Shadowing Practice: Something Inside You Needs to Wake Up. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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389 sentences
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Something in you has to wake up and usually the only person that can wake it up is you.
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How bad do you want this?
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If it's as bad as you want to live or breathe or sleep, whatever the hell it may be, I can work with you.
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But a lot of people, most people don't want it that badly.
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Which is why they always ask the question, how did you get to where you are?
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You know how to do it.
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You know exactly how to be you or how to be me.
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You don't want to do it.
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There's no luck in this game, man.
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It may be a little bit of luck, but the luck happens after you bust your ass and you put yourself in that lucky situation.
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Luck doesn't happen.
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You put yourself in that situation where luck might fucking happen.
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And that's what people don't know.
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But to get there, luck ain't gonna happen.
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You have to put yourself in that situation, man.
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It takes a lot of work.
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I know why you go on Instagram.
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I know why you...
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Because you just have the time
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you have the time because you don't want to put
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that time into bettering oneself god i'm like i'm missing something yeah because it's about 75 of you is still in there
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still chained up you have no idea how great you really are because you are using such minimal
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minimal of what you have get back to work
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it's time to get back to work stop hearing yourself talk
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get off the podcast don't be on social media too much
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cut out all the fucking noise get back to the fucking mental lab guess what happens
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that alarm clock goes off at 4am it's a train
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i don't want to be a seal today i don't want to be whatever today
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i'll start tomorrow
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and that's the usual pattern of people's lives until you really want to do something
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you always get be a talker
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you always get run your fucking a lot of times i'll be in 200 mile run
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or something like that and I'm all jacked up.
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Body's broken, mind's broken, spirit's broken.
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I started to say what if I can pull this off?
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When I first walked into the Navy student recruiter's office he looked at me
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and said there's only been 35 African Americans in 70 years making through.
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You know I said to myself what if I can be the 36th?
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It's the what if I can pull off a fucking miracle?
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What if I can become someone that no one thinks I can be?
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And just me talking about that, I have the hair going up on my arms.
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Because it makes me just like, what if I have this fire that I'm going to be somebody?
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And it has to be there, because on all those bad days, on all those days you don't want to do shit,
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you have to be your own motivator, your own coach, your own trainer, your own everything.
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I wanted to be the guy that people looked at, I don't care if you liked me or didn't like, I don't care.
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But they said, this motherfucker is going to keep coming after whatever the fuck is in front of him.
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I wanted that.
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I wanted that.
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I wanted that.
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Worse than anything in the world.
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I wanted to feel something besides defeat.
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I wanted to just go to distance.
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And that going to distance pushed me to a point of where now I go way past the distance.
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You're missing the story, man.
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Am I happy?
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What the fuck do you think?
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Don't miss it.
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Don't misunderstand the passion in which I speak for not being intensely happy
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Happiest person in the world
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But I'm not done
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Fuck that When the alarm goes off in the morning
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You have to wake up.
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Don't wake up.
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Don't worry about that
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When you're in school, you know what?
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Fuck that man.
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It's too hard to study.
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So don't study
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You know what?
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Don't eat healthy because you don't have to.
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So guess what?
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But when you fail, don't blame your mom, don't blame your dad, don't blame teachers.
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One person you have to blame is yourself.
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I'm tired of feeling the way I feel every day.
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I'm tired of how I feel.
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I'm tired of lying to myself, lying to people, just being some piece of shit.
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And I always knew in the back of my mind I could be something special.
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But I knew the work it was going to take was going to kill me.
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I was afraid of that.
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I was afraid of the brutality and the suffering I was gonna have to endure
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but I knew I knew I could do something
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but I'm like I ain't trying to do
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that kind of work man
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I was not trying to do this I chose the path of the easy way of least resistance.
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Sometimes life can really hijack your fucking mind when
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that happens to you you're all fucked up your goals your ambitions everything is out the fucking window in life
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we all go through different things sometimes your Your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you, guess what?
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Get the fuck over it.
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They no longer want you.
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Maybe you fell a test in school, you worked your ass off.
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Guess what?
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You failed the fucking test.
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Get over it.
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Move past it.
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Learn to not let life hijack your brain.
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At work, you've been working your ass off for that new promotion.
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You don't fucking get it.
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Someone else does.
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Maybe they kiss better ass than you do.
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Guess what?
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Get over it.
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Life will hijack your mind if you let it.
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Don't allow all these things to make you a lesser person.
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You must own your mind.
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Don't let life own yours.
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Get after it.
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Stay hard.
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The problem is you.
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And you don't want to fix it.
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But don't be mad.
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When you're laying there in your fucking bed and you're in the fucking hospital and you're 70, 80, 90 years old and you're thinking,
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man, I feel like I didn't fucking do something.
