Shadowing Practice: ANYONE can be mentally tough. It's easy. - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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This is not a fitness video.
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This is not a fitness video.
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This is actually a video about your brain and the visible limits we all cage ourselves with.
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The truth is this, that there are no real limits.
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I've been planking 15 to 30 minutes straight for the past 10 years every single day.
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That's almost 1,000 hours total.
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10 years ago, I could barely hold a single minute.
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Since then, sure, my abs have gotten stronger,
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but what's changed the most is actually my mind.
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Not just in some woo-woo,
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a more tough now kind of way.
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I'm talking real, neurobiological changes in my brain that give me increased mental stamina,
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increased energy, and overall improved neuroplasticity.
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I'm going to show you how,
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and why you should have started this years ago.
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How to make it easy,
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and the neuroscience behind it all.
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Oh, and yeah, that's right.
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I'm going to be doing this entire video in the plank position.
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First of all, why the plank?
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It's without a doubt one of the best exercises you could do.
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What else hits almost every muscle you own,
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improves your spine health, your posture,
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and acts as a force multiply for everything else like balance, running, and lifting.
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There's minimal risk for injury,
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and it's infinitely scalable, with longer holds and increased weight.
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But despite all that, the real reason why I love the plank is because it's actually not a physical exercise at all.
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It's 90% a mental one.
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BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
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That's the million-dollar growth factor that floods your brain when you plank.
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You want to cure almost every neurodegenerative disease out there?
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Figure out how to turn this into a pill,
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and you'll win the Nobel Prize.
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BDNF increases the lifespan of your brain cells,
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promotes neurogenesis, the birth of new brain cells,
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in the hippocampus, an area critical for memory and learning,
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and increases synaptic plasticity.
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This means your brain cells can talk to each other and form connections much more easily.
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This ultimately leads to stronger,
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more flexible brain networks overall,
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which means you learn faster,
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face stress better, become less anxious and depressed overall.
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Don't just take my word for it.
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I'm just a random doctor from Harvard.
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Just look at all the research that's out there.
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And so, in this moment,
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as I hold the plank,
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when I'm teeming with all this brain fertilizer,
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I have an entire mental routine I run through.
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In this routine, I focus all this extra brain power to specifically grow the most important meta skills of life,
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agency, mental toughness, and emotional resilience.
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Let me explain how.
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For decades, no one thought running a 4 minute mile was possible.
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Doctors, coaches, scientists, they all claimed the human body couldn't handle this train.
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That is, until 1954 when a medical student named Roger Bannister,
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who trained during lunch breaks between hospital shifts,
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casually broke the barrier at her small race in Oxford.
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And just like that, within a year,
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multiple people were able to crush 4 minutes when in the entire previous history of mankind,
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not a single person could do it before.
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What happened?
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Did humans suddenly evolve in 1954?
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No, what changed was just belief.
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The realization that it was possible.
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That's agency belief that as long as something doesn't break the laws of physics,
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it's possible, not just in general, but for you specifically.
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That's why the first few minutes of my plank is reserved for training agency.
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I think to myself, for whatever reason,
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most people put limits on themselves, but not I.
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Most people live inside their tiny comfort zones,
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spend their entire lives suffocating this bubble, but not me.
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I'm not dying in this godforsaken bubble.
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We all had variations of the 4 minute mile for ourselves.
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Unfortunately, there's no random medical student coming to save us.
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It's up to you.
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That's why the plank is essential.
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I tell myself, if I can handle the plank,
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the most painful exercise to ever exist, I can handle anything.
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I repeat this mantra in my head,
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as long as it doesn't defy the laws of physics,
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I can make it happen.
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If they can put a man on the moon and build a giant metal plane that floats in the sky,
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the least I can do is hold my fat ass a few inches above the ground.
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But there's a problem, It's the same problem with most workouts.
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It's hard to be consistent,
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especially for an exercise that is as painful as this one.
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That's where I was 10 years ago,
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trying to figure it out.
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Luckily, I stumbled upon the solution.
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Scientists have actually been studying this same problem for the past 30 years.
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They've studied burn victims, chronic pain patients,
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even people undergoing major life-altering surgeries.
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How do you help someone effectively deal with never-ending, unrelenting pain?
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Distraction than just any distraction.
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Distractions that engage your brain,
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distractions that engage your senses,
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distractions that engage your very emotions.
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That's why the very best form of distraction is actually a video game.
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In this study, subjects were asked to put their hands in freezing ice water.
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Those that were playing a video game while doing so had significantly higher pain tolerance,
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a lower perception of pain,
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significantly less anxiety, and a much more willingness to repeat the same painful task.
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Sounds awesome, right?
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But I took it one step further.
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I call it Pavlov's Two Rules.
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One, the game you choose must be incredibly addicting.
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And two, a game can only be played in the plank position.
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When you plank, BDNF is circulating like crazy.
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And so your brain becomes like Play-Doh,
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its neurons ready to be molded and shaped to your heart's content.
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maximum neuroplasticity.
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Whatever you now do in this state,
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whatever you now learn is going to be 10 times easier,
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10 times more sticky, 10 times more memorable.
