Shadowing Practice: How I Tricked Myself Into Believing I Could - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hi my friends, welcome to this video.
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Nine years ago I made a decision that actually changed my life and I know that that sounds super dramatic but it's true.
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I have always been a creative person and I dreamed of having a life where I could focus on making art.
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I knew that I wanted that for myself but as an 18 year old I was sort of steered in a safer direction.
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But after four years of university studying landscape architecture, I felt like I couldn't ignore what I truly wanted for my life anymore, and that was to be an artist.
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So I decided to take a chance on myself and really go for it,
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and I wanted to read you a little entry in my journal that I made shortly after making this decision,
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and this was when I had just started my art Instagram page, and I was kind of like preparing a description for a post that I was about to make.
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So I said, I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself and my situation.
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My name is Brooke Cormier, I'm 22 years old, and I just graduated university receiving a bachelor of landscape architecture, and I want nothing more than to be a full-time artist.
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It's a pretty scary thing going down this road with looming fears of having no security, no benefits, blah blah blah, but it's the road I'm meant to be on.
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Art is my passion and although I can expect some failures in the future, I was born with a natural talent that I intend to foster.
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My ideas of natural talent have since evolved.
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I'll use this Instagram page to document my progress on this journey.
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I have much to learn and there will be lots of experimenting to do.
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Please feel free to tell me what you think of my work.
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I would appreciate the likes and comments.
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Time to get started.
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And this is honestly really surreal to read and it makes me a little bit
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emotional thinking about it because I just have to be really thankful to my 22 year old self for actually taking the leap and doing this.
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okay get it together oh um
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I can honestly say that I love my
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job and I feel so so grateful to be able to do this and to be where I am.
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I honestly, I feel very, very lucky to have this kind of like knowing inside of me that, that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
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Like I'm on the right path.
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And yeah, and I'm just really, really grateful that 22 year old Brooke really decided to
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take a leap take a leap and do this for real because i honestly don't know where
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i would be today if i hadn't done that and thank the lord that
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i did wow okay i wasn't expecting to get so emotional here we are um yeah
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i think that it kind of takes some bravery to chase your dreams and so I'm really happy.
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That's it.
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I'm really happy that I did make this decision and I was brave.
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But I also think that there is kind of a misconception about chasing your dreams and that's what I want to address in this video today.
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But if you don't mind.
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I am going to work on a commission while I discuss this topic with you.
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So I'm gonna get painting and we will get right into it.
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When it comes to chasing your dreams, people often say things like, you just have to want it bad enough.
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But I think that's kind of BS.
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Yes, having passion and desire is very important, but besides the obvious limiting factors like socioeconomic status, geography, access to resources, and things like that, what I think is the main hurdle of pursuing one's dream is confidence.
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Believing in yourself.
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You can want something bad enough, but if you don't believe that you can do it, it's not going to happen.
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I put out a google form a couple years ago on instagram asking people what is the central issue they are facing in terms
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of pursuing their art careers and after reading through hundreds of forms I was surprised to see just
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how many related to confidence so what is confidence I would define it as accepting and trusting yourself it's the willingness to continue trying to solve each problem that you face.
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It's believing that you'll discover a way to make goals and ideas work.
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And listen, I know that all this believe in yourself advice is kind of like beating a dead horse, but I sort of have a different perspective on it that I think you might find helpful.
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Let's take a moment to imagine a person, an aspiring artist.
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This individual has no talent, no fancy education, no money, and no support system.
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But what they do have is confidence.
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I think that we can both agree that this person would have to be a little bit delusional in thinking that they could actually make a full-time career as an artist, right?
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Exactly.
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The word delusional often has a negative connotation, but in this case, I believe it is both a positive and necessary thing.
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I want you to think of the term positive delusion as a tool to cultivate confidence.
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So what is positive delusion?
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For me, it's simply adopting a positive belief about yourself before that belief actually comes true.
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It's like the rose-colored glasses you put on before you look at yourself in the mirror.
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It's assuming the role of your aspired self before you actually become them.
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And your aspired self obviously has a gorgeous website with all your beautiful artwork on it.
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So welcome back to the second episode of Brooke Makes Your Art Look Professional.
