Shadowing Practice: Success Is Hard Until You Build Systems Like This - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Most people think success is about discipline or working more hours.

And sure, they will get you to the top 10%.

but to reach the top 1 % The rules are completely different.

I was once homeless and I thought I was a failure.

Today, I'm a multimillionaire, investor, board member, advisor, two billion dollar tech companies.

I didn't get there by working harder, but by designing systems that did the hard work for me.

instead of giving you motivational fluff.

I'm going to share five simple principles to finally do the hard things you've been avoiding.

Principle number one: You need to trap yourself.

In 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes landed on the shores of Mexico.

With just a few hundred men.

They were there to conquer the Aztec Empire.

Now, they were outnumbered.

in an unknown land, facing impossible odds.

Now, guess what he did to make sure his troops had no option but to win?

Cortez ordered them to sink the ships.

There was no going back, no retreat.

no surrender.

That's exactly what we need to do in our lives.

Because when you don't have a plan B, you will find a way to make plan A work.

I learned that lesson in my career

when I was the chief operating officer at a large company and we acquired a new company.

And it was an adjacent business with an attractive revenue stream, and several hundreds of employees joined us, and they had a terrific management team.

But, they were in a different city and there were no direct flights from New York.

So I wasn't sure if I was going to travel there much.

But when you acquire a company, you have to put in a lot of time and effort to integrate the two companies.

people, culture, systems, product, customers, all of that has to come together.

And I remember my CEO putting his hand on my shoulder and saying just two lines: "Okay man, I'm not going there, you own it." And that was it.

And at that moment, the whole idea of traveling there every week didn't seem like a chore or a choice.

That became my plan A.

And there was no plan B.

We had to make the deal work, we had to make the integration successful.

And that required me to pay full attention

to the acquired company because my CEO was going to work on a larger picture.

And he trusted me fully to take care of our new employees and make sure we became one company.

In behavioral design, these are called forcing functions.

The constraints that corner you and force you into growth.

Here are the four forcing functions you can set for yourself.

First, public commitment.

Tell people what you're going to do.

Announce it.

Social pressure is one of the oldest motivators on earth.

Second, financial stakes.

Pay before you feel ready.

Like putting money down on that gym membership or that training course that you always wanted to take.

Our example of that acquisition was a financial stake.

We spent a lot of money.

We had to make it successful.

Third, cut the access.

Delete the app.

Block the site.

If things that distract you aren't available easily, it becomes a forcing thing function itself.

And fourth, time box.

Give the task a hard window.

90 minutes ship something at the end of it.

You know when retreat is not an option, hard things that seemed impenetrable first become inevitable.

This lets you overcome one thing everybody blames when they can't stay consistent.

That's when principle number two comes into play.

Do you know what that is?

It's willpower.

We've all had those days.

It's 8 :00 a .m and you feel like it's gonna be an amazing day.

You're gonna get so much done today.

And then it's 8 :00 p .m and you've renegotiated almost everything from your list.

And you feel like you have failed, but you haven't.

That's just how our brains work.

Yours and mine.

One of the world's leading willpower researchers, Roy Baumeister, ran a study that literally flipped the idea of discipline on its head, for me at least.

He brought people into his lap and put fresh baked cookies in front of them.

Now half of them we're told not to eat them.

Don't touch it.

The other half wasn't told anything.

And after a while, Some of them ate cookies, some of them didn't.

Both groups were given a set of impossible puzzles to solve.

And now you're gonna say, of course, I know where this story is going.

those with the willpower did better.

But that's the twist.

Those who resisted eating cookies gave up on puzzles 50 % faster.

Now, that completely surprised me too.

But there is an explanation: Our willpower isn't infinite,

it's like a fuel tank every decision you make and every distraction you fight ends up draining that tank.

So, by evening.

The tank's gonna be empty.

That's why you feel like you failed not having willpower is not a sign of failure or weakness.

It's just biology.

Judges deny parole more often in the afternoon than in the morning.

Same cases, same type of facts, but they're mental fuel is depleting.

We keep trying to solve a biological problem with vague solutions like willpower.

