Shadowing Practice: how to use neuroplasticity to rewire your brain to do hard things - Learn English Speaking with Video

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There is no doubt how far you can go in life

if you only have the ability to stick with one habit every day for the next three years.

And we all know this in theory.

For the majority of my life, I've always identified myself as someone who never follows through.

I bought more self-help books than I'd finish.

I had more workout gear than the amount of workouts that I actually did that month.

I knew exactly what I was supposed to do, but for years I would never end up doing it.

Then I found out that my problem has never been about the lack of motivation or the lack of willpower,

but it's the ability to shift gears and to see my brain as if it is a software program.

And once I truly understood how to use neuroplasticity to go towards my goals rather than going against it, everything changed in my life.

So how do you finally manage to get yourself outside of

that imposter syndrome and finally get the goal that you've been after for decades?

Neuroplasticity is the answer, my friend.

And that's what this video is all about.

It's learning how to restructure your brain to make those new behaviors just as automatic as the old ones.

And this stuff is incredibly life-changing once you understand the mechanism of it and when you fully understand it.

So this is a deep dive to understand what your brain does when you are trying to change, why most people fail, and what to do so you don't become one of them.

Also, how are we feeling about the bangs?

I mean, are we loving it?

Are we hate it?

Should I never do this again?

What's the vibe?

Leave it down in the comments down below.

Here are all the video chapters and you can find the video chapters in the description below.

And if you are someone who is ready to do the real work, I'm not just talking about watching these videos, but actually transforming.

I provide worksheets for every single one of my videos.

In these worksheets, you'll find in-depth journaling prompts as well as practical exercises to help you start removing your limiting beliefs

and to write out an action plan so you can start living out as your highest self today.

You can access these worksheets down in the description below.

Now let's dive right into the video.

Let's start off with the first chapter, which is how does neuroplasticity play a role in permanent change?

The biggest lie that you've been solved as an adult is that once you grow up, once you mature, once your brain fully develops, then that's just who you are.

You are stuck as this one version of you.

That is absolutely false.

We are not meant to stay as one version for the rest of our lives.

In fact, as we up level, as we upgrade, as we go for new things in our lives,

we are going to need to evolve our personality because our personality is what creates our personal reality.

Your brain is not fixed and it's not hardwired at all, but it's your assumption about how much you can grow and change that is holding you back.

Your brain is like a machine.

Your brain cannot distinguish the difference between a positive habit and a destructive one.

But the more that you repeat the number of times that you do this habit, the more it gets reinforced.

So I have an example for you.

Just this past week, I had downloaded Instagram and normally I have pretty good restrictions around Instagram,

but for some reason this week I had an event and had to contact people just to get things arranged.

And I ended up scrolling on Instagram for three hours a day for an entire week.

And that week was just chaotic for me.

My apartment was a mess.

My mind was a mess.

I was anxious.

I also found myself completely overwhelmed with all the things that I had to do, but at the same time, I wasn't doing it.

I was procrastinating, and it was especially hard for me to do the hard things

that I had set myself out to do.

So if you scroll on Instagram for three hours before bed, your brain optimizes for that pathway.

It's going to strengthen that neural connection to distraction and seeking out that cheap dopamine.

But on the other hand, if you choose to read for three hours before bed, then the brain optimizes for that too.

The brain is optimizing and strengthening that neural connection for deeper understanding of information, being able to sit for long hours, and having the ability to focus.

So once you have this prior understanding, let's talk about the neuroscience of why change is so hard.

The reason why your habits feel so darn easy right now is

because your brain sees those habits as neurologically efficient

and it only became efficient because you kept firing and wiring that neural pathway for years and if not decades.

So just imagine that you decided to go sledding on a snowy hill for the first time.

So you go up to the top of the hill, you put your sled down and you slide down.

That first time is going to be a little bit difficult because you're going to have to compact the snow.

You're going to have to use your legs to push yourself down the hill.

Now once you've put your slide down and you slide down the hill for the first time, then you're going to go up again and you're going to go down that same pathway.

Only this time around it's going to be slightly easier because you've already paved the way.

You've essentially compacted the snow.

So the second time you do it, you're going to go a little faster.

The third time you go, a little faster than the second time.

By the 50th time that you go down this slide with your sled, it is going to be so much faster, so much more slippery than the first time that you did it.

So this is exactly what happens in the brain.

The more that you do something, there is a fatty substance called myelin that essentially wraps around

that neural pathway and it makes that signal go past faster and faster the more times it goes through that neural pathway.