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This is a little series that I'm working on with the help of Framer where I get to spotlight some wonderful artists and make them a professional-looking homepage for their artwork.
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I got so many amazing submissions after I posted about this on Instagram and today's spotlight artist is is Bhargavi Madhiraju.
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She is a mother and finance professional turned artist from India and she just started showcasing her work in art fairs in July, which is such an exciting milestone.
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And so today I wanna design her a website homepage that not only showcases her beautiful artwork, but also lets people know that when it comes to her art, she means business.
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So let's get started.
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I find that Framer's wireframer tool is super useful as a starting point for any project.
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It gives you a tailored layout that you can then use to tweak and customize directly on the Framer canvas.
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Since creating layouts from scratch can be really time consuming, this allows me to jump right into my favorite part, customizing.
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And despite what you may think, I am in fact not a professional website builder.
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Framer is just a really intuitive design and prototyping tool that allows you to create interactive and responsive websites with no code needed.
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I'm not even kidding, I can barely work a printer, So trust me when I say that if I can make something like this, so can you.
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And there we have it, a professional-looking homepage for our talented friend, Bargavi.
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Let me know what you guys think in the comments, and you can check out more of Bargavi's work on Instagram at bargaviem.art.
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What I hope to achieve in this series is not only helping aspiring artists reach a wider audience, but also to show you just how easy it can be to show your work online in a professional way.
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And it's all made possible with Framer.
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So thank you to Framer for sponsoring this video, and if you want to learn more, you can click the link in the description.
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Now let's get back to painting!
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When I started my art career, I didn't have any of the answers.
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I had never taken an art lesson in my life, I didn't have the slightest clue on how to run a business, market my work, build a website, ship a painting, nothing.
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From a rational point of view, I wasn't really equipped to tackle any of the obstacles ahead of me, but I was delusional enough to bet on myself anyway.
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I knew I wasn't a natural-born entrepreneur, Picasso, or problem solver.
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I adopted the belief that I was.
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I embraced positive delusion, and that was the first step in building my self-confidence.
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Self-confidence is something that a lot of people struggle with, but what I think is a common misconception is you either have it or you don't.
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Even if you're not feeling confident now and you're having trouble believing in yourself, that is something that you have the power to change.
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Self-confidence is not a fixed trait.
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To quote Venus Williams, just believe in yourself.
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Even if you don't, pretend that you do, and at some point, you will.
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This has been scientifically proven.
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Our beliefs about ourselves can actually shape the way our brains function, and shaping the way our brains function can impact our reality.
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We have all experienced negative self-talk, that little voice in the back of our head that tells us we aren't good enough.
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But what we have to realize is that if we don't address it or become aware of it, it'll turn into a habit and trap us in a vicious cycle of self-doubt.
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Often these negative things we tell ourselves are based on irrational fears and not backed by any evidence.
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They're not facts, but they can become facts if we let them impact what actions we take in the real world.
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Luckily, with a bit of help from our positive delusion, we can replace negative self-talk with positive affirmations, which allows us to cultivate self-belief and confidence.
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For example, if you're struggling with something, instead of saying, I'm not cut out for this.
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Try saying, I'm still learning, and I know that with practice, I will get better.
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Over time, practicing positive self-talk can help rewire your brain to believe in yourself and your abilities.
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Because we are artists, and often visual learners, let's look at this with the following analogy.
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Think of your brain like a forest.
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In this forest, there are pathways, some less traveled, some more traveled.
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The more you wander down a path in the forest, clearing the way of rocks and branches, the easier it becomes to travel down in the future.
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When your mind is left to wander running on autopilot, it often defaults to walking down the easiest, most well-traveled path that it can find.
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What if this path happens to be the one paved by negative self-talk?
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What if that is one of the most well-traveled trails in your forest?
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Perhaps we should do a little landscaping?
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Finally, my degree is coming in handy.
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Let's start by taking our brain off of autopilot and being intentional about where we want to go in our forest To help, why don't we use a compass to guide us?
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This compass is our positive delusion What this means is that after we recognize that we are walking down this negative path In other words,
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acknowledging our negative self-talk We then realize it's time to pull out our positive delusion compass and use it to point us in the right direction It says, hold up This is not the right path for you.
