Shadowing Practice: Do This for 30 Days and Your Life Will Change - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I want to talk about how to have the biggest jump in your life in the next 30 days.
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I'm talking about one of those shifts where everything in your life changes.
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You start thinking differently, you feel differently, you carry yourself differently, the people around you can literally feel the difference in your energy.
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Because right now, most people are unknowingly reinforcing the exact mindset and emotional states that they're trying to escape from.
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And once you finally see it, you can't unsee it.
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And so today I'm going to give you a challenge that sounds extremely simple on the surface, but it is challenging.
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But if you actually commit to it for 30 days, it will change your mind, your emotions, your nervous system, relationships, and honestly, probably the trajectory of your life.
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Okay?
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Here's the challenge.
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Do not complain at all for 30 days.
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That's it.
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Now, stay with me because this is way more in depth than it seems on the surface.
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No complaining means not out loud, not in your head, not through sarcasm, not through passive aggression, not through eye rolls,
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not through I'm just being realistic thoughts.
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I mean every single day for the next 30 days, you wake up and you make a commitment to yourself in the morning.
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And that commitment is for the next 24 hours, I will not complain.
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And every single time that you would normally complain, I want you to consciously find a way to switch your thoughts around that situation.
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And then you go to bed and you wake up the next day and you do it again.
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And you wake up the next day and you do it again.
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And the next day and you do it again for 30 days.
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And watch how your mind becomes different watch how you feel different in your body
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and watch how your life starts to actually shift
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because most people don't realize that they're not like stuck in circumstances they're stuck
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because their brain has unconsciously been trained to find problems in everything
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and finding problems will only keep you stuck because
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if you're only finding problems and your brain is only focusing on how to try to solve problems.
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But if you train your brain to constantly find what is wrong, it will.
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That's how the human brain works.
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There's actually a psychological principle that's called the negativity bias.
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It's one of the most studied concepts in neuroscience and psychology.
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It's basically this.
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Your brain is designed to find what is wrong as a way to protect you.
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Why?
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Because your brain was not designed to make you happy or successful or rich.
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Your brain was designed to keep you alive.
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Your ancestors survived because they noticed danger.
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They noticed threats.
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They predicted threats.
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They could notice what was going to go wrong.
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The human that ignored the rustling in the bushes usually got eaten by the tiger.
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And so biologically, your brain is wired to scan for problems and threats and rejection and danger.
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And now 200,000 years ago, that would be smart and it would be called being safe.
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Today, we call it finding the negative, right?
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Because we don't have to worry about tigers.
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And if you don't consciously train your brain, it will naturally drift towards the negative, quote unquote, the fear, the scarcity,
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the complaints, the fake scenarios, the imagined arguments, the fearful futures, the possible failures in the future.
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And we will be right back.
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Hey, real quick, let me interrupt you for something exciting.
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On June 10th at 7 p.m.
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Eastern, I'm doing a free live Zoom session called Break the Ceiling 2026.
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This is for anybody who knows that they're capable of more, but they just keep self-sabotaging and hitting the same ceilings no matter what they try.
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I'm going to teach you exactly why that keeps happening and how to finally change it so that your income, your relationships, your happiness, your mindset, your entire life is better.
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You can register for free by scanning that QR code right there, or by going to breaktheceiling2026.com.
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And I will see you live on that session.
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And now back to the show.
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And that's why some people can have beautiful lives
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and still be miserable because they have trained their brain to only notice what is wrong.
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One of my favorite quotes, your mind can make heaven out of hell or hell out of heaven.
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Your mind can make heaven out of hell or hell out of heaven.
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It's not your circumstances.
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It's what you think about your circumstances.
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That's why I have a tattoo right here.
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My wife and I on our left wrist have a tattoo
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and it says this is heaven because I think that we can create heaven on earth, our version of it right here in this moment by the thoughts that we have.
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Most people think their thoughts are reality.
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They think the world is bad, people suck, nothing ever works out, I'm not lucky, every day is stressful, life is exhausting.
