Shadowing Practice: Become Addicted To Discipline With These 6 Strategies - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

254 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

Most people think that discipline is about being tough or having the crazy ability to suffer more than everybody else.

But that is not discipline.

That is suffering for the sake of suffering when it's actually not necessary to achieve your goals.

I want to break down what discipline actually is and spoiler alert, it is not about willpower and it's not about grit.

Here's the thing, discipline is not in your DNA.

You're not born with it.

It is in your design.

It's about making success easier than failure by designing your environment to do the heavy lifting for you.

Discipline is not a personality trait.

It's a system.

When I was 19, I was 100 pounds overweight.

I was failing out of school.

I didn't have the friends that I wanted.

I didn't have the body I wanted.

And I was just a mess.

And I thought to myself, oh, I'm just not a disciplined person.

But then here's the thing.

Once I installed systems into my environment to make it easier to lose weight than to stay overweight,

to make it easier to have the right friends than to have the wrong friends, and to make it easier to work hard than to be lazy, suddenly I looked really disciplined.

For example, I took out all the junk food in my house, and if I wanted junk food, I would have to literally walk to the store because I didn't have a car.

And that's when I realized that being disciplined sucks in the moment, but not being disciplined sucks later and for the rest of your life.

Most people aren't disciplined simply because they don't put systems into place and they don't understand how it works.

And then they think that they're lazy.

You're not lazy.

You're just not doing the things that you need to make it easier to be disciplined than not.

And so if you're wondering, okay, gosh, I think you're right, but I don't have the systems in place.

Where do I begin?

The first thing

that you want to do is block a time on your

calendar where you can actually do research to put the systems in place.

Even just the the system of writing things down to prompt

yourself to take action is actually a really great system to have.

The question that you should ask yourself right now is what friction exists in my current environment

that is making it harder to be disciplined than to be lazy?

That's the first thing you wanna think about.

What things around me, is it the food in my pantry?

Is it the friends that I have?

Is it a, what do I need to extract from my environment to make discipline easier?

The second thing that I want you to ask yourself, Willpower and motivation are like batteries, so they're going to constantly deplete.

Because here's the thing, structure is where you derive power from, and discipline is like the power grid.

So if you rely on motivation or feeling motivated, you, my friend, have already lost.

Most days when I wake up, I don't feel motivated to do what I've gotta do that day.

But I have systems in place that make it easier to do those things than harder.

For example, when I first started dieting, I told myself, I'm just gonna white knuckle it.

Don't eat anything bad, don't eat this, don't eat that, don't eat out, don't eat dessert, don't eat whatever.

I would go to dinners with food everywhere and it would be so hard to resist.

It felt like all day I was resisting something, which doesn't feel good.

And I would always cave because I was relying on motivation, I was relying on willpower.

Whether it's three o'clock or six o'clock or the end of the day or the end of the night, it would run out and then I would end up eating something I didn't wanna eat.

And that's because if your day relies on feeling motivated, if your goals rely on feeling motivated, then you're already behind because motivation is unreliable.

It is a source that depletes, it is finite, and it's not something you can control.

So if you don't have structure and you don't have systems, then you quickly burn through your motivation

and you don't ever get to achieve your goals because you don't have the real structure it requires to achieve one.

So what I realized is

that what you have to have to figure out in order to use this structure is what to do instead.

Instead of relying on motivation, you create structure.

So what does that look like?

If I wanna lose weight and I'm going out to dinner, I'm gonna look at the menus for the dinner ahead of time.

That's one option I could have, right?

I could look at the menus for the place I'm going to, and then I could pick ahead of time.

When I get there, I don't have to think.

I don't have to decide what I'm going to eat.

I just get to eat what I already decided upon.

The second thing I could do is I could say, I'm going to build a system where I eat before I go to dinner with people.

So I'm going to eat dinner at my house with the food

that I know is healthy for me and helps me achieve my goals.

Then I'm going to go to dinner and I'm going to get a tea.

Or if it's the gym, right, and you're just trying to figure out how to work out, I'm gonna follow an online gym workout template.

