Shadowing Practice: I’ve Been Tracking My Habits Wrong (what I’m changing in 2026) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 2026, I'm changing the way I track my habits.
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You might know my habit tracker from last year.
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Simple, satisfying, useful.
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Takes 10 minutes to set up.
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This thing reached people all across the entire world.
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It changed people's lives and it changed my life.
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But after 400 plus days of using this method, I realized I was doing something fundamentally wrong.
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Well, let me explain.
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If we take a look back at 2025, it looks good.
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I mean, really good.
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100km ultra marathon, $110,000 raised for cancer research.
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I worked overseas, built a run club, moved out for a bit.
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I track my habits every single day of the year.
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The relentless consistency, the accolades, they sound sexy to say, and I was putting in the work.
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But now, for some reason, I have this feeling inside of me that I don't know if doing more is the route I want to take.
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It's hard to sit here after receiving all the positive feedback
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and the impact I've had on people and admit that it's time to change.
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But as I look back at the closing months of the year, I realized I was just chucking in habits for the sake of habit tracking.
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I wasn't intentional about change, about becoming the person that I wanted to be, about going deeper.
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So in my 2026 habit tracker, I actually made this book.
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I've decided to hyper focus on one habit every single month.
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One of my intentions for this year is not doing more things, but doing more of the right things.
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Because the whole reason I started tracking my habits a year ago was to design my life around an identity
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that I wanted to embody.
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And now, finally, I'm asking myself, who do I want to be?
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What habits does that person do every day?
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And as a result, I'm able to live that lifestyle of the person I want to be.
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So in this video, I'm walking you through how exactly I'm going to be tracking my habits this year.
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The setup, the strategy, the whole life.
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Let's get into it.
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Welcome to my new journal.
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We'll just run through the outside really quickly.
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We've got the sanctuary logo debossed in.
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Beautiful stitching around the edges and a nice little quote on the back.
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Take the time to design your life today through intentionality and consistency.
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We choose who we become.
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All right, so I have started this month.
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As you can see, we're about halfway through January.
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That's what I'm looking like right now.
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Let me break this all down for you.
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But first, I'm going to run you through a few exercises
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that I have in my journal to get you started into 2026.
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There's going to be timestamps on the video below.
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So just skip past this bit.
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If this doesn't apply to you, you just want to get straight into the habit tracking.
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We start off with the eulogy.
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I've written mine out.
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I find this to be a really, really cool activity.
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It makes me think about my legacy, what I want to leave behind in this world.
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I've written it all down on the left side here.
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A few prompts like, what were your core values?
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What did your family look like?
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What was your job?
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How'd you show up every day?
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Just answer these questions in a paragraph format.
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This follows on to the next activity, which is looking at the trends of your eulogy.
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When you're talking about yourself from the perspective of your dead, this is really easy to pick apart, like the good pieces that you want from your life.
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Some examples from me are passion, enthusiasm, and curiosity.
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Things like that you can write down, expand upon.
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These are just activities that you have to get really vulnerable with, very honest.
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They're really good.
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Turning the page, instead of looking at all the positives that you want going into 2026, I've put in some limiting beliefs.
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Now, I thought I didn't have a lot of limiting beliefs.
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I'm quite delusional with what I can do.
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One limiting belief for me is it could all crumble apart through my fingertips, everything I've built.
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Just be honest with yourself.
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It's hard.
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It might take a bit of time to realize, holy shit, I've been thinking about this over and over.
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Why is that a limit for myself?
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So with your priorities, I've sectioned them into four different categories.
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If you want to, you can change these.
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I feel like a lot of them interlink a little bit.
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So you've got like learning and then also you work, like you've learned through your work as well.
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This is sort of where it is, like these solid ones.
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And then these dotted lines is where I would like them to be.
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And then the last page, I just got five vulnerable questions that are just hard hitting.
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And I love to ask myself at a really transitional time in my life.
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I feel like going into the new year, everyone's feeling a bit transitional.
