Shadowing Practice: 7 Habits That Changed My Life After 30 (Wish I Started Sooner) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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you're getting older every single day but the question is are you actually getting better
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well when i turned 30 years old which is now over a decade ago
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that question hit me like a truck because i realized
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that i was getting older but just because i was getting older didn't mean
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that i was becoming the person that i wanted to be
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and i was in the middle of the biggest life shift that I had ever had.
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And I needed to look at my life
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and become very intentional about who I was becoming and what I was actually doing with myself and my life.
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And so I made some very intentional changes about the way that I lived my life.
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And looking back now, I can tell you
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that those changes completely shifted the trajectory of my life and where it was headed.
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And so today, I'm going to show you those seven biggest shifts
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that I made and how you can actually make them in your life if you want to.
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So number one was this.
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I started asking myself, what would the future version of me do right now?
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And so I have become over the past decade, a little bit more than a decade, very intentional about where my life is going.
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I started to actually plan my life out in vivid detail as if I was writing like a screenplay.
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And I knew in so much detail exactly what it is
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that i wanted from there what i needed to figure out
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is who i needed to be in order to create
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that life and so the version of me that needs to create
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that life and i became clear on every single detail
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that i possibly could about the person who created the life
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that i'm working to build from everything from who they are what they do what time
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they wake up what type of food do they eat who
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do they talk to how do they talk to himself how do they talk to their employees
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What does an average Tuesday look like for them?
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What type of husband are they?
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What type of parent are they?
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Every single detail that I possibly could.
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So I built out my life in vivid detail and then I built out the future version of me in vivid detail.
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And that version of me is now my filter for everything that I do.
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And so before I make a decision, I just ask myself the question, what would the future version of me do right now? Because
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that person is my filter it's essentially like asking myself is what i'm doing right now getting me closer to
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or further from my goal if it is future me
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and i wouldn't do it then i don't do it and
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so i'm sitting there and i want to sleep in
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when my alarm clock is going off i just take a second
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and i just say what would the future version of me do right
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now the future version of me would say get your ass up
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and do it okay
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that means that's what i got to do oh
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i want to skip a workout what would the future version
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we do right now the future version
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you say do it it's going to make you healthier
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it's going to make you live longer
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it's going to make everything better okay well then it's what i got to do and
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so what i started doing was i started asking myself the
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question what would the future version of me do right
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now okay that's the first thing the second thing is i
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started learning to celebrate the action not the outcome for a long time
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i worked like towards a goal towards the outcome
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and those are important to know and to have but in order to achieve something it really takes three things.
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It takes direction, it takes action, and it takes time.
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All I need to do is focus on the direction and focus on the action, right?
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Am I heading in the right direction?
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And if I know, of course, like I said just a minute ago, where I'm trying to go, then I can filter through,
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is this the right action to take?
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Then all I need to do is make sure
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that I'm taking the right action that's keeping me moving along in the direction
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that I've actually chosen that I wanna go in my life
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And then the only thing that I can't control is the time.
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I am not in control of the time of how long it takes to get to where I wanna go.
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And we will be right back.
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Do you wanna finish 2026 strong?
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If so, then you need to be at my free three -day live challenge.
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It's October 27th through the 29th, live with me.
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Here's why.
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Most people check out around this time of year.
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They look at the goals that they set, they see how far off they are, and they tell themselves they'll start over again in January.
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Don't do that.
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There's still enough time left in this year for you to make real progress.
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You just have to use it.
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So I'm gonna teach you how to deprogram and reprogram your identity, how to take real action and stop procrastinating.
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And at the end of this challenge, you're gonna have your own 60 -day roadmap for the rest of 2026,
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plus a workbook so you know exactly what you need to focus on next.
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So go to finish2026strong .com.
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You can hit that QR code right there, or you can click the link down below in the description,
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and I'll see you live on the challenge.
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and now back to the show.
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So it's been hard to do but I have to let go of when the outcome is going to come to me.
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If I'm trying to create something in my life I'm not in control of
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when it is actually here
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and the way I like to look at is this is like ever seen a pregnant woman
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you would never walk up to a pregnant woman be like hey do you think
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that you could try to hurry up this process and have that baby in six months?
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No, that'd be insane.
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It takes about on average eight to nine months to create a baby.
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And so to get it done in six months, that's insane.
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Why?
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Because the creator of this universe decided it's about nine months.
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And so the creator of this universe has decided what it is
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that you want is going to take X amount of time.
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You're not in control of it.
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I'm in control of it.
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All you need to do is make sure you're heading in the right direction and you're taking the right action.
