Shadowing Practice: Watch this to completely reinvent yourself in 2026. - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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If you want to reinvent yourself this year, the most important thing is shifting your identity.
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If you want to reinvent yourself this year, the most important thing is shifting your identity.
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When people think about changing their lives, they often try to tackle the surface level behavior.
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But what have I told you that there is something upstream of this, which actually would have a domino effect of making all of this behavior change feel natural and easy.
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And so in this video, I'll walk you through a practical three-part process to undergo this metamorphosis from your old self to a new self, which is the ultimate keystone to unlocking effortlessly lasting change.
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Through my life, I've lived lots of different identities, from A-star student, Cambridge Medical student, doctor, YouTuber, entrepreneur, tech co-founder, wife, mother, and a whole bunch more.
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In this video, we'll firstly walk through how identity change actually works and dive into some of the literature around human transformation.
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And then we'll break down the three stages of metamorphosis and talk about exactly how you can implement this in your own life.
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And as a companion to this video, I've made a completely free template which guides you through all of the action points in this video to help you reinvent your identity.
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If you'd like to grab it, then I'll leave a link down below.
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And feel free to follow me over on Instagram, at Izzy Seeley, for more content like this and also some daily updates, which I don't usually share on YouTube.
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So let's dive in.
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So how identity change actually works.
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Identity shift literally underpins everything.
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It's upstream of behavior change.
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The problem with forcing change on the behavior level of like making yourself do new habits, even when you don't believe that you are the kind of person who does that, is that that change doesn't last and it takes so much energy to maintain.
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An example from medical school was when we were taught how to help support people to create lasting change to their health.
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If, for example, someone identifies as a smoker and they're trying to quit and then they're offered a cigarette by a friend, they might say, oh, sorry, I'm trying not to smoke.
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On the flip side, if someone who was a smoker shifts their identity to believe that they are not a smoker, if someone offers them a cigarette, the answer is obviously, well, no, sorry, I don't smoke.
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And that is a much more powerful, lasting level of change.
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On this channel, I've often talked about keystone habits, which essentially are habits that will affect everything else in your life, such as getting a good night's sleep, which will basically benefit every other area of your life and productivity.
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The strongest force in the human personality is the desire to stay consistent with how we view ourselves.
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This means that however we view ourselves, we will align our behavior, our feelings, how we interact with the world and respond with that belief about ourselves.
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So it's really not just about what we do, it's actually about who we're becoming.
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because if we can shift who we think we are and how we view ourselves, then everything else falls into place naturally.
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An example from my own life is actually the identity of YouTuber.
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For over a year after I started making YouTube videos, I refused to let myself own the identity of being a YouTuber.
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Instead, I would just say, oh, I sometimes make YouTube videos.
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It was only at the moment when my channel hit 100,000 subscribers and I had a silver plaque coming in the post, which I allowed myself to embrace that identity and said, okay, you know what?
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Fair enough, I'm actually a YouTuber now.
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And interestingly, after that point, I noticed that everything to do with YouTube felt much more natural.
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Sitting down to work on a video, either scripting it, researching it, filming, working with my editor to improve the edit, felt aligned with my identity and felt more validated.
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And this is where I experientially realized that our actions follow what we believe about ourselves.
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Here's a paper that demonstrates this really nicely.
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In her paper on identity-based motivation, Oizerman states that people see the world through the lens of the identities that they align themselves with.
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And they also prefer to behave in ways that align with these identities.
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And what we'll talk about for the rest of this video is how, because identity is a mind-created construct, we can influence this.
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The next thing we need to understand about identity is that there can be no rebirth without a death.
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You need to let your old self die.
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Kind of like that line in the Taylor Swift song, sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now.
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Why?
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Oh, cause she's dead.
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By the way, if you're watching this before January the 3rd, 2026, I'm actually hosting a live vision boarding workshop at the Spark Productivity Summit, where I'll be guiding you through every step of visualizing your dream life and then actually making a vision board, which you can take away from the session.
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It's a totally free two-day event, which I'm helping to host.
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And there'll also be talks by my husband, Ali Abdaal, as well as best-selling authors like Anne-Laure LeCunf, TJ Power, Nir Eyal.
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And the whole theme is to essentially get you set up for success in the new year.
