Shadowing Practice: The Most Valuable 20 Minutes You’ll Spend Today | Matthew McConaughey Motivation - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Called at 7 36 p.m.

I remember the number.

Hey, Pop.

Hey, what's up, monkey man?

So, listen, can I talk to you about something?

Sure.

Dad, I don't want to go to law school anymore.

I want to go to film school.

A little beat of sweat starts to go down the back of my neck.

I'm like, here it comes.

You want what?

I thought he was going to go into all this stuff.

Like, my ass.

You know, that could be a hobby.

But that's not a real job.

I thought all this was coming.

And after about a five second pause he goes, I hear this.

Are you sure that's what you want to do?

Yes sir.

And I hear, well, Don't half ass it.

And man, my dad not only said okay,

in the way he said don't half ass it was also,

Okay, let's go big boy, own that.

Put some leverage, get some horsepower behind where you're going.

Go do it.

If you're gonna do it, Do it.

Say what you can do.

Do what you say.

If you can't do it,

don't say you can do it.

Don't over leverage yourself.

Don't over leverage the decision and then jump in and kind of dip a toe.

I think I'll try it out.

No, think if you're going to try it out beforehand,

but when it's time to go, dive.

Finish it.

Find out.

Come out the other side.

Don't leave it and go, If I just woulda...

Uh-uh.

That keeps me up at night.

I think it keeps a lot of us up at night.

When you have to f**k something you just don't know,

whether you failed or succeeded,

got what you want or didn't get what you want,

finding out and looking in the mirror and going,

I didn't have to f**k it,

I went all the way,

I found out and that ain't for me.

Or I found out and you damn right that is for me.

That's a great place to get to.

You ever had a gut feeling that maybe you were meant for more

but you weren't really sure what the next best steps were to achieve it?

Me too.

So what's your more?

What's your destination?

And I'm not talking about just more money or more things.

I'm also talking about more love,

more joy, more choice, more balance, more trust.

What's your more?

If life was nothing but green lights and we didn't have yellows and reds,

things that make us pause,

hardships, crises, times for introspection,

then what the hell would it all be for?

We need the yellows and the reds.

That's how we evolve.

That's how hopefully there's some ascension to our being.

That's how we give some credit to time and growing older.

If we were the same person today that we were 20 years ago,

then what the hell are we doing?

If anything, I would say to my 15-year-old self, go fail more.

If anything, I would say to you, go fail more.

Forget them.

Those people on the sidelines that are saying the thumbs down or calling you something or being snarky,

they're on the sidelines for a reason.

Hustle, hustle, hustle.

Sleep was sin in my household.

Sin.

I saw my dad asleep one time in my life.

If it was daylight, you couldn't be inside.

There's a fierce sense of independence.

Hour, 5.30 minutes of TV and night, Max.

Mom would always say, why are you going to watch someone doing something

when you can go out in the world and do it yourself?

Turn that damn thing off, get outside.

Had to be outside.

Like, go get out, the world,

go hustle, figure it out.

We all want more out of our life, don't we?

More out of our relationships,

more out of our careers, more out of ourselves.

So look, it's time to renegotiate, right?

Who we are and how we treat each other.

It's time to re-engineer how we can get where we want to and need to go.

It's time to restore what's worth keeping from our past and what's worth taking into our future

Life's mystery going forward to science looking back.

We look back.

We know we can all connect every single dot It's mathematical scientific how we got to this table right here

We've got plans for this afternoon,

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but we're not sure what's gonna happen

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But everything looking back it's it's it's all connected

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if we go back and look at it And there's a whole lot of,

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I thought that was the end.

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Well, it was the end,

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but it was the beginning of this thing.

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Or I caught that red light

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and therefore made me 60 seconds later to get to

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that cafe where I met that movie producer or that woman who became my wife or whatever that is.

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It don't make sense at the time,

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but looking back, it's all a science.

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You've got this great line where you say,

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so many people are obsessed with how to live longer instead of how to live better.

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Yeah.

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Quantity.

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Success without the profit.

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Ooh, how much more can I get?

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I'm for it, the longevity.

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I'm for it.

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But in the pursuit of it,

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are we measuring quality of life along the way?

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Some people aren't.

