Shadowing Practice: 4 Methods Superstars Use To Protect Their Energy | Robin Sharma - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, it's Robin Sharma.
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Welcome to this Mastery Session.
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If you want to learn how to fortify your energy
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and bring on your fire each day in a world of digital distraction and interruptions and a lot of people being busy,
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being busy, you are going to find this
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Mastery Session incredibly valuable
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because it's called the four methods superstars use to protect their energy well here's the backstory of why I recorded
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this mastery session energy is more valuable than even your intellect I mean I know you're smart
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and yet the people who win in business in creativity
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and productivity and in their humanity are not only the people
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that are smart they're the people that have the energy to execute on their lofty ambitions.
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I want you to think about what I just said.
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You can have gorgeous opportunities.
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You can have great ambitions.
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You can have awesome gifts and talents, which I know you do.
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And yet, without the execution energy to get your big dreams done, nothing happens.
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This world is littered with geniuses who never did anything.
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And a lot of people who don't have the level of intellect
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or the gifts of a lot of the great geniuses did amazing things.
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Because they fortified their energy and then they focused it on one or two things.
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Could have been creating an app, building another type of business, launching a movement,
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writing a symphony but they brought such energy and conviction and fire to their idea that they materialized it into the world.
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And we all know that leadership is a lot less about talk, and it's a lot more about execution, application, and implementation.
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So what are the four methods that superstars use to protect their energy?
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Well, the first method is understanding this model I've been teaching for many years called the Twin Cycles of Elite Performance.
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I share it in great detail in the 5AM Club, my book, but let me give you a high -level version of it right now.
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So the old model of working is let's work harder and get more done.
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The old model of producing is she or he who works the longest leads the field.
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Well that model comes from the industrial age when we were factory workers.
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So if we worked longer in the factory we would produce more widgets.
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Well we live in a completely different world right now and it's not how long you work.
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Here's the most important thing, the quality of your genius that you bring to your hours.
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And so the first method that superstars use, I've worked with billionaires.
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I've worked with NBA, NFL, NHL superstars.
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And here's what I've taught them.
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The model is called the twin cycles of elite performance.
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Rather than it being all about working longer, work much more intelligently.
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To be specific, don't work like a marathoner, work like a sprinter.
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And the Energy Project has done a lot of great research into this.
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In other words, the greatest business people,
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creatives, producers work in sprints of intense focus and energy,
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and then they pull back and they recover.
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And then they come back and work in another intense burst of their greatest work all in, and then they recover.
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A doctor came to one of my live events and he said, I've worked with Usain Bolt.
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And Usain Bolt told me, he said, I rest 50 % of the time to allow the training to take effect.
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And so great athletes understand you go out onto the court, you do your best, you bring on your gifts,
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you play full out and then you recover.
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So the model that I teach is called the twin cycles of elite performance.
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You've got your high excellence cycle.
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I'm going to show you the model right now on the screen.
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Have a look at it.
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You've got your high excellence cycle.
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That is when you go all in and then you pull back and you've got your deep recovery cycle.
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That's when you refuel, regenerate and replenish.
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And here's the key.
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Why do you do this?
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It's because if all you do is expend your talents all day long, then you actually deplete them.
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I'm going to repeat that again because it's so important.
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If all you're doing is working, or if all you're doing is showtime,
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and you don't recover, you actually deplete your assets of genius.
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And one of the keys to legendary is longevity.
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Okay?
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So just think about working under cycles, periods of time.
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It could be during your days where you're full on fire
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and then taking the time to recover by going for a walk or drinking some tea or listening to some music,
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then doing another few hours in terms of a burst of intense and beautiful work where you're bringing on all your focus,
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all your talent, and then pulling back and recovering.
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And then even when it comes to your week, take at least one or two days off,
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no technology, no work, just with your family or just mountain biking, long times, you know, walking in the woods,
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writing in a journal, you might think and your ego might suggest to you and your friends might say
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You're wasting time.
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You know, you're missing out.
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Get in the game.
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Well, be a leader.
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Don't follow the majority.
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Remember, great audacity without intelligent recovery leads to the depletion of your genius.
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You actually, I'll put it to you this way, making the time to pull back and recover in that deep recovery cycle,
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deep refueling cycle, actually is how you grow.
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Okay so the first method that superstars use to protect their energy is working in cycles
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or seasons and they run the twin cycles of elite performance.
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Which brings me to the second methods that the pros use to really you know fortify their energy which is rest.
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So you may have read my book
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The 5 a .m.
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Club, You may be a member of the 5 a .m club.
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You've probably seen some of my videos over the past two
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decades where I've been teaching the 5 a .m club
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and the morning routine of history makers and the underlying 20 -20 -20 formula.
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Here's the key.