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So if you're keen on making 2026 your best year yet, then feel free to sign up for free via the link in my description.
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Hopefully see you there.
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In 1909, Arnold van Genep, who was an ethnographer and anthropologist, wrote a book called The Rites of Passage.
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He spent his life studying the rituals and rites of passage across dozens of human cultures and tribes, and he published this landmark work in The Rites of Passage.
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He found that every single human culture for every meaningful transformation in life, whether it's birth, marriage, initiation, or identity change, follows the exact same three-part structure.
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And this three-part structure mirrors the metamorphosis of a butterfly.
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So the framework that I'm sharing with you today isn't just metaphorical, it's rooted in deep human universals.
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There's firstly a separation from the old identity, then a liminal space in between, and finally a reintegration into the world as somebody new.
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So now let's dive into each of these three stages of metamorphosis.
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The first stage is separation, a bit like when a caterpillar goes into a cocoon and takes that leap to separate from its old self to start to become somebody new.
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The separation phase is a symbolic death of the old identity.
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And so in this cocoon stage, you consciously let go of roles, beliefs, and versions of yourself that no longer fit who you want to become.
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It's letting the old identity die so that you can grow into the woman that you're becoming.
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And let's break this down into actionable steps.
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Firstly is understanding who your old identity was.
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So what were the beliefs about yourself that you had?
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What kinds of things would your mind tell you about yourself?
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Let's take my YouTuber example.
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My internal narrative was, oh, I'm not really a YouTuber.
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I just sometimes make YouTube videos and I happen to be spending hours a week on YouTube, but I don't really have like enough subscribers.
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I don't feel validated in being a YouTuber.
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I was waiting for that external validation before allowing myself to own that identity.
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Because on reflection, part of why I minimized what I was trying to do with YouTube and the identity that I wanted to step into was because I was afraid.
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I was afraid that if I had claimed this identity and said boldly, I want to be a YouTuber, I'm becoming a YouTuber, this is who I'm becoming, and this is my identity now.
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And if I failed, then I would feel bad about myself.
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And I think something that's worth mentioning is that there is always pain and discomfort in adopting a new identity.
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Every single time that I've gone through this kind of transformation, I have felt discomfort on some level.
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And remember that what got you here won't actually get you there to where you want to be.
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Something that I love to do now is a ritual to thank this current or old version of you and let go of it.
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Honoring that it got you to where you are today and has protected you and loved you in its own way, even with all the limiting beliefs and narratives that are kind of keeping you where you are now.
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My narrative, oh, I shouldn't claim an identity bigger than who I am because then if I fail, I will be judged by others.
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That narrative was trying to protect me.
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It was trying to protect me from getting hurt, from feeling bad, from feeling like I had failed.
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And at the same time, it was limiting me.
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And so give yourself some time to write out exactly what kind of beliefs that you have about yourself that you want to let go of and make it into a little bit of a ritual.
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I like to light a candle, set some mood lighting, give myself the time to really process What is it that I'm trying to let go of?
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And the next step here is to define your future self.
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What is the identity that you want to embody?
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And try to drop any sense of judging your ambition for your future self.
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It's sometimes easy to try to think too realistic, which actually keeps us playing small.
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And so whether that's that you want to start your own business and become a business owner, whether you want to become a creator and start making videos online, or if your future identity is more around characteristics, such as becoming a confident person or becoming somebody who values their health and takes care of it every single day.
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Picture that future self clearly, and then maybe write a letter from your future self, sharing all the ways that you have changed how you are in that future version of yourself, the beliefs that you have about yourself, and then downstream of that, how you spend your time.
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Once you've identified where you were and what you're letting go of, and then also where you're going, it's time for the second stage, which is liminality.
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And a bit like how a butterfly starts their metamorphosis in a cocoon, and then they become a chrysalis.
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This is the second stage.
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In the chrysalis stage for a butterfly's metamorphosis, from the caterpillar and cocoon, they literally form the shell around themselves and then they melt down their entire body into like a sludge.
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And this beautifully describes that feeling in this liminal space between identities, because this is the messy, magical in-between where your identity dissolves and reforms.
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The thing that will challenge you in this liminality is that there is an inertia around identity.
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Our old identity shaped both our environment and our relationships.