So through repetition, the more the signal goes through this pathway, the more myelinated it becomes, which means that it becomes more automatic.

It becomes an automatic behavior in your life.

So that's why there are certain habits like brushing your teeth or going on social media.

It is so easy to do this because those neural pathways have become more myelinated.

But if you were trying to create a brand new habit, say that you want to go to the gym five times a week when you have never been to the gym before, you don't know what to do,

and you simply do not identify yourself as a gym goer, then you are building a brand new neural connection and it's kind of like going down a slide made of sandpaper.

It's going to be very uncomfortable.

And there's this sense of fighting against this resistance because there is no myelin.

Your brain is seeing it as this pathway is way more efficient.

Why are we building in a necessary brand new pathway

when we have this strong pathway that I've built for the past decade?

Why can't we go down this way?

That's why when you are forming a habit, especially in the first month or two, it's going to be quite difficult and a lot of people say

that it only takes three weeks to build a habit

and that's not necessarily always consistent because if you have easier habits

that you want to start like drinking glass of water every day

if you are not drinking glass of water every day you

guys should really be evaluating how much water you're drinking

but say that you don't drink any water at all you just drink juice

if that is a consistent pattern

that you want to implement then it's going to be relatively easy

because you fill up the glass and you drink that glass of water but on the other hand

say that you are building a b2b startup

and you need to make five cold calls a day

that you are going to be met with so much more resistance

because you are going to be faced with the potential of

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getting rejected the potential of making a fool out of yourself

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and there is so much more resistance there seems to be

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so much more at stake making those cold calls rather than drinking

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that glass of water so habits may not necessarily always be built within the three-week time frame

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that everyone talks about

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but it could take up to three months it could take

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up to six months chapter number three changing your habits require

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you to change your identity a lot of people start their new year's resolutions thinking

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that as soon as it hits the next year january 1st

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that something is going to change this is the year

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that i'm going to change but unfortunately that's not how it works

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because if you are trying to change and overlay those brand new behaviors from the foundation of your old identity,

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that new behavior is not going to hold.

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If you want to build a brand new habit, your identity must change as well.

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Your desire is to go to the gym five times a week, but if you continue to identify yourself as someone who is unhealthy,

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who is unworthy, who will never be skinny, if you identify yourself as such,

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then your identity is going to breed those same actions and behaviors leading you to binge, leading you to lounge around,

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watch Netflix, leading you to fall off of your consistency and goals.

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So we need to plant a seed, which is your identity.

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We need to plant that seed so it can blossom in the way that we want it to.

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I want to share something with you.

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If I handed you your dream body today, would you have the habits, the mindset, lifestyle, would you have that in place to maintain that physique?

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Another question for you, if I handed you a $1 million business, would you have what it takes to maintain that level of success or grow it even further?

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And if we do not show up as the version of ourselves,

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as the identity first, we are not going to be able to have the very goals that we want.

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And in fact, it's going to be very, very hard for us to maintain it, which is why identity is the core of everything.

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Who do you need to become in order to have this desire?

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This is where the formation of neuroplasticity begins because you're entering that frequency, you're entering that dimension where you are already this person.

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And the more that you can remind yourself to get back into that state, the more you're going to be able to solidify that neural pathway.

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So doing the action through grit, willpower, motivation.

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That's the only thing I get you so far.

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But if you can also engage the identity piece,

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engaging through visualization, through feeling of connecting those neural pathways and myelinating it by visualizing,

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you're going to have less resistance around that habit, that hard thing, because you've already identified yourself as someone who does that hard thing.

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And also, have you ever met this one person who seems to succeed in every single thing

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that they do because let's look at bridget mendler she used to be an actress

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and then a singer and then she got to harvard law

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and now she's building a space startup how does a disney

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child actress jump to becoming a founder of a space startup like

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that simply does not make sense there's no correlation

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but it is bridget mendler's ability to get into character with the goals

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that she wants because they understand that every single pivot that they make in their life requires a different character change.

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Neuroplasticity is writing your own movie and casting yourself as the main character.

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You need to think of yourself as both the script writer

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and also the actress of your life because what happens if you want to write a brand new story in your life?

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Your character has to change too.

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Anytime I see Daniel Radcliffe in any sort of movie, like he's had a couple of recent ones.

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I just see Harry Potter.

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Like, I go like, oh my god, it's Harry Potter.

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That's all I think about.

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That's all I see.

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But if you were to look at someone like Zendaya, Zendaya in Euphoria is very different from the Zendaya in Shake It Up.

