Shadowing Practice: Delusional self belief is a lie - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Delusional self -belief is a lie.

Now I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous because our entire lives we've been told to believe in ourselves.

Nearly every single motivational video on YouTube has told you to believe in yourself.

But just hear me out.

Because while the intent of saying believe in yourself is good, the underlying message behind it actually says something completely different.

And there's no better way to explain that to you than through the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

Muhammad Ali.

Because Muhammad Ali never believed in himself.

He didn't have belief.

He had something more powerful than that.

Something that you can achieve as well.

But you first need to understand how...

1942. A legend is born.

At age 12 his bike was stolen, and that single moment would set in motion the most unlikely journey in sports history.

He walked into that police station with tears in his eyes

and told a local police officer he'd beat up whoever took it.

The officer looked him dead in the eye and said, well son, you better learn how to fight first.

So he did. At 22, he would stand in front of the entire world

and say something nobody had ever had the audacity to say before they'd proven.

Muhammad Ali walked into a gym with nothing.

He was just a kid from Louisville, Kentucky, in an America that had very specific ideas about how much a black man was worth

and how far he was allowed to go.

You see, most people in a scenario would develop belief as a survival instinct.

A way of holding on to something despite everything telling them otherwise.

Muhammad Ali didn't have belief.

He just knew.

And that distinction is what truly separates the greats from being.

Average.

When you think of delusional self -belief, obviously there's nothing wrong with being confident.

But the word belief itself is what I have an issue with.

In 1877, a philosopher named Charles Sanders Pierce wrote an essay called The Fixation of Belief.

He argues that belief only exists because of doubt, belief being a response to the unknown.

I mean, entire belief systems were made to answer questions we didn't have an answer to, and delusional self -belief, no you wouldn't,

yes, no you wouldn't, yes I would, no you wouldn't, is the exact same mechanism applied to personal ambition.

Why would you think you could make it to the NBA?

Because I think I could do anything.

When someone tells you to believe in yourself, what they're actually saying is hold on to something despite the uncertainty that it might not work out.

The doubt is still there.

You're just using belief to manage it.

And that's where Muhammad Ali was different.

Because for most people, belief is the default.

As we grow up, we're told to believe in ourselves, to hold on to our dreams.

But we treat them as something distant, not something that we are.

And the older we get, the more that doubt starts creeping in until your dream is completely lost.

Oh, it was all a dream.

Everybody stop talking now.

Attention.

I told you, all of my critics, I told you all that I was the greatest of all time.

I told you today, I'm still the greatest of all time.

I think it's best if you and I don't work together.

In 1963, before he had won a single title, Muhammad Ali released a poetry album titled I Am The Greatest.

He was 21 years old.

Six months later, he went on to beat

Sonny Liston and is crowned heavyweight champion of the world.

It feels like some people just seem to know they're gonna become great.

But I don't think they're born with that certainty.

I think something happens that gives them a reason to develop it.

And I think there's a fundamental difference between these people and everyone else.

We'll call them knowers and the rest believers.

And the difference between them comes down to one thing.

Where they place their identity.

Top secret concept.

It will apparently be more consistent and efficient...

I'm a city, Edward.

Hey, Winnie, it's me.

Can you tell me if you've ever heard this sound before?

This is Harold, and he's the perfect example of a believer.

Harold's life has been nothing short of...

Hello?

Sorry, we were so rudely interrupted there.

Let us continue.

As I was saying, Harold's well, an average bloke.

He works a regular job, wears regular clothes, and drives a regular car.

But deep down, Harold has always craved more.

He's always had big dreams.

He used to want to own his own business.

He used to want to learn the guitar, but he never did.

Because Harold was waiting for something monumental to happen, to prove to himself that he's capable of becoming the person who does those things.

But nothing ever happened.

And he kept waiting and waiting, until the comfort of mediocrity slowly took away his dream.

So, essentially a believer needs an outcome to happen before they can accept their dream.

That's why they put so much emphasis on failure because every little setback increases doubt that their dream is possible.

But a knower approaches ambition differently.

They don't wait until they're successful to start seeing themselves as someone capable of success.

In my case, I'd say I used to be a believer.

Before I started going to the gym, I needed to prove to myself that I was strong enough to go,

so I'd do home workouts until I finally felt ready.

I've always wanted to do my own thing, but always needed that confidence to actually take a risk.

Over time though, I realized

that I had to stop believing I was capable of doing something and just know that I am.

That's what a knower is, and I think that's what we miss when we talk about believing in ourselves.

We treat confidence as a prerequisite to action, that we should feel ready before taking a risk.

But what if you got it backwards?

What if the reason you keep waiting to become the person you want is

because you're still treating that person as someone you need permission to become?

Ali didn't wait for the world to call him the greatest before he started declaring it.

He made the declaration before the recognition came.

But here's where you run into a problem.

