Shadowing Practice: If You're Stressed About Your Future, Watch This - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
146 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
It is a beautiful day here in San Diego, California.
2
I'm sitting on top of a lifeguard tower watching this massive swell come in
3
because apparently we're in the middle of a hurricane and as a result there's some pretty good waves.
4
But I just finished a five and a half mile run, feeling incredible, feeling blessed.
5
And I wanted to make this video because I wish
6
that my 18 to 24 year old younger self could have had this
7
because it would have made a big difference in my life.
8
and someone recently asked me they said how do you stay
9
so calm yet ambitious at the same time
10
and it was a really good question
11
because in my past I had always been like so anxious
12
and stressed and put so much pressure on myself to go out
13
and achieve all these goals that I had set for myself as well as these expectations
14
that I felt from other people not that they had ever explicitly said that they expected certain things from me,
15
but I was putting this pressure on myself that I needed to go out and achieve these certain things.
16
Whether that was material success, getting a certain type of job, making a certain amount of money, getting a certain type of house,
17
or maybe it was relationships, like getting a girlfriend, getting engaged, marrying her, having a family,
18
or just the type of person that I wanted to be.
19
All of these different aspects of life where it's like, okay, there's a lot of expectation and pressure from other people,
20
from myself that I want to live up to.
21
And I have to do so much in order to make that happen.
22
And it always seemed like no matter what I was doing, it was never enough, right?
23
And not even like never enough for other people, but for myself.
24
I always felt like I could be doing more.
25
No matter how much I achieved in the day, I was like, I need to be doing more.
26
We got a little drive -by from a tractor right here.
27
Check that out.
28
And yeah, it wasn't fun.
29
It wasn't fun to experience that, always thinking like, I need to be doing more.
30
And it always had me thinking about the future a lot as well.
31
What's next?
32
What am I going to do?
33
What are the next steps that need to happen?
34
And I'd always be thinking 20 steps ahead.
35
and now more than ever I live
36
so much more in the present obviously I still think about the future
37
but I'm much more present
38
and grounded in my life I'm gonna wait for this tractor to go by
39
so I'm much more present in my life now and
40
that has helped tremendously and kind of the thought exercise that has helped me
41
is if I asked you whatever goal you have do you have full faith that that will happen, irregardless of time.
42
Maybe it takes a year, five years, 10 years, could be 20 years.
43
Do you have full faith that that goal, whatever you want to happen, will actually become a reality?
44
If the answer is yes, then you don't have to stress at all because you just told me that you have full faith it'll happen.
45
If you have full confidence in something that will happen, why would you stress about it?
46
Right?
47
Maybe the question is, I have full faith that it'll happen and I thought it would happen a lot earlier, but it hasn't happened yet.
48
And so as a result, I am stressing because of that.
49
If that's the case, I have this belief that everything happens for a reason and everything's happening in perfect timing.
50
And so if you have an expectation of a certain timeline of something happening and it hasn't happened yet, it is my belief that
51
It has not happened because you are not fully ready to actually receive whatever it is that you are desiring.
52
Maybe you are not the type of man that is capable of handling that type of pressure, the type of success.
53
Maybe you need to develop into a higher version of yourself to actually be capable of receiving it.
54
Maybe if you did receive it, you wouldn't be ready for it.
55
And as a result, something way worse would happen in your life
56
and you would squander the opportunity and so there are experiences
57
that you need to go through in your life before you can fully appreciate
58
and actually be worthy of achieving whatever you're desiring.
59
And so stay on the path that you're on because eventually it will happen.
60
If you believe it is inevitable, the time does not matter, right?
61
When it happens, it could happen in a year, it could happen in five years.
62
If you know it's going to happen and it will happen, just enjoy the ride.
63
The flip side of this is
64
that you might think well I don't have full faith
65
that it's going to happen
66
and that's why I'm stressed that's why I feel this pressure
67
I have this this need to be able to go out wake up early get after
68
it do everything I can in my power to make sure that I have more faith that this will happen.
69
And I totally understand that because I've gone through similar thoughts and experiences as well.
70
And what I came to realize is all of that extra pressure
71
and stress and anxiety that I was placing on myself wasn't actually helping me perform better.
72
It's okay to acknowledge the fact that, hey, I might not be where I want to be at
73
or where I think I'm capable of being at and therefore I need to improve.
74
Acknowledge that that is the truth.
75
Stay calm in that belief and do the things that are necessary to get better.
76
But if, you know, I'm big into sports.
77
Like if I'm working, if there's a team, if there's a quarterback that I'm working with or that I'm betting on,
78
whatever it is, that feels the absolute pressure of the expectations of going out
79
and winning a championship that season and
80
that he has to do absolutely everything in his power to go do it
81
and every single day he's just stressed he's never actually in flow state
82
and so there are incredible athletes
83
that I look up to I've been watching the Saban documentary
84
and it's just like so inspirational motivational that guy he has full faith full belief in his ability and the process,
85
but he's not outcome oriented.
86
He's not worrying about going out and winning a championship.
87
Sure, that's the expectation, but all he thinks about is what can I do today in this moment?
88
How can I make sure that the process, the things that I'm doing are actually going to lead to success?
89
And when he talks about the game, it's not an entire game.
90
It's just a segment of six second plays and the more six second plays that you can win
91
The more likely you are to actually win the game
92
and the more games you win the more likely to win a championship so
93
He's never actually thinking about winning a championship.
94
It's about showing up putting in your full effort doing your assignment executing your job
95
and doing it with enthusiasm with grit with intensity every single play and And so with myself,
96
that's kind of what I realized over the last couple years where it's like,
97
all that matters is that I just show up and do my best.