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No, that's not reality.
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That's your thoughts, that's your conditioning, that's your reticular activating system filtering reality through negativity.
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Your reticular activating system is part of the brain
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that decides what it wants to filter in and what it wants to filter out.
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So if you constantly complain, your brain becomes a professional problem finder.
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So when you look at it this way, like what actually starts happening to you when you start training your brain to look for the good, to not complain, but to find the positive,
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you start noticing opportunities where you used to notice problems before.
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Most people are so focused on what is wrong that they completely miss what is possible.
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Their brain's constantly scanning for all of the problems, why something won't work, why life is unfair, because that's what they focus on, and that's what they see.
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But when you start consciously retraining your brain the same way
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that you would train a dog to stop complaining and to stop making yourself a victim, your mind starts to open up in a different way.
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You start seeing solutions faster.
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You start noticing opportunities that you never saw before.
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You start taking more action.
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You start to see people different.
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You start to talk to people differently.
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You start to carry yourself differently.
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You start to see opportunities where you used to see roadblocks.
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And that's huge in getting yourself out of a rut and really turning your life around quickly.
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Why is that?
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Because a negative mind closes.
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It closes.
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It doesn't allow you to see outside of the possibilities.
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An empowered mind that doesn't complain that sees opportunities, it expands.
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It's able to see more outside of what it normally does.
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A stressed brain looks at survival.
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That's all that it pays attention to.
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A grateful brain that starts to see outside of it, starts to see possibilities.
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And so this changes your life.
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It doesn't just change like, oh, I'm gonna be positive, right?
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Like that's stupid.
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No, it changes your life in many different ways.
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Emotionally, financially, relationally, every single way.
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Because opportunities are almost always hidden inside of the problems.
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So if you're only seeing problems, you're usually not training yourself to look for the opportunities in them.
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We need to train our brain to find those opportunities.
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The person complaining about their job
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misses the opportunity to learn the skills that they need to to be able to come better, right?
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The person that's complaining about being alone misses the opportunity to build themselves while they are alone.
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The person that's complaining about where they live misses the opportunity to create a plan to leave.
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Complaining blinds people and it keeps you stuck.
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actively searching for good and training your mind to find it, it sharpens your mind.
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And when you stop seeing life as something that's happening against you, and you start seeing it as something that has so many opportunities available to you,
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that's when you start getting ahead in life.
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It's not like life suddenly became easier, but your brain finally stopped looking for all of the mental roadblocks that were never there in the first place.
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Like think about it, no matter how bad you want something to be rich
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or to be happy or to build a successful business or to get into a relationship,
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if you're only seeing the roadblocks to getting to where you want to go,
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you won't even try to get to where you want to go because you're only seeing the roadblocks.
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So you have to understand, you need to see a different perspective in some sort of way if you're going to change your life.
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So much of our lives and what we complain about people would love to have.
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Do you get that?
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Like no matter where you are right now, there are millions if not billions of people who would trade with you right now.
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Like there's people in war-torn countries that would love to have your life.
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People who didn't grow up with the same circumstances you did.
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People who weren't given the opportunities that you've been given.
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And this is my opinion.
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A lot of us live in in some people on earth's version of heaven on earth
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and we sit there
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and complain about all of these my my tea wasn't hot
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enough today get your shit together right like have perspective on your life
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and how great this can actually be i'm not saying you need to be rich
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and successful and full of happiness in order to realize
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that we do have some pretty good lives let me give
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you a couple of examples of what i see with people like your kids are screaming they're freaking out and You're like, oh my God, most people will complain.
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Oh my God, these kids are driving me insane, right?
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I get it.
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But then you can take a step back and go, can I see this from a different perspective?
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Like, do you know how many people wish that they had a child like yours right now for whatever reason, right?
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Like they can't conceive or maybe they lost a child
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or maybe their children are all grown up and they miss
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when they were inside of the house and young and full of energy.
