Shadowing Practice: I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP - Powerful Motivational Speech - Learn English Speaking with Video
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396 sentences
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No one said that the path is gonna be easy and it's not
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We know life is rough and we know there will be pain
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and whether that pain is at the hands of an enemy
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or at the hands of nature or time or Disease there will be pain
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That's the way life is
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You have been disappointed over and over and over again and And every time you try, nobody notices.
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And every time you try, you come up short.
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Sickness is cyclical.
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It comes around, it goes around.
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You're well for a little while, and then it's the same thing all over again, but this time it's only worse.
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Because now, not only are you back where you started, but you have less hope that it is ever going to be different, because you've cycled through it one more time,
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just to realize, well I guess I'm just a cynical person.
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Well I guess I'm just a negative person.
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I guess nobody in my family was meant to go to college.
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Sickness becomes normal to you.
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And it starts to be easier for you to just accept the condition than to challenge it.
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Because to challenge the condition means to risk disappointment.
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And some of us have tried, got blocked.
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Tried, got blocked.
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Tried, got blocked.
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And now people see you and they assume that you don't care.
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No, I care.
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I cared and I cared so much, but they didn't care back.
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And I tried so hard and I still got looked over.
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And don't you know it's hard when your expectation has been damaged by disappointment?
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It's a slow damage, it's a slow tearing of the muscle fibers.
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It's a slow deterioration of your hope by disappointment.
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It is not one event that creates it.
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It's over and over.
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I tried and I tried and I smiled and I stayed and I disciplined and I showed up and I didn't care.
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And the man has finally gotten to a place where he is tired of trying.
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You might even feel like there's no hope.
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But you know what?
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Doesn't matter.
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Keep fighting.
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What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
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But that doesn't happen on its own.
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You have to choose to get stronger.
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Keep fighting, keep going, and don't give up.
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Because the only real failure is actually giving up.
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And if you don't give up, you will win.
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No matter what is happening, no matter how hard the fight is, as long as you keep fighting, you win.
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Only surrender is defeat.
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Only quitting is the end.
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So fight on.
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For a diamond to be produced, it has to go through extreme pressure, extreme heat.
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And if that wasn't enough, what makes a diamond a diamond is the cuts.
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If you want to be a diamond, you must go through extreme pressure.
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If you can't take pressure, then you're not a diamond.
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After you go through all the pressure you thought you could not handle and you think it's over, then they turn on the heat.
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Listen to me very closely if you've ever studied the diamond.
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Once it goes through that type of pressure and it finally becomes a diamond, at that point you can't break it no more.
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I've been broken so much.
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I've been defeated so much.
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I've been disappointed so much in my life.
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And I know what it feels like.
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I can't do it.
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Once you get to that point, you cannot be broken anymore.
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You already have time.
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Get a reward for it.
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Life happens.
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Can you give me 120 to just fight everything that's going on?
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I never quit.
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I never stopped.
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I never gave up.
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We just kept doing what we're doing.
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It's about heart.
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You gotta have heart.
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Pain is temporary.
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It may last for a minute or an hour or a day or even a year.
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But eventually, it will subside and something else will take its place.
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If I quit, however, it will last forever.
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I dare you to take a little pain.
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I dare you not to go home.
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Somebody said I don't go home.
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I feel bad go through it You ain't gonna die at the end of pain
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and success in the midst of everything we going through I don't need you to talk negative.
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I don't need you to speak negativity We are under dark times right now, but stay encouraged
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Stay encouraged
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Keep your head up stick your chest out
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Continue to walk with pride and know
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that not only shall we overcome many of us have already overcome and if it was easy Everybody would do it.
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It's not gonna be easy, but we have what it takes.
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It's in our DNA Don't look at night at darkness.
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Look at night as a new beginning At some point if you live in this life,
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you're gonna face Disappointment you're gonna face defeat you're gonna face devastation Some bad things don't happen to you That's life
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You're gonna get some setbacks you're gonna lose some loved ones.
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I don't care who you are, I don't care what you do, at some time you are going to get tired.
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At some time you're going to get on a rut, seem like nothing you do works out right.