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And just know, and I know, that if i'm heading in the right direction
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and i'm taking the right action eventually what i want
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and what i'm working towards i will eventually get
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and that's why i decided to start celebrating the action
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that i'm taking because the action is the only part
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that i can really control
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so that's number two number three a huge thing for me is not touching my phone in the morning
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and meditating first truthfully like really this is something
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that i practice i've been doing for years at this point
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i do not look at my phone for at least an hour every single morning
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that is a non -negotiable before
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i let the world in i need to focus on myself
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i need to focus on filling my cup i need to make sure
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that my nervous system is how i want to be before
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i go into my day otherwise i will just go into what the world wants me to be
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and what the world wants me to think
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or i'll fall back into old patterns that i've been trying to get past and
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if you grab your phone first thing in the morning like
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stop looking at your phone in bed give yourself some time
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give your brain your nervous system some time to wake up
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and and set the tone of where you're trying to go for the day
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if you grab your phone first thing you're letting everybody else decide how your day starts
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and who you're going to be i don't know about you
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i want to be in control of who i am how i act and how my nervous system feels.
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And so one of the most important things that you can do is not look at your phone for an hour.
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Meditate.
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Decide who you want to be for the day.
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Set up yourself to fill your cup first and then after an hour, two hours, whatever it is for you,
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look at your phone and go about your day.
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So that's number three.
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Number four, have a morning gratitude practice.
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Right after I meditate, before the phone ever comes out, I do my gratitude practice.
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And it used to seem super corny to me where I was like,
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oh my gosh, I'm gonna sit there and journal or think about the things that I'm grateful for.
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I got too much to do.
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I'm too busy.
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That's not gonna do anything for me.
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But I'm being honest with you, this one has absolutely changed my life and my mindset.
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I did an episode on this recently.
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So you can go back and listen to that if you wanna go deeper into it.
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But here's the thing that I've realized, okay?
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We all have a negativity bias inside of us
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it is how our species survived we always look for what's wrong
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and that is just a protection mechanism
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that comes from a million to two million years ago it's what kept our species alive
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but today if you don't pay attention
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that thing is going to set you off track
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and find all of these things that are wrong
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and negative in your life and so i realized one day
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if i truly want to be happy
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if i truly want to feel good
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then i need to start focusing on what is right in
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my life instead of what is wrong in my life
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because with the negativity bias it'll automatically go towards what's wrong
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and if it's always going towards what's wrong I'm missing all of the great things in my life
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if you just take a second and get out of your own head you have
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so much to be grateful for and we will miss it
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if we're not actually trying to look for it and
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so a daily morning gratitude practice trains my reticular activating system to focus on what I'm grateful for.
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And naturally, if I focus on what I'm grateful for and I tune my reticular activating system towards that,
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I will find more things to be grateful for.
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Not because they're magically going to show up in my life, but because I'm actually searching for them now versus searching for what's wrong.
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So that's number four.
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Number five is being intentional about who I spend time with.
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I will be honest with you.
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Now that I've gotten older, I used to have a much, much larger friend group and it's not like i kicked people out of my life
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because i don't love them anymore it's not like i don't love those people anymore
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it's like i don't see people sometimes
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that i used to hang out with all of the time it's just
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that i have decided to protect my energy
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and become much more intentional about who i spend my time with
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and who i allow to influence my thoughts
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because what i have found is that no matter who it is
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when you spend time with someone they influence
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you in many different ways to influence your thoughts to influence your feelings all of
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that and so I realized that if I want to think a certain way
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if I want to feel a certain way and
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if I want to create a specific type of life
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I need to be very diligent about who I spend my time with a lot of people
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that I have found will just spend time with people
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because they've always spent time with them
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and they feel obligated to spend time with them
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and it would feel bad to spend less time with them
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but you've got to realize the people around you are either building you towards the future version of you
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that you want to be or they're pulling you back towards the old one
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and so you've got to just look at these people
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and just really make a true assessment not by judging people
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or anything like that but just get really curious about it is this person helping me
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or hurting me from turning into the person
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that i want to be to create the life that i want to for myself and my family.
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So that's number five.
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Number six, this is a big one.
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Moving my body every single day, no matter what.
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Listen, it's happening, guys.
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I'm getting older and I'm starting to feel like a little bit rustier, like a little bit creakier.
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You guys know what I'm talking about?
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Like things hurt more than they used to.
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And a trainer of mine years ago used to always say motion is lotion.
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Like when you have motion and you're moving your body and you're moving your joints and all of that stuff,
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everything tends to feel a little bit more lubed up.
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It tends to move easier and it tends to move better.
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And I personally want to be a grandfather at 70, 75, 80 years old, who's running around and playing sports with his grandkids.
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I wanna be that guy.
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I wanna be able to move around and feel like I'm 30 when I'm 70.
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And so if I'm going to do that, I need to be working on moving my body now.
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One thing I really messed up in my 20s was just sitting a lot.
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Sitting in my car because I drove a lot for one of the jobs that I had.
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I was drive two or three hours, sometimes five hours a day for a job that I had when I was in my early 20s.
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I sat down at computers all the time and it started really taking a toll on my body.
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A lot of us, a lot of you listening to me, spend a lot of time sitting at your computer in the exact same positions.
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It is terrible for our bodies.
