Shadowing Practice: when did you stop dreaming - Learn English Speaking with Video

that dream is worth holding on to.

And please don't let anybody tell you that it's not.

Anything is possible.

Whenever all signs pointed towards it's not possible, I kept telling myself over and over and over again, it was a decision.

It was not based on fact.

It was not based on anything that I saw.

It was just my dream and a decision based off that dream.

Over

and over again, I would tell myself no I'm going to make this happen

I don't know how I don't know where it's going to

come from I don't even know where I'm going to find

the motivation to do all of these things I say I'm going to

but I'm going to coming back to the decision

that I am good enough and I do deserve this

and I can do this and I am going to figure it out

and I am going to be in the right place at

the right time keep going keep committing those failures those rejections

those things in your way are actually revealing the path even further.

They're revealing to you what it is that you get to learn now, what you get to do a little bit differently, how you get to try again.

Don't give up.

Don't give up when it feels hard.

Stop letting other people's projections of their fears and everything get to you.

You have a different path.

You have different strengths.

You have different passions.

You are meant for something and you know it deep down

and it is painful for you to give up that dream so don't give it up.

I think

it's a good idea.

I feel like I've never made a video in jeans before.

I feel like you guys have never seen me in jeans before.

Oh my gosh, look at this lizard really quickly.

There we go.

I'm definitely sitting right beside some poison oak.

Hi everyone.

I am sitting in the forest behind my apartment right now

and the creek is going a little bit since we've had some crazy summer storms this past month.

It's just sort of indescribably peaceful

and beautiful back here oh my gosh the cardinals there are just red cardinals flying everywhere

and the creek is flowing birds and the bugs and the deer

and everything and i know

that maybe not everyone it's not everyone's dream to live amongst the nature

but for me ever since i was a little girl

when i was in sixth grade my instagram was called nature nymph

and i have just always been on this you guys like this is not really an aesthetic

or style that i picked up just deciding to

oh love these bugs ew oh that is scary looking okay

so you're seeing the ups and downs of this nature right

but um i've loved nature and flowers

and all these things for as long as i've lived

and i've always dreamt of living on my own to say

that i have done this and that i have moved out on my own, with my own money, on my own terms,

at 23 years old, I have made my dreams come true.

And I know I have a lot more life left to live.

And some people might be like, okay, living in a forest at 23 years old, good for you.

But that literally has been my dream for so long is to just to be independent,

to be in a place that I fully am surrounded by things

that make me feel peaceful and happy and inspired and I did it and I am doing it.

And it's not easy.

Living out the dream is not always easy

and it doesn't always look the way we think it's going to

and realizing that I've made this dream come true is also not really easy.

Allowing your body, a body that has been in survival mode for so many years, for so much time, to actually believe no you're safe now,

No, you accomplished the thing that you spent years and years and years and nights and days dreaming about, daydreaming about, fantasizing about, praying for.

This thing is real and you've made it a reality.

Sometimes actually taking that in feels impossible because our body is used to survival.

It's used to struggle.

It's used to pain.

It's preparing us for the next difficult thing to go through

and it doesn't believe that it can accept peace or happiness

or the things that maybe we've been wishing and dreaming for all along.

So I've currently been in a process where I'm learning to let these dreams sink in, to let any sort of accomplishment that I've made sink.

Look at this.

There's just so many things I'm seeing everywhere.

Hold on.

It's a cicada.

You see these cicada shells all over the place.

It's kind of sad because they're the things that you hear right now and they die, but it's part of life, right?

okay but anyway it's not always easy to accept

that we've accomplished something

and i found myself self-sabotaging a lot recently just trying to deny the fact

that i've made certain dreams come true which sounds

so silly to reject a reality that you've always wanted

but sometimes that's what our body and mind will do

if all we know and all we've been used to is pain

or survival or sorry about that mosquito or just trying to get by

when we're not in

that phase anymore it can take a lot of getting used

to it takes sometimes like sitting with myself for hours

and hours and letting myself cry and having to process these changes

and these emotions but overall when I sit here

and I reflect on the fact

that I have made my dreams come true I think about every single time

that I wanted to give up even now times

that I feel like rejecting this reality or just giving up

or telling myself I'm not worth it there were just

so many moments in this journey

and there still continue to be of me not wanting to believe in myself

and me thinking that my dreams are outlandish

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and like I can't make them happen

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and this person is telling me I can't do it

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that way and this person is saying this and I can't do it

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because of x y and z and I have negative dollars in my bank account and how is it gonna work out?

