Shadowing Practice: Daily English - You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Proud - Intermediate English Podcast - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hey everyone!
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Welcome back to English on the go.
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the podcast where you learn everywhere and speak everywhere.
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I'm Brian.
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And I'm so glad you've tuned in today.
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Today, we are tackling a huge topic.
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It is something that stops so many of us from achieving our goals.
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especially when learning a language.
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It is called perfectionism.
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We often think that in order to be proud of our work, or to speak English confidently.
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We have to be flawless.
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We tell ourselves, I will speak when I don't make grammar mistakes.
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Or, I will show people my project when it is 100 % perfect.
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But the truth is, waiting for perfection, often means waiting forever.
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In today's episode, We're talking about how to accept imperfections and stay motivated.
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We will learn why done is better than perfect.
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and how to be proud of your effort.
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Not just the result, Before we start, I have a question for you.
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Have you ever hidden a project?
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or stayed silent in a conversation.
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Because you were afraid it wouldn't be perfect.
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And do you tend to be hard on yourself when you make a small mistake?
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Think about that as we listen to our guests, Lisa and Sam.
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Lisa is struggling with a big presentation, and Sam is there to help her change her mindset.
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All right.
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Let's dive into the conversation.
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Let's join Lisa and Sam.
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It looks like Lisa is having a very stressful afternoon at the office.
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Hey Lisa, are you okay?
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You've been staring at that same slide for about 20 minutes.
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You look like you're trying to burn a hole in the screen with your eyes.
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"Honestly, Sam?
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No, I'm not okay.
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I am stressing out.
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I have to send this presentation to the client by 5 :00 p .m and it is just not ready.
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It's a disaster.
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A disaster?
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Let me look.
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Lisa, this looks fantastic.
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The data is clear, the graphics are nice.
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What exactly is the problem?
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The problem is the font on slide 14.
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It doesn't look quite right next to the image.
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And the transition between slide 5 and 6 feels a bit clumsy.
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I keep moving this text box two pixels to the left, then two pixels to the right.
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I just can't decide.
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Lisa, you are obsessing over pixels.
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Do you think the client is going to measure the distance between the text and the image?
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Maybe not consciously.
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But they'll feel it, won't they?
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If it's not perfect, they might think I'm unprofessional, They might think I'm lazy.
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I just want it to be flawless so they can't criticize anything.
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Uh, I see what's happening here.
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You're not worried about the font.
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You're worried about being judged.
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Well, yes.
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Isn't that normal?
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I want to be proud of my work.
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And I can't be proud of it if I know there are flaws.
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It feels like if I send it now, I'm admitting defeat.
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I'm admitting that I'm not good enough to make it perfect.
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That sounds exhausting.
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You know there's a name for this, right?
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It's called paralysis by analysis.
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Paralysis by analysis?
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Yes.
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It's when you overthink something so much that you actually stop moving forward.
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You become paralyzed.
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You are so busy analyzing the tiny details, the font, the pixels, the transitions, that you are failing to do the main job,
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which is simply to communicate your ideas. That.
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actually describes exactly how I feel.
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I feel stuck.
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I feel paralyzed.
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I've been working on this for three days, but I feel like I haven't made any real progress because I keep changing the same small things over and over again.
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Exactly.
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You are running on a hamster wheel.
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You're working hard, sweating, and tiring yourself out, but you aren't going anywhere.
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But Sam, if I don't aim for perfection, what should I aim for?
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mediocrity, I don't want to be known as the person who does average work.
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There is a huge space between average and perfect.
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You can do excellent work without killing yourself over invisible details, The problem is that your standard for good enough is impossibly high.
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Maybe, but it feels safe.
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If it's perfect, no one can hurt me.
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No one can say I made a mistake.
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That's the trap, Lisa.
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You think perfection is a shield that protects you from criticism?
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But actually perfection is a cage.
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It keeps you trapped in this office, stressing over a font size when you could have finished an hour ago and gone home to relax.
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When you say it like that, it sounds pretty terrible.
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It is terrible.
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Because while you are polishing this one stone until it shines, The rest of the building isn't getting built.
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You are sacrificing your peace of mind and your deadline for an illusion.
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Perfect doesn't exist, Lisa.
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It's a ghost you are chasing.