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And sometimes it just seems like you just don't have the wherewithal or the will to do anything.
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And depressed, feeling powerless, feeling useless.
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What do you do?
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How do you get yourself out of a rut?
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How do you know you can do more than what you've been doing, and you're not doing it, and you're discontinuing where you are?
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You get angry at yourself.
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We have all these new thoughts that come about.
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You start saying to yourself, I'm so alone.
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Nobody understands me.
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Nobody gets me.
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I'm the only one to ever go through something like this.
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I'm a mess up.
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I'm a failure.
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I'd be better off not being here.
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Nobody would miss me.
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I'm all alone right now.
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Why would anybody care if I was gone?
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Here I am.
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I'm just alone.
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We just keep feeding ourselves this toxic thinking.
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You've got to find ways to increase your sense of self-appreciation.
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Because if you don't you are bombarded with negative stuff every day that beats you down and you will find yourself
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Unconsciously engaged in self-destructive behavior
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if you don't program yourself life will program you It doesn't
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matter about what happens to you what matters is what are you going to do about it?
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as you go through the challenges of life and
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You look at it and embrace whatever comes to you don't run from it Step toward it, don't try and duck it like most people do.
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See, most people want it easy.
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See, easy come, easy go.
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But when you go at what you're going to deal with, and you deal with the difficulties of it, when you handle those hard things close at hand,
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making those hard decisions right now, that you don't want to make, but you know that in order for you to get where you want to go,
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this is one of the hoops that you have to flip through.
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This is what you do.
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You are built for this.
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You would just believe that your day coming, that the sacrifices you are making today, they gonna pay off.
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But if you do not believe, it ain't gonna happen.
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Keep fighting in the midst of the struggle.
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Keep fighting.
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Keep thinking positive.
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You only lose when you quit.
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It'd be one thing if life was like NASCAR
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When you only have one lap left they wave the white flag To let you know this is the last one, this is it If you can make it around here,
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your race is done But life doesn't wave a white flag So then we wave our white flag
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Not even knowing that just around the next turn turn, just around the next sacrifice, just if you can make it through this season,
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just if you don't give up in this trial, see, the reason you can't stop is because you might be so close,
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wouldn't it be a shame for you to quit when you're this close, wouldn't it be a shame for you to walk away when you've come this far,
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wouldn't it be horrible for Are you to bail out when you're just this close to victory?
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You can't walk by what you see.
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You can't give up cause it doesn't feel good.
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You can't let people talk you out of it.
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You can't let your emotions stop you from moving forward.
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Keep believing, keep moving, keep marching, keep crawling, keep inching.
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This might be the day, this might be the one.
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You thought you were just gonna have a dream and a goal
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And you were just gonna wake up and just walk into the sunset You're like dream?
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Boom It don't work like that You have a dream and then life punks you
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Life punks you and say do you really want this?
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I'm gonna give your wife MS do you really want this?
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Five of your aunts gonna die of cancer do you really want this?
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You gonna lose friends do you really want this?
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Do you really want this?
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Cousins gonna bandy people
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that you used to be like this whip don't thank you booze you don't want to deal with you
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It's a part of it, but I paid too much And
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so I'm telling y'all you have come too far to quit
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now You have invested too much to quit now you have
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lost too much to quit now get a reward for your pain Don't cry about it get a reward for it
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We are still here.
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We are still in the game.
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We have not been defeated So stand up straight.
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Stand up straight and march forward.
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And give someone else some encouragement.
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Let them see you standing strong.
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Set an example.
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And by our very posture, by our very being, we will let the world know that we are here to win.
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You have absolutely nothing to do with what happened to you.
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It's not your fault.
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But if I come back a week later, you're still on the ground.
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If I come back a year later, you still on the ground?
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That's your fault.
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If you get knocked down, there's nothing you can do about it.
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But getting back up has every single thing to do with you.
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And you will promise me that from this day forward, you will not be defeated.
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I need you to make up in your mind that the only way you can lose is if you quit.
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I just need you to keep going.
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You don't even know how creative you are until you run out of options.
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I am excited about your future because your darkness is about to be your development Now listen to me.