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And this set of environment and relationships, which your old self created, in turn often maintains the shape of this old identity in our self-concept.
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It's almost this interesting stabilizing effect, which means that our environment and our relationships with either a partner, family, or friends can often encourage us or limit us to return to our default old identity.
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This is often because growth or change shifts the dynamic in that relationship and can make the other person either feel uncomfortable or confused, or they try to treat you how they used to interact with you in your old identity.
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In my experience, for each person that you have a relationship with, it takes about five interactions where you maintain this new identity for them to kind of get it.
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Another example from my creator journey is that some of my old friends that I knew at university, when they found out that I was starting to create content online, they would talk about it behind my back.
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They would kind of laugh about it being like, oh my God, guess who thinks they're like a famous influencer?
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And at the time it hurt to hear about this.
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And that was one of the ways in which when I tried to step outside my previous identity and behavior, that clearly triggered something in these old friends that I had at university to make them want to gossip about it behind my back.
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it switched up the status quo and probably made them feel slightly uncomfortable.
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There are sociological theories around this.
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For example, social identity theory shows us that we don't just define ourselves as individuals, we often define ourselves through the groups that we belong to.
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And we're psychologically wired to protect those group identities and to see our in-group positively and try to maintain that membership.
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So when you try to reinvent yourself, you're not just fighting against your own habits, you're actually fighting against the expectations of people who knew the old you, the environments that were designed for the old you, and also the social groups that reinforce the old you.
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This is exactly why transformation feels so uncomfortable and can also feel really lonely because on some level you're changing shape and maybe becoming unfit for the tribe that you used to be in and then you need to find another to join.
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And your brain interprets that as a threat to your survival.
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We are inherently social beings and really care and value social connection to the point where our brains are literally wired to bend ourselves backwards to get approval from a group and feel accepted.
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Because way back when we were hunter gatherers, If you were rejected by the group, you might be left out in the cold, people wouldn't share their food with you, you had a reduced likelihood of survival.
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But in the modern day where our village is so much more than just the 30 people who happen to be in our tribe, it's a whole big world out there and we can actually step into whoever we want to be and find a new tribe, find a new community.
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And in my experience of going through many identity changes, most people actually stay and they learn to get on board with the new you.
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And the people who fall away, they were never really meant to be.
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And on the environment front, it can sometimes help to create that radical change in your environment, which is actually aligned with your new identity.
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Whether this is in the design of your home or like getting new furniture or like figuring out a new wardrobe that's aligned with the new person that you're becoming, this can all help to support you on your metamorphosis.
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Another thing to do in this chrysalis liminality space is embodying the energy of your new identity.
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The key thing here is you're not faking it till you make it.
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You're actually channeling this energy in alignment with your head, heart, and gut.
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One example of this is Beyonce.
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When Beyonce was starting to perform, she would feel shy or nervous or not confident getting on stage and performing.
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And so she literally created an alter ego.
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She created this identity of Sasha Fierce, who she would embody and channel while she was performing on stage.
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She said that she had to separate herself from the person that she was when she wasn't performing.
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And so Sasha Fierce was the opposite of that shy girl that she used to be.
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That was the separation stage for Beyonce and then in this liminality she would channel Sasha Fierce while she was on stage.
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She would practice the voice, the stage presence, the energy, the power, the confidence of Sasha Fierce over and over again.
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And this was her chrysalis liminality stage where she had defined the identity that she wanted to embody and then was actually practicing it over and over again.
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One way I love to do this is to use incantations, not just plain old affirmations.
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And let me give you an example of how the two feel different.
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For affirmations, you are asked to say the words, I am confident.
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I don't chase, I attract.
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In incantations, you say the words and you back it up with your emotional energy.
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You get energetically behind what you're saying.
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So instead of just saying, I'm confident, even if you don't sound confident, you're not energetically channeling confidence.
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You take a breath and get energetically behind what you're saying.
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I am confident.
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For years, I struggled so much with affirmations.
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And this was actually because I was just saying them, but not really believing them or feeling them.
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And so by switching your affirmations into incantations, where you are incanting the energy of the identity that you're becoming, this can help to really align and start to strengthen that version of you that you're becoming.
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Another tip here is to come up with a circle of mentors that you can channel.
