Shadowing Practice: How To Reprogram 350,000 Hours Of Past Conditioning (Reset Your Brain) | Denis Waitley - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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You will never reach your physical limits because your mind holds you back first.
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You will never reach your physical limits because your mind holds you back first.
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Your past experiences teach you to lower your expectations.
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You behave based on how you have conditioned yourself over time.
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You can change this by setting new and higher standards for yourself.
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A special thanks to the Waitley family for partnering with us to release this video exclusively on my YouTube channel.
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To check out more about Dennis Waitley Global, click the first link in the description below.
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If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
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And if you don't know where you are, no decision can move you intelligently toward a goal or purpose.
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Knowing where you stand in your profession and industry is critical to becoming a change master in the global knowledge era.
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Belief systems are at the root of all resistance to change and produce virtually every conflict as well as every creative invention, innovation, and solution to problems resulting from dramatic change.
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management of change always begins at the individual level as an inner force that compels behavior and then projects itself externally.
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Today's victories don't meet a thing tomorrow.
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You enjoy them, you relish them, but tomorrow comes always offering a new challenge.
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So achievement then is a process not a status and the road to success is always under construction.
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To live without limitations and set yourself free you need to understand that there are two definitions.
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First, there are physical limits.
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We're born with those.
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I won't compete in the Olympic Games and I won't become President of the United States.
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You know why?
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I'm not prepared.
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I didn't go through the training, so I'm limited in the sense that I don't have the physical characteristics, experience, or the time now to do certain things.
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And so I have to figure out what my limits are.
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Our physical limits are genetics, early environment, past experience, and age.
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We all have those, and we need to understand them.
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This program is about the desire for change and dissatisfaction with the status quo.
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I like where I am, but I see where I could go, and I want to be there.
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But how far and how high can I go?
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What are my limitations psychologically?
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Limits are physical barriers.
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Limitations are psychological boundaries.
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I assert to you that you'll never reach your physical limits because of your psychological limitations.
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Over time, we all learn to lower or raise our expectations of ourselves based upon our environments and experiences.
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Successes give us confidence.
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Disappointments and failures become thorny reminders that history is bound to repeat itself.
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When I was a boy, I used to enjoy going to the local county fair to see the flea circus that was always a hit with me and my friends.
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I couldn't comprehend at first how those tiny fleas could be trained to hop and jump around on miniature trampolines, trapezes, and not leap out of their little arenas that had no ceilings.
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I thought up and the man that put on the show that for a couple of weeks he kept the fleas in a cardboard shoe box with a lid on it with pin-pricked holes so the fleas could breathe.
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fleas normally can jump to a height of several feet however the flea circus fleas continually hit the box lid
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and soon learned that six inches was their maximum limit when the lid was removed because they had been trained to
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lower their expectations through frustration they didn't even attempt to jump out of their circus arena which would have been no problem we humans certainly are more intelligent than fleas.
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However, behavior patterns seem to be consistent no matter the species.
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First, we observe role models.
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We imitate their behavior.
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Through repetition, the imitation becomes habitual, like brushing our teeth or driving our cars.
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If the feedback is negative and painful, we reinforce our failed attempts and settle for mediocrity rather than face future challenges and possible setbacks.
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If the feedback is positive and accepted as target correction, we're motivated to try a different approach and keep reaching for our highest aspirations.
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Subconscious reflections of past mistakes, fears of future failures, and fears of the unknown tend to act as ceilings or lids on our achievements.
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But here's the good news.
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While visiting SeaWorld many times with my grandchildren in my hometown of San Diego, California,
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my grandkids were amazed to see four-ton killer whales jumping in formation out of the water and over a rope positioned 10 feet above the surface.
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We learn from the trainers that they begin by placing a rope on the bottom of the pool and rewarding the orcas with mackerel and tuna when they pass over it.
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Incrementally, the rope is raised until it is completely out of the water and the killer whale is motivated by rewards to jump out of the water to cross over the rope.
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Just as the whales are encouraged through positive reinforcement, People also respond to rewards, appreciation, recognition, and praise.
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Unlike animals, however, we humans have the power to choose and to control to a large degree the conditioning of our present and future lives.
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I've decided to change by removing my limitations and seeking the outer limits of my inner potential and past conditioning.
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The way I was as a child, layered with the way I was 5, 10, maybe 15 years ago, equals my present behavior.
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You see, you condition yourself, and then you behave accordingly.
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The interesting thing, because past conditioning determines present decisions, is that you never make a decision based upon what's happening right now.
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You base your decision on what happened before, the way it was, the way it used to be.
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And you're likely to experience the same thing again.
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So past conditioning equals present performance.
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That's why Olympic athletes practice under a coach's watchful eyes, and then they perform based upon their training.
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Well, how do you change?
