Shadowing Practice: HOW TO BECOME DISGUSTINGLY DISCIPLINED (with neuroscience) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If you've ever started a new project and quit it before it got anywhere, it is not because you're lazy.
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There's a specific neurological reason that prevents us from pursuing our dreams.
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And in this video, I'll explain how it works and how we can finally become consistent.
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My name is Olga.
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I just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in computation and cognitive science.
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And after the last four years of studying how the human mind works, this is one of the most life-changing things I learned about.
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Whenever you start something new, be it a new habit, a new skill, or a project, it goes through three rough phases.
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And once you understand these three phases, you'll recognize a pattern in everything you've ever quit.
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And phase number one is the honeymoon, when everything feels exciting.
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Let's say you see a video of a skilled dancer
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and you get so inspired that you set yourself a goal of taking dance classes every week.
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The first few times that you go to the dance classes, you're very high on motivation because your brain is producing strong bursts of dopamine.
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And dopamine is a major driver of motivation.
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It is a neurotransmitter that makes you want to do things.
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It motivates you to the point that you stand up and you go and do that dance class.
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A key fact is that your brain releases the most dopamine in response to activities
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that are most novel and the activities that are most unexpectedly rewarding.
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So during the honeymoon phase, when you go to the dance studio the first few times, the activity is new and unpredictable.
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The studio is new, the teacher is new, the structure of the class is new, so your brain is releasing a lot of dopamine.
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From an evolutionary perspective, new things could be important opportunities.
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If your ancestors found a new berry bush or they found a new path through the forest, those who felt motivated to go and investigate this new opportunity, those survived.
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So your brain gives you this big hit of motivation to make sure that you go and engage with something new, that you go and investigate it.
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Which is why starting something new feels so exciting.
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But after a few dance classes, your brain has fully mapped the experience.
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It knows what the dance studio feels like, what a gym feels like, what the online class that you meant to study feels like.
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And once the activity becomes less novel, your brain releases less dopamine for it and you feel less motivated to do it.
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Which is how we enter phase 2.
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The dip.
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Suddenly, that same dance class that you used to look forward to all week, it becomes something that you have to talk yourself into going to.
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And I've experienced this many times before.
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For example, when I started this YouTube channel, at first I felt very motivated.
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I was excited to make videos.
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I was making good progress.
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But then I went into the dip and it was really bad.
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I was getting no views, no progress.
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It was very difficult for me to sit down and actually make a video.
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But I pushed through that long slog of discomfort and difficulty.
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And now I feel like making YouTube videos feels like second nature to me.
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It doesn't require a lot of willpower anymore because I entered phase three, the routine.
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If you were to not quit, if you were to push yourself and overcome the dip, you're going to enter phase three.
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It is when you don't need to push yourself to exercise every morning.
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You don't have to push yourself to practice a musical instrument or dance or whatever you're planning to do.
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You just do it.
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We want to get to the point when pursuing your goals is just the most automatic thing for you to do.
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Every single person who has ever gotten good at anything has overcome that same exact dip that you're in.
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But the difference between them and you is that they did not interpret that dip as a signal to leave, as a signal to quit.
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An American author Seth Godin wrote a book about this concept called The Dip, but more so from a business perspective and his insight is
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that the dip is not a problem it is a filter
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it filters out those people who are not ready to push through the difficulty in the discomfort
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and keeps those people who are ready to push through the difficult part most people quit
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when they experience the dip which is exactly what makes pushing through
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so valuable if anyone could get through the dip there there would be nothing special about the people who actually do.
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So you can't prevent the dip, but you can make it much easier for yourself to overcome it.
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And here's how you can do it in three steps.
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Step number one is you have to expect the dip.
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Before you start any new project, any new habit, you have to tell yourself, in a few days or weeks or months,
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I know that that excitement is going to disappear.
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I'm not going to be as motivated to do this activity.
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and that is not necessarily a reason for me to quit.
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It is just that that initial excitement, that initial honeymoon period has finally passed and now we're becoming serious.
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Step two, shrink the commitment during the dip.
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So when the motivation is high during the honeymoon stage, you want to do a lot.
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If you just started painting, you might want to paint for 10 hours a day.
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If you started learning a new programming language, you might be doing it every single day and on the weekends too and you wouldn't want to do anything else.
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But during the dip, when your motivation is going to be low, you're not going to be wanting to do anything.
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So we need to shrink the behavior to be so small that your brain doesn't resist it.
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So drop from three dance classes a week to one.
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Drop from doing two hour long workouts in the gym to 30 minutes.
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Because a terrible workout that you actually did is infinitely better than a perfect workout that you skipped.
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Step three, introduce novelty into the routine.
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Since dopamine release drops because the activity became too predictable, we can partially counteract it by adding variation.
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If you usually paint portraits when you're inside of your home, go outside and attempt to paint the landscape.
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If you're following coding tutorials, learning a new programming language, stop following the tutorials for a day and try to build something on your own.
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Now we know how we can manage the dip, but a very important thing that we have to know is that when you're in the dip, your brain starts creating stories for yourself and telling you lies.
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The first lie is I am too lazy for this.
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But you were not lazy in week one when you showed up every day without anyone asking you to do it.