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In your mind, you've probably got an idea of either some celebrities or some people that you know in real life who you really admire and you really are inspired by.
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And when you're in a new situation, sometimes it's difficult to know how your new identity will actually hold themselves.
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And a bit like Beyonce coming up with this new identity of Sasha Fierce, can you come up with a new identity that you embody or just have an idea of some people that you really look up to who you would want to step into becoming more like?
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The final stage is reintegration.
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So in a butterfly's metamorphosis, this is when it comes out and actually takes flight.
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This is when your new identity actually really feels like your new normal.
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And in this example of Beyonce, she said that eventually she no longer needed Sasha Fierce because she had integrated Sasha Fierce's identity into her own.
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That new way of being and viewing herself became her normal.
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And that's exactly what happens when you go through these stages from cocoon to chrysalis to finally butterfly.
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And sometimes people can find that liminality stage really difficult.
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And I know I have definitely found that difficult in the past.
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If you're struggling with taking on a new identity and you feel like at the liminality stage, you constantly slip up, maybe instead of leaping, try just taking a step, a step towards that new identity.
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For example,
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let's say you're trying to cross a puddle in the road and the puddle is pretty big and sometimes leaping all the way to the other side of the puddle is actually
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just too far a leap and what might be easier instead is placing some stepping stones in the puddle and so that you can take a few steps across the puddle instead
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of a massive leap and so if this identity shift feels like too big of a jump maybe see okay what's an intermediate step which I could take and work on going through this three-step process with that intermediate stepping stone instead and the most important part of watching videos like this is actually taking action on them.
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And I've tried my very best in this video to make what can sometimes seem like a bit of an abstract concept of identity shift as practical as possible.
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So I'd like to invite you to choose two action points that you're actually gonna make happen in your life today and write them down in your journal or in the
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comments below or send me an email or tell a friend because it's my deepest wish for you that you can actually integrate this into your own life and reinvent yourself from the deepest level.
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If you enjoy this video, I think you'll like this video over here where I walk you through a seven day process to turn your life around and get out of a rut and start building meaningful momentum towards creating your dream life.
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As always, thank you for watching.
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Take care of yourself and remember that the journey is the destination.
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I'll see you in the next video.
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Bye.
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Context & Background
In this enlightening YouTube video, the speaker explores the idea of personal transformation and identity change as fundamental to achieving lasting behavioral shifts. By sharing personal experiences and research insights, the speaker argues that merely altering behaviors without addressing underlying identities is often ineffective. This critical perspective allows viewers to reconsider their approach to self-improvement, particularly in the new year, motivating them to engage in a transformative process aimed at reinventing themselves. The emphasis is on the significant notion that our self-perception shapes our actions, leading to a more natural and sustainable change in habits.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "I'm trying to quit smoking." - This reflects an identity in transition, offering a pathway to reframe one's self-view.
- "I sometimes make YouTube videos." - A hesitation to fully claim one's identity can hinder progress; embracing it facilitates growth.
- "I don't smoke." - A powerful self-identification that signifies deep transformation and commitment.
- "I'm hosting a workshop." - This showcases an active role in empowering others through shared experiences.
- "I visualize my dream life." - Engaging in visualization is a crucial step toward manifesting identity change.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively learn English with YouTube and incorporate the teachings from this video, follow this step-by-step shadowing guide:
- Watch Actively: Play the video and pay attention to the speaker's tone and rhythm. This will not only improve your understanding but also aid in enhancing your improve English pronunciation.
- Pause and Repeat: After each phrase, pause the video and repeat what you heard. Use the top 5 phrases listed above for targeted practice, ensuring you mimic both the pronunciation and intonation.
- Voice Recording: Record yourself saying the phrases. Listen to your recordings to identify areas where you can improve and align yourself with the speaker’s delivery.
- Contextual Learning: Use the phrases in your daily conversations. This practice not only reinforces your learning but also develops fluency, vital for your IELTS speaking practice.
- Engage with Content: Follow the speaker on their social media platforms for additional insights and updates. This ongoing engagement will help you adapt their learned identity change strategies into your own life.
By integrating these techniques in your learning regimen, you can effectively use shadowspeak to embrace language and identity transformation, thus fostering a more profound connection with English. Engage with the content and allow it to influence both your language skills and personal growth.
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.
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