Pratique du Shadowing: How one habit changed my life. - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

- I used to think that life was made up of really big moments, graduating college, landing the job, getting married and shaving your beard.

But what I've learned over the past decade is that what really makes the biggest difference in your life are the simple actions you take each day.

Now, I'm not trying to take away anything from your 30th birthday party.

Although Kim, that was a shit birthday party and you should be embarrassed with yourself.

But as you begin to take a step back, as you get a bird's eye view of your life, what you'll realize is, that it's actually made up of these automatic actions you take every day called habits.

From what time you wake up in the morning to what you eat for breakfast, how often you check your phone, and whether you're getting enough physical activity each day.

These habits define your life.

They determine what you think about, what you spend your day focused on, and inevitably, how satisfied you are with your life.

Whether you find yourself content at the end of the day, or longing for more.

These simple moments each day are the difference between a sedentary lifestyle and an active one, a clear mind, and one that races nonstop.

The difference between a successful business and an idea that's just waiting to happen.

You either take control of your habits or they take control of you.

And if there's one thing I've learned over the past decade it's that it really doesn't take much to change your life.

And for me, it all started with just one habit.

So I was always one of the smallest kids in my class from preschool through adolescence.

I entered high school, barely weighing 100 pounds and six years later, halfway through college, I still didn't weigh much more than that.

By the time I turned 20 years old, I was scrawny, terrible at talking to girls.

I had no confidence, and I was on my way to accumulating six figures of student debt.

I felt stuck and I didn't know what to do.

If there's one word that could define those years of my life, it'd be frustration.

The frustration that I felt inside, it didn't just come from my circumstances.

It wasn't just because I was the skinniest kid in school or I was afraid to talk to girls.

It was because I kept trying to improve.

I made so many attempts and I kept finding myself right back where I started.

It seemed that every attempt to build a new habit followed the same exact trajectory.

I'd get super excited about making a big change in my life.

I'd grab my keys, lace up my sneakers and I'd begin that new workout routine.

I'd get through day one just fine.

Day two, no problem.

Day three, check it off.

And then at some point in the first week or two, I'd stop.

My attempt was cut off short by a big exam, a bigger party and even bigger hangover.

There was always some kind of obstacle or distraction that got in my way.

It's a strange feeling to have, to know exactly what you want in life, to begin to take action towards that goal, to have so much hope for the future, and to find yourself coming short each and every time.

Now, if there's some advice that I wish I could go back and give myself, it's that, "Hey, that's just part of the process." We are always going to be failing.

We're always going to be falling short when we're attempting to do things that are a little bit ambitious and also as elusive and difficult as behavior change can be.

And so, as soon as you get used to the fact that you're going to fail and you're gonna have slipups, the quicker you can move forward and find the right way to approach that change.

The one thing that I had going for me was that I was relentless.

I didn't let my failures discourage me.

I'd grit my teeth and say, "Okay, that didn't work out.

Let me try this again." I never lost faith that I'd be able to figure it out.

And then one day became day one.

I filled up my water bottle, laced up my running sneakers and made my way to the gym.

That first day at the gym turned into a week.

A month later, and I started to see some results.

Three months in and nothing could stop me.

My strength was increasing.

I could visibly see muscle definition and I felt better than I ever had in my entire life.

At the time, I definitely had no idea why I was able to make it stick this time.

I think certainly one part of it was just the fact that I needed to keep experimenting and trying different things.

And like I said, keep pushing through those failures to finally find the win I was looking for.

But there were also some tactics that I accidentally came across that really helped me to cement this change.

For one, my roommate at the time was really into fitness and acted as an accountability partner.

His encouragement and advice along the way really helped.

Second, I created reminders in my environment that nudged me to go to the gym, adding little Post-it Notes in my bedroom and preparing my gym clothes the day before a workout.

This is around the time when I also started the two-day rule.

I wouldn't allow myself to take off more than two days in a row from going to the gym.

This became a helpful guardrail to keep me going and to make sure that I didn't slip up too many days in a row.

The real reason that this one habit made such a huge impact in my life wasn't because I could now crush soda cans with my biceps.

That was a nice side effect, but really, the big changes were yet to come.

It was the momentum the weeks and months that followed, because it turned out that that one habit was just the tip of the iceberg, because one habit turned into many more.