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So what do I do?
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Just send it with the clumsy transition?
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We'll get to that.
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But first, you have to admit that this fear isn't about the quality of the work, it's about your fear of not being enough.
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Sam is really challenging Lisa's mindset there.
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It's tough to hear that your hard work is actually a form of fear.
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Let's see how Sam explains the alternative.
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Lisa, let me tell you a quick story.
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You know I play the guitar, right?
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Yeah, you're really good.
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I heard you play at the company party last year.
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Well, thank you.
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But for the first two years that I was learning, nobody heard me play a single note.
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Not even my wife.
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Really?
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Why?
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Because I was exactly like you are with this presentation.
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I told myself, I will not play for anyone until I can play this song perfectly.
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I practiced the same song "Wonderwall" for 6 months.
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Six months on one song?
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That's dedication.
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It wasn't dedication, Lisa.
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It was fear.
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Every time I missed a chord change, Or if my finger slipped and made a buzzing sound, I would get angry.
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I'd stop and start over.
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I refuse to play through the mistake.
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I wanted to be a robot, not a musician.
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So what changed?
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I met a guy at a music shop.
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He heard me practicing and he said, Man, you're playing that like you're taking a math test.
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Where's the feeling?
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I told him I was trying to get it right.
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And he told me something I've never forgotten.
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He said done is better than perfect.
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Done is better than perfect?
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That sounds like an excuse for laziness.
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That's what I thought too.
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But he explained it.
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He said...
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If you play a wrong note but you keep the rhythm going, People will still dance.
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If you stop to fix the note, The music dies.
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Wow.
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That's actually a really good point.
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It changed everything for me.
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I started playing imperfectly.
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I missed notes.
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I messed up chords.
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but I finished the songs And you know what happened?
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You got better?
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I got way better and much faster.
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Because I was playing more, I wasn't stuck on the first measure of the song anymore.
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I was learning the whole song.
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I realize that perfection is the enemy of progress.
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By trying to be perfect, I was stopping myself from growing.
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Perfection is the enemy of progress.
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I feel that right now.
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I'm definitely not progressing with these slides.
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Exactly.
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Think about your presentation.
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What is the goal?
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Is the goal to have the most beautiful slides in the world?
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Or is the goal to give the client the information they need to make a decision?
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The goal is to give them the information and to persuade them to approve the project.
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Right?
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So if the font on slide 14 is slightly different, will they still understand the information?
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Yes.
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Will they still be persuaded by your excellent data and your passion?
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I think so.
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The data is strong.
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Then the slide is done.
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It serves its purpose.
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If you spend another three hours on it, The data won't change.
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The persuasion won't change.
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The only thing that changes is that you will be more tired and stressed when you deliver it.
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You're right.
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I'm diminishing returns here.
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I'm putting in 100 % effort for maybe 1 % improvement.
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or 0 % improvement.
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Sometimes we fix things until we actually ruin them.
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We over -edit.
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Okay, I see the logic.
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But emotionally, it's still hard to let go.
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It feels like I'm lowering my standards.
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You're not lowering your standards, Lisa.
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You're shifting your focus.
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You are prioritizing impact over appearance.
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You are choosing to be effective instead of being flawless.
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And honestly, effective is much more valuable.
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This conversation is getting really interesting.
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Sam is sharing some great wisdom.
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Let's pause for a moment to look at the vocabulary they used.
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Be hard on yourself.
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This phrase means, to criticize yourself too much or treat yourself strictly.
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For example, Lisa is being very hard on herself about the presentation.
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Or, don't be so hard on yourself.
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Everyone makes mistakes.
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Paralysis by analysis.
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This is a great idiom.
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It means...
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overthinking a situation so much that you never take action.
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Example.
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Sam told Lisa she was suffering from paralysis by analysis.
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Or, we need to make a decision now and avoid paralysis by analysis.
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Flawless.
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This is an adjective, meaning: Perfect!
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without any mistakes or defects, flaws.
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Example.
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Lisa wants her slides to be completely flawless.
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or Her English pronunciation is almost flawless.
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Mess up.
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This is a common phrasal verb, meaning to make a mistake or to do something badly.
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Example: Sam used to worry that he would mess up the chords on his guitar.
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or It's okay if you mess up sometimes.