98
I don't need to stress too much about what's going to be happening next week, next year.
99
Did I wake up and execute the plan for today and do so to the best of my ability?
100
If I did, I have nothing to worry about because I can't do anything more.
101
If there is something that I can do additionally, then I'll do it.
102
most of the time though, we become these like productivity efficiency addicts where we think
103
that we have to be the most efficient person in the entire world and always be doing something productive.
104
And if we're going for a walk, we have to be listening to a podcast.
105
And if we're, you know, in the shower, then we got to throw the podcast on as well.
106
And we have to be calling people and always doing X, Y, and Z in order to make sure that we're making progress. And that's great.
107
And if that's your MO, go out and do it.
108
But to me, there's more to life than just going out and achieving all sorts of success.
109
There are also parts of life of being a human being.
110
And that means sitting back, going out in nature, enjoying the present moment,
111
taking a breath and realizing everything is going to be okay.
112
You've made it this far in life.
113
You've already had a tremendous amount of success.
114
And on top of that, you are so much more educated and experienced
115
and mature through all of those experiences
116
that the past does not dictate the future because with all of the knowledge you have for yourself,
117
you're only going to continue to do better and perform better and achieve more.
118
So the past is not a predictor of the future.
119
And I think that oftentimes that was always my expectation.
120
The trajectory of my past was going to indicate the trajectory of my future.
121
And that's just not the case.
122
We cannot indicate or we cannot predict the trajectory of our future because we're constantly learning, experiencing, growing, and things are always changing, right?
123
10 years ago, you never would have guessed that AI would be
124
so accessible to everyone and that you'd be able to save
125
so much time and have so many questions answered and be
126
so much more efficient that there are people that are starting companies.
127
There are one man companies that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
128
Never would have thought about that 10 years ago.
129
So if you're trying to predict the future 10 years ago and your success and you're in the tech space, like you probably would have failed.
130
So my point being, stop worrying so much about the future.
131
It's only stressing you out.
132
It's not benefiting you.
133
The thing that's going to help you the most
134
be grounded in the present focus on the things that you can control
135
the effort that you give the mindset that you have
136
And just do your best.
137
Do your best.
138
Stay calm.
139
Be a human being.
140
Experience the full array of emotions, but focus on being a little bit more positive.
141
And if you do that, it's pretty magical.
142
You'll start to see that things start to get a lot better. So that's it.
143
Enjoy the day.
144
Maybe go outside.
145
Check out Mother Nature. And, yeah.
146
Hope you have a good day.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B22
86 sentences
You’ll Miss This Version of Your Life
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
52 sentences
You can give up right now if you want, that's totally fine!
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B219
118 sentences
Guided Meditation for Overthinking & Overwhelm (Relax Fast) Part 2/10 of Our Guided Meditation
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B11
164 sentences
Don't let stress ruin you
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C13
214 sentences
a warning for high achievers
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
252 sentences
MOVIE QUOTES THAT HIT HARDER THAN THERAPY
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2180 sentences
5 Realistic Tips For Getting Your Life Together (when you're stressed & overwhelmed)
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
101 sentences
Emma Watson Reveals the Dark Truth Behind Red Carpets & Hollywood Pressure
Business EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
B22
217 sentences
The 15 Minutes You Need When You Stop Believing | Lewis Hamilton Motivation
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
627 sentences
Michael B. Jordan on Being Loved Isn't Enough to Make It Work
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B24
217 sentences
6 Steps To Reclaim Your Life, Start Today
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B22
179 sentences
The Most Valuable 10 Minutes You'll Hear Today
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “If You're Stressed About Your Future, Watch This”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: happen, faith, pressure. This video has 146 sentences and 1837 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:35. The speaker talks at a natural 174 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| expectation noun | /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/ | The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen. |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| distress noun | /dɪˈstɹɛs/ | Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature. |
| trajectory noun | /tɹəˈd͡ʒɛktəɹi/ | The path an object takes as it moves. |
| efficient adjective | /ɪˈfɪʃənt/ | Making good, thorough, or careful use of resources; not consuming extra. Especially, making good use of time or energy. |
| indicate verb | /ˈɪndɪˌkeɪt/ | To point out; to discover; to direct to a knowledge of; to show; to make known. |
| acknowledge verb | /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/ | To admit the knowledge of; to recognize as a fact or truth; to declare one's belief in. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| predict verb | /pɹɪˈdɪkt/ | To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of… |
| execute verb | /ˈɛksɪˌkjuːt/ | To kill, especially as punishment for a capital crime. |
| tractor noun | /ˈtɹæktɚ/ | A vehicle used in farms e.g. for pulling farm equipment and preparing the fields. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| aspect noun | /ˈæspɛkt/ | Any specific feature, part, or element of something. |
| marry verb | /ˈmæɹi/ | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. |
| efficiency noun | /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/ | The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| 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. | |
| look up to verb | To show respect or admiration for (someone); to see (someone) as a role model. | |
| sit back verb | To recline while still in a seated position, with one's back on the frame of the seat. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What am I going to do?
- You've made it this far in life.
- You've already had a tremendous amount of success.
- It's only stressing you out.
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 did receive it, you wouldn't be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has helped · hasn't happened · has not happened |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 42 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, breathe /bɹiːð/, athlete /ˈæθ.liːt/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, trajectory /tɹəˈd͡ʒɛktəɹi/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, efficiency /ɪˈfɪʃ.ən.si/, documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/
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 expectation, belief, distress.
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.