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Because you did.
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You didn't do it.
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You didn't do shit.
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Man live the great life man, but you always get for him
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You're honestly that's not me trying to be some after -school special shit.
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You really are bitch
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Real men ain't doing it.
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We probably don't care about that gossipy bullshit get to work man
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You gotta fucking save yourself my friend you don't need talent
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You're probably underachiever you're probably somebody who doesn't want to do anything with your life you have to want it
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you have to want to be better a lot of times these fights
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and these battles you gotta be your own fucking coach
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you gotta be your own motivator your mind takes control of you you have to say fuck
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you i run this motherfucker well some of you read
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that i think about when it's hot outside that it's sunny
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and 70 well it's fucking not today it's the reality it's about 90 degrees 100 % humidity
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but who gives a shit
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that being said september 3rd i have to have my book turned in
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and what i realized i'm reading this book a lot but i realized i wasn't born this motherfucker.
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I made him.
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At the bottom of insecurities, fear, self -doubt, lies, was me buried in the fucking fetal position.
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How I got out of that was recognizing it, being honest with it, being truthful with it, and then fixing it.
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We like to live on social media with lies about ourselves, how great we are.
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Get to the source and fix the problem.
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It's just life.
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I wake up while it still sucks it's just life you don't sit back
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and like oh my god like I have days I don't want to do
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but I know I'm going to do it I know from years of just doing it
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and guess what I do all this alone yeah
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it was just alone I ain't got nobody
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that's where the that's where the shit comes from I ain't got nobody to push to this level that's my darkness
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That's why I laugh at these motherfuckers.
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You think they fucking know me?
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You think you know me coming to my dungeon?
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It's a lonely dungeon because you don't want to do this shit alone every day.
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Train this world by yourself?
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Come on, man.
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And this is it.
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You see me breathing heavy?
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Right.
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Exactly.
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So imagine the level I go to.
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I've trained 99 % of my life alone.
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No one pat me on the back.
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I did all of the work alone.
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No one can motivate me.
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I have a resume full of fucking motivation.
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That whenever I'm down, I'm like, oh, hang on, motherfucker.
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Oh, you know.
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You know the truth.
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You know the truth.
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You know the darkness of the fucking dungeons and the fucking demons that fly.
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You know.
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And then from there, it's like, okay.
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You were there.
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You know this.
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There was no one there to pick up the rucksack, to pick up the boat, to pick up the log, to go in there.
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It was you.
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It was you there was no pat on the fucking back at 300 at 275 at 250 at 220 no
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that was you so those things that come out of me
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that extract from me in the darkness people are looking for
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that pat on the back where is it oh i don't need
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it you're alone you're alone you may have a shrink
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you're going to you may have a best friend you're going to
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but there's 24 hours in the day where you're alone in this brain
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and your brain is talking to you in all kind of ways
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and it wants to control you pull you in these different pockets
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if you can't control your own brain
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and your brain controls you you're fucked you got to tell your brain where you want to go
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and how you want to go and how you want to get there
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you got to control it if not it's over
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and every day the same answer came back to me do you want to be on your deathbed knowing
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that you could but you didn't.
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So I have a question for you all, but only one person can answer it.
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What is your biggest fear?
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Why are you paralyzed?
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What makes you nervous to just go out there and just be who you are and do what you have to do?
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And my biggest fear honestly was, let's say this, let's say, I don't care if you believe in God or not.
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I don't care.
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So let's just play a game with me.
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Let's say, your God.
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And we have a big fucking long line of people.
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And I made to heaven.
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75 years old.
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I'm 300 pounds.
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I made to heaven.
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I worked for Ecolab my entire life, praying for cockroaches.
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That's what I did.
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But I'm dead.
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I'm in heaven now.
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And you are at, you're judging us all now.
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So we're in line.
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We're all sitting there in line.
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You have Adam Brown.
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He has a big board up and you're talking to Adam Brown about his life.
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And you rip it down and I'm next in line.
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David Goggins.
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I see my name.
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I see all this shit and God goes, hey, you say, read this, man.
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And I'm reading this list and I'm seeing 182 pounds,
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Navy SEAL, Ranger School, motivational speaker, changing lives.
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Okay, man, pull up record, all this shit.
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And I'm like, that's not me, man.
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And God looks at me and says, that's who you were supposed to be.
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That's the fear.
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The fear is never reaching your potential.
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That's it.