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Interestingly enough, it isn't that present inputs determine future behavior.
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Oh, I wish it were.
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I wish you could go to a seminar and then just say, I got it, I changed.
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You see, you get stimulated in the present, but your subconscious computer memory, and if you're about 40 years old, is almost 350,000 hours of past conditioning.
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So you go to a meeting for an hour, everyone got the new input?
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Have we all agreed to change?
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Could anyone presume that a pep talk could change somebody?
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Pep talks wear off.
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People go back to being themselves.
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That's why this ongoing Change Masters program is so important.
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It's a training and tracking system for everyday living.
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Therefore, you look at your past conditioning and you realize you've been limited.
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And you begin to perceive yourself as a person who's psychologically been limiting yourself.
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And you use present inputs to layer on top of the past conditioning.
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And you change the future behavior and performance accordingly.
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Therefore, it's very important what we think about and practice over and over again.
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And it's most important that we view ourselves as being self-limiting by our thinking and training instead of physically limited.
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Most people feel like thermometers.
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A thermometer rises or falls to meet the external environment.
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It's controlled by outside circumstances.
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The majority of the population's self-images are controlled by society's external standards.
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Our self-image is a total picture of who we think we are, and the camera starts rolling the minute we achieve that first conscious realization that we're living, functioning beings.
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The camera, our brain, takes pictures fast and furiously throughout life.
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And every shot is tucked away in a memory file of limitless capacity.
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This subjective sense of who we think ourselves to be governs all of our actions and controls our destiny.
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How we feel about ourselves, how we rate our ability to hang in there, to survive and win, and all that we will ever do or aspire to be is based on our time-reinforced self-image.
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Unfortunately, once an idea or belief becomes a perception, it becomes a truth for our self-image.
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Each link we add to the growing chain of self-images may either strengthen or shackle our lives more tightly.
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Control is in our hands.
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We cannot grow the limitations we place on ourselves through faulty self-imaging, but we can set newer and higher standards.
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We can reset our self-image like an internal thermostat from low to high self-esteem, from loser to winner, and from victim of change to victor over change, a change master.
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Each of us has a number of comfort zones or settings that we've developed throughout our lives that dictate the amount of discomfort that we're willing to suffer before we make adjustments.
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Our self-image is very definitely a thermostat keeping us in a psychological comfort zone.
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Benchmarking was originally a surveyor's term, referring to a point of reference.
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A good definition, as it applies to a business or organization, is the search for industry's best practices that lead to superior performance.
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The idea is to use the best to become the best.
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Benchmarking, in other words, is looking at yourself from the inside, assessing your own unique talents and skills, seeking out the best in your field, and putting those examples to work for you.
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For example, competing in the Olympic Games is not simply to win a medal.
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The real meaning behind being an Olympian is to develop yourself to the highest level of performance in your field, and then comparing that performance to world-class standards of excellence.
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Looking at contemporaries in completely different fields gives a fuller view of who's currently the best and who might be so tomorrow and why?
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These questions know no occupational or geographic boundaries.
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There was a requirement that every Singapore CEO was to go through the flight attendant and service programs of government-owned Singapore Airlines, one of the world's most successful and profitable companies.
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Enhancement of CEO performance in Singapore, one of the world's most productive countries for decades, is no accident.
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Benchmarking shouldn't be based only on our assessment of ourselves and counterparts in other successful companies.
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We can also learn from those above and below us.
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It's also no accident that the members of the top management staffs of the major hotel chains have been taking training in bell service, valet parking, front desk housekeeping, and concierge services.
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If you want to become or stay the best, you must know more than what your competitors are up to.
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You must know the best business practices wherever they exist.
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Apple has continued to lead all industries in continuing to question what the next consumer demand will
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be for its emerging technologies and then meeting or exceeding those expectations with products including new versions of the iPhone and iPad.
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For individual benchmarking, it's important to choose leaders with a new leadership philosophy and the new employee paradigm.
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Jack Welsh, former chairman of the General Electric Company, stressed that the practice is for pinpointing where you sit now, not where you wish or hope to be.
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It's locating where you actually are and where you need to be five years hence, as well as realistically assessing the chances of getting from here to there.
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This requires a clear picture of your strengths, your weaknesses, and desired destination, which in turn requires a clear perspective on your life.
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Knowledge of your attributes, abilities, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and traits is essential to becoming proactive in career choice and career change.
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Where to begin your personal benchmarking?
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What we love and do well as children continues to shape our lives as adults, so an excellent benchmarking exercise is to spend time with key team members in your organization or family.
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and dust off your childhood memories.
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Let yourself go.
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Remember what you really wanted to do as a child.
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The next step in assessing your interest is considering your current ones.
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What do you most enjoy after work?
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What do you most want to do on weekends and vacations?