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I don't care what you're going through if you not dead he ain't through with you yet
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As long as you waking up you still in the game
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as long as you are you can still make it happen I am sick
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and tired of people coming to me saying that they had a setback.
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It is a part I love the Sun, but things don't grow because of the Sun you have to have some Rain
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and you've got to stop looking at rain in your life
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as something bad my greatest moments didn't come from my greatest moments My greatest moments came from my greatest defeats
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Because it was during my defeat That I had to find a way to get back up
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If you're tired of starting over It's over!
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Stop quitting!
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If your life at times feels like, looks like labor, you're doing it right!
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Keep on pushing.
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I'm telling you what, there is breakthrough coming, and when you're holding your prize, the pain and the suffering will pale in comparison.
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Don't give up!
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It will be worth it!
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Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% how you react.
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You gonna need some energy, you gonna need something that's so powerful.
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You gonna need something with real life happen, you gonna need some energy that can get you going and get you through this.
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And I'm telling you the way to ignite the dream is you gotta shut out every single thing.
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And you gotta believe I am the creator.
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And so life normally breaks you because when it hits you, you weren't ready.
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But if you stay ready and you stay plugged up when you hear bad news, it don't break you because you already energized.
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Today might not be the day, but soon it will be my day and I will recycle my pay
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When you ain't got nothing left in your tape You gotta think about the people in your life
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that you're doing this for And then if you can think about them, you can go one more mile You can go one more day at work
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So the days I'm gonna hit
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that alarm clock I think about my wife I can't stop
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I can't give up I can't give in My mama counting
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on me My wife is counting on me Listen to me I wish I could tell you it's gonna get easier
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If you just keep going, the weight is gonna get lighter.
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I wish I could tell you that, but that's not the truth.
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The truth is, you gotta find something within.
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You gotta find something within.
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And that's gotta push you, and that's gotta elevate you, and that's gotta drive you, and that's gotta move you.
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And when you find your why, you find a way to make it happen.
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What if you give it everything you have?
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And you come up short
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What if you get weak along the way And you're throwing a towel on yourself you surrender
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To your emotions what then
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Everybody tripping through something everybody okay who you are you're going through something
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But your great life is in front of you It's not behind you
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What you did back there ain't got nothing to do with what God got for you
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What you did back there was learn the lessons to get you to where you are at this particular moment right here.
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Maybe being weary Doesn't mean you're weak
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We're in hell right now
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and We can stay here get this kicked out of us
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or We can fight our way back Into the light We can climb out of hell One inch at a time.
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It's okay to fall.
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Because when you fall, you get back up.
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What I need you to do is I need you to find a reason to keep going.
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And if you can find a reason to keep going, I know you're strong enough to do it because you're human.
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And every human has what it takes to get past whatever they're going through.
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If they decide to, push through it.
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Push through it.
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Tragedy and trials come to everybody.
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Only the strong survives.
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Listen to me very closely.
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Y'all running from obstacles, when in fact it's the obstacle that's gonna take you to the next level.
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Like y'all running from pain, y'all running from challenges.
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You telling me how difficult your life is.
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Do you understand it is the difficulty that's gonna prepare you and take you to that next level?
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You ready to quit?
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You ready to give up?
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You ready to give in?
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You ready to tell me what's not working?
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Who doing this?
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What's wrong?
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If you're not ready to get up every day and start all over again like nothing happened yesterday.
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Phenomenal skill is huge, but it is a phenomenal wheel that says every time I get knocked down,
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I will get back up and I will succeed.
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I will not surrender.
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Why do you keep crying?
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Why me, God?
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Why did I get MS?
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Why did I get cancer?
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Why did my mama die?
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Why did I get fired?
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Listen, you got put through that because what that does, that tension produces greatness.
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We turn tragedy into triumph.
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That's what we do for a living.
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This has been a dogfight, but I've made up in my mind.
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I will not go through this pain and not get a reward for it.
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I will not quit.
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I will not surrender.
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I will outlast every trial and every tribulation that comes in my life.
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And sometimes if you're going to be successful, it's not how smart you are, it's not how strong you are, it's how much you can outlast stuff.
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If you're ready to quit, don't get started.