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This path is for losers.
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You are an unstoppable superstar and superstars take this path.
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Now, turning down this new path might entail some bushwalking at first because it's far less traveled, but we are able to clear the path with our positive self-talk.
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Every time you tell yourself that you're a perpetual problem solver, you flatten some of the undergrowth.
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Every time that you say you're learning and growing, you clear a branch out of the way.
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And eventually, this new path will become the easiest course for your mind to take, and the old path, forged by negative thoughts, will be engulfed by the forest.
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The most amazing thing about this is that the more this path is beaten by your positive thoughts, the deeper it's carved into the earth.
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And this permanence represents our core beliefs about ourselves.
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Thinking about yourself as a problem solver becomes knowing yourself as a problem solver.
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From there, the beautiful blossoms of self-confidence will line your path to success and you no longer need your positive delusion compass to guide your way because it will no longer be delusion.
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It will actually be real.
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This has been my experience.
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Over time, I used my positive delusion to cultivate self-belief and confidence.
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Every little success I experienced in every little step in the right direction reinforced my belief that I had what it takes to become a full-time successful artist.
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On the flip side, if you believe that you are an unsuccessful person, that you aren't smart enough or talented enough to achieve your goals, your mind will take every little failure or setback as evidence to support that.
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It is very important not to ground your confidence in ability, especially when you're at the beginning of your artistic journey.
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Confidence must be grounded in belief.
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And in this way, it's helpful to be a bit delusional.
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Use positive delusion as a tool to gain confidence.
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Let it help you build resilience and motivate you to keep trying.
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And once you actually start finding success, which you will, it's no longer a delusion.
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You have facts to base your confidence off of.
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Remember, you don't need to learn everything before you start.
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Just start and trust that you'll figure it out as you go.
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And do not expect perfection because your journey is not going to be perfect.
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Nobody's is.
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But it's going to be special and unique and yours.
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So to end off this video, I just want to remind you to pay close attention to the conversations that are going on in your head and observe the stories that you're telling yourself.
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If you find that you're having negative self-talk, recognize it, acknowledge it, and then whip out that positive delusion compass and steer yourself down the right path.
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You can clear the path with your positive thoughts, and remember to show yourself compassion.
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This is going to take a lot of practice, but I promise you it's worth it.
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So my friends, thank you so much for joining me today.
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I hope that you enjoyed this topic, and I hope that you enjoyed the painting that I made.
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I thought it was such a cute and wholesome scene, and it was also really satisfying for me to whip out my tiny little brushes again.
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free to share any thoughts that you may have in the comment section and consider subscribing to my channel if you have not already.
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what I would love is if this video leaves you feeling a little more positive and a little more confident than when you got here.
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then I would consider this a mission accomplished.
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so I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day.
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I'm Brooke Cormier and I'll see you next time.
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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will explore the themes of self-belief and pursuing your dreams as discussed in a personal narrative. By engaging with the transcript, learners will practice listening comprehension, pronunciation, and speaking skills. This lesson allows you to reflect on the concept of confidence in your own life while learning key English vocabulary and phrases. You will also have the chance to hone your skills using various shadowing techniques. Settle in and prepare to enhance your English by shadowing an inspiring story about taking risks and believing in yourself.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Creative person: Someone who uses their imagination or original ideas to create something.
  • Passion: A strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something.
  • Take a leap: To make a big change or take a risk.
  • Confidence: The belief in oneself and one's abilities.
  • Dreams: Goals or aspirations one hopes to achieve in life.
  • Support system: A network of family, friends, or resources that provide assistance.
  • Limitations: Restrictions or constraints that hinder progress.

Practice Tips

As you watch the video and read the transcript, utilize the shadowing technique for effective language acquisition. The speaker's pace is conversational yet heartfelt, making it an ideal match for your practice. Repeat phrases aloud to mirror the tone and intonation, and feel free to pause the video as needed. A shadowing app can enhance your experience, allowing you to record your voice and compare it to the original. Focus on capturing the emotions behind the words to improve your pronunciation and fluency. By using this shadowing site, you will deepen your understanding while singing the praises of self-empowerment and creativity.

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.

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