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That always falling short, always quitting before you're done, always procrastinating, always not doing the right thing
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and then one day you're an old man yep
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and you look back oh god i could have been great yep
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it could have been great i never forget one time i was running by a graveyard
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and i was fucking just trying to become i was fat
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and i ran by a graveyard and i looked out there
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and i have all these epiphanies man
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i have all these fucking moments of like of it's crazy man of this thought
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i'm always by myself i'm always deep fucking thought about how be better
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now look out there i'm like man i wonder how many of you in there
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just are so upset with how you lived your life
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and just regret how you lived it i'm running a 300 pound man thinking man don't die like this bro
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so another year is coming gone
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and a lot of us are the same place we were last year what the are you waiting on
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We sleep one third of our fucking lives and we think we can take fucking days off.
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We think we have the right to sit back
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and give ourselves fucking options on which way we're going to go in life.
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Am I going to run today?
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Am I going to work out today while it's Christmas?
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It's New Year's.
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It's my birthday.
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Do you think time gives a fuck that it's Christmas, that it's New Year's, that it's your birthday?
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you give me some too many fucking options let me tell you one thing time is running out
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you keep on sitting around wondering what the fuck you want to do you're just gonna run out of time
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so make sure you do one thing stop following the fucking crowd they may take time off
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but you can't afford to stay hard i had two options to either be
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that 300 pound guy who sprayed for cockroaches
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and made a thousand dollars a month and at 24 years old knowing
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when I'm 50 fucking years old I can reflect on this
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and think about what guy I never became
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or I can totally just sack it up and fail and fail
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and fail until I succeed fuck you I'm gonna fail
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I'm gonna fucking fail I'm gonna fucking fail I'm gonna fucking fail and I will succeed I didn't teach myself victory first.
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I taught myself failure.
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I taught myself how to fail.
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And people go, that's so depressing. Is it?
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When you're 300 pounds and you can't read and write and you're fucked up,
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you know how many times you're going to fucking fail on that process?
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So if you don't know how to fail, there is no victory.
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You better teach yourself how to fail first.
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Because if you sit in failure for too long you will never come out of it
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so the first part of my success
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was learning how to fail properly
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and then eventually i started getting a few victories you may have failed miserably yesterday
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but you come to work like you're like man
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you just lost everything how the hell are you just fucking damn motivated because this is what it takes
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this is what the fuck it takes
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and you got to get it from wherever you can whether you make up this illusion of your life
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or this false reality
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that gets you motivated whatever gets you motivated
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it's got to be here at the tip of your brain at all times
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because in those dark moments you got it you got to pull it out okay i failed
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but i was right there what did i miss what the fuck did i miss oh
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that's what i fucking missed i taught myself how to fail i'm always skirting on
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that like limit of like okay i'm there i'm there i'm there to succeed you must fail in failure
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and in suffering all the answers are in there all the answers to all the test questions the test is your life
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Motherfucker, the purpose is you.
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We forget that.
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Every fucking day I wake up, and I don't want to do some fucking shit,
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I'm like, okay, man, do you want to be a bitch today?
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Do you want to feel like a little bitch?
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Do you want to walk around all day knowing that you could, but you didn't?
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It might be April where you are, and you're expecting nice weather and shit, but it's 20 degrees. So?
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You might be somewhere where it's too fucking hot. So?
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You might have sore legs, Sore back, sore shoulder.
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So, the struggle is real.
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It never gets any easier.
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You gotta get harder.
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I was out yesterday, getting after it.
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At one of the best runs I've had in a long time.
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PR'd that bitch.
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So, no one cares what you did yesterday.
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You don't even match what you're doing today.
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Hey, those who take me literally, so I'm a cheerleader for those who want to be better,
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not for those who want to stay the same.
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Stay hard.
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So I get an email from Bill.
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Bill's a 30 -year -old who used to be real motivated.
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And somehow he lost his motivation.
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He went to the high and get it back.
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Well, Bill, you suffer from what a lot of guys suffer from nowadays.
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It's called chestnut syndrome.
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As a boy, your fucking nuts fall.
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But what happens in life is that we think they stay down there.
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If you don't handle self -doubt, insecurities, fucking imperfections, jealousy, all these fucking things.
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A lot of people to bully you, fuck you around.
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Your nuts start to retract back up.
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Insecurities end up here.
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Self -doubt.
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All this should be free to know up in your fucking chest.
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End up with chestnut syndrome.
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How you fix chestnut syndrome is you gotta man the fuck up.
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Hit your fucking chest, send a signal to your fucking mind that you're gonna man the fuck up.
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And then it fall back in your fucking sack.
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Once it fall back in your sack, you sack it the fuck up.
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Stay hard.
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Trying to find your why is another way of procrastinating, taking fucking action.
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So, the question does not end with why.
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It starts with why.
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Why the fuck don't you want to be in better shape?
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Why the fuck don't you want to be a better fucking student?
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Why don't you want to be more successful?
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Maybe you can't find your why because you're lazy.
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Maybe you can't find your why because you have zero fucking ambition.
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Regardless, you need to go out here and find it.