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I personally don't want to have the highest number,

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but then go, well, that wasn't even fun or I didn't enjoy that or I didn't. That sucked.

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I'm just trying to remind everyone that just like in business

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when I say success without the profit we have plenty of people that succeed.

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If you've got the most money, most toys you succeed.

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They didn't profit.

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They're not profiting with their success.

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Profit measures quality with the quantity.

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So I'm saying real success is when you have profit.

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what really great longevity would be for those quality years,

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quality time left in this life.

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What do you wish more people knew about the price of success in life?

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Well, success has taken on different definitions over time.

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It used to have to do,

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and now, you know, money,

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fame, that's your definition of success.

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So it seems to be that and always has been to some extent

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Whoever has more so much successful more access for money.

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You're the winner I'm not saying it's it's a race to the red light,

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but I am saying the fourth quarter of that being your goal the residuals decline on Quality of life.

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I've met many more very rich

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Men who chase that dollar to be successful and to be relevant for having the most money that the last 15,

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20, even younger years were bewildered,

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lost, had no relationships, didn't have purpose.

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Chasing the dollar, they just did it.

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They were good at it.

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They made it happen, but they didn't feel what they were doing.

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They couldn't even necessarily say what they were really good at.

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Just good deal makers who made the right calls in certain mathematics.

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It's also why I wasn't surprised when Trump first got elected.

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It's not fun.

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It's fame.

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It's money.

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We sell that every day in the West as this is how you make it.

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It's America.

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It's America.

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Be less impressed and more involved.

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More involved.

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What did you mean by that?

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Where did that come from?

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It came from we grew up hardcore on gratitude.

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I'm a very thankful guy.

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And being thankful and having gratitude is very important.

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But you can't stop there.

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Because too much just, oh,

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I'm so happy to be here.

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You're so impressed to be here.

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Thank you for having me, which we should have.

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But if you live only there,

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I can't even, we can't be present and be involved in whatever we're doing

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and do it as well as we want to do it.

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You got to go, no,

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thank you for letting me be here.

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And I'm supposed to be here.

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Now let's go.

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If I'm even talking to you,

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if I'm here going, man,

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I'm so happy to be here.

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If I'm just happy to be here and go no further than that,

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I can't have, we can't have this conversation.

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I'm not, I'm not, I won't be there yet.

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I can't be grounded enough to have, have it right here.

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I'd be like, I'd anticipate my thoughts.

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I'd, you know, say something that may,

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is only the pretty stuff and not the ugly stuff or oh don't want to be mean.

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So to be involved allowed me to be more honest and have more courage.

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When we're involved we're more honest and have more courage to do what we're fashioned to do,

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how we're fashioned to do it.

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What about love?

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We always knew We were loved.

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There's never a question that we were loved as as loving our each other

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loving mom and dad being loved by mom and dad

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and Making mom would always keep on to make sure you're loving yourself.

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I Remember breakups heartbroken She'd let she'd let us

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Mourn she was a great ear very sensitive ear to that kind of took pains like that broken hearts

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But only for a day.

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After a day she cranked up the ACDC man and go like Now skid up you're worth it her loss.

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Come on get out of bed Uh-uh come on.

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Uh-uh quit moping lift your head up.

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Come on.

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Come on buddy.

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We got this.

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Uh-uh her loss Give me the day.

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No more than that.

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What's the difference between a nice guy and a good man?

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A nice guy gets along Yeah, do that.

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Yeah, I'll do that.

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They don't necessarily have discernment or judgment not sure what they stand for or stand against.

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It's like, yes, yes, yes, sure, yeah, hey.

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A good man has ideals that they stand for and they'll stand against,

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and when they're tested, a good man is not a nice guy.

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I didn't want to keep forgiving myself on Sunday,

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and then repeat and do the same shit again on Monday to Friday,

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and then go, ah, now I can be forgiven.

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I was like, no, man.

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Forgive me, Father.

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I know what I'm doing,

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and I keep doing it.

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Cut the shit, McConaughey.

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Quit giving yourself that out,

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that parachute, even though you may have it.

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Even though word says grace of God will forgive you.

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Yeah, I need to strong arm myself,

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put my damn hands on the wheel,

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look in the mirror and go, it's on you.

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Because it is.

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Happiness is an emotional response to an outcome.

