Shadowing Practice: Focus on Yourself & Detach in Silence - Learn English Speaking with Video
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257 sentences
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Because what if you were just six months away from the life that you actually want to wake up to?
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Like no more clocking in for somebody else's dream,
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no more pretending that you're okay with a life that's just good enough or just wanting to get by.
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What if you actually reset everything in your life without burning it all down?
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It all starts with forcing change in your life.
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And today we're going to talk about how to change the way that you make money,
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but this can be for anyone looking to make massive change in their life.
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And this is the moment where you go from the U1 .0 to U2 .0.
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Let me explain what I mean by that.
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U1 .0 is you being bored into this world with your parents in the city that you lived in, with the teachers that you had,
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with the family that you had you 1 .0 unconsciously took on other people's programmings
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and other people's constructs and other people's ideas of what they were supposed to do in this life, you 2 .0 goes, no,
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from this moment forward, I'm changing everything that I don't want in my life.
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And I'm going to build the life that I want from the ground up.
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And so this is the moment where you 2 .0 begins to be built.
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And so step number one for changing all of this is to get very,
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very clear on exactly what it is that you want in this life.
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Most people have absolutely no idea what they want.
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Like I have asked thousands and thousands of people, what do you want?
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And the vague, unclear answers that come back to me show me
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that people never really write down what it is that they want and get extremely, extremely clear.
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The more clarity that you can have on exactly what it is that you want in this life, the more likely you are to get it.
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The more vague that you are and less clear, the less likely you are to end up getting the life that you want.
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And so you want to basically figure out what it is in detail, exactly what it is that you want.
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And you want to visualize it every single day.
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And you want to basically brainwash yourself into believing that it's possible.
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This new life needs to become your obsession.
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For the next six months, you are obsessed with thinking about and creating this new life that you're trying to get to.
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Clarity is a superpower in building your life because most people are just busy being busy.
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They're just doing tasks, trying to survive the day.
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But rarely do people stop and ask themselves, what am I actually doing?
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Where am I actually going with my life?
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It's not that you're lazy.
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It's more than likely you're just unclear where you're going
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and who's really going to be motivated to go into an unclear direction.
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And so when the brain doesn't know where it's going, what it's going to do is it's going to fall back into old patterns.
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And that is what self -sabotage looks like.
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People are like, I keep starting and I keep falling off.
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I keep starting and keep falling off.
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That's what's going on.
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And so that's not what you want.
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You need to get very clear on what it is that you want so that you can start working towards that thing.
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And so a very powerful question that I have for you is this.
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If I could do anything, anything without fear, without failure, without limitation, what would my life look like in six months?
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Hey, to the 65 .6 % of you who watch my videos but are not subscribed, yes, we see it.
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And if you've ever learned anything from any of the videos I've put out, please do me a favor, hit that subscribe button.
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It helps the channel grow and it helps me keep making more content to help you grow as well.
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So with that, let's go back to the show.
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So if I could do anything without fear or failure or limitation, what would my life look like in six months?
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And that's what you're going to be building towards.
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And so that's the first thing that you need to figure out.
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You need to get very, very clear on exactly what it is that you want in this life.
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The second thing that you need to do is you need to learn one high income skill.
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One, just one, not two, 10, 15, one.
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Very high income skill.
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What do I mean by that?
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I can give you a bunch of ideas.
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You can learn how to run Facebook ads for other people and master that skill set.
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You can, if you love writing, you can write articles for people.
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You can make YouTube videos, whether you're making them for other people or whether you're doing a faceless YouTube.
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You can learn to become a coach if you want to
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and coach people if you have a specific knowledge and skill set in something.
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You can start a Shopify store.
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You can start an Etsy store.
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You can start a jewelry business and you can put it on Etsy, but you can also start going to farmer's markets.
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You can learn how to, you know, get sponsorships through Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and TikTok.
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You can start a clothing brand if you want to.
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You can figure out how to sell courses.
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You can do affiliate marketing.
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You can start a podcast.
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You can learn how to do copywriting and write emails for yourself
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or write emails for other people and charge them for it.
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You can start selling supplements.
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You can start selling a product on Amazon.
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You can start freelancing at upwork .com and freelance your actual skills to other people and immediately start making money.
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If you're good with social media, you could do social media management.
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You could do YouTube.
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You could write Kindle books.
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You could do consulting.
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You could do freelance.
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Just something new and something that can be a high income skill.
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You're going to become obsessed with becoming the best that you possibly can in that category.
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Download as much knowledge as you could possibly can into your brain about that thing.
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And the reason why is if you do this over six months, I promise you, it doesn't seem like it.
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But in six months, you can become world class in something
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because most people have no attention span to sit down and learn something new.
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And so if you just take six months and dedicate yourself to working at becoming better at something, you could become world class.
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Does that mean that you can master it?
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No, it just means you're going to be better than 99 .9 % of the competition
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because 99 .9 % of the competition has very,
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very low attention span and you can start to dominate your market within the next six months to a year.