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Stay hard.
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This is what it's all about.
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That's what they lost.
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Whippy can't run.
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Give a fuck.
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It was never about running.
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Why do you think I run?
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It's the worst thing.
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I hate doing it more than anything.
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Hence the willpower.
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This isn't for the masses.
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This is for those who want to leave normal behind.
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Those who are in search of a new realm.
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It's a lonely journey.
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You're isolated.
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Those who used to keep pace with you will fall off.
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They'll see where their world ends and yours begins.
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Your ability to suffer, endure, our work must be greater.
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You must be willing to extend yourself to the limit with no guarantee of success.
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every day you must ask yourself did i do enough stay home
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so i just got through working out
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and this guy goes hey god is you on
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that winter arc shit like what the fuck is winter arc
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he's like well people are like setting goals for the winter time like
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working out more sleeping more just better habits and goal setting and shit like that I go, motherfucker, I want that 365 shit.
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It's not an arc.
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It's a fucking circle.
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I've been on it for like 30 fucking years.
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It's a circle that keeps going around and around and around.
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Winter, spring, summer, fall.
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Motherfucking winter, spring, summer, fall.
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Have enough pride in your fucking self to not have this hacky shit to get motivated.
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Love yourself enough to stay motivated.
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360 fucking five fuck an arc do a circle stay hard.
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Turn your feelings off when it comes down to you wanting to be better.
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What that means is when that alarm clock goes off your feelings gotta go away if you want to achieve greatness.
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and greatness is only achieved when your feelings about that kind of shit.
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And let me say that kind of shit.
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So for those soft people who may be listening to this, don't put words in my mouth.
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I'm not talking about your fucking family and all that shit.
365
I'm talking about the grind.
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The fucking grind.
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Your feelings have to go away.
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Sometimes you have to go beyond what you're feeling.
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You know, okay, this hurts, that hurts.
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You can just sit down and do nothing.
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Or we can see how far we can push the shit above.
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find greatness in yourself you're not gonna find it by looking in a book
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or by even hearing me I may give you the spark
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but you've got to go inside yourself to find it and
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that means you gotta be quiet shut the fuck up go
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in a room stop talking search your soul search your mind search your abilities
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and you'll find it you're gonna be normal
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so you just wanna be like everybody else that roams the world not knowing the power that's in them
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being fine with being mediocre you wanna go back to who you were, huh, David?
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I'm gonna find that take the day off, man, we'll get a pizza and shit,
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watch the game we like that we love that feeling, why? cause you understand, man, we're good, bro we don't want that,
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motherfuckers, like this hey, man, no, bro, get your fucking shit on, man Stop being a punk.
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Tell yourself the truth.
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If someone calls you fucking fat, they may be bullying you, but you might be fucking fat.
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Someone calls you dumb, it's mean, but you might be fucking dumb.
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It's life, man.
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Take it for what it's worth and change it.
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And that terrible feeling when someone does tell you that you're fat, you can use that as fuel. As fuel.
389
Period.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Something Inside You Needs to Wake Up”. This video has 389 sentences and 3738 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:54. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% 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. |
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| pound noun | /ˈpaʊ̯nd/ | A unit of weight in various measurement systems. |
| sack noun | /sæk/ | A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with… |
| darkness noun | /ˈdɑɹk.nɪs/ | The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light. |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| alarm noun | /əˈlɑɹm/ | A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy. |
| syndrome noun | /ˈsɪndɹoʊm/ | A recognizable pattern of signs, symptoms and/or behaviours, especially of a disease or medical or psychological condition. |
| sore adjective | /soɹ/ | Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive. |
| greatness noun | /ˈɡɹeɪtnəs/ | The state, condition, or quality of being great |
| dungeon noun | /ˈdʌn.d͡ʒən/ | An underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle. |
| insecurity noun | A lack of security; uncertainty. | |
| clock noun | /klɑk/ | A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day. |
| seal noun | /siːl/ | A stamp used to impress a design on a soft substance such as wax. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| get over verb | To overcome. | |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| look out verb | To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger. | |
| 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:
- How bad do you want this?
- When you're in school, you know what?
- You think you know me coming to my dungeon?
- You see me breathing heavy?
- Why don't you want to be more successful?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to be · used to keep |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | somebody who doesn · guy who sprayed · those who take |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | there's only been · I've trained · I've had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being said · wasn't born · is only achieved |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 172 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, deathbed /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/, truthful /ˈtɹuːθ.f(ə)l/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, humidity /hjuːˈmɪd.ə.ti/, brutality /ˌbɹuːˈtælɪti/, mediocre /ˌmidiˈoʊkəɹ/, motivator /ˈməʊ.təˌveɪ.tə/
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, suffer, pound.
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.