Shadowing Practice: Stop Playing Small. Go All In. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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140 sentences
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Fortune favors the brave.
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Playing small is not modesty.
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It's insurance.
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It's a way of living where you never give everything.
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So you never have to find out what everything would get you.
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And it works.
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It protects you from failure.
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But it also protects you from every result that would have changed your life.
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Going all in is the opposite decision.
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It means giving full effort, cutting off the easy exits, and aiming at something big enough to demand all of you.
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Here's why most men hold back, what it costs them, and how to stop.
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Start with why.
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In 1978, the psychologists Stephen Berglis and Edward Jones gave students a set of puzzles.
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Some got puzzles that could be solved.
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Others got puzzles that were impossible.
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Then everyone was told they had done very well.
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Think about how the second group felt.
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They'd been praised for something they knew they hadn't really earned.
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They had no idea how they'd succeeded and no confidence they could do it again.
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Before a second test, every student was offered a choice between two drugs.
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One, they were told, would improve their performance.
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The other would make it worse.
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Among the men who had been praised for the impossible puzzles, 70 % chose the drug that would make them perform worse.
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Among the men who had solved real puzzles, only 13 % did.
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Why would anyone choose to be worse?
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Because if you fail under the influence of a drug, the failure isn't about you.
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It's about the drug.
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Psychologists call this self -handicapping.
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When a man isn't sure he can succeed, he'll often build his own excuse in advance, so that if he fails,
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his ability is never put on trial.
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Most men don't do it with drugs.
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They do it with half effort.
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They start the business but don't really commit.
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They train but not seriously.
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They apply for the job at the last minute.
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They hold something back so that if it goes wrong, they can tell themselves, I wasn't really trying.
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That's what playing small actually is.
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It's not a lack of talent.
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It's a way of protecting your self -image from the truth.
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And the price is enormous because the man who never gives full effort never learns what full effort would have done.
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He trades his potential for an excuse.
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The second way men play small is the backup plan.
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It sounds responsible.
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Always have a plan B.
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But in 2016, the researchers Jihei Shin and Catherine Milkman tested what a backup plan does to the person making it.
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Participants worked on a task, and if they performed well, they earned a reward.
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Some were first asked to think about how they could get that reward another way if they failed.
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The ones who made a backup plan performed worse.
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A follow -up study pointed to why.
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Simply making the backup plan reduced how much they wanted to succeed at the main goal.
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The exit made the mission feel less urgent.
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That's the hidden cost.
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When part of your mind is planning the retreat, it's not fighting the battle.
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The researchers were careful about what this means.
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They didn't say never have a backup plan.
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They found the effect applies to goals that depend on effort.
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And they suggested waiting until you've done everything you can for the main goal before turning to the alternative.
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Your backup plan is not the problem.
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Thinking about it while you're supposed to be giving everything is.
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There's a famous story about this.
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In 1519, Hernán Cortés landed on the coast of Mexico.
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Some of his men wanted to sail back to Cuba.
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So he had his ships stripped and wrecked so they could never sail again.
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People usually say he burned them.
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He didn't.
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But the effect was the same.
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Retreat was no longer an option.
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And the only direction left was forward.
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You don't need to sink ships.
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But you need to know which exits are draining your commitment.
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The phone number you keep for when it gets hard.
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The excuse you've already prepared.
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The voice that says, if this doesn't work, I'll just go back.
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Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is close the door behind you.
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The third way men play small is by aiming low.
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The psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham spent decades studying goals.
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One major review by Locke and his colleagues found that in about 90 % of studies, specific, challenging goals led to better performance than easy goals
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or no goals at all and they consistently beat the vague instruction to just do your best.
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The reason is simple.
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A small goal asks for a small part of you.
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You can reach it while holding back.
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But a goal that's genuinely hard forces you to use.. everything you have.
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It demands more focus, more persistence, and better strategy.
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It pulls out a level of effort you would never have volunteered.
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So the size of your goal isn't just about the result.
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It determines who you become trying to reach it.
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A man aiming at something small will become exactly as strong as that thing requires.
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Nothing more.
