
It feels like the most dangerous form of overthinking because you genuinely feel productive when you overanalyze, when you take notes, when you create spreadsheets,
151
when you do research to prove that you are actually working.
152
Let me know in the comments which one of these characters is you.
153
I'd be very curious to hear from you and how you actually deal with these forms of overthinking.
154
And also if you know any other forms of overthinking that I didn't mention in this video, I'd also be very curious to hear and to learn something new.
155
So we have now discussed why we overthink our actions and how we can stop doing that.
156
But I also want to add one very, very important thing.
157
Everything I discussed today is about everyday overthinking.
158
It's the type of overthinking that can slow you down a little bit, can make it a little bit slower to take action,
159
or it might be a little bit harder for you to make a decision because you keep thinking about it.
160
But if overthinking is consuming most of your days, if it's affecting your sleep, your relationships, your health, this is not something a YouTube video can fix.
161
This is definitely something that is worth talking to a professional about.
162
But if this is daily overthinking, I'm always happy to share my experience and what I think about it.
163
Also guys, I have not been posting for a while
164
and thank you so much for checking in me
165
because some of you have reached out and asked if i'm okay
166
but i am okay so the thing that happened is
167
that i graduated from college i moved from philadelphia to san francisco
168
and this entire time i was trying to find an apartment in san francisco
169
if you know anything about san francisco you know
170
that the apartment search here is absolutely insane right now i
171
spent such a long time trying to find an apartment
172
and i'm so happy that i'm finally i moved
173
and i settled into my cozy little studio here
174
so from now on i will be recording my videos in here
175
and if you learned something new in this video i'd really appreciate
176
if you like this video and subscribe to my channel
177
and right now i'm trying to build out this big library of videos about cognitive science psychology neuroscience,
178
maybe some other topics as well.
179
And if you have any sort of topics or themes
180
that you would be interested to hear my perspective on and to do a little bit of research on, do let me know in the comments and I'd be very happy to hear your ideas.
181
And thank you so much for watching.

Wortschatz und Sprechhinweise zu dieser Lektion

Diese Sprechübung auf Niveau B2 basiert auf dem Video „HOW TO STOP OVERTHINKING“. Diese Wörter kommen am häufigsten vor: overthinking, action, brain, uncertainty, thinking. Dieses Video enthält 181 Sätze und 2445 Wörter zum Nachsprechen. Der gesprochene Teil dauert 13:27. Der Sprecher spricht schnell, etwa 182 Wörter pro Minute – rechne mit verbundenen und verkürzten Lauten. 86 % der Wörter gehören zu den 3.000 häufigsten im Englischen; den Rest solltest du dir vor dem Üben ansehen.

Wichtiger Wortschatz in diesem Video

Die 15 anspruchsvollsten Wörter aus dem Video, mit Aussprache und Bedeutung:

WortAusspracheBedeutung
overthink Verbzerdenken
uncertainty Substantiv/ʌnˈsɜːtənti/Unsicherheit, Ungewissheit
certainty Substantiv/ˈsɝtn̩ti/Gewissheit
resolve Verb/ɹɪˈzɑlv/lösen, auflösen
analyze Verb/ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/analysieren
protector Substantiv/pɹəˈtɛktɚ/Beschützer
genuinely Adverb/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/wirklich, echt
nanotechnology Substantiv/ˌnænoʊtɛkˈnɑləd͡ʒi/Nanotechnologie
procrastination Substantiv/pɹəʊˌkɹæs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/Aufschub, Prokrastination
unfinished Adjektiv/ʌnˈfɪnɪʃt/unvollendet
tab Substantiv/tæb/Reiter, Karteikartenreiter
cognitive Adjektiv/ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/kognitiv
emotion Substantiv/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/Gefühl, Empfindung f Emotion
achievable Adjektiv/əˈt͡ʃivəbəl/erreichbar, erzielbar
clutter Substantiv/ˈklʌtɚ/Unordnung, Wirrwarr

Phrasal Verbs, die du hören wirst

WortBedeutung
find out Verbherausfinden, erfahren
write down Verbaufschreiben
come back Verbzurückkommen, zurückkehren
mess up Verbdurcheinanderbringen
reach out Verbwegstrecken, die Hand ausstrecken
sit down Verbsich setzen

Grammatik in diesem Video

Die Strukturen, die der Sprecher am häufigsten verwendet, mit den genauen Worten aus dem Video:

StrukturIm Video
Present Perfect Continuous have/has been + -ing – eine Handlung, die früher begann und noch andauertyou've been planning · you've been getting · have not been posting
Bedingungssätze if + Satz, will/would + Verb – eine Bedingung und ihre FolgeIf you want to try it, I'll put
Present Perfect have/has + Partizip Perfekt – eine vergangene Handlung, die jetzt noch wichtig isti've learned · you've actually lived · have given
Passiv be + Partizip Perfekt – wichtig ist, was geschieht, nicht wer es tutwill be resolved · being reminded · be done

Aussprache, auf die du achten solltest

Der Sprecher verwendet 56 Kurzformen und abgeschwächte Formen, zum Beispiel you're, I'm, don't. Sprich sie in der kurzen Form, so wie du sie hörst.

  • Die Laute „sh“ und „zh“: procrastination /pɹəʊˌkɹæs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, unfinished /ʌnˈfɪnɪʃt/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, computation /ˌkɑmpjʊˈteɪʃn̩/, misconception /ˌmɪs.kənˈsɛp.ʃən/
  • Lange Wörter – auf die Betonung achten: uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, nanotechnology /ˌnænoʊtɛkˈnɑləd͡ʒi/, procrastination /pɹəʊˌkɹæs.tɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, achievable /əˈt͡ʃivəbəl/

So übst du mit diesem Video

  1. Höre dir das ganze Video einmal an, ohne zu sprechen, und notiere die Wörter, die du nicht kennst.
  2. Beginne mit 0,75-facher Geschwindigkeit, sprich Satz für Satz nach und wechsle zur normalen Geschwindigkeit, sobald es leichtfällt.
  3. Nimm dich auf und vergleiche mit dem Original; achte dabei auf Wörter wie overthink, uncertainty, certainty.

Was ist die Shadowing-Technik?

Shadowing ist eine wissenschaftlich fundierte Sprachlerntechnik, die ursprünglich für die professionelle Dolmetscherausbildung entwickelt und durch den Polyglotten Dr. Alexander Arguelles populär gemacht wurde. Die Methode ist einfach aber wirkungsvoll: Du hörst englisches Audio von Muttersprachlern und wiederholst es sofort laut — wie ein Schatten, der dem Sprecher mit nur 1–2 Sekunden Verzögerung folgt. Anders als passives Hören oder Grammatikübungen zwingt Shadowing dein Gehirn und deine Mundmuskulatur, gleichzeitig echte Sprachmuster zu verarbeiten und zu reproduzieren. Studien zeigen, dass es Aussprachegenauigkeit, Intonation, Rhythmus, verbundene Sprache, Hörverständnis und Sprechflüssigkeit signifikant verbessert — was es zu einer der effektivsten Methoden für die IELTS Speaking-Vorbereitung und reale englische Kommunikation macht.

Shadowing-Technik: die vollständige Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung lesen →