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If I win, I will be happy.

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If I don't, I won't.

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It's an if-then, cause-and-effect, quid pro quo,

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standard that we cannot sustain because we immediately raise it every time we attain it.

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See, happiness demands a certain outcome.

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It is result-reliant.

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And I say, if happiness is what you're after,

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then you're going to be let down frequently and you're gonna be unhappy much of your time.

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Joy though, joy is a different thing, it's something else.

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Joy is not a choice,

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it's not a response to some result, it's a constant.

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Joy is the feeling that we have from doing what we are fashioned to do,

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no matter the outcome.

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Now personally as an actor,

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I started enjoying my work and literally being more happy

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when I stopped trying to make the daily labor a means to a certain end.

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For example, I need this film to be a box office success.

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I need my performance to be acknowledged.

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I need the respect of my peers.

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All those are reasonable aspirations,

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but the truth is, as soon as the work,

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the daily making of the movie,

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the doing of the deed became the reward in itself for me,

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I got more box office,

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more accolades and respect than I ever had before.

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See, joy is always in process.

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It's under construction.

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It is in constant approach,

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alive and well in the doing of what we're fasting to do and enjoying.

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I think it's why a lot of relationships don't work.

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We make her Wonder Woman and she makes us Superman and neither one has to live up to it.

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And that we've got that bulb,

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that honeymoon bulb turned up to 100 watts and the honeymoon's over.

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We're trying to deal with some real,

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just some real base stuff.

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Let's leave it at 20 watts.

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We're just lit, but we're not just feverishly, you know, superhuman.

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And I think a lot of us just purport

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that on someone else and they can't live up to it and it ends up not being fair to them.

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And then they do the same to us and we both walk away going, I underwhelmed.

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And if you forgive me and you believe that I mean,

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I'm truly sorry, I'm, do my best not to ever do that again.

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You believe that and then you forgive me.

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First order of business is for me to change the behavior

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that I have so I don't have to come say sorry to you again.

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That I think we miss sometimes.

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Sometimes people go, I'm sorry, forgive me.

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Oh, cool, we're even.

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All right, back to it.

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And all of a sudden you're like, you did it again.

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Dude, have a little reward.

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I thought you were going to course correct.

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You know, I've got to course correct.

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The offender is for the first order of business for the offender to go,

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I'm going to do what I can not to have to say I'm sorry to you again.

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I think George Jankos says every man knows God when he's at his lowest.

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That there are reliable times when people turn toward faith.

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And how many people turn at the end of their life?

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And I wonder, you know,

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if there is a God,

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is that in the same way that,

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you know, Catholicism could say sin all week,

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but if you meet it and you ask for forgiveness on Sunday, you're washed clean.

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Well, I see some people use that as a crutch and go right back to repeat offending.

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I've got a poem in here,

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I'm going to forgive me Father for I know what I do.

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And I'm curious like, is that okay?

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There's the forgive me Father for I know not what I do.

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And I'm writing about, well forgive me Father,

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there's times I know exactly what I'm doing.

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And I do it anyway.

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That was an error of felician, not accidentally.

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A choice I made.

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Now if I'm gonna keep making that choice and be a repeat offender,

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I'm not ready to go,

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yeah but if I ask for forgiveness on Sunday I'm all clean.

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We can do it all again.

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I'm not ready to, I'm gonna,

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no, no, no, hang on.

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Fuck, stop, stop here.

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I say, what's better?

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I'm gonna pull in the air called Heaven or Not.

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and try and find it and see if this kind of half answers that question.

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Tomorrow is not today's measurement when the misery is bad enough.

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Right?

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It's people forever.

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But if you can find something that you can keep going,

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something that no matter how small to look forward to and continually have faith in and chase,

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well, then your life here is going to be better now.

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Heaven or not.

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And I was like, time to become a man.

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Walk forward.

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Peripheral vision.

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Get it.

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Own yourself.

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Walk forward with more courage.

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And start becoming the man you want to be instead of acting like it and putting it off.

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I'm nervous before I'm going to go speak or something.

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I got a little thing in my wallet.

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You're going to die one day, McConaughey.

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And I'm like, oh, that relaxes me.

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If I'm going in, you know,

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complacent, I got another note where I'm telling myself,

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what you're about to say and do will outlive you.