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That's why it's in this exact state that you,
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one, blast your reward centers like crazy,
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two, numb the pain of the plank,
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and three, specifically associate the act of planking with these highly active reward centers.
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Because you never play unless you're doing a plank.
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Your brain begins to think of the plank now as a bad thing,
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But it's a good thing,
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as it's the only key it has to unlock the reward it so desperately wants.
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In other words, by following Pavlov's two rules,
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you end up not only craving the plank,
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you become addicted to it.
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Is that not insane?
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To become addicted to the most painful exercise possible,
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all while minimizing the pain you feel during it.
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It's pure genius.
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But interestingly enough, I took it yet one more step further.
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While I still reserve the last half of the plank to this method
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and play Clash Royale on my phone to keep Pavlov's two rules alive,
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I balance this with the strangest desire of them all.
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I want to actually feel the pain.
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It sounds crazy, but considering the goal here,
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it's not just to train my abs,
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it's to train my mind.
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But you end up distracting the mind.
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Sure, I successfully do the plank,
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but what's supposed to be a mental exercise turns purely into a physical one.
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That kills 90% of the benefit right there.
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You don't want a jacked body,
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you want a jacked brain.
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Just like calces form on your hands from repeated use,
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mental calces form on your brain from repeated exposure to more difficult and painful tasks.
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Scientists call this exposure therapy or stress inoculation training.
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Studies show that gradually exposing yourself to the physical and psychological stress builds tolerance and desensitizes the brain.
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This reduces the fear response and significantly improves resilience overall.
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That's why the first The first half of the plank is actually done naked.
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No phone, no music, no distractions, no games.
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But it's not just bearing the pain and suffering in silence.
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I run through some very specific mental training exercises.
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Again, BDNF is powering all of this.
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So your brain is very receptive to what you do in this stain.
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First rule of the plank, no negativity whatsoever.
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We frame everything with positive self-talk.
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I don't know if I can do this is in refrain to I can do this.
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I can do this is in refrain to I am doing this.
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Because you literally are.
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Every second you hold is further evidence that you are indeed doing it.
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Evidence you then store away in what David Goggins calls his mental cookie jar.
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When life gets especially tough,
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you reach into that cookie jar and recall prior successes to fuel yourself in the moment.
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A technique called resilience priming.
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Each day's plank primes your resilience for the next.
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I'm doing this becomes of course I can do this because I've already done it before.
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My cookie jar is filled with daily proof.
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That's why the second rule of the plank is what I call the better than yesterday rule.
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Every time you plank, you always add a few seconds.
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If you planked 60 seconds yesterday,
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you then plank for 65 seconds today.
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You already know it's possible because you already did it yesterday.
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What's a few seconds about rounding error?
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Each day's plank.
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Just another cookie used to power your ability to swallow a slightly bigger cookie tomorrow.
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This is how you eat an elephant one slightly bigger bite at a time.
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I have an entire system,
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but I keep track of this.
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With one button on the multi-timer app, everything is set.
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It beeps to let me know when to switch from the naked plank to the reward plank,
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remembers how much I've done each day,
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and tracks how much I've planked in my entire lifetime.
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I've been swiped to another board for studying,
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which keeps track of my Pomodoros and total studying time.
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For YouTube, I switch to a third board.
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What you track is what you improve, right?
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I then sync everything to a Notion file that updates in real time,
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so your accountability partner can see how awesome you're getting done everything with.
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With the pro version, you can make as many custom boards as you want,
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including an entire habit tracker right on your phone at the end of the month.
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I export out all the data and graph out trends.
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This app has honestly changed how I approach my day.
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True gamification.
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At a touch of a button.
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Looking at all the most influential papers in the science of mental toughness,
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there's a pretty common thread.
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Number one, getting more mentally tough is indeed possible.
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Number two, the best way to improve mental toughness is to improve your psychological toolkit.
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We've already talked about reframing positive self-talk,
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resilience priming, and goal setting.
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But I haven't yet mentioned the most important skill of them all,
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emotional resilience through mindfulness training.
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There's a lot of research on this.
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They all show consistently the same findings.
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Split a bunch of performance athletes into two groups.
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One group gets mindfulness training,
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while the second group does nothing special.
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After 5-7 weeks, those in the mindfulness group were found to be much more mentally resilient,
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had higher endurance, and significantly improved cognitive and executive functions overall.
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This is another reason why the first half on my plank is naked.
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Train my autonomic nervous system to make it simple,
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sort of like the fight or flight response.
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Typically, when we feel pain, we enter this mode.
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Instead of the natural instinct to run,
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to stop, to get out of the painful situation we find ourselves in,
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We have to train ourselves instead to stay calm,
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to relax, to sit with the pain and realize this is actually okay.
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I'm going to be okay.
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The best way to do so is to actually embrace the pain and to be curious about it,
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how it actually feels.
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Scan my body from head to toe and make note of all the different muscles that are tensing.
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Which ones hurt the most?
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What kind of pain am I actually feeling?
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When you start to really get in tune with the pain,
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you realize there are actually two parts of this pain.
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There's the physical pain and interestingly enough,
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the emotional component as well.