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Now, be careful.
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Going all in does not mean being reckless. In 2014,
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the researchers Joseph Rafi and Ji Feng followed thousands of Americans over more than a decade
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and looked at the ones who started businesses.
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Those who built their business while keeping their day job
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and only went full -time later were about a third less likely to exit the business than those who quit
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and jumped straight in.
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That surprises people, but it teaches something important.
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All in is not about how dramatic the leap looks.
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It's not about quitting in a rage and posting about it.
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It's about total commitment to the outcome and total effort every day you work on it.
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The man building at night after his shift, giving every spare hour, is more all in than the man who quit his job loudly
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and then spends half his day distracted.
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Burn your excuses, not your safety net.
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Close the mental exits, not every financial one.
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The goal is to remove the doubt from your effort, not to put your family at risk to prove a point.
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So how do you go all in?
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First, name the thing you've been half doing.
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Every man has one.
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The project, the skill, the body, the business you keep circling without committing.
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Be honest about it.
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Second, find your handicap.
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Ask yourself, what excuse am I building in advance?
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Not enough time?
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Not the right moment?
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Not really trying yet?
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Write it down.
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An excuse you can see loses most of its power.
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Third, set a goal that scares you a little.
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Specific, measurable, hard enough that you can't reach it while holding back.
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Not do my best.
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A number, a date.
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Fourth, deal with the exits.
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Make your backup plan once if you need one.
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Then put it away and stop rehearsing it.
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Every time your mind drifts to plan B, bring it back to plan A.
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And fifth, make it public or make it costly.
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Tell someone who will hold you to it.
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Pay for the coach.
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Book the competition.
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Put something on the line so that walking away has a price.
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Here's the truth most men never face.
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If you give half effort and fail, you'll always wonder.
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But if you give everything and fail, you'll know exactly where you stand.
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And you'll have grown more in that attempt than in years of playing it safe.
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And if you give everything and succeed, you'll finally see what you were capable of all along.
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Fortune favors the brave.
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Not because the brave are lucky, because they're the only ones who show up with everything, often enough, for fortune to find them.
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So stop protecting yourself from your own potential.
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Stop playing small.
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Go all in.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Stop Playing Small. Go All In”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: goal, effort, backup, exit, excuse. This video has 140 sentences and 1322 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:08. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| backup noun | /ˈbækˌʌp/ | A reserve or substitute. |
| exit noun | /ˈɛɡzət/ | An act of going out or going away, or leaving; a departure. |
| puzzle noun | /ˈpʌzəl/ | The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in… |
| succeed verb | /səkˈsiːd/ | To follow something in sequence or time. |
| brave adjective | /bɹeɪv/ | Strong in the face of fear; courageous. |
| fortune noun | /ˈfɔːtjuːn/ | Destiny, especially favorable. |
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| psychologist noun | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | An expert in the field of psychology. |
| earn verb | /ɝn/ | To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work. |
| commitment noun | /kəˈmɪtmənt/ | The act of sending a legislative bill to committee for review. |
| solve verb | /sɒlv/ | To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out. |
| commit verb | /kəˈmɪt/ | To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto. |
| reward noun | /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ | Something of value given in return for an act. |
| praise verb | /pɹeɪz/ | To give praise to; to commend, glorify, or worship. |
| retreat noun | /ɹɪˈtɹiːt/ | The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| follow up verb | To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| pull out verb | To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat. | |
| walk away verb | To withdraw from a problematic situation. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't need to sink ships.
- The excuse you've already prepared.
- First, name the thing you've been half doing.
- Ask yourself, what excuse am I building in advance?
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 this doesn't work, I'll just · if you give everything and fail, you'll know · if you give everything and succeed, you'll finally |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | men who had · man who never · ones who made |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | could be solved · was told · been praised |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've done · you've already prepared · you've been |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 25 contractions and reduced forms, such as you'll, don't, isn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/, measurable /ˈmɛʒəɹəbəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, participant /pɑːɹˈtɪsəpənt/, measurable /ˈmɛʒəɹəbəl/
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 backup, exit, puzzle.
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.