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What are your hobbies, your extracurricular activities, your favorite kinds of books?
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Examination of your avocational interests might reveal a gem of potential that you can apply to your vocation.
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We strongly suggest that you don't unthinkingly relegate what you love to do for yourself slowly to hobbies.
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You might make it or at least integrate it into your life's work.
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Next comes an assessment of your natural gifts.
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After many years of observation, we're still surprised by how few people try to make a connection between what they're good at and what they do.
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In this module, you'll be assessing your own natural talents through an exercise that we call the circle of multiple intelligences.
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Virtually all individuals have at least three to five major talents and many have more.
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It's important to note that all of your talents are present at birth.
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You'll gain knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits throughout your life.
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However, you'll not receive or develop more talent.
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Our careers are a blend of natural abilities, environmental modeling, acquired skills and experience.
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Many times our careers hinge heavily on the economic requirements at pivotal age and family considerations.
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If we're to develop our lives along the path of greatest wisdom, however, we should give serious thought to discovering our inherent abilities as early as possible.
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Talents and personality traits come naturally at birth.
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Behavior patterns and habits are learned by observation, imitation, and repetition.
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In all the best research involving high-performance executives in nearly every field and job description,
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from technical to sales, from top management to hourly workers, combined with a database working with Olympic athletes,
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coaches, and professional teams, we've learned that certain core behavioral traits generally define the high achiever and leader.
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Probability for success is marginal without high scores in ambition, self-confidence, and mental toughness.
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Candidates who score low on any of these three traits or who still show a lack of self-control or flexibility may require careful screening or special training to predict their probable impact on performance.
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We often ask our seminar participants to visualize an ideal day for themselves five years hence.
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Where will they be living?
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How will their day begin?
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How are they traveling?
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Where are they going?
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What kind of work are they doing in what position and with what income?
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Who are their friends?
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What moments of the day give them the most satisfaction?
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What do they do purely for fun?
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Let your imagination go.
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Let it take you to the question of what you really want from your life.
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Do you want more love?
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Greater wealth?
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To be thinner, more attractive, healthier?
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To break into an entirely new field?
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To make a significant contribution to society?
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With this in mind, ask yourself whether what you're doing now is what you feel you should be doing.
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Certainly it's providing you with an income, but is it advancing you toward where you really want to be?
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If you haven't determined that, you should be exploring not vaguely, but on a daily basis using some of the measurements that we've suggested here.
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Even if you're reasonably satisfied, asking such questions can increase your self-awareness.
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But if you do know what you really want to do, and it involves changes, ask whether you're acting to make your dream a reality.
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Change masters know who they are, where they are today, and what and where they want to be tomorrow.
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And they get there.
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And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be.
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For some more incredible Dennis Waitley motivation, check the video right there next to me.
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I think you'll love it.
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Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.
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We live in a fast-forward world with more changes in one of our days than in a decade or more of our grandparents' lives.
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You and others in your region are at the center of what is being transformed
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Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing your English speaking skills with Denis Waitley's insightful video can dramatically enhance your learning experience. The video addresses the concept of mental limits and conditioning, making it a thought-provoking choice for learners. By engaging with this content, you not only gain valuable knowledge but also improve your fluency and pronunciation through the shadow speak method. As you mimic Waitley's speech patterns and intonations, you develop a deeper understanding of the language's rhythm and flow. Moreover, his motivational themes help elevate your emotional connection to the language, enabling you to express ideas more confidently during english speaking practice.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
- Conditional structures: Phrases like "If you don't know where you are, no decision can move you towards a goal," illustrate the use of conditionals effectively. Practicing such structures can help you express hypothetical situations.
- Comparative forms: Waitley mentions "Today's victories don't mean a thing tomorrow," using comparatives to emphasize changing circumstances. Understanding these forms can enrich your descriptive language.
- Present participles: His usage of phrases like "becoming a change master" highlights how present participles create ongoing actions. This grammatical structure is vital in discussions about personal development.
- Complex sentences: The speaker frequently employs complex sentences, which allows for more sophisticated language use. For example, "Belief systems are at the root of all resistance to change..." Encouraging this complex structure in your shadowing practice can enhance your speaking abilities significantly.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you watch and listen to the video, be aware of specific pronunciation challenges that might arise. Words like "achievement" and "limitations" may require attention, as they contain subtle sounds that can be easily mispronounced. Additionally, Waitley’s intonation and pacing are crucial elements of his delivery. Watch for how he emphasizes different words to convey meaning, making your practice of these nuances an essential part of the learn english with youtube approach.
Furthermore, pay attention to the speaker's rhythm during inspirational phrases. Practicing the shadowing technique here can help you grasp the natural flow of English, making your speech sound more authentic. By focusing on these pronunciation traps, you cultivate the skills necessary for effective communication.
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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