Because if all it takes to become a knower is to declare yourself one, then what's stopping everyone from doing exactly that?

100

What's stopping you from looking in the mirror and telling yourself you're destined for greatness?

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Well, that would simply be what we call delusional self -belief.

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So how do you actually go from a believer to a knower?

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Well, think about it.

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Any time that science turned belief into certainty, what did they need?

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Evidence.

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But how do you actually accumulate evidence of achieving a dream before you've actually achieved it?

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Well, you don't need evidence of achieving the dream itself.

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You just need to build evidence every day that you are a person capable of achieving it.

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That's why Muhammad Ali was able to sit up there on that microphone and tell the world he was the greatest.

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He already knew he was.

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The evidence he built was waking up at 4 .30am to run 7 miles 6 days a week,

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running through the streets of Louisville in heavy boots, shadowboxing as he ran.

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He didn't simply tell himself he was the greatest.

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The work he put in proved it.

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That's the evidence ledger.

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And it's the reason why the whole idea of delusional self -belief falls apart.

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It promotes laziness, not action.

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Think about the clips we celebrate.

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Someone declares that they're going to achieve something extraordinary and we admire them for their mindset.

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You should be delusional.

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Because I think right now, if I was to quit rapping and I say I want to go to the NBA,

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I would be in the NBA.

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I could go to the moon if I wanted to and then I'm going to get rich.

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You know what I mean?

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Objectively, no. How are you going to the moon?

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Factually, I could.

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But if all you take away from.. from those clips is that you need to say your dreams out loud.

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You can spend your entire life declaring who you're going to become without ever becoming that person.

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I can just repeat my affirmations in the mirror, dream about my ideal life while I scroll on reels all day and never actually do anything.

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Because think about it, if you woke up every day

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and put in the work required to become the person you dream about, what exactly are you being delusional about?

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If you want to become a great filmmaker and you're spending hours every day learning cinematography, studying films and making your own projects.

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You're not delusional for believing you can become a great filmmaker.

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You're becoming one.

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You have certainty.

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And that's what I want you to take away from this.

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You don't need to convince yourself that success is guaranteed.

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Because I feel like when we say believe in yourself, it tells people that you need to be confident before you do something.

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I don't think you need to believe in yourself or have delusional self -belief to start something.

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But that's why so many people fail to start because they think they need that confidence, that belief to do it.

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But you don't.

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You need to actually start doing the thing.

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Build evidence.

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Evidence that you're becoming the person you want to be.

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Eventually the whole belief thing starts to fade anyways.

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Because you don't need to tell yourself you can do the thing.

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You start seeing it for yourself.

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And that's what it means to actually know.

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You know that whatever happens, outcome or not, one failure or success, you are becoming someone capable.

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The greatest thing you can do isn't to convince yourself that you're going to become someone extraordinary.

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It's to wake up every day and become someone a little more capable of doing extraordinary things.

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So build the evidence first and let the confidence follow.

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Thank you.

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495 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Delusional self belief is a lie”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: belief, dream, delusional, evidence, Ali. This video has 153 sentences and 1711 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:49. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
belief noun	/bɪˈliːf/	Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
delusional adjective	/dɪˈluːʒənəl/	Suffering from delusions; having false or faulty beliefs.
believer noun	/bɪˈlivɚ/	A person who believes; especially regarding religion.
declare verb	/dɪˈklɛɚ/	To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically.
extraordinary adjective	/ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/	Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual.
certainty noun	/ˈsɝtn̩ti/	The state of being certain.
mirror noun	/ˈmiɹɚ/	A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it.
outcome noun	/ˈaʊtkʌm/	That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process.
clip noun	/klɪp/	Something which clips or grasps; a device for attaching one object to another.
convince verb	/kənˈvɪns/	To make someone believe, or feel sure about something, especially by using logic, argument or evidence.
ambition noun	/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/	Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's…
filmmaker noun		A producer or director of films/movies.
heavyweight noun	/ˈhɛ.vi.weɪt/	A very large, heavy, or impressive person.
consistent adjective	/kənˈsɪs.tənt/	Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature.
guitar noun	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
take away from verb		To subtract a quality from; make something seem not so good or interesting.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
beat up verb		To give a severe beating to; to assault violently with repeated blows.
come down to verb		To reach by moving down or reducing.
fall apart verb		To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
run through verb		To summarise briefly.
sit up verb		To assume a sitting position from a position lying down.

Sentences worth repeating

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

You're just using belief to manage it.
We'll call them knowers and the rest believers.
Can you tell me if you've ever heard this sound before?
You know what I mean?
How are you going to the moon?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to want · used to be
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	we've been told · is born · was stolen
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	we've been told · has told · you've ever heard

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: delusional /dɪˈluːʒənəl/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/
Long words — get the stress right: delusional /dɪˈluːʒənəl/, extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/

How to practise with this video

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

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: Delusional self belief is a lie - Learn English Speaking with Video

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