After building that daily workout routine, I felt inspired to start eating better.

And then I began to drink more water.

In less than a year, I gained over 20 pounds of muscle and my confidence and self-esteem skyrocketed.

This gave me the nudge that I needed to start connecting with others, to help grow my business, and eventually, to even start talking to girls.

From there, I started to tear through books on self-development and personal finance, which helped to motivate me to grow my filmmaking business and pay off over $97,000 of student debt in less than four years.

And yes, every time that I mention my student debt on this channel, you're supposed to take a shot.

So if you're keeping track, that's two shots that you owe me.

Hey, did I ever mention that I had $97,000 in student debt?

Three. This of course, isn't the full story.

There were many moments of doubt and fear and overwhelm that threatened to still my progress at every turn.

But the person that I've become today can truly be linked back to that one change that I made in my life over a decade ago.

It's so simple.

Doing it one time doesn't make much of a difference in your life.

But the compound effect of repeatedly showing up day after day, that's what leads to really big changes in your life in the long run.

You're probably not gonna meet the love of your life on your first date.

And it's probably gonna take you more than 30 days to train for a marathon.

And if you start working out today, tomorrow, you're not gonna be able to bench press 200 pounds.

Real progress takes time.

It takes consistency, patience, persistence.

These are the keys to success in the long run.

I do appreciate ambition though.

I love big goals.

And so, if you dream big, that's a good thing but you also need to start thinking small.

What's one small, simple change that you could make today that if you stick through with it for the course of the year, would completely change your life?

Focus on the big areas of your life that will give you the greatest return on your investment of time and energy.

Flossing your teeth and drinking eight glasses of water is definitely something that we should all be doing.

But it might not be what gives you the momentum towards greater change in your life.

But if you look to your mental and physical health, your finances and relationships, there might be something there that you can dial in on that will give you the return you're looking for.

Just as your retirement accounts compound in the stock market, so too, do your habits.

You just need to find the right one to invest in.

The exciting thing and what you can look forward to is that it doesn't take long to start seeing those results.

If you find something that you truly find fulfilling, it will only take a month or two of consistency to see the benefits from doing 20 minutes of yoga a day, meditating 10 minutes each morning, or journaling before bed each night.

And those little changes in your life could be the spark of momentum for so many other positive changes in your life.

You just need to take the first step.

My early fascination with self development and habit change never really ended.

And that's one of the big reasons why I started this YouTube channel, to continue to explore these topics even further.

And just a few months ago, I took that to the next level when I created one of the most ambitious projects of my life, combining everything that I've learned about habit change into one course called Simple Habits.

Now I've gotten so many questions over the past couple weeks about what the course is about, what comes with it, if they should take it or not.

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And so over the next minute or so, I wanted to talk a little bit about that.

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And so if you're not interested in the course, if you don't wanna get it, now is when you stop watching this video.

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Oh, you're still there.

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Okay. So, oh God, I should have prepared for this.

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So I created the Simple Habits course for anyone who has struggled to make their habits stick.

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Whether you're looking to begin an exercise program, eat healthier, read more, or wake up early, you pick the habit you wanna build and the course will be your guide to make that change last.

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Through over 100 minutes of cinematic content and a guided workbook, I'll teach you all the habit tactics that I use.

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You'll learn how to stay motivated and you'll create a plan to help you get through the first 30 days and beyond.

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If you want to talk about true motivation, the kind of motivation that gets you out of bed each morning, you need to dig a little bit deeper than your favorite Eminem playlist.

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Since accountability is so vital, I've included a 30-day text message or email accountability series.

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You'll also get access to our private slack community to get support from your peers.

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I've received so much amazing feedback from students since the course first launched.

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People who've tried just about everything, but have said that this course was the first thing that truly helped.

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You can learn more about the course and enroll at slowgrowth.com/simplehabits.

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So if you're somebody that can relate to young frustrated Matt, who kept trying and kept failing and didn't know why, I truly believe that this course could be the catalyst for change in your own life.

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If you wanna check it out, there's a link in the description below or go to slow growth.com/simplehabits.

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But whether you buy a course or not, I absolutely appreciate you watching my videos.

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Thank you so much for your support.

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And I'll see you next time.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Pratique du Shadowing: How one habit changed my life. - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?