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And when we notice and we see that and we take a step back and we see our circumstances differently of like, oh man, many people love to have this moment that I'm in.
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You can look at it and go, oh my God, I am so damn grateful that I have healthy children.
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There are some people who would do anything to have what I have right now in this moment.
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I am so lucky, right?
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Another example, like you're stuck in traffic.
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You can be like, oh my God, this is unbelievable.
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I'm gonna be late.
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I hate being late.
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My day is ruined, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Instead, you could be like, okay, I'm stuck in traffic.
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You know what?
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I've been actually needing some silence.
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I've been asking for some silence.
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I've been asking for some sort of a break.
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Maybe this is my moment to breathe.
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Maybe I should turn the music off.
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Maybe I should sit in silence for a minute.
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Maybe I should be with myself for five minutes.
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I've been asking for this.
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Maybe this is my opportunity.
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Not like, oh, boo-hoo, right?
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Your alarm goes off in the morning and you're like, oh my god, I didn't sleep very well last night Whatever.
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There was a thunderstorm.
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It woke me up.
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I don't want to get up.
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I want to sleep in You know, you could do that or you could go, you know what my alarm went off.
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I hear it.
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That means I'm alive 150,000 people died yesterday They would all want to trade places with me.
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I'm sure to have another day and I get another day Maybe I should look at it a little bit differently
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like do you understand how radically those realities like they're
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so radically different through the children through the traffic through the
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waking up like it's the same life it's a different lens
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and so it's not your life that has to change it's your lens
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that has to change first and then your life will change
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and so here's what starts happening
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when you do this type of stuff for 30 days your nervous system is going to start to change
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because complaining keeps your body in like stress mode.
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Every complaint reinforces cortisol and stress and irritation and victim mentality and helplessness.
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And so your brain starts expecting bad things.
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There's actually research on this from Stanford showing that chronic stress and repetitive negative thinking
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strengthens the neural pathways associated with anxiety and emotional reactivity.
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Meaning the more you complain, the easier it becomes to complain.
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The more negative that you are, the more automatic your negativity becomes.
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Your brain wires itself around repetition.
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Not what you want, what you do, what you think.
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That's Hebb's law in neuroscience.
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Neuroscience says neurons that fire together, wire together.
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So every inconvenience that creates negativity, you wire negativity deeper into your personality.
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But gratitude works the exact same way.
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Research at UC Davis actually shows they conducted one of the most famous gratitude studies
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that was ever done where participants who practice gratitude consistently experienced greater optimism,
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better sleep, less stress, more happiness, improved energy, and just overall improved emotional well-being.
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And the important part is this, their lives didn't necessarily change first.
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Their perception changed first, and their perception changed their behavior, and their behavior changes their identity,
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and identity will change your life.
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So that's why this challenge matters so much.
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You're not just thinking positive.
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That's what I'm trying to have you do.
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You're not just like being toxically positive.
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You're rewiring the filtering system of your mind.
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You are retraining yourself to stop unconsciously rehearsing suffering.
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Because let's be honest, some people are addicted to their negative thoughts.
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And the brain starts treating this, imagine stress that their mind comes up with,
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like real stress, and your body literally responds chemically to your thoughts.
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That's why you can think about an argument and your heart rate increases.
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That's why you can imagine embarrassment and start to feel anxious.
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It's not reality.
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It's your thoughts.
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The brain does not distinguish between vividly imagined experiences and real ones, which means that if you constantly imagine negativity,
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You biologically live inside of that negativity.
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And then people wonder why they feel stuck.
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They wonder why it's so hard to get moving.
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Because your brain cannot create expansion while constantly rehearsing fear.
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And this is why this challenge actually matters.
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For 30 days, no complaining.
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Every complaint gets interrupted with gratitude.
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Every negative thought gets redirected.
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Every inconvenience becomes an opportunity to consciously choose who you want to become.
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And eventually, if you do this, something amazing starts to happen.
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You stop being emotionally controlled by these little tiny things.