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And so listen, this meat soup, this is the only place that we're gonna truly ever inhabit in this lifetime.
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So we need to spend more time moving these amazing bodies of ours that are designed to move.
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Like our ancestors, they didn't just sit under trees all day long.
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They move, they hunted, they hang out with each other.
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They go for walks, they go hunting.
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They would be gathering food.
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They would look for berries.
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They're always moving.
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And then I'm sure they would sit down every once in a while,
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but I'm trying to do more of what our bodies are actually designed to do.
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So that's number six.
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And it's really helped me with a lot of body issues
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and pains and aches that I used to have in the past.
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And number seven is protecting my sleep like it's the most important thing in my schedule.
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This one is super important.
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I am telling you, if I can do it, I will move things in the morning
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if I get a bad night of sleep so that I can make sure I get the right amount of sleep.
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Sleep should not be something that you do when everything else is done.
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Like I have so many people that I know
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that treat sleep like it's just a thing that they have to do and treat sleep like,
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oh gosh, when I get to it, I'll get to it.
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The people that I have found that tend to be the healthiest
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and tend to have the most energy throughout the day and all of that are the type of people
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who have a specific time that they wake up and a specific time they go to bed.
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And it's not the exact same minute every single day,
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but they have a pretty good idea and they protect that time like their life depends on it.
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And when you look at the studies of how important sleep is for your energy, for your life, for your relationships, for all of that stuff,
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you really realize like sleep is not something that we should just eventually get to.
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Sleep is something that we should prioritize over almost everything else in our life.
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And people who sleep more live longer.
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And so sleep isn't something that you should just be doing, oh, I'll do it whenever I get done.
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It is the thing that makes everything else better and possible in your life.
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When you have more energy and you have more like vibrancy in your life, everything in your life is better.
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Your business is better.
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Your relationship is better.
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Your body is better.
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Your energy is better.
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Everything is better whenever you prioritize your sleep.
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And so what I would recommend for you is figure out first off,
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number one, how much sleep you actually need because some people need six hours.
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Some people need seven.
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Some people need nine.
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So start to do some tests,
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figure out how much it is that you need and then find what is the perfect time for me to fall asleep?
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What is a perfect time for me to wake up?
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and then prioritize it like it is the most important thing in your schedule.
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And so the seven biggest shifts that I have made since turning 30 years old is number one,
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asking myself, what would the future version of me do right now?
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Number two, celebrating the action that I'm taking, not the outcome that I'm working towards.
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Number three, not touching my phone in the morning and meditating first.
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Number four, having a morning gratitude practice right after my meditation.
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Number five, being very intentional about who I spend time with.
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Number six, moving my body every single day, no negotiation.
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Number seven, protecting my sleep like it is the most important thing on my schedule.
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Hey, thanks so much for watching this video.
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Based off of what you've been watching recently, YouTube searched its algorithm and searched all of the videos that I've ever made.
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And it thinks that this video right here is the one that is what you need right now.
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If you wanna make sure to never miss another video, hit that button right there, subscribe, and I'll see you on the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “7 Habits That Changed My Life After 30”. This video has 265 sentences and 3194 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:13. The speaker talks fast, about 210 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| intentional adjective | /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/ | Intended or planned; done deliberately or voluntarily. |
| grateful adjective | /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/ | Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful. |
| outcome noun | /ˈaʊtkʌm/ | That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process. |
| gratitude noun | /ˈɡɹæ.tɪ.tud/ | The state of being grateful. |
| filter noun | /ˈfɪltɚ/ | A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from… |
| vivid adjective | /ˈvɪvɪd/ | Clear, detailed, or powerful. |
| insane adjective | /ɪnˈseɪn/ | Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad. |
| creator noun | /kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/ | Something or someone which creates or makes something. |
| bias noun | /ˈbaɪ.əs/ | Inclination towards something. |
| gosh | /ɡɑːʃ/ | A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm. |
| activate verb | /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/ | To encourage development or induce increased activity; to stimulate. |
| tone noun | /ˈtəʊn/ | A specific pitch. |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
| assessment noun | /əˈsɛsmənt/ | The act of assessing or an amount (of tax, levy or duty etc) assessed. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| build out verb | To develop or expand (a system, structure, project, etc.). | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| fall back into verb | To return to old habits; to return to an unhealthy or unhappy situation. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| get past verb | To continue around a blockage; to get around (something); to surpass something that is in the way. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Am I heading in the right direction?
- You're not in control of it.
- I'm in control of it.
- That's not gonna do anything for me.
- You guys know what I'm talking about?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to seem · used to have · used to hang |
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | i've been doing · i've been trying · you've been watching |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have become · I've actually chosen · it's been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was headed · are designed · are actually designed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 89 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, grandfather /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, truthfully /ˈtɹuːθ.fəl.i/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, negotiation /nɪˌɡəʊ.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/, negotiation /nɪˌɡəʊ.ʃiˈeɪ.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 intentional, grateful, outcome.
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.