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So you better do it well.

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If I said I can't,

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my dad's teeth would just start to go.

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Excuse me?

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Sure you're not just having trouble?

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I remember this one time I was going out to do my chores Saturday morning,

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mow the lawn on it.

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I couldn't get the damn lawnmower to start.

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Checked everything get a start.

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I'm going inside and I said,

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Dad, can you help me out?

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I can't get the lawnmower started.

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And he turned around, saw his mowers, went.

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And he got up, walked with me through the kitchen,

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through the garage, out the backyard,

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went to the lawnmower, messed around,

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pulled a couple things out,

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da-da-da-da-da-da, about 10 minutes, boom, cranked it.

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And while the lawnmower was running right there,

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He came over to me and bent down and looked me at it and goes,

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See son, you were just having trouble.

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I think in life we want to be finding people that believe in you more than you believe in you.

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That hold you to higher standards.

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I think that's the definition of a good friend.

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I think that's the definition of a good partner.

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The definition of a good husband, wife.

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You know, they remind us of the best of ourselves.

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to shine that light, remind us, because we do.

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I know I do.

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I put the blinds on it,

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and I don't see it.

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I'm interested in so many things that my hunch is to not take on more campfires,

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but to keep putting logs on the fires that I've built.

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And to do that, the clouds that come with fall,

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just nip ambition in the bud,

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just a little bit, and put a little bit of roof.

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I kind of like, I'm not as big of a fan of the 30-foot ball ceiling.

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I like that 10-footer, that 8-footer.

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I feel ambitious looking laterally instead of not affordably.

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I'm looking for the dreams and the poems and the prayers to become the reality.

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And I like a little bit of shame.

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I got to forgive that deed,

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that person for that deed.

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And again, not necessarily trust him.

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but do my best to forgive them.

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And that can take me a while.

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And I think who it takes me the most time to forgive the betrayal is me.

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When and if I betray myself.

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Forgiven myself.

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Because we forgive too quickly.

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We're resilient.

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We hop up and dust ourself off and go,

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forgive you, let's do it again.

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We do become repeat offenders because we didn't take time to put ourself

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or feel the guilt of the wrongdoing and pay a little penance to look at and go,

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I don't want to feel this again.

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I don't want to do that action again to make myself feel this way.

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I don't, it doesn't feel like me.

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I don't want that person to have that sadness or anger with me again.

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Or the world to have that sadness and anger from this,

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I don't want to feel that again.

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And that takes some pause to then go, now I forgive myself.

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Let's carry on and trust and be ready to do the work To say,

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I'm not gonna just let that slide anymore.

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I'm successful.

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I got a home.

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It's got a gate.

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I got a security guard.

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I got three kids.

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I got a wife.

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Secure this.

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Keep that log on those fires going.

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That's the main thing, man.

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If you do that, if you do that,

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there's nothing better you can do.

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Hang on, man.

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You can do that, but you still need to engage.

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What, are you gonna become a live-in father?

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No. Kids need to see you go to work.

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Need to come with you to go to work.

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Need to see you and your mom going places without them.

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Engage in the world.

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Go find out some new things.

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Learn some new things.

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Whether that's the physical frontier or the mental frontier.

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Take more risk there.

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Why?

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Wait a minute.

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So we're saying if success is the key,

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success is the measurement, and you can get it by lying,

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cheating, and stealing, and still be rewarded the gold medal.

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That's what's happening.

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Are we ready to say that's okay?

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Are we ready to say that's just how it is?

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We have leaders in positions now that are saying, yeah, just win.

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Just win, just succeed.

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But yeah, look how you get there.

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You did it.

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Congratulations.

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Come to the front of the line.

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So what are the ethics?

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I don't know.

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What'd the winner do?

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Well, but they...

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Wait, what about rules?

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Oh yeah, by the way,

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the rules, if you follow them, you're a sucker.

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I started to find myself going, oh wait a minute.

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I'm not ready to say.

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That's just how it is.

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Thank you.

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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.

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Shadowing Practice: The Most Valuable 20 Minutes You’ll Spend Today | Matthew McConaughey Motivation - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: The Most Valuable 20 Minutes You’ll Spend Today | Matthew McConaughey Motivation - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

What is the Shadowing Technique?