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And so you want to take six months to start learning
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and mastering one skill and start figuring out how to make money doing it and start a business with that skill.
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And then once again, like I said, pick one, not two, not three, one.
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One thing and one thing only.
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It's like the book, The One Thing.
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You've got to go for one thing and one thing only.
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When I figured that out and I decided to shut down my Amazon business and go fully into podcasting and coaching, it completely changed my life.
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Not because I was doing multiple things because I went, okay, this is one thing.
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This coaching thing is the thing I want to do with my life.
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That was over 10 years ago.
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And you have to understand that because you're new, everything is going to be tempting.
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So if you try to do many different things, you'll master nothing.
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So go all in for six months like you're trying to finish your PhD and get your college degree at something.
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You've got to become obsessed with it.
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You're not just learning a skill.
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You're learning how to learn.
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You're learning how to deal with your self -doubt.
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You're learning how to deal with your old version of yourself.
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You're learning how to brainwash yourself into becoming you 2 .0.
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You're learning how to stay consistent.
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That is the real transformation, the new version of you that you're trying to build in the next six months to reset everything for yourself.
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Okay?
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The next thing that you're going to do is this, is you're going to make a plan.
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Get clear on what you need to do to create this life.
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This is why it's really, really important to get clear on what you want in your life,
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to have like a North Star that you're working towards.
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Because then when you create a North Star, you can create a plan.
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And you can understand there will be detours.
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There will always be detours.
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But you can go, you know what?
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I'm going to create a plan.
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I'm going to start executing on that plan.
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Because the more vague your destination, the more vague your plan.
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So make a plan on the business that you want to create, the money that you want to create,
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the happiness that you want in your life, the family that you're trying to create, the spouse that you're trying to attract in your life,
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the vacations that you want to take with your family.
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And you're going to get very, very clear on what you want and create the most detailed plan knowing that it will not be perfect,
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but at least you're going to have something to shoot for.
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And you're going to be shooting for that thing and be as clear as you possibly can right?
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Because we're talking about clarity again.
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And, but now what we're talking about is we're talking about trying to create a roadmap.
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Like if you lived in Florida and you were driving and trying to drive to California,
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you wouldn't try to drive across the country without your GPS.
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That'd be ridiculous.
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So why would you try to change your entire life without some kind of roadmap, without some form of a plan?
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Like it's crazy to me how many people are trying to change your entire life with no plan, but they work at a marketing company.
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And anytime they have some new quota that the marketing team has to hit, they sit down and they make a plan.
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I'm like, you make a plan for your marketing job, your director of marketing job
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that you work at for all of the employees to work for
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and for you to work for and to know what your KPRs
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and your SOPs and your quotas and everything that you need to hit.
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But your life is just like this completely vague orb that you're just trying to grasp.
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It's like trying to grab water.
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You're just like, I don't really know what I'm doing here.
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And so what you're trying to do is you need to sit down and figure it out.
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Everything in this world is figureoutable.
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Stop acting like you don't know.
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We all know what we need to do to create the life that we want.
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We just don't really do it.
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And so you have to make the plan and just know and be okay that the plan will change along the way.
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Be okay with taking some detours because there was a car crash, right?
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There's going to be some changes along the way.
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That's fine.
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The thing that matters the most is that I have a North Star.
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I create a plan and then I actually start taking action towards that thing.
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And clarity is the superpower.
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Vagueness will hold you back.
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You can figure out your next move.
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And so what you do is you take your next move and you break this big, scary goal that you might have,
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and I'll talk about that in a second, into small, what I like to call stupid steps, just stupid small steps.
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It's just so easy.
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So instead of saying like, okay, well, I want my YouTube channel to grow to a million followers and you've never uploaded a video,
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that's a really big goal and I like the goal, but I want your like stupid small steps.
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And so the key here is small, manageable tasks and you repeat the process, the way you want to think about it is this.
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And I always explain this to people like, people get so stressed out on the plan and oh my God,
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there's so many things I need to do.
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Think about this for a second.
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If you came over to my house and I made you a big, huge meal, it's like a big steak and it's potatoes and it's broccoli.
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I'm not going to put the plate in front of you and you go, oh my God, oh my God,
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I'm so stressed out with this plate.
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Because you know from eating enough meals in your life,
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you take the knife, you take the fork and you just start cutting and you eat it piece by piece.
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That's exactly how you change your life.
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Most people are like, oh my God, I've got this big plan.
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I've got this big thing.
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I don't know what to do because they're thinking about doing all of it at once.
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No, one step at a time, piece by piece.
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Be okay with messing up, be okay with imperfect action, but don't be okay with no action.
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Anyone who's ever done anything great took the long way around and they messed up over and over and over.
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Messing up doesn't mean that you're going to mess up again.
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It means that you're learning how to not mess up so
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that you can start to change your aim just a little bit
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and make sure that you're going to get it done right the next time.
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Okay?
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And then the next step is this.
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Disappear.
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Ghost.
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Goodbye.
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Disappear.
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Tell everyone that you know that you're going to disappear for six months.