And I'm gonna always have an alternate for if I've got to travel and I've got a travel-friendly one.

And so my point is this.

It's not that we want to stop doing the behaviors that are preventing us from reaching our goals.

It's that we want to figure out an alternative.

We want to say, what can I do instead?

Instead of eating the chips, what if I ordered tea?

Instead of ordering the fatty hamburger at the burger bar we're going to, what if I have a protein shake before I go?

The biggest way that I've been able to hack my way into having a disciplined life is I just find alternatives.

A huge alternative I have is that, for example, in my house, I had this cabinet where I always stored candy.

And whenever I go to diet, I actually put gum and mints where the candy is.

So every time I go to reach for the candy, there's a piece of gum there.

And then I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm trying to lose weight.

And then I just take a piece of gum, I chew the gum, and then eventually I forget about the fact that I even want the candy.

It's not that I try not to do something.

It's that I'm replacing it with a new behavior.

And that is a system.

Another system that a lot of people have is when they wake up, maybe they eat a really bad breakfast.

Maybe you go to Starbucks, you get a really heavy coffee or something.

Okay, well a system you could have is, you know what I'm gonna do when I wake up?

The first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna walk for 30 minutes.

Instead of going to Starbucks and getting this drink that has 450 calories in it, because they all do, not only am I replacing it with a behavior that's gonna help me,

but replacing it with behavior that's positive, not even just neutral to my goals.

And so a question to ask yourself is, What is one decision that I can make today that will eliminate 10 decisions for tomorrow?

When I think about this, I think about alternatives.

We want to pick our alternatives ahead of time.

What am I going to do instead of get my Starbucks tomorrow morning?

What am I going to do instead of laying on the couch and being lazy tomorrow night?

What am I going to do instead of eating the hamburger when I go out with my friends?

What am I going to do instead of drinking 10 beers at that party?

It's not about, oh my God, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, and just focusing on not doing it.

It's about focusing on what you're going to do instead.

100

And if you make those decisions ahead of time, then all you've gotta do is follow the system.

101

The biggest lie that people tell themselves is that discipline should feel hard.

102

Here's the thing, if it's too hard to repeat, it's not discipline, it's your ego, it's willpower.

103

Because if discipline doesn't feel easy, then you're thinking about it wrong.

104

For example, when I first started going to the gym, I went to the most advanced classes thinking I was gonna get results really fast.

105

So I remember I went to, it was called body pump.

106

Body pump was where you would do like 30 reps of one exercise four times.

107

And so if you picked an even moderate weight, you're gonna be fried from them.

108

And I remember I went to body pump three days in a row, and then I went home, and I went to go upstairs to my room,

109

and I collapsed trying to walk up the stairs because my legs were so sore that I couldn't even, they just gave out.

110

And I was like, oh my God.

111

And I remember the moment I crawled up the stairs.

112

And so I hated it.

113

I remember I was talking to a friend of mine at the gym, and I told her this, and I was like, I'm not gonna go back to that class.

114

It's just like too hard for me.

115

And she said, Layla, your muscles need time to adapt.

116

If it's constantly painful and you're constantly in pain, you're never going to stick with it.

117

And so what I realized is that if something feels too hard or too punishing or it's too advanced too soon,

118

you're going to associate it with negativity and you'll avoid it.

119

You're essentially punishing yourself.

120

And then when we punish ourselves, that means we also avoid the thing that could potentially lead to punishment.

121

So if every time I work out, I hurt really bad after, I'm going to eventually avoid working out because I know what comes after working out is feeling really bad and sore after.

122

And so here's the thing.

123

You're not failing at discipline.

124

You're just approaching it from a standpoint of having too big of an ego, too high of standards too early on, or you're approaching it from a place of anxiety rather than ease or consistency.

125

And so what do we want to do instead?

126

We want to lower the bar and stack easy wins.

127

We want to make our tasks so achievable that we feel good after we've done them.

128

And then what happens is if we do something, we feel good after we do it.

129

Then we want to do it again because we like doing things that feel good.

130

This is looking at yourself as a scientist versus being the judge of your life.