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Like I have been in these positions time and time again where everything feels like it is not going to make sense.

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And I promise you, if you decide that it is and you decide that your dream is worth it regardless, you can accomplish things that seem impossible.

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You can make the impossible possible just if you decide.

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And I know that it sounds like I'm simplifying everything.

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It's just based on a decision, but I am telling you it is a decision to keep your dreams alive

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and to continue to commit to them every single day no matter what that looks like for you.

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The cutest little mushrooms are sitting in front of me right now.

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They are so adorable.

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I know I can't speak for everybody but I can speak my story

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and my experience and I for some reason I wanted to make this video

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because I know that you need to hear this too.

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I know that there were some of you out there that felt like giving up on your dream.

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I don't care what age you are,

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who you are, what you look like, where you live, no matter what this video is for you, but I specifically know that during this time in our lives,

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whenever we're becoming adults and we're in our early 20s, this is the time that we give up our dreams.

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This is the time that we start to think, oh maybe they were right, maybe the real world is too much, maybe I do need to give this up, maybe I do need to start thinking this way,

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maybe I do need to be more practical, this, this, and that.

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And don't get me wrong, I love to be prepared, I love stability, I love security, I love reading finance books,

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I love learning about everything

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that I felt like I want to be better at as an adult and learn how to do.

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There are responsibilities that we have.

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There are things that we're gonna learn.

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There are things that we've never done before that we're going to be faced with.

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I know that the real world is harsh.

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I know how depressing- Oh my gosh.

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So I didn't know that airplanes could get that close.

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Okay.

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I know what it's like to feel completely swallowed by the disappointment of reality and growing up without money, not knowing what is going to happen,

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what you're going to do.

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I know there are tools and lessons and things

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that we must ensure that we understand

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and keep in place in order to sustain a life for ourselves and to build a life for ourselves.

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There is so much to learn.

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But when it comes to giving up, what brings us the most joy?

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The thing that makes us feel alive?

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That's what I'm talking about.

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When did you stop dreaming?

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I know you're thinking about it.

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I know that you're thinking about giving it all up.

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And if I can ever do anything for you, I want this video to be a sign to not give up.

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I want this video to be a sign that yes, I know that sometimes it's so confusing and disappointing and strange

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when we are trying to make our dreams come true or pursue our passions or take risks.

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I know that it can feel so disappointing and scary

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and full of failure and rejection and like maybe we aren't supposed to prioritize

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or pursue our passions and we're meant to just play it safe

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and keep ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction and unhappiness our whole lives.

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I know that sometimes that feels like the answer

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but I swear to you there are ways to continue to prioritize your passion even

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if that means that you have to balance other lessons in life

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and there are other things that you must do in order to survive and take care of yourself.

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I understand that but I promise you prioritizing that dream, even if it's a little bit,

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even if it's just including your passions in your everyday life for five to ten minutes, whether that is, I don't know, like I'm friends with an actress, right?

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And she is doing what she needs to to make ends meet right now

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and she feels as though part of her creative soul is dying because she's not giving to her craft in her lifestyle.

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And she realized, oh no, okay, if I keep giving in to what the world is telling me to do here

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and to just play it safe and to not actually pursue my passions, if I keep going down that route, I'm going to keep feeling this creative part of me,

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this child in me, this passion in me die off and I don't want that.

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So now she is figuring out every single day how she

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can include a little bit of her passion back into her life, whether that's at work reading a chunk of a play every day

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or watching a film that she's very passionate about or studying a certain actor that she looks up to, even if it's just a few minutes every single day,

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She's prioritizing her passion.

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There was a time

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that I was working a job where I completely gave up my camera I gave up my writing

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and I was so unhappy and I was making money

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and I was creating security for myself in a normal job and I could Well, I don't know how normal it was but you know in a job

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that wasn't had nothing to do with my creative abilities I couldn't do it I didn't want

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that security if it meant sacrificing the things I knew I was meant to do So I am telling you, even if it feels so far away

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and you feel like you haven't even touched your passion

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and what brings you peace and joy in your life in so long, I promise you it is not too late.

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I don't care how old you are.