Noah Lyles is the world's fastest man right now.

Now, he doesn't chase willpower or discipline, he engineers it.

How?

Well, he has ADHD.

So he doesn't trust willpower.

He trusts his internal rhythm six days a week.

Same track same playlist, same warmup, same bodily movement.

When the gun goes off, he says, "I'm not thinking." My body already knows what to do.

That's not discipline.

That's Design.

He's not fighting biology, he's using it.

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When the margin between a gold medal and a silver is just 1 /500th of a second, those routines give him the edge.

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So why not use the same logic to your advantage.

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Pick one task that you've been avoiding for a while

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or the task that has been avoiding you for a while and lock the three variables Time, place, and trigger.

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Let's say it's deep work that you want to do.

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And it's always 9am on Thursday.

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And so at 9 :00 a .m on Thursday, on your deep work day, show up at the same desk.

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Same playlist.

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Phone on airplane mode.

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No Slack, no email.

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Now, You're on autopilot.

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That sounds terribly simple, right?

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That's the point.

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simple systems are the hardest to break the more you force yourself into these kind of rhythms, the less.

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You have to rely on willpower anymore.

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Instead, you'll be able to take advantage of your mental algorithm.

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A psychologist at NYU, Peter Galwitzer, studied students who were trying to exercise over Christmas break.

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And he did something very interesting.

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He divided them into two groups.

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One group was told to set goals like, "I want to work out more." and the other group was given something like an if -then plan.

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So if x do y.

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If it's Monday at 7 a .m., than you were at the gym.

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Both teams had the same motivation.

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but two different instructions.

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And the results were so surprising.

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The goal -setters failed 62 % of the time.

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But the if -then planners only fail 9 % of the time.

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That's just how our mental algorithms work.

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If x then why?

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If this happens, do that.

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It's a simple but powerful system that changes your behavior.

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We avoid hard things because what we're really trying to avoid is the emotion that comes from it, the frustration, the doubt discomfort,

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the uneasy feeling, the imposter syndrome.

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So your brain starts bargaining with you.

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Let's skip this just just for today.

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You know, promise.

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Tomorrow, we'll do it twice.

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It doesn't work, does it?

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The fix, run the algorithm.

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Why?

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Because the if -then algorithm helps you see those emotional bar gains as just data signals.

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You take out the drama, you take out the debate, And in your head, you just run the code.

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If it's 3 :00 p .m.

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Thursday, your deep work starts.

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If you had lunch, you walked for 15 minutes.

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If it's Friday afternoon, You review your week.

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If it's Sunday night, plan for the next week.

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Whatever it is that you want to program in your if -then algorithm, you can do it and then execute.

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take out the debate.

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But here's what most people don't realize: Even with all these systems in place, there's one

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step that makes everything stick to outsource your decisions.

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Atul Gawande is a famous surgeon, and he was curious about surgical errors.

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While he was doing his research, he found something very disturbing, that world -class surgeons were making so many mistakes, they were totally preventable.

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They knew better, but somehow under pressure, their performance was uneven.

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So he worked with the World Health Organization, step surgical checklist and you'll think the list would be like super technical, right?

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It had the simplest things.

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like confirm the patient's identity first, Make sure all the antibiotics are given.

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Make sure that the right leg to operate on is marked so you don't chop off the left leg.

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That kind of stuff.

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Now, you think, "Wait, this is so elementary." But when the hospitals put this simple system of checklists into practice,

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post -surgical complications fell by 36 % and deaths dropped by 47%.

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Same surgeons.

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Same skills.

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Just a simple checklist as a safety net, when their cognitive load was peaking.

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That's the power of the system working for you.

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And the paradox here is that the better you get at mastering something, the more structured the systems, you will have to rely on.

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Checklists aren't just for beginners.

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They are for experts.

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especially experts who do hard things.

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That's why pilots with 10 ,000 hours of flying still read the same checklist every single flight.

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Not because they forgot how to fly, but because they don't trust their own memory.

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under pressure.

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So no matter what level of expertise you're at, you can use checklists to become more effective.