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Zendaya in Dune is very different from the Zendaya in Challengers.

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Zendaya in Spider-Man is very different from the Zendaya in Odyssey.

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That Zendaya's character, no matter what movie she's in, she is so incredibly versatile.

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She is so adaptable in her character.

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She's able to make a switch just like that.

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And she was filming, I think, Euphoria at around the same time as another movie.

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It's like, how can you make a switch like that?

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That's freaking crazy.

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So Zendaya is a master in her craft because she's able to be versatile in any sort of movie that she's in.

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That's why those movies, those TV shows are so incredibly successful.

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The more versatile you are in being able to be fully in character, the more likely your movie will succeed.

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Stop making change harder than it needs to be by keeping your old identity

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when you want to change and write a brand new story because those two realities simply cannot coexist together.

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And there's almost this grief.

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Sometimes we hold on to our past identity because it's comfortable, because it's easy, because it's predictable.

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And when we go for something that's brand new, that's completely different, there's this fear that letting go of this past selves,

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we're going to get ridiculed because we've been this version for our whole lives, right?

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People are going to say, who do you think you are?

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Who do you think you are thinking you're going to be fit when you've been fat your whole life?

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Who do you think you are thinking that you could be rich when you've been broke your whole life.

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And there's this almost this attachment because we're worried about what people are going to say, what people are going to think, but why can't you, right?

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And what right do they have to tell you who you are?

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You get to write your script.

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You get to be who you want to be.

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You're meant to evolve every single day.

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Just because they don't want to change doesn't mean that you're not allowed to, right?

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You are allowed to change.

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I'm changing every day.

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You are not meant to stay as one version of yourself.

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You are meant to be a caterpillar and then you go into a cocoon

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and you fly as a butterfly

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and then you die you go into a caterpillar a cocoon

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and then you fly

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and then you die right like this this constant evolution where every brand new chapter every brand new movie

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that you make is going to require a different version of yourself just

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because you are a butterfly now

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when you've been able to reach this level of success this butterfly

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that you've emerged to become may not necessarily get you to the next level, which involves this level of death.

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Death, rebirth, death, rebirth, death, rebirth.

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And it's a really beautiful cycle.

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It's a really, really beautiful cycle, and it's part of nature for us to be a brand new person.

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And as kids, we were amazing at acting.

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We loved playing pretend.

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When you were doing your makeup, you would say, hey guys, welcome back to my channel, as if you were pretending to be a YouTuber.

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Or you probably stole your mom's pearls and decided to wear them

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because you just wanted to pretend to be an adult

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or you would strut down the hall wearing clothes

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that didn't match with your friends and you guys would pretend to be models at New York Fashion Week.

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We've had so many instances where we would play pretend because we wanted to embody a different character,

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embody a different version of ourselves and it's super fun.

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You never had to ask for permission to be a Victoria's Secret model

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or to be a YouTuber or to be an adult.

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You simply got into the zone, got into the frequency, you opened your eyes and you're like, all right, here we go.

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This is who I am.

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And there's this level of you demand this frequency rather than waiting for this identity to come find you.

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And this is the approach that I personally use to change my own life

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because this has been the exact shift that has changed my life completely.

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When you step into this version of yourself, visualize yourself by thinking, what are they like when they talk to other people?

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What are they like when they show up to their desk?

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What are they like when they walk, right?

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And show up as that person.

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Play pretend.

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Be like a kid.

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Use that childlike energy.

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Use that childlike fun.

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Play your favorite music that gets you into the vibe.

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That's how you act as if.

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I don't like using the word act as if.

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It sounds so serious to me.

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It has never resonated with me.

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But what I like to say is just play pretend.

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Be a kid.

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Play pretend.

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Have fun with it.

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Life is supposed to be fun.

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Life is supposed to be joyous even though the very desires that you want seem hard.

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It's like making it more serious than it needs to be is only going to make it harder.

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And just fun maxing is going to amplify your ability to show up to these habits more often.

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If something isn't fun you're not going to show everything to do it.

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So write your story, lean into your character, and know that you get to evolve whoever you want to be.

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You get to choose no one gets to choose for you.

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This brings me to the next chapter which is the role of discomfort and repetition.

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If you want to rewire your brain to do more difficult and hard things, you will need to be the initiator of doing hard things.

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Now let me explain.

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This is because your brain requires evidence that if you have evidence that you can do hard things,

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that evidence is only going to build up and strengthen that muscle for you to do hard things over time.