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Traffic stops ruining your day.
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People stop ruining your mood.
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Delays stop ruining your peace.
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You don't get triggered near as much as you used to.
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And your thoughts stop controlling how you feel.
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and you realize most suffering was never life itself.
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It was unconscious interpretation of life.
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Our perception of life is our problem, not our life.
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And this is important.
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I'm not saying become delusional.
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I'm not saying have toxic positivity.
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I'm not saying ignore your pain.
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I'm not saying pretend things are not hard when they're hard.
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What I'm saying is that you can either train your mind to look for darkness
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or you can train your mind to find light.
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whichever one you repeatedly choose becomes who you are.
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That's why after 30 days you won't just feel better.
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You will literally start to become a different person because repetition rewires your brain.
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You're in control of that and that repetition creates a different identity and eventually a different life.
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So this challenge is simple.
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Interrupt the pattern and decide who do I want to become from this moment forward?
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Do I want to become somebody who constantly finds what's wrong
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or someone who consciously trains themselves to see possibility and gratitude and beauty and growth and goodness even when life is imperfect?
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Because your life is always going to be imperfect
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but your mind does not have to be at war with reality all the time.
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And if you can master this, your life changes fast.
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So here's your challenge for 24 hours.
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No complaining.
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Make a commitment to yourself to start it today.
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And then you make that commitment every single morning for the next 30 days.
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Watch how your relationships change.
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Watch how your stress changes.
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Watch how your emotional baseline changes.
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Watch how much lighter your life feels.
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Because when you stop feeding negativity, you stop strengthening it.
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And when you stop strengthening it, you finally create space for peace.
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Hey, thanks so much for watching this video.
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If you love this podcast, click this one right here.
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Based off of everything you've been watching recently, YouTube has searched all of my videos and your algorithm, put them together, and this is its suggestion for what it thinks you would want to watch right now.
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And if you want to make sure to never miss another video, click that button right there, subscribe, and I'll see you on the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Do This for 30 Days and Your Life Will Change”. This video has 258 sentences and 2943 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:16. The speaker talks at a natural 170 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| negativity noun | /ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/ | The characteristic of being pessimistic or contrarian. |
| consciously adverb | In a conscious manner; knowingly, volitionally. | |
| circumstance noun | /ˈsɝ.kəmˌstæns/ | Something which is related to, or in some way affects, a fact or event. |
| gratitude noun | /ˈɡɹæ.tɪ.tud/ | The state of being grateful. |
| roadblock noun | Something that blocks or obstructs a road. | |
| neuroscience noun | The scientific study of the nervous system. | |
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| interrupt verb | /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/ | To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking. |
| strengthen verb | /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/ | To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify. |
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| perception noun | /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/ | The organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information. |
| biologically adverb | In a biological manner. | |
| imperfect adjective | /ɪmˈpɜː(ɹ)fɪkt/ | Not perfect. |
| rehearse verb | /ɹɪˈhɝs/ | To repeat, as what has been already said; to tell over again; to recite. |
| reticular adjective | /ɹəˈtɪkjəlɚ/ | Having the structure of a net or a network; netlike. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| step back verb | /stɛp ˈbæk/ | To stop what one is doing and evaluate the current situation. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. | |
| go off verb | To explode. | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Because we don't have to worry about tigers.
- It's what you think about your circumstances.
- That's why I have a tattoo right here.
- Do you get that?
- Another example, like you're stuck in traffic.
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 | I've been asking · you've been watching |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if not billions of people who would trade |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to notice · used to see |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been trained · is designed · was not designed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 66 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, thunderstorm /ˈθʌn.dɚˌstɔɹm/, pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, unconsciously /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəsli/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, irritation /ˌɪɹ.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: negativity /ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, reticular /ɹəˈtɪkjəlɚ/, unconsciously /ˌʌnˈkɑnʃəsli/, inconvenience /ɪnkənˈvinjəns/
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 negativity, consciously, circumstance.
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.