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When you really pay attention,
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you'll start to realize it's the emotional side of things that's actually the most painful of them all.
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Because the physical pain of the plank is temporary,
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and it merely stops the moment you stop planking.
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It never ceases to amaze me.
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The moment I stop, no matter how bad it was,
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the sudden flood of relief is almost euphoric.
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I realized, oh actually, that wasn't so bad.
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I was really in no danger at all.
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But it's the emotional pain that lingers, that haunts you later.
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If you do take on this plank challenge,
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and you really should, it's going to be emotional pain that eventually makes you stop.
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If you don't, if you do take on this challenge,
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it's probably emotional pain that's to blame too.
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It looks like laziness or lack of discipline,
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but deep down, it's something else entirely.
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Fear, anxiety, insecurity, and self-doubt.
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I deal with these voices in my head all the time.
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It tells me I'm not going to be able to keep this up.
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It tells me why start something if you're only just going to give up a man.
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Do you really want to disappoint yourself again?
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no matter how hard you work you're still going to fail
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so why even bother right you start running ruminating
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and never-ending vortex of negative thought patterns if you're doing it
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if you are planking before you know it you've quit it becomes almost impossible to start again
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because who wants to confront all those emotional baggages again this is what people what happens
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when you let the amygdala the fear centers of your brain run the show realize this extends way beyond planking
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This poisonous thought process plagues us in almost everything we do.
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Anything that takes relentless focus and effort over time.
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But when you train mindfulness,
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the thought patterns change completely.
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You become more aware.
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You realize it's just a voice in your head.
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Emotions are just emotions too.
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They don't have real power.
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They come and go just like physical pain does.
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Except the faucet for emotional pain.
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Something you have to learn to shut off for yourself.
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That's why mindfulness during these moments of toughness is extremely important to prevent yourself from getting lost in your own thoughts,
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to stay present to what's actually going on.
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In the end, physical pain is just physical pain.
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There's no reason to add a layer of emotional pain on top of this too.
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Even more amazingly, when you mindfully pay attention,
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when you truly embrace the physical side of pain and limit the emotional sting of it all,
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it doesn't even feel that bad anymore.
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This is the basis of cognitive behavioral training.
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You get to self-edit your thoughts and question your self-learning beliefs in real time,
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all to get closer to the bare naked truth.
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Which is simply this.
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This physical pain isn't going to kill me.
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In fact, it's not even a bad thing at all.
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The physical pain I get to experience is actually a privilege.
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I should be enjoying this pain, thanking this pain.
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It's because of pain like this that your abs get to change.
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But more excitingly, it's why your brain gets to change.
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you are becoming part of the 1% of people on this planet,
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doing awesome things, unbelievable things, superhuman things.
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Every second you live in this position is just another ounce of proof that you belong in this club of extraordinary people.
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And the reward you get to reap from it will simply take your life to the next level.
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Guaranteed.
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So take some deep breaths,
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calm down, stay present in the moment,
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enjoy every freaking second of this.
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You got this.
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Wow
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If you're still here with me now
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Sign up for the best self-development community known to man
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You get to do weekly challenges just like this with me A bunch of other people
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that win prizes and change your life at the same time I'll see you there
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will embark on a unique journey of mental toughness through the lens of physical exercise, specifically the plank. This lesson focuses on understanding the connection between mental strength and physical challenges. You will practice shadow speech techniques by mimicking the speaker, enhancing your overall English speaking practice. By employing the insights from this transcript, you will learn to articulate your thoughts more confidently while improving your pronunciation and enunciation skills.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Mental toughness: The ability to remain resilient and maintain focus despite challenges.
- Neuroplasticity: The brain's capacity to reorganize itself and form new neural connections throughout life.
- BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor): A protein that supports neuron health and enhances brain function.
- Neurogenesis: The process of generating new neurons in the brain, crucial for learning and memory.
- Meta skills: Fundamental skills that enhance your ability to learn and adapt, such as emotional resilience and agency.
- Force multiplier: An activity that significantly enhances your performance in various tasks.
Practice Tips
To effectively improve English pronunciation and enhance your speaking skills using this transcript, try the following practice tips:
- Shadow the Speaker: Begin by listening to a segment of the video without any visual distractions. Focus on the rhythm, tone, and emotion in the speaker's voice. Then, repeat exactly what you hear, matching their pace and intonation as closely as possible.
- Slow It Down: If the speaker's pace is too fast for you to shadow effectively, consider using video playback options to slow down the audio. This will help you catch each word more clearly and improve your articulation.
- Record Yourself: Use a recording device to capture your voice as you shadow speak. Comparing your practice to the original will help you identify areas for improvement, including pronunciation and flow.
- Focus on Key Vocabulary: Pay special attention to the vocabulary listed above. Practice them separately, then incorporate them into your shadowing routine to build confidence in using these terms naturally in conversation.
- Daily Practice: Aim to practice regularly. Set aside a specific time each day to engage in shadowing techniques, integrating new phrases you learn from each lesson.
By implementing these strategies, you can harness the power of the shadowing technique not only to grasp the concepts of mental strength but also to elevate your English language skills in a meaningful way.
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.
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