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When you are comfortable, your brain isn't releasing the chemicals necessary for plasticity, which means that if you stay within your comfort zone, you are going to stay stagnant.

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Your brain isn't going to be firing and wiring those brand new neural pathways

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because simply you are not priming your brain to release the chemicals for plasticity.

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Think of the role of stress and discomfort like going to the gym to build stronger bigger muscles.

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So say that you want to build stronger bigger glutes

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or stronger bigger arms then

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when you go to the gym you are going to need to progressively overload

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which means that you're gonna have to use heavier weights, weights that are possible but are just as challenging and

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that is going to essentially create those micro tears in your muscles

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and those micro tears will then form and heal so that it grows bigger and stronger over time.

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The act of doing hard things works the same exact way

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because you're building that brain muscle to do the things that you are in resistance to.

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Who is ultimately going to succeed long term?

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Is it the person that prioritizes intensity or is it the person that prioritizes consistency?

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And the truth is consistency always wins.

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It's the whole story of the tortoise and the hare.

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Tortoise won despite going longer, despite going slower.

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When you are showing up to your goals, you do not have to show up 200% all the time because that's just going to burn yourself out,

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especially if you are still in the process of building a brand new habit.

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You're not going to have the neural pathways to go 200% every single day at the gym

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because you are only going to fall off because you're going to be so burnt out from that habit.

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But building a strong long-term habit all comes with managing expectations.

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Do not go into habits thinking that you need to be perfect.

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I think a lot of people fall short here because they think

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that if they have gone consistent for two weeks and they miss a single day, what do they do?

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They fall off.

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They stop doing it because they lost their streak they think

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that if they lost their streak that they can't go back into

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that and all progress is lost it's not

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so first of all don't expect yourself to go every single day in the moment

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that you miss that one day you're toast

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which is where i want to introduce to you the two day rule the rule is

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that you cannot skip a habit for more than one day

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if you skip it once that's fine but

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if you skip it two days in the rule you have

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to do it on the second day now it doesn't mean

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that you need to commit to your goals every single day it just means

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that you cannot let yourself fall into a long break we need to start being more forgiving with ourselves

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when things don't go as planned we are ultimately humans

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and we are not perfect we are not robots

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if we can finally accept

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that we are not perfect we can finally start being more

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consistent in this next chapter i also want to talk about the environment

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and how your environment shapes your brain what

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if you have been setting yourself up for failure

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because your environment is simply bringing in more resistance to the version of you

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that you want to become because your environment plays a massive role in how

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and what kind of neurons get fired

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and wired in the brain let's talk about people

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and you probably see this in relationships where you meet this

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guy for the first time you start dating them you spend more time with them

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and suddenly you absorb all of their quirks behaviors, mindsets, literally everything.

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That is exactly what happens with our environment around the people that we surround ourselves with.

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There's this common saying that goes, show me your five closest friends and I'll show you your future.

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You truly become who you are close to.

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If you're in an environment and you're surrounded by friends and people that don't have a bigger goal or vision for themselves, they just spend every weekend going to bars and clubs,

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getting girls, getting guys, just have nothing going for themselves.

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If you have this desire for a bigger life, then you are going to feel incredibly resistant to that potential

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because your brain is seeking out evidence of what's directly around you, which is people who are short-sighted, people that don't have goals for themselves,

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people who are broke, people who are not motivated or ambitious.

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Because your brain sees that as evidence, it is seeing that as the truth of reality.

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But if you want to go in this direction, where you want to see potential where you can be rich despite your broke past

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or the potential of being fit when you've had this old identity of being someone who's unfit, unhealthy.

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So you need to find

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and be in an environment where you are surrounded by evidence where that has been possible for other people,

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which is why I always recommend that if you are in a town and you can't afford to leave, you can't afford to leave your situation,

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to read a lot of books from mindsets and people that have been successful.

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We're also watching podcasts, YouTubers that you really admire and that you really want to take in and absorb their mindset, their energy, their lifestyle, their habits,

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and learning and using the internet to learn who this version is and to find that potential reality for yourself.

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That is a stepping stone, but ultimately I do recommend that you completely leave your environment.

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If you grew up in a small town, but you have bigger goals for yourself, a small town may not necessarily get you there.

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Unless the small town is filled with millionaires and billionaires, but if you are young, I recommend that you leave your hometown, go to a brand new city, and start fresh.

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Even though that may be a bit expensive, even though it may be really scary, but the amount of growth that you will go through by being in a brand new city,

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being in a brand new environment, is that you get to create a brand new identity because no one knows you.

