Shadowing Practice: 5 Hidden Habits to Transform Your Life | Robin Sharma - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Thank you.

It's Robin Sharma, author of 5am

Club and the Everyday Hero Manifesto,

and it's relatively early morning on Via dei Condotti here in Mr. Riley's Rome,

and what I wanted to do was I wanted to take you with me to some of the monuments or places

that I love in this great city by the way

i'm here in piazza hispania there's trinita de monte the famous church

at the top of the spanish steps

and what i wanted to do was take you to a number as i said my favorite places

and offer you some lessons on elite performance and legendary leadership and

how you can exploit deep change to your advantage

and how you can grow a great company

and how you can be more productive

and how you can live a soaring life in these times of

so much volatility so thanks for being with me the lesson well now

that we're here in the spanish steps the lesson

i'm going to offer to you is to use a little bit of my poor italian it's paso dopo paso

and that simply means step by step but i want you to look at

that gorgeous staircase and look at that boat monument behind me

but i want you to think about evolution versus revolution how

do you build a great company how do you build a great life

it's day by day it's step by step all too often we forget

that it's what you do every day not what you do once a year that makes a profound difference

consistency is the mother of mastery and it's all those little small wins and micro triumphs

That concept I've been teaching for over 20 years that stack into huge gains.

Remember my brain tattoo.

Small daily, seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time lead to stunning results.

So just stay monomaniacally focused on steps towards your mighty mission day by day.

When it's easy, when it's hard, and you might be astonished by how far you'll get in your career

or maybe it's your art or maybe it's your fitness maybe it's your love life

or family life maybe it's your spiritual life

but remember those steps day by day those micro winds will lead you to the top of the mountain

so thanks again for being with me here on my mountain bike ride through rome i've got to be careful

but we are coming up to one of the most gorgeous monuments

in the world and i want you to build a career and a craft and a life that really is monumental

and uh i've got something very special to show you in a moment because we're getting to well

look behind me it is fontana beach trevi and it's just about sunrise right now let's have a look at it

and your leadership life lesson is exercise the patience for mastery

in this world where too many good souls are card -carrying members of the cult of mediocrity have the patience

when it comes to your work and your commitments.

Look at the detail.

Look at the painstaking attention to creating magic.

Oh, there's a newly married couple behind me.

I wish them every blessing for a great life and a happy life, but I want you to just look at that monument.

And you right now it's easy to put out a lot of content

or put out a lot of work

but please be in the business of putting out only masterwork

and that requires focus in this age of dramatic distraction and broken focus syndrome it requires commitment what a beautiful word

It requires patience, requires a strong character, requires a deep work ethic.

And back when, in ancient Rome, when they would produce monuments like this,

it was all about the pride of the creator and his devotion to producing something that would be legendary.

And that's the lesson that you and I can take from Trevi Fontana.

Let's keep going.

all right the next site

we are going to share together is a very special one

next lesson for you as a leader without a title

and extraordinary producer who makes the world a better place is make sure you invent

and iterate and optimize so we're going to the pantheon that is a architectural marvel that they didn't think would be possible,

but the way the architects and engineers constructed it, they got it done.

By the way, that's your pro tip.

Leaders don't make excuses and they don't complain and they don't blame.

They just get the job done.

You're in the business of finding solutions to difficult problems.

That's what you get paid for.

That's what

leaders do

okay

here we are at the Pantheon pretty amazing aren't you glad you came with me on a ride through rome

and you know there was a in the ancient days there was a slave called the origa

and the origa had one job

it was to whisper into the ears of the military commander called the dux memento homo memento homo

which is just remember you're only a man

and the lesson of that story oh another wedding behind me wow it's a good day here in rome

the love i guess but the lesson behind

that story is remember you're just a human

and don't fall in love with your success because

when you're at the top there's only one way to go

and the moment you fall into the trap of hubris as an entrepreneur as a leader as a human being

and lose that white belt mentality and you stop being humble

and out learning and out working and out preparing

and innovating everyone around you is the moment you're on the path to obsolescence

so the pantheon is going to remind you to always be optimizing always be learning always be growing

and stay humble

and maybe even a little foolish to paraphrase steve jobs who

paraphrased the whole earth catalog okay just a few monuments left hope

you're enjoying it okay cool cat i am thanks for hanging with me

and I'm bringing you to my favorite place in Rome and often when I'm on a trip

and I land this is one of the first places I come to

and I just breathe in the sights but check this out.

I'm in Piazza Novona and there's Bernini's Four Rivers behind me and there's the church of Piazza Novona.

When I was writing the 5am club I'd actually come to this square after a day of intense writing

and i would look at that marvelous piece of art from bernini

and it would rejuvenate and refuel me and remind me of the importance of just getting to work right

and just look at that but what we're the lesson here in this marvelous marvelous square there,

as you can see, is seek beauty.

And I think the world needs you to do the work that brings your soul alive.

And you've got to have the guts and the bravery and the wisdom to find it.

But seek beauty in your craft.

Remember, a job is only a job if you see it as a job.

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See your work no matter what it is.

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You sweep streets, you make pizza, you you run a company, you lead a nation, you serve a family,

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whatever it is that you do, you code or you're an architect or you're an engineer, you're a startup entrepreneur.

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Whatever it is you do, push beauty out into the world.

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And also seek beauty in your life.