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If you're looking for this easy path, don't get started.
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If you think they're not going to close the door on you and say no a million times, don't get started.
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But every time they close the door, I just get excited.
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Why?
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Because I am not a no. I'm one yes away.
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You can't keep telling me no forever.
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You can't keep denying me forever.
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This type of energy, this type of passion, you can't stop it.
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I got tired of losing.
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I got tired of coming up short.
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I got tired.
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I got tired of eating out of trash cans.
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I got tired of watching everybody else graduate.
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I got tired of seeing people go out first class.
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I got to go all the way to the back.
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I got tired.
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I hate it as much as you hate it.
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But the problem is I wanted more than you wanted.
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I got tired of giving 70 and 80% and not living the way I wanted to live.
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I see other people winning and I'm not winning
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and I want to be a winner and I'm tired and I got tired y'all.
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So I did something about it.
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I woke up every day and started grinding.
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I was tired.
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You got to get tired.
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I'm losing.
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And what I discovered was that you don't have to be born in a certain family.
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You don't have to have a certain socioeconomic status.
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It only takes one thing to get what you see other people have that you want and it's called effort
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You out of place You don't belong there.
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You are royal priesthood
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You don't belong at the bottom
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and it's time for you to get your butt from down
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there It's time for you to stop being comfortable at the bottom.
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Get your butt up and get to where you're supposed to be See life is rough ladies and gentlemen.
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It's rough Things that's gonna happen to you in life ladies and gentlemen, make it okay.
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I can't change how I respond to it.
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I can become upset, nervous, tense about it, weak about it, or I can say it's okay.
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Don't go through life feeling like you're powerless.
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Victims are people that are powerless.
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You're not powerless.
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You are powerful.
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You direct the power in your life.
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Whatever your life is right now, it is a duplication of your consciousness.
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is a result of how you have decided to use your power.
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That's all it is.
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That's not who you are.
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That's just a perverted use of your power that you aren't satisfied with.
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And you've got the power to change that.
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But you don't know what has happened to me.
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It really doesn't matter what has happened to you.
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See, the only thing that really matters is what are you going to do about it?
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That's all that matters.
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That's all that matters.
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that no matter what you do to me, how cold and callous you are to me, lack of compassion, lack of sensitivity,
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how cruel you might be to me, you're not going to change me.
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There are some things that I went through this year that I didn't like.
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There are some things that I went through this year that hurt.
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They hurt like hell.
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I'm not saying that I would have chosen them if I had had the opportunity.
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But now that I've been through it, there is something that I learned through, what I went through, that made me who I am.
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There's a purpose for it.
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I'm not a hostage.
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You have to make a decision that every experience is my education.
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And I'm going to discover the opportunity for me to grow and for me to get better.
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I'm telling you, I've already made up my mind that I know I will fall down.
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I know that I will stumble, but I already see myself getting back up.
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Therefore I'm never down.
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I'm either up or getting back up.
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I will learn from this thing.
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Sometimes a setback is a setup for the greatest blessings of all times.
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When challenges and issues come back to back to back to back and it seems like something is after me,
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something is attacking me, Something is attacking my journey.
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Don't give up.
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Stay in it.
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Stay focused.
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Life is not fair.
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And that is the reality.
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Disease and accidents don't care if their victim is a good person.
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They have no reason, no justification, and no mercy.
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And you cannot stop it.
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So, what do you do?
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Are you going to get angry?
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Frustrated?
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Are you gonna lash out at people?
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Are you gonna start going down the spiral of negativity?
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Are you gonna let the horrible situation dictate the way you feel and the way you handle it?
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Are you gonna fall over?
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Fall down?
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Fall apart?
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Or are you going to face this issue with courage and resolution?
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I say step up.
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Be the one who people look to absorb the impact and the negativity.
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It's necessary that you take a stand, that you dig in.
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It's necessary to know there are going to be some difficult times.
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I know I'm going to have to take some blows.
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Find out how strong I am.
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Can I stand up?
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I know I'm going to experience some rejection and disappointment.
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I know there are going to be some hard decisions to make.
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The things are gonna be so uncertain that I'm gonna feel overwhelmed
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and feel like I can't handle it I know I know I'm gonna experience all of that.