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I've never once suggested that joining the 5 a .m club and becoming an early riser means being sleep deprived.
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We all know the research says the number one way to cut your life short is sleep deprivation.
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We all know that you never are at your creative, productive, personal best when you are exhausted.
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So the real key to a great morning routine is a superb nightly ritual.
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And I want to quickly walk you through the pre -sleep routine of the virtuosos.
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That one hour before you go to sleep, no technology.
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Otherwise, you're going to affect melatonin production, which is going to play havoc with the quality of your sleep.
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So no technology, no white screen one hour before you go to sleep.
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Secondly, sleep in a room full of no technology.
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Thirdly, make sure your bedroom is a little cold.
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Fourthly, do what the Romans do and have a hot bath before you go to sleep.
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What else can you do before you go to sleep in terms of a nightly routine?
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Write in a journal.
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Martin Seligman, the pioneer of the field of positive psychology, did some research.
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And what he found was people who recorded, in just a journal exercise, three good things that happened to them during the day that's just ending,
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by doing that little exercise they promoted gratitude and felt much better over a period of weeks.
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And so another part of your pre -sleep routine could be just before you go to bed,
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you pull out your journal and you ask yourself this question, what three good things happened to me during this day?
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And what that does, it fights your brain's negativity bias
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and it forces your brain to hunt for great things that happened to you during the day, even the hardest day.
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If you asked yourself that question, what are three good things that happen, you could say, hmm, well, I had some amazing coffee in the morning,
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and my child laughed incredibly hard this afternoon, and you know what?
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I got a great piece of news from one of my favorite clients today.
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So make sure you get your pre -sleep routine right, because that is really the DNA of a great morning routine.
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The larger point is really the second method that the superstars use to protect their energy is they sleep.
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And And the final thing I want to say on that point is napping is one of my secret weapons.
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I learned it from my father, who was a family physician for 54 years.
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And I would see him get up early, and I would see him working really hard, but he always came home for a family meal.
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And then after the family meal, he would, in his suit and tie, very old school, he would take a power nap,
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and then he'd go back to the office and work till 10 o 'clock.
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I mean, my father worked so hard as a family doctor, but from him I modeled.
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learning to nap.
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And I've done that for most of my adult life.
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And what that does is it brings a vigor and a freshness to your evening.
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Your willpower is a lot stronger.
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You have energy to be with your family or to work or to read,
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to do all of those things in your evening that sets you up for an even more epic, amazing, creative, productive, and wonderful day.
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The third method that superstars use to protect their energy really brings what I've shared with you together.
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And it's a model called the Trinity of Radiant Vitality, and I'm going to show it to you on the screen right now.
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I just want you to have a look at it.
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Well, the part you can see at the top of the framework is exercise.
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And if I was to deconstruct exercise, and just have a look at this, you'll see stretching.
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To me, that is so fundamentally important.
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You see that?
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Stretching in that circle.
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Stretching is important to staying limber, to playing the long game, to preventing recovery, to just feeling good.
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What else is, if I was to deconstruct exercise?
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Weight training.
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We know that it releases all sorts of great neurochemicals.
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We also know that it protects your muscle mass as you age.
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And here's another insight.
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When you are strong, you feel strong.
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When you are strong, you feel strong.
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You'll also see in the deconstruction of exercise, 2WW.
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That comes from my book, the 5am club.
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It's one of the 10 daily rituals of genius that I talk about in the book.
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The second wind workout.
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That's what 2WW stands for.
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If you believe exercise is a game changer and it makes you feel better and it makes you more creative and productive,
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why would you only do it once a day?
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Second wind workout just means when you finish work, you go for a nature walk.
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When you finish work you go for a mountain bike ride.
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When you finish work you go to a yoga class.
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When you finish work you go to a park and start doing planks, push -ups, and burpees.
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So another part of exercise is the second wind workout
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and then the final part of the deconstruction as you'll see from the model
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that I'm sharing with you is make sure you get your cardio in.
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There's a lot of emerging science.
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Before they were saying you know not too much cardio, more on functional exercise, planks, burpees, lunges.
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Well, what a lot of research coming out now is saying is
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that cardio is so much more important than we recognize because it releases BDNF,
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brain -derived neurotrophic factor, which accelerates your processing and which repairs brain cells damaged by stress.
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Okay, let's go to the second element of the Trinity the radiant vitality model.
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And as you'll see, it's nutrition.
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Let's deconstruct that together.
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Nutrition to me is about eating real food versus fake food.
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As much as possible, you know, someone once said, if it doesn't come from the ground or grow on a tree or have a mother,
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don't eat it.
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Real food versus fake food.
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You don't want to, I'll eat processed food.