131

You want to be a scientist of your own behavior

132

and the way that you act rather than being a judge who's just trying to punish yourself all day.

133

And if you do this, you're going to build positive momentum and then you will create consistency

134

because we tend to do things that we like doing

135

and we tend to try and avoid things that we don't like doing.

136

And so question for you to ask yourself is what habits

137

or routines that you've been putting in place

138

that you haven't been sticking with feel punishing and that pain is making you avoid them?

139

Think about it.

140

Is it something at work?

141

Is it something with your relationship?

142

Is it something with yourself?

143

Is it something with food?

144

Whatever it might be, if you constantly do something and then feel pain because of it, you are likely not going to stick with it in the long run.

145

So what this means is that real discipline is not about stopping a bad habit, it's about creating a realistic and better alternative.

146

So if you wanna build real discipline, this is a common misconception that you need to avoid at all costs.

147

So I'll give you an example that's pretty morbid, but it always really resonated with me, which was my mother was an alcoholic when I grew up and she quit drinking by smoking.

148

Sounds crazy, right?

149

But she went from drinking to smoking, to vaping, to chewing gum, to eventually nothing.

150

And so she didn't go from zero to perfect.

151

She continued to replace her bad habits with increasingly better alternatives.

152

I know it sounds nuts, but too often people think that discipline means stopping a behavior immediately, but that almost always fails.

153

So you don't need to be perfect right away.

154

You just need to take a step towards the next best alternative.

155

What you wanna do is identify a realistic, better, not perfect alternative to your habit.

156

So instead of drinking vodka, maybe you drink a seltzer.

157

Instead of drinking a seltzer, maybe you have a craft beer.

158

Instead of a craft beer, maybe you're gonna have a non-alcoholic beer.

159

Maybe then instead of a non-alcoholic beer, then you're gonna have a Diet Coke.

160

And then after Diet Coke, you're gonna say, I'm gonna have a sparkling water.

161

And then from a sparkling water, you can stick with that or go to a water.

162

You see how it goes?

163

It's like you take tiny little steps.

164

You don't just make the big swing all at once.

165

This can be done with food as well.

166

Let's say you eat dessert every night.

167

You're like, I eat a sundae every night.

168

It's like, oh, I'm gonna go from having a sundae every night to nothing.

169

No, let's go from having a sundae with caramel, with toppings, with hot fudge, to like, let's have a sundae with no hot fudge.

170

Then two days later, let's have a sundae with no brownie bites.

171

Then two days later, let's have a sundae with half the ice cream.

172

And you just continue to gradually swap out alternatives in stages.

173

And so small steps in the right direction turn into big changes over time.

174

It's just that most people are so impatient with themselves, they don't allow themselves to get there.

175

And they stay stuck in this cycle of going big change and then back out, big change again, back out.

176

So here's the deal.

177

If you want true freedom, you have to stop relying on how you feel each day.

178

Freedom comes from following a plan, not your feelings.

179

A good example of this is that every year I map out a 12 month plan for my business.

180

And now I do this because what it means is that I take some time, maybe it's a week, it's two weeks, it's five days

181

and I put all of my effort into figuring out what's

182

the plan going to look like to get me to my goal 12 months from now.

183

Now, why do I do this?

184

I do this because I'm trying to get all the hard thinking done ahead of time

185

so that every day when I step into my business, I just get to execute.

186

I don't have to keep thinking.

187

I don't have decision fatigue.

188

I'm not constantly in this tear of like, what should I do?

189

What do I need to do to grow my business?

190

I just know.

191

And I've been able to achieve that level of freedom through structure.

192

Because without structure, I'm gonna constantly debate with myself

193

and I'm gonna be exhausted because I'm gonna be in this cycle of like decision-execution, decision-execution.

194

And that decision fatigue is gonna prevent any kind of meaningful progress

195

because I'm gonna be stuck in the cycle of questioning what I'm doing.

196

But if I do all the thinking ahead of time and then I just get to execute, I don't think about it.

197

I just say, you know what, I'm gonna play this out.

198

I'm gonna see if I make progress.

199

Another example of this is that every Sunday I plan my entire next week.