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I mean, what's the point of getting to the apex of your domain

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and having missed out on seeing the kind of moonlit sky

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I saw last night in Rome it was a full moon

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and I just stood on the terrace of my hotel room

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and I just savored it

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if you look at the research of positive psychologists like sonia lubomirsky

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they will tell you the happiest people have one habit in common

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and it's savoring they don't just drink the coffee

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and wolf it down they savor it they savor beauty

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they savor great art by the way spent a lot of time in art galleries

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that's communing with the magic of the creator or the artist

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and that stardust will rub off on you anyway seek beauty in all forms

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and the pro tip is really you can't inspire the world

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if you're not inspired yourself so make the time to protect your inspiration

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and to fill the well of your inspiration by great books

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great conversations great food great art great travel great thoughts great feelings great service okay one last place

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and then we're going to wrap this video up well I just couldn't leave without showing you Piazza Navona just past Sunrise.

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By the way, there's a restaurant right there

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and there's an interesting story I read about in the Financial Times in the middle of the pandemic.

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All the other places were closing because of the virus and they were saying that there was no opportunity,

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no possibility, but that if you look at the green awnings

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that restaurant i believe was two brothers they said we're going to pivot

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and protect and we're going to redo our menu

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and we're going to make it perfect for locals

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and they had an interesting space and interesting branding

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and they were full with locals with romans through the pandemic

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that there's an important leadership lesson there

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which is sometimes the solution is right in front of you even

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if you can't see it

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but please be a solution hunter anyway talking about beauty though look at this okay

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i'm going to take you to my last favorite place in rome

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well i'm a little out of breath i just climbed the hill up to the park

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and before i show you the final monument just as the sun perfectly comes over it is that so perfect

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But I want to say buona mattina,

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sono molto felice a vederti,

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which is just my broken Italian way of saying good morning

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and I'm really happy that you joined me and I'm happy to see you and trying to learn Italian at almost 60,

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but you've got to keep exercising the neuroplasticity you never want an old person to enter your mindset heart set physicality

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i'm just saying remember to be to stay young

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and hungry to learn and never lose as einstein said your holy curiosity

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and i think that's so incredibly incredibly important i think the purpose life

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and the purpose of leadership in many ways is to keep

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playing out on the jagged edges of your highest potential

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that brings me to another idea before i get

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you to i'm looking at right now it's such a beautiful sight promise i'll show it to you

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and also remember

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that the discomfort of growth is always less than the heartbreak for a grant i'll repeat

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that again because it's

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so important the discomfort of growth any kind of growth leadership

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growth productivity growth new habits new fitness routines new levels of love and forgiveness and understanding new levels of contribution.

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It'll bring discomfort because you're letting go

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and there's almost a death of your old you for the sake of your next level of you.

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Anyway, here we go.

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Last sight.

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And what I want to share with you here with that marvel behind me is faith.

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The temple or the church or the monument or mind you of faith

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and you've got to believe in you when no one else believes in you

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if you're an army of one solo evangelizing your mighty mission you have an idea for a screenplay

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or a new company or a new habit

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or a new way of living

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or making the world a better place

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you've got to believe in it you know every visionary was initially called a kook

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and if we if we followed the majority

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and thought like everyone then we wouldn't produce anything original

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or unique and

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so you've got to develop the faith through prayer affirmation meditation daily journaling about often

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i write about the man i wish to become

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and i said i call it a ppp pre -performance paragraph i write about who i want to be

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and what i want to stand for

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and what i want to achieve in the day ahead and it really works very well for me

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So a paragraph in a journal.

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Maybe you'll build your faith by reading the biographies and autobiographies of the great women and men of the world,

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the people who overcame great hardship and suffering.

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I think of Mandela, for example one of my great heroes to bring light to the world

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and Christopher Morley said you can curse the darkness

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or you can shine a light and I wish you would shine a light

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and be a great leader no matter if you have a title

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or not and honor your higher power and your greatest wisdom and your

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find his promise and go through today and make the world a better place.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “5 Hidden Habits to Transform Your Life”. This video has 183 sentences and 2218 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:34. The speaker talks at a steady 142 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
monument noun	/ˈmɑnjʊmənt/	A structure built for commemorative or symbolic reasons, or as a memorial; a commemoration.
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
patience noun	/ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/	The quality of being patient.
discomfort noun	/dɪsˈkʌmfɚt/	Mental or bodily distress.
marvelous adjective	/ˈmɑɹvələs/	Exciting wonder or surprise; astonishing; wonderful.
commitment noun	/kəˈmɪtmənt/	The act of sending a legislative bill to committee for review.
inspiration noun	/ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/	The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm, as part of the act of breathing.
fitness noun	/ˈfɪt.nəs/	The condition of being fit, suitable or appropriate.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
remind verb	/ɹəˈmaɪnd/	To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person).
gorgeous adjective	/ˈɡoɹd͡ʒəs/	Sumptuously dressed.
craft noun	/ˈkɹæft/	Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning…
wisdom noun	/ˈwɪzdəm/	An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
legendary adjective	/ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/	Of or pertaining to a legend or to legends.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
put out verb	To blind (eyes).
come over verb	To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse.
come up to verb	To approach.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 56 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, ethic /ˈɛθ.ɪk/, pantheon /ˈpænθiˌɑn/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, shine /ʃaɪn/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, homosexual /ˌhɒməʊˈsɛksjuːəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lesson, monument, habit.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 5 Hidden Habits to Transform Your Life | Robin Sharma - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?