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That's how you learn.
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Work in progress.
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This implies that something is not finished yet or is still being improved.
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Example.
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Sam realized that his guitar playing was a work in progress.
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or Don't judge my painting yet, it's still a work in progress.
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Great job.
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Now, let's go back to Lisa and Sam and see if Lisa can actually find the courage to click send.
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So Lisa understands the logic that done is better than perfect.
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But overcoming the emotional fear is a different story.
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Let's see how she handles it.
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Okay, Sam.
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I understand the guitar analogy.
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And I understand that my slides are technically functional.
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But I still have this knot in my stomach.
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What if I make a mistake during the actual talk?
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What if I stutter or forget a number?
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Then you stutter, and then you look at your notes, find the number, and keep going.
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But that's so embarrassing!
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I want to look like I have everything under control.
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I want to look professional.
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Lisa, let me ask you something.
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Who are the people you admire most in this office?
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Well, I really admire Sarah, the marketing director.
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She's amazing.
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Okay, Sarah, does Sarah ever make mistakes?
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Hmm.
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Actually, yes.
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Last week in the town hall meeting, her microphone stopped working, and then she realized she had the wrong graph on the screen.
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And what did she do?
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Did she cry?
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Did she run out of the room?
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No. She laughed.
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She said, "Whoops!
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Looks like technology wins today." And she just explained the numbers from memory.
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She actually made a joke about it.
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And did you think she was unprofessional?
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Did you think she was a failure?
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"No. I actually thought she was really cool." She seemed so confident because the mistake didn't rattle her.
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It made her seem… Human.
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Exactly.
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That is the secret.
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We don't connect with perfection.
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We connect with humanity.
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We connect with authenticity.
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When Sarah laughed at her mistake, she showed you that she was real.
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That's true.
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If she had panicked, it would have been awkward.
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But because she owned it, we all relaxed.
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Precisely.
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This is what I call embracing the messy middle.
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Learning and working is messy.
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It's not a straight line.
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When you try to hide the mess, you look stiff and fake.
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But when you embrace the mess, people trust you more.
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So you're saying that mistakes can actually be.. good?
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Mistakes are data.
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That's how I look at it now.
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When I play a wrong note, it's just data telling me, "Hey, your finger position was a bit off there." It's not a judgment on my soul.
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It's just, it's information.
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Mistakes are data.
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I like that.
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It takes the emotion out of it.
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It does, and remember, nobody is watching you as closely as you are watching yourself.
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You are looking at your presentation with a microscope.
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The client is looking at it from a distance.
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They care about the big picture.
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I guess I am being a bit narcissistic, thinking everyone is obsessing over my font choices.
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It's not narcissism, it's just anxiety.
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But yes, the reality is that people are busy.
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They want your ideas, not your perfection.
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They want to know what you can do for them.
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If the package is a little rough around the edges, but the content is valuable,
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they will buy it authenticity over perfection value over appearance i'm starting to feel a little lighter sam Good,
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that's the goal, you have done the work, the substance is there.
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Now you just need to trust that the substance is enough, without all the perfect wrapping paper.
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It looks like Lisa is finally ready to let go.
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But taking that final action clicking send is the hardest part.
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Okay, I'm looking at the email.
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The file is attached.
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My finger is hovering over the send button. Do it.
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Don't check it one more time.
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Just send it.
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It's scary.
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It feels like jumping off a cliff.
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It's not a cliff, Lisa.
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It's just an email.
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But tell me this, regardless of the font or the transition, are you proud of the work you did this week?
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Am I proud?
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Yeah.
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Did you research hard?
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Did you come up with good strategies?
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Did you put your heart into it?
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I did.
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I worked really hard on the strategy section.
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I think the ideas are really solid.
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They could actually help the client a lot.
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Then be proud of that.
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Be proud of the effort.
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Be proud of the courage it takes to share your ideas.
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Don't wait for the client to say good job to give yourself permission to feel proud.
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You're right.
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I've been waiting for external validation.
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I've been thinking...
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I'll be proud if they like it.
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But you can choose to be proud right now.
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You can say, "I did my best, I created something valuable, and that is enough." I did my best, and done is better than perfect.
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Okay.
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I'm going to do it.
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On the count of three.
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One, two, three.
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Click.
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Gone.