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The three checklists I love making in my life to -do list the to want list, and to be list.

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The to -do list is about execution.

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the "To Want" list is about expansion.

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and the "to be" list is about personal evolution.

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These checklists aren't about creating bureaucracy.

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They are about creating bandwidth for your brain so it can focus on what must be done on the hard things.

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If your craft matters to you, and if your career matters to you, and you take pride in doing hard things,

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then the easiest way to keep track of what you want to do is your checklist.

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But even with the simplest system like Checklist, there is still one problem.

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What happens if your brain tries to bypass the system entirely?

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Which brings me to principle number five.

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You have to become the system.

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I've seen great musicians and great leaders and great spiritual masters and they all have this one thing in common.

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the individuals perfectly in rhythm.

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Now these monks weren't trying to focus or they weren't trying to motivate themselves.

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And they were obviously not trying to synchronize their brain waves.

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But their nervous system over time had evolved into developing that pattern years of repetition.

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had given rise to this beautiful resonance and they didn't need motivation to do it.

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So what's the secret that these monks can teach us?

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Motivation doesn't drive repetition.

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Repetition drives motivation.

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When your brain can predict the cadence starts craving the cue.

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Over time you don't have to push yourself every day your biology starts to pull you forward.

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That's how your brain lights up.

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And that's how you become the person who does the hard things over and over again.

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But it almost seems effortless.

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Now, It is not effortless.

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That's just a myth.

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When you see someone like Roger Federer doing

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that perfect serve, It seems effortless but he has put in thousands and thousands and thousands of reps over countless years,

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day after day, night after night.

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But our brain over time starts following those patterns.

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And once the pattern takes over, Your brain stops chasing the reward, it starts craving the repetition itself.

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So tonight, Don't just try to change your entire life.

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Design one tiny rule that changes your tomorrow.

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Build the right systems and those systems will build the right you.

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If you like this video, subscribe to my channel for more content like this

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and check out my recent video on why you feel so stuck in life and how to find success.

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I'll see you next week.

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Thank you and I love you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 212 sentences and 2124 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:01. The speaker talks at a natural 152 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
algorithm noun	/ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/	A collection of ordered steps that solve a mathematical problem. A precise step-by-step plan for a computational procedure that possibly begins with an input…
principle noun	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
discipline noun	/ˈdɪsəplɪn/	A controlled behaviour; self-control.
motivation noun	/ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/	Willingness of action especially in behavior.
biology noun	/baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/	The study of all life or living matter.
acquire verb	/əˈkwaɪɚ/	To get.
surgeon noun	/ˈsɝd͡ʒən/	One who performs surgery; a doctor who performs operations on people or animals.
cookie noun	/ˈkʊki/	A small, flat, baked good which is either crisp or soft but firm.
rhythm noun	/ˈɹɪð.əm/	The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.
surgical adjective	/ˈsɝd͡ʒɪkəl/	Of, relating to, used in, or resulting from surgery.
chase verb	/t͡ʃeɪs/	To follow at speed.
solve verb	/sɒlv/	To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
rely verb	/ɹɪˈlaɪ/	To trust; to have confidence in; to depend.
stake noun	/steɪk/	A piece of wood or other material, usually long and slender, pointed at one end so as to be easily driven into the ground as a marker or a support or stay.
retreat noun	/ɹɪˈtɹiːt/	The act of pulling back or withdrawing, as from something dangerous, or unpleasant.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
take out verb		To remove.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come together verb	/ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/	To assemble; to congregate; to combine.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go off verb		To explode.
light up verb		To illuminate, to bring light to something, to brighten.
take over verb		To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, myth /mɪθ/, bandwidth /ˈbændwɪdθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, shore /ʃɔɹ/, execution /ˌɛk.sɪˈkjuː.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, elementary /ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/

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 algorithm, principle, discipline.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	you've been avoiding · has been avoiding
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were outnumbered · are called · wasn't told
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've renegotiated · have failed · I've seen
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	Those who resisted · students who were · person who does

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Success Is Hard Until You Build Systems Like This - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?