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If they get mad about it and you're working towards your goal in your life, they probably weren't a true friend in the first place.
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You can always go back to your normal schedule of hanging
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out with the exact same people the exact same way once you finish.
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And here's what you're gonna do.
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You're gonna stop going to parties.
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You're gonna stop hanging out with friends.
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You're gonna stop doing anything that does not get you closer to your goal.
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Obviously, if you have children, you still have to feed your children.
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You know what I'm saying.
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What I'm saying is the majority of your time is becoming obsessed over the next six months, disappearing, because I promise you,
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when you come back to your old life in six months, hang out with the same people, everything will be exactly the same in six months.
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You can do anything for six months.
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Disappearing is not that big of a deal.
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The world won't stop when you step away.
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Your world might change, but you'll come back into your old life and old hanging out with people and routines,
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and it will be exactly the same, I promise you.
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People will still be doing the same shit that they've been doing for a long time.
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Netflix will still be the same six months.
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I promise you when you come back, everything will be exactly the same, but you will be different.
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You know, when we traveled, my wife and I traveled in 2017, we left the country for six months and we were like,
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oh my God, I wonder what life is going to be like when we get back to America.
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We came back and nothing was different.
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Everything was exactly the same.
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Every person was exactly the same in pretty much the exact same place in their entire life.
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You know, the same mindset, the same weight, everything was the same.
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So nothing will really change.
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Okay?
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And so what we're talking about is a complete rewiring of yourself in six months.
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This is so important.
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This can literally change the course of your entire life.
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And when you do this, neuroplasticity is real, which is your brain's ability to change itself.
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Your brain will literally rewire itself when you do this.
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Your old identity will fade away.
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Your old fears and limiting beliefs will start to fade away and not have as much grip on you as well.
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The new version of you will begin to take the wheel.
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And so this isn't like just me trying to say, hey, motivational guy says you can go ahead and do it for six months.
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I'm talking about actual biology and neurology.
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You can change yourself and your brain in the next six months.
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And you won't be good at something when you first start.
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That's fine, that's why you have six months.
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These six months are a complete reset for you.
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And if you take these six months seriously, once again, it can completely change.
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It not can, if you take it seriously, it will change the entire course of your life,
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not just on paper, but everything about you and everything about your life.
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I'm talking about how you walk into a room.
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how you look at yourself in the mirror, how you talk to yourself, the type of people that you attract in your life,
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the type of success that you're going to create in your life, how you stop settling for things being just okay,
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and you start demanding what it is that you actually deserve in this life in every area of your life.
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Because the honest truth is six months of insane focus will outperform six years of half trying like most people do.
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You'll stop chasing motivation or just waiting for the right moment and you'll just take action, start building momentum.
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You'll become the type of person that does that.
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You'll become the type of person that follows through.
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You'll stop asking for permission and you'll just start acting like the main character in your own life.
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But it is only if you start.
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So disappear, do the work, come back absolutely unrecognizable.
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1 .0 version of you is dead.
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2 .0 version of you is stepping in and ready to be built.
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Let the next six months be your comeback story.
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not the chapter where you tried again and you ended up giving up, the one where you decided this is who I'm going to be.
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This is a life I'm going to create.
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And you never looked back.
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Hey, thanks so much for watching this video.
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Based off of what you've been watching recently, YouTube has decided to pop this video in right here.
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It's perfectly crafted for you to watch right now.
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So click that.
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And if you want to make sure that you don't miss any more of these videos, click that button right there and subscribe.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Focus on Yourself & Detach in Silence”. This video has 257 sentences and 3210 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:10. The speaker talks fast, about 198 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 91% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| vague adjective | /veɪɡ/ | Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms. |
| clarity noun | /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| unclear adjective | /ʌnˈklɪɚ/ | Ambiguous; liable to more than one interpretation. |
| reset verb | /ɹiːˈsɛt/ | To set back to the initial state. |
| freelance adjective | /ˈfɹiˌlæns/ | Of or relating to a freelance; without a long-term employment contract. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| spin verb | /spɪn/ | To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction. |
| attract verb | /əˈtɹækt/ | To pull toward without touching. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| fade verb | /feɪd/ | To hit the ball with the shot called a fade. |
| limitation noun | /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/ | The act of limiting or the state of being limited. |
| quota noun | /ˈkwəʊ.tə/ | A proportional part or share; the share or proportion assigned to each in a division. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| mess up verb | To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| fall off verb | To become detached or to drop from. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| fall back into verb | To return to old habits; to return to an unhealthy or unhappy situation. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Where am I actually going with my life?
- It's not that you're lazy.
- What do I mean by that?
- Does that mean that you can master it?
- You've got to become obsessed with it.
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 | they've been doing · you've been watching |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you take it seriously, it will change |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have asked · you've ever learned · you've never uploaded |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be built · are not subscribed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 100 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, transformation /ˌtɹæns.fɔɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: limitation /lɪmɪˈteɪʃən/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, destination /dɛstɪˈneɪʃən/, biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
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 skill, disappear, vague.
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.