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It's sent.
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There.
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How do you feel?
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Did the world end?
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Did the roof collapse?
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No. Actually, I feel relieved.
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It's out of my hands now.
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And you should feel proud.
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You defeated the paralysis by analysis.
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That is a victory.
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It is.
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And you know what?
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Looking at the sent email, I don't even remember which slide had the bad transition.
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See, it was never important.
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Thanks, Sam.
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I think I'm going to go home now.
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And maybe, maybe I'll be okay with being a work in progress.
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That's the best thing you can be.
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A work in progress is always growing.
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A perfect thing is stagnant.
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Be the work in progress.
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I will.
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Hey, maybe you should bring your guitar to the office sometime.
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I'd love to hear you play Wonderwall, mistakes and all.
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Deal?
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But only if you promise not to judge my chord changes.
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I promise, I'll just enjoy the music.
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I love that ending.
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Lisa finally clicked send.
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Let's review the final set of vocabulary from their conversation.
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Cut yourself some slack.
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This is a fantastic idiom.
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It means to be less critical of yourself.
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to give yourself a break.
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For example, Lisa needs to cut herself some slack and stop worrying about every pixel.
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or You've been working for 10 hours.
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Cut yourself some slack and go home.
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Rough around the edges.
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This phrase describes something that is good overall, but not perfectly finished or polished yet.
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Example.
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Sam said it's okay if the presentation is a little rough around the edges.
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Or, her English is fluent, but her grammar is still a bit rough around the edges.
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It's not the end of the world.
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This is used to say that a problem is not as serious as it seems.
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Example.
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If you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world.
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Or, I missed the bus, but it's not the end of the world.
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There's another one in 10 minutes.
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Authenticity.
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This is a noun, meaning the quality of being real or true, Not copying others or pretending.
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Example.
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Sam believes that authenticity is more attractive than perfection.
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Or, people appreciate the authenticity of her speech.
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Own your mistakes.
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This means: to accept responsibility for your errors openly, without making excuses.
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Example.
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Sarah owned her mistake with the microphone and laughed about it.
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Or, the best way to learn is to own your mistakes and move on.
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Alright, that wraps up our main conversation for today.
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In the next part, I'll share a fun fact about why clumsy people might actually be more popular than perfect people.
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Stay with me.
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Before we wrap up, here's something fascinating that proves Sam was right.
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Psychologists have studied something called the pratfall effect.
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A pratfall is a funny mistake, like slipping on a banana peel or spilling coffee.
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In a famous study, researchers showed participants two people, Both people were very intelligent and competent.
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But one person was perfect, and the other person was competent, but spilled a cup of coffee at the end of the interview.
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Guess who the participants liked more?
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They liked the person who spilled the coffee.
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The study showed that small mistakes make competent people appear more human, more relatable, and more likeable.
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When someone is too perfect, they can seem distant or threatening.
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But a small imperfection breaks the ice.
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So, The next time you make a mistake in English or trip over your words, Just remember: you might have just made yourself more likeable.
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All right.
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Let's take a moment to look back on what we've learned today.
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First, we talked about the trap of perfectionism.
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We saw how Lisa was stuck in paralysis by analysis, believing that perfection was a shield against judgment.
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Then we learned the powerful mantra: "Done is better than perfect".
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Sam showed us that trying to be flawless stops us from growing, just like it stopped his guitar playing.
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We discussed embracing the messy middle.
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We learned that mistakes are just data, not failures.
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And finally, we saw that you can choose to be proud now.
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You don't have to wait for a perfect result.
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You can be proud of your effort.
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your courage and your authenticity.
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Remember, perfection is stagnant.
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But a work in progress is always growing.
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And that's it for today's episode of English on the Go.
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I hope today's talk helped you feel a little lighter.
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I hope it gave you the permission to release a project that is good enough.
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or to speak English without worrying about every single grammar rule.
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Remember!
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Your goal is connection.
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not perfection.
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Don't forget, you can download the free PDF vocabulary list for this episode.
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It includes all the idioms like cut yourself some slack and paralysis by analysis.
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If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend who needs to hear this.
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and subscribe so you never miss a new one.
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About This Lesson
You're practicing English with "Daily English - You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Proud - Intermediate English Podcast" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.
Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.
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.