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And then some 2026 goals.
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And then I've also written down my anti-goals, which is a really good practice to get into.
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Things that you don't want to give up.
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For me, quality time with people I love, not chasing what others want, creating what I want to make.
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I'm not gonna give those things up.
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That's gonna allow me to go even deeper into these goals.
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Other than that, that's it.
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This is how you can set up my habit tracker, which I'm gonna show you.
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And also just as a final exercise, this was inspired by my girlfriend.
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It's a letter to your future self.
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Mine is quite personal.
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I'm not meant to be opening this, but for the sake of the video, this will be the last time I open it.
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I've given myself 50 bucks because I never really treat myself.
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Go buy yourself something nice since you never do.
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You deserve it.
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What a f*ing year.
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what a year to come there's something about this year
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that just feels it feels on like donkey kong
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and also an extra activity that i didn't add in is a vision board
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so putting down almost your goals into visual formats more collaging i love to collage i am the cut
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and paste king let's get into how i'm tracking my habits i spoke a lot about intentionality
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and this method is intentional Still, as you can see, nothing has really changed too much.
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There's just more graphs.
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This is October of last year.
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You can see just how many habits I was tracking here.
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And then what do we've got?
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We've got habits, habit points.
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And then how do you feel?
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It was very focused on the quantity side of habits rather than the quality side of habits.
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That's the biggest change I'm making this year.
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So what I'm going to be doing is memorable moments slash a winning streak.
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So writing down one thing every single day and then moving on to doing
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Ticking off my baseline habits my non-negotiables that if I do every single day
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Will impact myself in a positive way without taking away too
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much time I'm gonna be focusing on just one habit for the rest of of this spread.
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So this month I'm focusing on reading,
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reading 30 pages a day and therefore I have created sort of this system to really focus in on what that means.
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30 pages a day at the very top here.
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Underneath I've got a new book and then I've got a daily quote tally as well.
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And then these three graphs give me an indication of how this is actually making me feel in my life.
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So we've got pages read here and then underneath that we've got mood and stress.
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And because I only read 30 pages, how did this affect my mood?
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How did this affect my stress levels?
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It seems overwhelming, but it's actually very, very simple when practiced.
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And let me show you exactly how I'm going to set this up.
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I'm just going to take you to the back of my book, which by the way, God damn, this book is so nice.
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So now that we've got our page ready, all that we're going to need is a multicolored pen.
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Helps with different graphs, different colors, and a ruler to help you get that straight line.
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And obviously, you're going to want a gridded book.
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Gridded is a must.
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It's a non-negotiable, people.
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Like, come on.
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First of all, month down, January.
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So you've got your days along the side, your memorable moments sitting above.
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I'm going to use this to write a single memorable thing.
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One line, super easy, takes one second.
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You just got to think back to your day prior.
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People get really confused when I do this.
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I write down a memorable moment the morning after the day happens.
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You can also do this at night.
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That's also a good option.
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I recommend this to be the first thing or the last thing that you do in your day.
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Let's rule up the second page.
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Now this is very important.
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That's why I'm gonna lock in.
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Woo!
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It was quite annoying with this big, fluffy thing in my face.
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We'll manage though.
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So along here, this is where your habits are gonna go.
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And now, the change is this month, I'm gonna minimize as many habits as I can.
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Now obviously, I still wanna track the things
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that I know are non-negotiable in my life
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that I could easily slip off exercise creatine speak to stranger
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bang there you go that's all you need keep this as minimal as possible
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because what comes after here is much more important the big change is actually implementing more graphs here let's say
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that you want to track you want to get off social media next month gain time all right lovely
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so this is going to be screen time all right so those those are all the graphs set up.
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We've got screen time, phone pickups, and deep work.
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So this is actually looking really, really good.
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I'm going to add a few things.
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So you could have doom scrolling at the very end here.
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And that could be almost your pillar habit.
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But anyways, I don't want to tick doom scrolling.
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If the whole thing is about getting off social media.
