Shadowing Practice: Neuroscientist: Visualization technique to achieve ALL your goals - Learn English Speaking with Video

There's a near doubling, near doubling in the probability of reaching one's goal if you focus routinely on foreshadowing failure.

You think about the ways in which things could fail if you take action A or you take action B and instead, therefore, you take action C.

You're supposed to think about how things could fail if you don't get up and run each morning if your goal is, say, a fitness goal.

So let's use that as an example.

Let's say somebody sets a goal of running five miles four times a week minimum, and as many as seven, four times a week minimum, before 8 a .m.

One version of this would be, okay, sit back in a chair and think about how great you're going to feel

and look if you're doing this every day, how your health is going to improve, how everything's going to, your blood markers of lipids, et cetera, are going to improve.

Okay, fine.

That's the visualization goal of visualizing the endpoint.

Turns out that is far less effective

and maybe even counterproductive compared to thinking about what's going to happen if you don't do this, the negative health outcomes that are going to occur,

the disappointment you're going to have in yourself, the fact that you're going to wait until 7 .30, that's not long enough for many people to run five miles.

You go to put it on your shoes, it can be pouring rain or even hailing or snowing outside, and now you're not going outside unless you're somebody who's particularly motivated to do that, okay?

So foreshadowing failure turns out to be the best way to motivate toward goal pursuit.

In fact, as I mentioned before, where there's a near doubling in the likelihood

that people will reach goals of any kind when they're constantly thinking about how bad it's going to be if they fail.

And so while I'd love to be able to tell you

that all you should think about is rainbows and puppies

and all the wonderful rewarding things that are going to happen when you achieve your goals,

the truth is you should be thinking mainly about how bad it's really going to get if you don't do it, how disappointing yourself you're going to feel,

how it will negatively impact you, if not in the immediate term, in the long term.

And the more specific you can get by writing down

or thinking about or talking about how bad it will be if you don't achieve your goals, the more likely you are to achieve those goals.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 23 sentences and 432 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:05. The speaker talks fast, about 208 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 90% 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
motivate verb	/ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/	To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate.
occur verb	/əˈkɜː/	To happen or take place.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
fitness noun	/ˈfɪt.nəs/	The condition of being fit, suitable or appropriate.
outcome noun	/ˈaʊtkʌm/	That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process.
reward noun	/ɹɪˈwɔɹd/	Something of value given in return for an act.
shoe noun	/ˈʃu/	A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of…
pursuit noun	/pɝˈsut/	The act of pursuing.
pour verb	/poɹ/	To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it.
probability noun	/ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/	The state of being probable.
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…
puppy noun	/ˈpʌpi/	A young rat.
hail noun	/heɪl/	Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.
likelihood noun	/ˈlaɪklihʊd/	The probability of a specified outcome; the chance of something happening; probability; the state or degree of being probable.
marker noun	/ˈmɑː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)/	A felt-tipped pen, a marker pen.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get up verb	To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
turn out verb	To end up; to result.
write down verb	To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, foreshadow /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/, visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, visualize /ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/
Long words — get the stress right: probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, disappointment /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/, counterproductive /ˌkaʊntəpɹəˈdʌktɪv/, visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.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 motivate, occur, compare.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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

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