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You know, it's artificial, you know it'll mess up your brain optimization and your physicality etc. Second, when it comes to nutrition,
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as you'll see from the model in front of you, I'm big on supplementation.
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I take a lot of vitamin C every day, talk to your doctor, talk to a nutritionist,
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get really big into supplementing because we all know our body can't produce everything
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that we need to be at our best and you want to play at the long game, you want to be a virtuoso,
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you want to be around for the loved ones in your life
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and you want to change the world get your nutrition
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and your supplementation right fasting this is you know
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I want to just emphasize this part of the model in front of you
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fasting is
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so fundamentally important to me now you got to go see a doctor to make sure it's right for you
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but as I wrote the 5 a .m.
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Club and I wrote it over four years one of the hacks
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that I use to dial into my best thinking
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and my best productivity so I could get into another world as I wrote the book for hours was fasting.
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So I intermittent fast at least 18 to 20 hours every single day.
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If it's right for you, check it out.
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I'm not a doctor.
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Check it out with someone who is qualified to make sure it's right for you, but it's been very helpful for me.
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And then as you'll see from the model, hydration.
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We know from emerging science that mitochondrial function, which is the seed of, you know, that's energy in your system, in your body.
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Hydration is so important for optimal mitochondrial function.
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Most people don't drink enough water.
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Make sure you do.
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Okay, and then the final element of the trinity of radiant vitality, have a look at it in the framework right in front of you.
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It's recovery.
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Let's quickly deconstruct that because I really want this episode of the Mastery Sessions to be you revolutionary for you, massage.
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Well, in the 5am club there's the two massage protocol.
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It's another one of those ten rituals of daily genius.
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Massage has changed my life.
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Massage releases serotonin.
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Massage makes you more happy.
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Massage gives you more energy.
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Just get serious about getting at least a massage every single week.
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And you might say, well
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Robin, I can't afford the time and I can't afford the money, well death will cost you more.
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I say that with a smile on my face because I'm trying to make the point.
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So you really embrace massage as an elite performance tool to be legendary and to make your mark on history.
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What else is in the recovery element?
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Nature.
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One thing the great artists and the great productives of history all have in common, They loved walking in nature.
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What else is there fun fun is so important for recovery
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You know like going out there and traveling or doing things with your family or hanging with your friends
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Never waste of time because while you're with your friends or while you're reading or while you're traveling
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Here's the big idea
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Your best insights are incubating
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and that's why the great business builders the true titans of industry
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or the great artists got their insights that changed the world.
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When they were in the shower, when they were with their friends, when they were with the new city, the brain relaxed.
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It got into that transient hypofrontality that I teach in the 5am club book.
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And because of that, great ideas were incubating.
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Haruki Murakami said, when I'm not writing my books and living life
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is when I'm getting the best ideas that I'll use to write my books.
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Meditation is important for recovery.
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Sometimes if I can't take my naps in the afternoon, I will spend 20 minutes recovering by meditation.
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I love guided meditations.
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This is not the episode for me to walk you through meditation.
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I'm happy to do it in a future episode.
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That's why you want to even go back
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and listen to all the previous episodes because a lot of these things are covered.
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And then finally rest, I mention that.
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I need to finish up this episode.
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I'm so full of passion and fire to share this information with you.
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The fourth method that superstars use to protect their energy is my model called Joy as a GPS.
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I don't have time to show you this model.
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Joy as a GPS is so profound and it simply means this.
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If you want to feel more energy, ask yourself these three questions.
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Who are the people that fuel my joy and bring those people into your life even more.
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And related to that, do a list, the people that bring down your joy and release those people from your life.
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Those energy vampires and hope thieves.
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Second question to ask yourself on this joy as a GPS model, what are the pursuits that fuel my joy?
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And anything that is not bringing you joy in terms of the pursuits that you do, whether it's work or even at home, stop doing them.
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And the final, third question that the joy is a GPS model is based around.
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What are the places that fuel my joy?
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It could be the rooms in your house.
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It could be the places you go in your city.
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It could be cities ranging from Zurich to Shanghai.
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We all have places where when we are there, our joy is amplified.
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And I'm sure you're the same as me.
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There are places where I go where I just don't feel good.
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The joy as a GPS model is so profound because your instinct really is more powerful than your intellect.
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And your joy is your higher wisdom telling you the people that really belong in your orbit,
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the pursuits that you are meant to be following that will really bring you to your mountaintop,
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and the places that you're meant to be.
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Okay, so there's been a lot in this mastery session, I encourage you to go back and watch it another time and then study it.
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So I hope this mastery session has helped you a lot.
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I've given my heart and soul in this one, so I hope you feel how much I care and I really want to help you.
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Here's what I would encourage you to do.
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If you have found this mastery session valuable,
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please share it with three people as quickly as possible and then start the conversation with them about everything that you learned.