200

Why do I do that?

201

It is another way of doing this on a micro level, which is I don't wanna wake up every day and be like, what am I doing today?

202

I think it's the biggest waste of my time and energy.

203

And there's nothing I hate more than not knowing what I'm gonna be doing for the day.

204

Now, it doesn't have to be perfect.

205

It's something that you can do.

206

You can test it out for a week

207

and you'll see how much more freedom you feel when just on a daily basis, you're not arguing with yourself.

208

And so the question that you can ask yourself is how much energy am I losing

209

by fighting with myself on a daily basis.

210

All in all, discipline isn't sexy, it is boring.

211

And boring is what scales, boring is what works.

212

If your routine is exciting, you're probably doing it wrong because by the nature of routine, if it's exciting, it means you don't do it all the time, which means it's not a routine.

213

It's funny because people say all the time, I would love to see a day in your life, Layla.

214

And I'm like, well, that's boring as because my life is a series of systems strung together every day.

215

And so it means like, I have a system for working out.

216

I have a system for my marriage.

217

I have a system for my business.

218

I have a system for my friendships.

219

I have a system for my family.

220

Like I have a system for every aspect of my life.

221

But here's the thing, those systems, those are discipline and they're real.

222

Are they boring?

223

For sure, they look boring from the outside, but they get the results that I'm looking for in my life.

224

And a lot of the times, most people are just chasing novelty.

225

They want a new workout.

226

They want a new mastermind, a new business, a new meetup, but they don't actually get any results.

227

They just feel like they're making progress because they get to go from zero to one a million times.

228

I'd rather go from one to 10.

229

And so the reality is if your routine is too exciting, you're probably not actually making progress.

230

And so you want to embrace boring routines.

231

Doing simple things consistently is what actually leads to massive success.

232

I have literally never had a time where I have woken up on a single day

233

and thought I wanna do every single thing today.

234

Seriously, I haven't in a long, long time, probably 15 years, because most days I wake up, I at least don't wanna do one thing.

235

I don't wanna do the workout.

236

I don't wanna talk to the person.

237

I don't want to have the hard conversation.

238

I don't want to do the interview.

239

I don't want to do eight meetings.

240

I don't want to run a board meeting.

241

I don't want to look at these financials.

242

I don't want to answer these emails.

243

I don't want to talk to anybody.

244

But I also know that feelings are fleeting.

245

And I want the long-term satisfaction of knowing that I can stick with something, knowing I have control over myself and knowing that I've mastered something.

246

And what I've seen is that when you start doing it, it adds up and then you start to feel better about yourself and better than you've ever felt because you're like, I trust myself.

247

I trust myself to stick with the plan.

248

I trust myself to have my own back.

249

Discipline is not just going to bring you closer to your goals, it's going to bring you closer to the person that you want to be.

250

At the end of the day, I care more about how I feel about myself

251

when I'm by myself than I do about the fleeting moments

252

I had during the day where maybe I wasn't super into something, maybe I didn't want to do it for five seconds, but that always goes away.

253

Building discipline is only half the battle, but if this felt valuable, you can go ahead and watch my video on building micro habits that could change your life.

254

Thank you.

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Same Channel

FOR YOU

Recommend Video

1,171

18 sentences

Discipline Beats Motivation

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

151 sentences

How I became DISGUSTINGLY DISCIPLINED and got my dream life (you can too)

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

135 sentences

Learn English with Podcast | Why Discipline is Important for Freedom | Podcast for Beginners | Slow

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

230 sentences

7 Japanese Rules of Discipline || Learn English Through Story 🔥|| Improve Your English

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

245 sentences

Become addicted to discipline in 1 day

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

115 sentences

10 Simple Daily Habits to Change Your Life 💫

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

154 sentences

How to stop GIVING UP on your routines and ACTUALLY stay consistent

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

237 sentences

How to Build A Disciplined Life | fitness, diet, home, motherhood, daily default systems

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

720 sentences

How to Discipline Your Mind | Easy English Conversation Podcast | 40 Minutes Real English Listening

Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students

13 sentences

You can achieve anything you want

Daily ConversationWorking Adults

114 sentences

Why We Know What to Do but Still Don’t Do It | B1 English Shadowing

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Become Addicted To Discipline With These 6 Strategies”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: discipline, instead, eat. This video has 254 sentences and 3474 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:01. The speaker talks fast, about 231 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
discipline noun	/ˈdɪsəplɪn/	A controlled behaviour; self-control.
bore verb	/boɹ/	To inspire boredom in somebody.
rely verb	/ɹɪˈlaɪ/	To trust; to have confidence in; to depend.
sundae noun	/ˈsun.deɪ/	A dessert consisting of ice cream with various toppings.
motivation noun	/ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/	Willingness of action especially in behavior.
punish verb	/ˈpʌnɪʃ/	To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action…
lazy adjective	/ˈleɪ̯zi(ː)/	Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
willpower noun	/ˈwɪlˌpaʊɚ/	The unwavering strength of will to carry out one's wishes.
motivate verb	/ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/	To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
candy noun	/ˈkæn.di/	Crystallized sugar formed by boiling down sugar syrup.
excite verb	/ɪkˈsaɪt/	To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement.
alcoholic noun	/ˌæl.kəˈhɔ.lɪk/	A person who is addicted to alcohol.
workout noun	/ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/	An exercise session; a period of physical exercise.
pump noun	/pʌmp/	A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
work out verb	/ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/	To calculate.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
back out verb		To reverse (a vehicle) from a confined space.
add up verb		To take the sum of; to total.
break down verb		To stop functioning.
burn through verb		To use up in a hasty or destructive manner.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Is it the friends that I have?
We want to say, what can I do instead?
Is it something with your relationship?
You see how it goes?
I'm not constantly in this tear of like, what should I do?

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	you've been putting · haven't been sticking
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being disciplined · aren't disciplined · be disciplined
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have already lost · I've been · we've done
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	level, which is · time, which means

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 171 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/, misconception /ˌmɪs.kənˈsɛp.ʃən/, impatient /ɪmˈpeɪʃənt/
Long words — get the stress right: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, alcoholic /ˌæl.kəˈhɔ.lɪk/, consistency /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/, achievable /əˈt͡ʃivəbəl/

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 discipline, bore, rely.

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: Become Addicted To Discipline With These 6 Strategies - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

The Insecurity Trap (And How to Beat It)

If you're insecure....

5 "BORING" Habits That Took Me From Broke to Millionaire

Watch This If You’re Ambitious But Lazy

The Psychology of Making Money

If You Only Watch One Video Today, Make It This One

7 Conversations Every Ambitious Person Needs to Hear | Dear Leila

How I Managed 120 Employees at Age 24 (Without Losing My Mind)

How to win the season you’re currently in | BUILD with Leila Hormozi

How to Stop Overthinking

How To Outsmart Negative Thoughts Once And For All

Give me 17 minutes, and I’ll Make You Dangerously Consistent

How I brainwashed myself to be rich

How to Emotionally Detach, Get Focused, and Level Up Your Life

How to Talk So Clearly People Assume You’re Brilliant

How To Make Anyone Respect You Instantly

I'm 33. If You're In Your 20s or 30s, Watch This.

If You’re Ambitious, But Stuck, Watch This.

Top 10 Answers to Interview Questions

How to Articulate Your Thoughts More Clearly Than 99% of People

Discipline Beats Motivation

How I became DISGUSTINGLY DISCIPLINED and got my dream life (you can too)

Learn English with Podcast | Why Discipline is Important for Freedom | Podcast for Beginners | Slow

7 Japanese Rules of Discipline || Learn English Through Story 🔥|| Improve Your English

Become addicted to discipline in 1 day

10 Simple Daily Habits to Change Your Life 💫

How to stop GIVING UP on your routines and ACTUALLY stay consistent

How to Build A Disciplined Life | fitness, diet, home, motherhood, daily default systems

How to Discipline Your Mind | Easy English Conversation Podcast | 40 Minutes Real English Listening

You can achieve anything you want

Why We Know What to Do but Still Don’t Do It | B1 English Shadowing

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?