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Why?
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It's necessary.
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It's a part of life.
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It's called life How desperate are you for what you want?
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Do you want it as bad as breathing?
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Do you want it as bad as anything you've ever wanted in your life?
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And if you calibrate it at the highest enough levels, what I found is the people that are the hungriest They find a way.
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When you're desperate, you find reserves and reservoirs of ideas, talents and a strength that you don't know you have when you find yourself in a desperate situation.
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Even if you get knocked down, you get back up, and you get back up, and you get back up, and you pin your social against the wall.
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Because you believe in the purpose.
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You find value in it.
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That was Michael Jordan.
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He said, I failed over, and over, and over, and over again I failed.
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And that's why I succeeded.
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So I need you to walk out there.
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No more 50%.
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No more.
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No more 50%.
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No more.
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No more 70%.
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No more.
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I want us at 85 and climbing.
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If you're at 80, I want you at 90, and I mean moving rapidly.
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I need you to give me that 120.
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I need you to give me that everything you do.
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I need you to start giving me that 120 and everything you do.
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Bring it all together.
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Bring all the energy, all the passion.
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Bring it all together and dominate.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP - Powerful Motivational Speech”. This video has 396 sentences and 4017 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:25. The speaker talks at a natural 172 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| disappointment noun | /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/ | The feeling or state of being disappointed: a feeling of sadness or frustration when something is not as good as one hoped or expected, or when something bad… |
| powerless adjective | /ˈpaʊɚləs/ | Lacking sufficient power or strength. |
| surrender verb | /səˈɹɛndə(ɹ)/ | To give up into the power, control, or possession of another. |
| negativity noun | /ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/ | The characteristic of being pessimistic or contrarian. |
| setback noun | /ˈsɛtbæk/ | An obstacle, delay, disadvantage, or blow (an adverse event which slows down, or prevents progress towards a desired outcome). |
| outlast verb | /ˌaʊtˈlæst/ | To live, last or remain longer than. |
| amidst | /aˈmɪdst/ | In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. |
| obstacle noun | /ˈɑbstəkəl/ | Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress, either physically or figuratively |
| phenomenal adjective | /fɪˈnɒmɪnəl/ | Very remarkable; highly extraordinary; amazing. |
| sickness noun | /ˈsɪknɪs/ | The quality or state of being sick or diseased; illness; an illness. |
| tragedy noun | /ˈtɹæd͡ʒ.ɪ.di/ | A drama or similar work, in which the main character is brought to ruin or otherwise suffers the extreme consequences of some tragic flaw or weakness of… |
| gentleman noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/ | Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man. |
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| punk noun | /ˈpʌŋk/ | A passive or effeminate homosexual man. |
| bombard verb | /ˌbɑmˈbɑɹd/ | To continuously attack something with bombs, artillery shells or other missiles or projectiles. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| knock down verb | To hit or knock (something or someone), intentionally or accidentally, so that it falls. | |
| stand up verb | To rise from a lying or sitting position. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| fall down verb | /fɔl ˈdaʊn/ | To fall to the ground. To collapse. |
| push through verb | To force (legislation or a plan) to be passed or agreed to or a decision to be reached. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do you get yourself out of a rut?
- Why would anybody care if I was gone?
- You gonna lose friends do you really want this?
- Do you really want this?
- You ready to tell me what's not working?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you don't give up, you will win · If I quit, however, it will last · if it was easy Everybody would do |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been · you've cycled · have tried |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was meant · has been damaged · be produced |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 203 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: wherewithal /ˈwɛɚ.wɪ.ðɔl/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, deterioration /dəˌti.ɹi.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, devastation /ˌdɛ.vəˈsteɪ.ʃən/, duplication /d(j)u.plɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, tribulation /ˌtɹɪbjəˈleɪ̯ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, negativity /ˌnɛɡ.əˈtɪ.vɪ.ti/, phenomenal /fɪˈnɒmɪnəl/, deterioration /dəˌti.ɹi.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, devastation /ˌdɛ.vəˈsteɪ.ʃən/
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 disappointment, powerless, surrender.
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.