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You were not lazy when you bought all the equipment for your new project
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and you were watching tutorials in midnight for hours without end.
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The same person that did all of
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that is the same person who's laying in bed right now not wanting to do it anymore.
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And I think that the word lazy is just a character judgment for a neurochemical state.
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It's just a useless label that we put on ourselves.
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The second lie is, this is not for me.
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And don't you find it interesting how we oftentimes decide that something is not for us
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exactly at the moment when the task feels most difficult and exactly when our motivation is lowest?
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It is true that sometimes it would be smart to quit a new pursuit if it's genuinely counterproductive.
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But if you see a pattern in yourself where you always quit things exactly when they become difficult,
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it means that you might be assuming that something is not for you just because it's difficult, not because it's actually inherently not for you.
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And the third lie is, oh, I'll start something new instead.
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And this is the sneakiest one because starting something new gives you that honeymoon dopamine hit all over again.
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Think of it in terms of dating.
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You probably know someone who's a serial dater who keeps entering new relationships going through
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that honeymoon phase but when things become difficult or first conflict arises
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or the person they're dating is somehow proving themselves to be human
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and imperfect they immediately leave and they move on to someone else
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and they experience that honeymoon phase all over again with another person
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but anyone who's been in a long-term relationship knows that the honeymoon always ends.
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But what replaces the honeymoon is much better.
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But you can only find that out if you stay and you commit.
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And you know exactly what I'm talking about.
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The dance class that you stopped going to, the youtube channel that you created and stopped posting in, that coding tutorial that you bookmarked and then you forgot about it.
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All of these things were abandoned exactly when they stopped being effortless and started becoming effortful.
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For years I kept starting different online courses and quoting the moment they got heart.
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But Brilliant just launched something that actually makes hard things click.
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They launched a personal tutor that sits on your screen while you learn.
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It sees your work, it draws things out, it asks you guiding questions, and I love how it adapts to the way you think in real time,
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which is a completely different learning experience than traditionally just staring at a textbook alone.
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I do not think I understand the difference between these two options.
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Sure.
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The in operator checks if the left thing is inside the right thing.
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Which order checks if the malware is inside the attachments?
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I think the second one.
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Exactly.
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Malware and attachments checks if that specific file is inside the list.
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Go ahead and press run to see if it works.
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Nicely done.
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Brilliant covers a comprehensive math curriculum,
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and our coding courses actually teach you to think like a software engineer with a focus on debugging and logical reasoning, not simply memorizing syntax.
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The courses are designed by educators from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and it makes learning feel like you're solving a puzzle, not a chore.
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To get started with Brilliant's tutor for free, go to brilliant.org slash Olga Loic or you can also scan the keyword on screen
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or go to the link in my description.
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Also, Brilliant has given all of my viewers 20% off their annual premium subscription, which gives you unlimited daily access to everything on Brilliant.
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And thank you to them for sponsoring this video.
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We spent this whole video talking about how to not quit our endeavors, our projects, our dreams, but I do think
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that it's important for us to quit things and know what to quit
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if it's genuinely counterproductive or we genuinely do not enjoy it.
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But if you find yourself following a pattern of always quitting when things become difficult, you have to push through a bit more.
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The people who actually finish things aren't people who never fill the dip, they're the people who learned to keep going through it.
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Subscribe if this video helped and let me know in the comments what is one thing
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that you started and then abandoned that you wish you'd actually stuck with.
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I'd be very curious to hear your stories.
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And as always, please give me your video suggestions because I always love discussing new and interesting topics here with you.
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Why Consistency Feels Hard: A Common Struggle in Learning
Have you ever started learning English—maybe a new speaking practice routine or a vocabulary challenge—only to quit a few weeks later? You’re not alone. The video explains this pattern through neuroscience, showing how our brains react to new goals. Let’s break down this relatable scenario to boost your English speaking practice and stick with your goals.
Useful Chunks & Collocations to Master
- "Push through the dip": To continue despite a period of low motivation. Example: "I pushed through the dip in my shadow speak practice and now it feels easy."
- "High on motivation": Feeling very excited to act. Example: "At first, I was high on motivation to do daily English speaking practice."
- "Second nature": Something done automatically. Example: "After months of practice, shadowing became second nature."
- "Interpret as a signal": To understand a feeling as a sign to act. Example: "Don’t interpret low motivation as a signal to quit your shadowspeak routine."
- "Long slog of discomfort": A difficult, extended period. Example: "The first month of shadow speech was a long slog, but it paid off."
Your Shadowing Challenge: Build Consistency Today
To turn shadowing into a habit, try this: Pick a 1-minute English clip (a podcast, show, or video). For the next 5 days, shadow it every morning—repeat the speaker’s words, tone, and pace. On day 3, you might hit the "dip" and feel unmotivated. That’s normal! Instead of quitting, tell yourself, "This is the dip—I need to push through." By day 5, notice how it feels easier. This challenge trains your brain to see shadow speak as a routine, not a chore. Remember: Every expert in English speaking practice once pushed through the same dip. Your consistency today will make it second nature tomorrow.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've ever started · you've ever quit · I've experienced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | those who felt · person who has · people who are |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were abandoned · are designed |
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.