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Number two.
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If you would like me to mentor you
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and you want to go 100x deeper into this kind of material that I've shared on, whether it's neuroscience or the philosophy or greatness,
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if you really want to multiply and accelerate your productivity,
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if you really want to bring your fire and your primitive and primal heroism to the world, and you're tired of playing small,
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and you're tired of limiting yourself, well then I would love to work with you if you're
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that kind of person and there is information below on my monthly mentoring program.
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It's absolutely world -class.
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It's called Circle of Legends and if you feel you want to work at Legendary
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and live that heroic life that I truly believe you're destined to live,
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check out the information below in Circle of Legends and I'd love to be of service to you in the program.
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Finally, if you haven't read my book
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The 5 a .m.
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Club, I spent four years of hard labor working on The 5 a .m.
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Club and essentially it's 333 pages of me distilling the best ideas I've learned over two decades working with billionaires
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and companies like
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Starbucks General Electric, Nike, Microsoft, IBM and organizations like NASA and Young President's Association.
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And so read the 5AM Club.
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I promise you it will be a tool for transformation and a manifesto for absolute mastery.
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To find the book, you can find it online or just go over to the5amclub .com.
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And I'm really excited to share that after you finish the book, at the end of the book,
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there is a free, and I want to emphasize free, because I really want to help you lock in the 5am club habit.
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It is the mother of all habits.
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You get your morning right, your Your days will be right.
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Your days are world class.
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You'll have world class weeks, quarters, and years.
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The single best move you can make is to join the 5AM club,
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run the 20 -20 -20 formula that I'll walk you through in the book because as you begin your day, so you hand craft your life.
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And I'm excited to share at the end of the book,
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you will find details for a free 66 -day online program where after you finish the book for 66 days,
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which is the period of time required to install a new habit, I will literally mentor you through morning mastery meditations
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and videos at no charge for 66 days until you reach the point that researchers call automaticity,
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where it actually becomes easier to get up at 5 a .m than not to get up at 5 a .m.
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Final thing I want to share with you, a portion of my royalties on every copy of the 5 a .m.
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Club sold goes to fight leprosy on the planet.
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It's a violent affliction.
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I am all in to help fight leprosy as much as I humanly can.
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So when you invest in a copy of the 5am club, you not only invest in your growth and transformation,
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you invest in helping a child with leprosy live a better life.
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Okay, so thank you so much and I'll see you in the next
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Mastery Session and be great.
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Hi, this is Robin Sharma.
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I hope you received great value from this Mastery Session.
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If you'd like to receive potent training videos, blog posts, learning tools, and information on my two live events,
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Personal Mastery Academy, and my flagship four -day experience, the Titan Summit, go ahead and visit robinsharma .com.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “4 Methods Superstars Use To Protect Their Energy”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: energy, model, club. This video has 303 sentences and 3798 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:26. The speaker talks at a natural 162 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mastery noun | /ˈmæs.tɚ.i/ | The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority. |
| recover verb | /ɹɪˈkʌvɚ/ | To get back, to regain (a physical thing; in astronomy and navigation, sight of a thing or a signal). |
| massage noun | /məˈsɑ(d)ʒ/ | The action of rubbing, kneading or hitting someone's body, to help the person relax, prepare for muscular action (as in contact sports) or to relieve aches. |
| superstar noun | /ˈsuː.pəˌstɑː/ | Someone who has accumulated a vast amount of fame; a high-level celebrity. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| genius noun | /ˈd͡ʒin.jəs/ | Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art… |
| elite noun | /ɪˈlit/ | A special group or social class of people who have a superior social or economic status and attendant power, advantages, or privileges in society; a member of… |
| meditation noun | /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/ | A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation. |
| twin noun | /twɪn/ | Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling. |
| nutrition noun | /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/ | The organic process by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| intense adjective | /ɪnˈtɛns/ | Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering. |
| stretch verb | /stɹɛt͡ʃ/ | To lengthen by pulling. |
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pull back verb | To retreat. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| bring down verb | To make (a ruler or government) lose their position of power. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| finish up verb | To complete the last details of a task. | |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You've got your high excellence cycle.
- That's when you refuel, regenerate and replenish.
- Why do you do this?
- What else is, if I was to deconstruct exercise?
- What are the places that fuel my joy?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been teaching |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've worked · I've taught · has done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is littered · is let · is called |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who win · people who don · energy which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 79 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: bath /bɑːθ/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, thief /ˈθiːf/, fourthly /ˈfɔːɹθ.li/, marathoner /ˈmæ.ɹæ.θən.ə(ɹ)/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: massage /məˈsɑ(d)ʒ/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, nutrition /njuːˈtɹɪʃ.ən/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like mastery, recover, massage.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.