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And I just want to focus on how my screen time
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and my phone pickups affect my deep work
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So I guess I'm treating this almost as like more of
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a science experiment now Keeping one variable the same not using your phone not doom scrolling
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and seeing how that affects these three graphs Now let's go through a morning.
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It's not actually as hard as it seems
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So let's say it's the 4th of January gonna look back onto the 4th and say God
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What a day the fourth was oh my god.
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I remember I remember I went on a surfing trip and I Rode a shark.
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That's your memorable moment.
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That's a win riding a shark.
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Are you kidding me?
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Surfing that counts as a bit of exercise.
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We'll chuck that down I did have my creatine in the morning and spoke to someone out in the water.
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It's a good chat I'm gonna look back into my phone
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because I was out in the water all day and an hour Hour 27.
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You should jot that in.
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Hour and a half.
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Phone pickups.
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37. And then deep work because I was out on the surf all day.
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I did not work.
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So we're going to put that down as zero.
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Doom scrolling.
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I didn't.
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I didn't.
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I was living because that's what I wanted to do.
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Get off socials.
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Enjoy the world.
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Go for a surf.
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Ladies and gentlemen, that's my habit tracker.
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I don't want life to just be one big optimization
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that I have to do this and then do that
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and then do this and by the time I'm freaking I'm exhausted from doing good habits
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that will give me longevity but won't give me a freaking stress-free life that I enjoy.
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I'm dialing in in 2026 Maybe you should too
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if you want to know how I journal in these pages
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and what I'm writing and all the rest of it I'll leave a link to another video
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that I just released on my journaling system And if you're still here, you're telling me something about yourself.
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I can read into the type of person you are.
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And you want change this year.
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You're interested in learning a bit more about yourself.
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I salute you.
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I salute you.
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I say, good luck.
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We're going to do something incredible.
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We are.
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I'm so excited for you.
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I'm so excited for this year.
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Track your habits.
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But most of all, be intentional about where you want to go.
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The life you want to live, design it.
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Because it's well within your capabilities.
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Goddamn.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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Goodbye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 217 sentences and 2199 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:12. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- habit /ˈhæb.ɪt/ (noun) — An action performed on a regular basis.
- graph /ɡɹæf/ (noun) — A data chart (graphical representation of data) intended to illustrate the relationship between a set (or sets) of numbers (quantities, measurements or…
- memorable /ˈmɛm.(ə)ɹə.bl̩/ (adjective) — Worthy to be remembered; very important or remarkable.
- scroll /skɹoʊl/ (noun) — A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
- surf /sɝf/ (verb) — To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
- doom /duːm/ (noun) — Destiny, especially terrible.
- tracker /ˈtɹækə(ɹ)/ (noun) — A person employed to follow and monitor a political rival.
- belief /bɪˈliːf/ (noun) — Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
- distress /dɪˈstɹɛs/ (noun) — Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.
- pickup /ˈpɪkʌp/ (noun) — In a record player, an electromagnetic component that converts the needle vibrations into an electrical signal.
- intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/ (adjective) — Intended or planned; done deliberately or voluntarily.
- format /ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/ (noun) — The layout of a publication or document.
- mood /muːd/ (noun) — A mental or emotional state, composure.
- sake /ˈseɪ̯k/ (noun) — Cause, interest or account.
- vulnerable /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/ (adjective) — More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
- get off (verb) — To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
- set up /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ (verb) — To make ready for use.
- go into (verb) — To get involved in; to investigate or explore.
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- put in (verb) — To place inside.
- write down (verb) — To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.
- come after (verb) — To pursue or follow; to pursue with hostile intent.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 88 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, transitional /tɹænˈzɪʃənəl/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, intentions /ɪnˈtɛnʃənz/, indication /ɪndɪˈkeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, consistency /kənˈsɪs.tən.si/, transitional /tɹænˈzɪʃənəl/, priority /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/
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 habit, graph, memorable.
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 had · I've decided · have started |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | activity, which is · goals, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.