Shadowing Practice: How to BUILD A ROUTINE That Will CHANGE YOUR LIFE & Stay Consistent - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If I asked you what your perfect routine looks like, how would you answer?
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What are the habits that you've always wanted to start but never quite got round to?
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Or what are the changes that you've always wanted to make and they just never stuck?
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What are the bad habits that you would love to completely erase?
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Well, prepare to never ever watch another video about routines
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or positive habits because these are the three foolproof principles
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that allowed me to graduate medical school whilst growing a six -figure business and working full -time as a doctor, all whilst, would you believe it,
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being the happiest, healthiest version of myself.
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And I'm going to be honest, it's way more straightforward than I bet you ever thought.
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Numero, no, no, woman, woman, left alone.
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Building a routine is actually quite straightforward.
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It is basically just incorporating a whole bunch of habits.
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But if you see a habit as a solitary event, detached and in isolation from the rest of your day, you are doomed to fail.
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All habits need to be connected in a chain of events
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And ideally one of those events should be a reward Now let's take the habit
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that has made the most dramatic change to my life
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And allowed me to continue working full -time as a doctor
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Whilst also posting silly little YouTube videos online Every morning I do two hours work between 5am
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and 7am Before going into work at 8am
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And let me tell you there is absolutely nothing remotely appealing about any of
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that But there's one small factor Blink and you miss it that has allowed this habit to stick.
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Every morning when I wake up, I initiate a chain reaction that is so built into my muscle memory, I could almost do it with my eyes closed.
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I make my morning smoothie and then I sit at my desk with said morning smoothie.
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And the best part, the smoothie tastes bloody good.
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Without even intending to, I created a habit loop.
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If you're not familiar with habit loops, then do not worry, all will be explained and revealed.
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The cue is waking up and making my morning smoothie, which leads to the craving, which is how bloody good my smoothie is and I tend to drink it at my desk.
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Thus, leading to the response, which is my two hour morning flow state.
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And to top it all off, I always keep a piece of paper next to my laptop every single morning with all my tasks
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that I want to complete on that I cross off with a big red pen when I've done them as a reward.
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And just like that, we have a completed habit loop that I never even intended on creating.
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To build a good routine, never view habits in isolation.
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Always try and frame them in the context of a habit loop.
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And I can understand thinking of ideas for each of those four stages can be really difficult, but the concept of a habit loop is actually really, really, really popular.
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And if you are struggling to think of any ideas, just Google it.
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There are literally thousands of examples and ideas online and try a couple and see what works for you.
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Principle two, the tortoise versus there.
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On social media, we are bombarded by the habits that we should be doing.
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Wake up at 4am, 5am, 10k, have a cold shower, journaling, gratitude, green juice, no screen time, meditate for 30 minutes.
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No!
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Firstly, whilst all those habits are great, you need to focus on the ones that are actually going to contribute to the goals that you personally want to achieve.
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For example, if your mental health is on the floor, you should probably focus on a daily gratitude practice and moving your body and meditating.
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Or if you want to work on your physical health, then obviously develop a nutritious breakfast habit that you absolutely adore
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and get your daily steps in and move your body and drink your water.
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And if you want to be more productive, focus on brain dumping, having a daily forest target or getting into the habit of a morning flow state
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but don't just do all of them at once because social media tells you to.
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Secondly you don't want to overwhelm yourself.
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Personally when I'm trying to develop a positive habit I try and only focus on one at a time, maximum three, and once I've solidified that one,
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two or three only then will I try and build up on my routine.
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Just like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race.
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Three, the most important habit by far when developing a daily routine, forgiveness.
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I recently went away to America for a family wedding
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and I had the most incredible time but obviously
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when I came back I was so jet -lagged that 5am was not happening.
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I was basically waking up five minutes before I had to leave for work to be honest with you.
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Now is that a sign for me to give up on my 5am morning two -hour workflow habit
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that I worked so hard to build all because I feel guilty
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and like all my hard work had gone down the toilet.
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Absolutely not.
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I just committed to making note of what time I woke up every day
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and tasking myself with waking up just 15 minutes earlier every morning until I got back to 5am.
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And let me tell you, it took me a lot less time to get back to 5am than it took to develop
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that habit in the first place place.
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So tell me why whenever I'm talking about positive habits with my friends and family, the number one failure that I hear about is
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when they successfully build up a positive habit
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and then they let it slip for a day or a week
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and then instead of feeling proud of themselves for sticking to it for that long, they feel deflated and guilty and
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that guilt prevents them from just getting back to it
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and recognising that rebuilding habits is so much quicker than building them up in the first place.
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When you start any positive habit or new routine, it is important to accept one thing.
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All routines are doomed to fail.
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These habits that you've spent weeks building up will crumble before your eyes.
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It might be a holiday or a friend's birthday or anything that breaks up the normal mundane every day, aka the most important and beautiful memories in our life.
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I definitely don't need to tell you this, but when you're 90, you won't be telling your grandkids about the days
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when you woke up at 5am or had a cold shower for 10 minutes.
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You'll be telling them about your friends, your trips, your laughs, your meals, your drinks, their happy memories.
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But ironically, it will probably be the running and the gratitude journals
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and the healthy diet habits that allowed you to get to 90 in the first place.
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So I'm not saying that either of these two things are more important than the other.
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What I'm saying is the importance lies in the two things coexisting harmoniously.
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When your routine inevitably goes down the drain because you are enjoying life, be proud that you stuck to that habit for as long as you did and get straight back to it.
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If you want to see what my typical daily routine looks like, then I will pop a video here.
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Or if you want to see a little bit more of my life, then I will put a recent weekly vlog here.
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I hope you enjoyed this video.
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If you did, please don't forget to like, comment and subscribe.
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I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful week and I will see you in the next video.
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What You'll Learn
This video helps you build two key speaking skills: natural storytelling flow and emphatic stress for persuasion. The speaker shares personal anecdotes with a conversational rhythm, teaching you how to connect ideas smoothly—critical for explaining routines or goals. You’ll also learn to stress words like "foolproof," "dramatic," and "slow" to emphasize key points, making your speech more engaging. Plus, practicing the dialogue helps with shadowing technique, a proven way to mimic native pronunciation and fluency.
Listen For These Sounds
Notice the connected speech in phrases like "got round to" (pronounced "got roun' to") and "stick" (blended with "never quite" as "never quite stuck"). The speaker often reduces "and" to "an'" in fast speech, such as "growing a six-figure business an' working full-time." Also, listen for the linking in "habit loop"—the "t" in "habit" softens to connect with "loop," making it sound like "habi-loop." These details are key for improving English pronunciation and sounding more natural.
Say It Like a Native
To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, focus on pausing after key ideas, like after "three foolproof principles" or "slow and steady wins the race." Stress the second syllable in words like "incorporating" (in-COR-por-ate-ing) and "isolation" (i-so-LA-tion) to match native stress patterns. Use the shadowspeaks method: repeat the speaker’s lines immediately after, copying their tone and pace. For example, when they say, "It is basically just incorporating a whole bunch of habits," emphasize "basically" and "whole bunch" to keep the conversational vibe. This English speaking practice will help you sound confident and fluent, just like the speaker.
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 always wanted · has made · has allowed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are doomed · be connected · will be explained |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | craving, which is · response, which is |
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.