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You have this brand new slate.

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No one knows who the heck you are.

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So you can be whoever you want to be.

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The next thing is adding more cues into your environment.

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If your goal is to read more, then I recommend that you put your Kindle or your book right next to your bedside.

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I was listening to a podcast with Dan Martel and he has three different Kindles.

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He has one Kindle next to his bedside.

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He has a Kindle in his work bag.

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He has a Kindle and his reading chair, there are so many different places where he makes the habit of reading as easy as possible for him.

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For the goals that you want to implement in your life, it is really important that you make it as easy as possible for yourself.

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But if you have goals that you want to do less of, for example, a really common one is going on Instagram or going on TikTok, you need to make it way harder than it needs to be.

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The next chapter is neuroplasticity takes form when you sleep.

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If your life is absolute chaos and you're not getting more than eight hours of sleep every single day, Girl, what are you doing?

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It's easy to think that those neural pathways, this brand new identity that you're forming in your brain, only takes form when you're doing the actual behavior in the moment.

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But those neural pathways form during rest as well.

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It's just like when you're going to the gym and you're actively working out and you're creating these micro tears, these micro tears also need to rest in order for it to strengthen.

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And it's the same exact way with neuroplasticity.

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When you're learning something new or practicing a brand new behavior, your brain is only going to make those changes temporarily.

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But how you solidify that change is through restful sleep.

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If you're not getting enough rest in your life, that's why doing hard things feels continuously hard

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because you don't even have the energy and the capacity to do hard things because you're not fully fueled.

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You are literally fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

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You can put in all this effort throughout the day, but if you are not sleeping enough, you're not gonna be able to create that lasting neural structure in your brain.

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Now if we've reached the end of this video, if you want to implement everything that I've taught in this video, then check out my worksheets down below.

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And if you are on the journey of becoming the woman of your dreams and building a life that you love, check out my channel because I make a ton of videos about self-worth,

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relationships, love, money, literally all things high value women energy.

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If you love this video, I highly recommend that you check out this video over here.

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This video is how to get ahead of 99% of people in the next 6 to 12 months.

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I love and appreciate you so much.

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Thank you so much for being here and I hope to see you in the next video.

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Bye

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215 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “how to use neuroplasticity to rewire your brain to do hard things”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: brain, habit, brand. This video has 342 sentences and 4833 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:10. The speaker talks fast, about 200 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pathway noun	/ˈpæθˌweɪ/	A footpath or other path or track.
neural adjective	/ˈnʊɹəl/	Of, or relating to the nerves, neurons or the nervous system.
neuroplasticity noun		The state or quality of being neuroplastic, of having a brain that adapts to experience.
worksheet noun		A sheet of paper or computerized document on which problems are worked out or solved and the answers are recorded.
microwave noun	/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/	An electromagnetic wave with wavelength between that of infrared light and radio waves.
mindset noun	/ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/	A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one.
strengthen verb	/ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/	To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify.
rebirth noun	/ɹiːˈbɜːθ/	Reincarnation; new birth subsequent to one's first.
versatile adjective	/ˈvɜː.səˌtaɪl/	Capable of doing many things competently.
surround verb	/səˈɹaʊnd/	To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions.
evolve verb	/ɪˈvɑlv/	To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
startup noun	/ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/	The act or process of starting a process or machine.
butterfly noun	/ˈbʌ.tə(ɹ).flaɪ/	A flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from moths by their diurnal activity and generally brighter colouring.
consistency noun	/kənˈsɪs.tən.si/	Local coherence.
implement verb	/ˈɪmpləmənt/	To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
show up verb	To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
fall off verb	To become detached or to drop from.
build up verb	To erect; to construct.
fill up verb	To make (something) completely full.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Also, how are we feeling about the bangs?
I mean, are we loving it?
Should I never do this again?
Why can't we go down this way?
It's like, how can you make a switch like that?

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	I've always identified · has never been · you've been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	you've been solved · are not meant · is not fixed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	someone who never · someone who is · chapter, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 82 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, you've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, rebirth /ɹiːˈbɜːθ/, unhealthy /ʌnˈhɛl.θi/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, restriction /ɹɪˈstɹɪkʃən/, distraction /dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/, correlation /ˌkɔɹ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, distinguish /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: consistency /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/, caterpillar /ˈkætɚˌpɪlɚ/, plasticity /ˌplæs.ˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/, prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/

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 pathway, neural, neuroplasticity.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: how to use neuroplasticity to rewire your brain to do hard things - Learn English Speaking with Video

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