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I don't care what it is you've spent all your time doing.

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It is never too late to prioritize your passion a little bit more and to feed to your dream again.

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I don't know what that looks like for you.

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Maybe it's going all in and it is taking a huge risk.

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Maybe it's moving across the country.

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Maybe it's pursuing your passion after work, before work, during work.

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Maybe it's talking about it with your coworkers.

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I don't know.

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I don't know what it exactly looks like for all of us.

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All I know is that that dream is worth holding onto.

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And please don't let anybody tell you that it's not.

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I've watched too many people, especially at this period in our lives,

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let fear hold them back and let other people's stories hold them back and I don't want that for you.

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I don't want that for me.

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I don't want fear to hold me back.

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I don't want fear to hold anyone I love back.

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I want you to know that anything is possible.

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Whenever all signs pointed towards it's not possible, I kept telling myself over and over and over again, it was a decision.

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It was not based on fact.

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It was not based on anything that I saw.

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It was just my dream and a decision based off that dream.

195

Over and over again, I would tell myself, no, I'm going to make this happen.

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I don't know how.

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I don't know where it's going to come from.

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I don't even know where I'm going to find the motivation to do all of these things I say I'm going to, but I'm going to.

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And coming back to that decision every single day is not easy.

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And that's kind of what I'm sitting with here today.

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Coming back to the decision that I am good enough

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and I do deserve this and I can do this

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and I am going to figure it out

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and I am going to be in the right place at the right time and I'm going to meet the right person.

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I'm going to find the right resources.

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Everything will present itself to me.

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Making that decision over and over again is not always easy.

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I know.

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And that's why people give up on the commitment to their dream

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or to a mindset or a belief that will help them get there is because they don't see it working fast enough.

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So they think, yeah, you know what?

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Everyone's right.

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This is stupid.

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I shouldn't believe in myself.

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Look, I got rejected or look, this didn't work out or look I'm failing in this way

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but no keep going keep committing those failures those rejections those

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things in your way are actually revealing the path even further they're revealing to you what it is

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that you get to learn now what you get to do

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a little bit differently how you get to try again don't give up don't give up

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when it feels hard don't give up when you fail failure is a win.

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It's showing you what you need to do to get there.

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Keep going.

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Because if I gave up every time that I felt hideous

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or that I felt worthless or that I felt like it wasn't going to happen or that I was unsure, then I would not be sitting here right now in this little forest of my dreams.

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I would not be living the life that I still cannot even believe that I'm living right now.

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It is because I've committed to a decision over and over and over again.

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And even right now, I'm in a stage where I don't know what's gonna happen next

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or how I'm going to live out the next part of my dream that I see, but I am just deciding.

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Just decide.

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You decide.

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We've talked about that before.

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You decide that this dream is coming true.

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Nobody else will.

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Stop letting other people's projections of their fears and everything get to you.

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You have a different path.

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You have different strengths.

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You have different passions.

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You are meant for something and you know it deep down and it is painful for you to give up that dream, so don't give it up.

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Your dream, your strengths, your future, all that you can envision in your mind, it is there for a reason.

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And I know there are a million things telling you why it can't happen and why it shouldn't happen, but if I can be the one thing to tell you

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that it is going to happen if you decide and

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if you commit and if you stick with it and you love

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and commit to that dream and yourself over and over again despite the fear, despite the failure, despite the shortcomings,

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despite the lack of this and that, figure it out.

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Find a way.

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I may have disadvantages in my life but I also have privileges

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and I watch people who have so much less than me do massive things

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because they believed and they decided and they found a way.

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So I am telling you I promise you there is a way

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and I don't want to hear excuses I know I know

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I know there is a way to make it happen There is a way to prioritize it even

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if it's just a few minutes out of your day I

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promise you what you focus on will grow Whatever attitude

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and mindset you decide to come back to that is your life However,

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you decide to perceive your life and what is possible is what makes it possible Anyways guys, I know that was kind of a quick message

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But I really really had to say that today

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because I was just thinking about it as I was spending some time outside

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And I know there's someone out there who needed to hear it because i've needed to hear it a million times.

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So Remember that we are on this journey together and I will talk to you very very soon I love you.

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Bye Thank you.

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 Practice: when did you stop dreaming - Learn English Speaking with Video

About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

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What is the Shadowing Technique?