Shadowing Practice: "Why Do I Keep Missing My Goals?" - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If you want to achieve a goal, you're either going to have to accept boredom or pain.
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And the bigger the goal, the more of both you'll get.
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When I started my gym, I actually lived with six other people in one house.
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This is like off a beach town.
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Think like sand everywhere, people everywhere, dirty dishes everywhere, not enough room in the refrigerator for food, cooking was an absolute mess.
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Almost all of them had dogs.
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So a couple had two dogs, another couple had one dog, another guy had a dog different dogs in the house
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and they were like all marking territory it was horrendous
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and i was splitting one room with a guy with a
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bet like two beds my bed was on the floor his bed was you know elevated
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because he uh he could afford that at the time
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and i would sleep with a fan on my face i couldn't hear anything
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that was my secret like as the fan like there's like
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the wind over like that's all i could hear the thing is is like i was doing
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that when i was making like 20 grand a month take home there's always trade-offs
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and the trade-off for me of living in that condition was
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that that I could invest in the dream and build the business that I had at the time.
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Now I could look back because I ended up losing everything a few years later.
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You get this negative cycle of all of that suffering was for nothing.
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But it wasn't for nothing because I learned all these skills along the way.
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You also can't operate from the perspective of I might lose it all in the future
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which means everything I do today is not worth anything.
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Because you're going to lose 100% of everything the moment you die.
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So trying to say that you might lose something in the future as a reason not to do something is ridiculous.
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You're going to lose everything at some point.
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You cannot wish for both strong character and an easy life because the price of one is the other.
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When I think about pain, I think about what thing am I paying for right now?
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And is that thing something that I want?
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And if so, it reframes the pain as the price of the thing that I want.
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This is super interesting.
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They've done research on this where they have somebody who like accepts like shocks.
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They can like opt out at any point.
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If you have the same man who's getting shocked
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and then you tell that man in the other room every shock he takes his family doesn't have to take, his threshold of pain quadruples.
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This may seem like some quote mindset whatever, but the thing is the bigger your goals the more pain you're going to endure,
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whether you want to or not.
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It's the price.
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And if you can endure four times more pain than someone else, I don't actually think that it feels four times more painful.
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I think it feels the same level of pain, but you have this padding that makes it feel worth it.
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Give a man a purpose and the ability to achieve it, and he will crawl over broken glass with a smile.
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That broken glass, like how can you have a smile during the pain?
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It's because of what the pain itself represents.
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Now I'm gonna get a little bit into behavior because I think it's valuable.
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I talk a lot about reward and punishment, but those are kind of more colloquial terms.
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When it comes down to behavior, it's actually reinforcers.
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A reinforcer can be negative, meaning it can be something that's aversive.
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So for example, if I know that every time I hit my hand with a hammer, I'm going to grow muscle,
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hitting my hand with a hammer or taking the shock from my family means something positive, which is that I'm protecting my family, I'm helping my country, I'm doing something that I deem meaningful,
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the pain itself can become a positive reinforcer because you know you're making progress towards the thing you want.
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Now you might think of that and be like, well I don't want to have the pain.
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The thing is that when you're going through it, if you have this frame, it isn't as painful.
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In a lot of ways it's like we are our own sculpture that we're working on and as we chisel away, we also get to reveal the type of person that we want to become,
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the traits and the behaviors and the belief sets that go with the man or woman that we're trying to grow into.
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And so I wrote this story, I want to say a year ago, maybe two years ago, that related this that I just want to share with you.
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So imagine you're talking to the creator of the universe about the person that you want to become.
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And so you say, you know, I want to be courageous.
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And the creator replies, then I will give you monsters that terrify you.
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That way you can conquer them.
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And you say, well, I want to be patient.
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And the creator replies, then I will make you work harder and longer and nothing will come easy to you.
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That way you can learn to wait.
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Or like, okay, well, I want to be wise.
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And so the creator says, then I will give you failures that will crush your spirit.
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That way you can learn the value of judgment.
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Then you say, that sounds like a hard life.
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Can you give me a good life?
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And the creator replies, just like we measure the quality of a blacksmith by the strength of his steel, I measure you by what you are at the end, not the fire and the hammer that it took to make you.
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A good life isn't an easy life.
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A good life makes you into a good person.
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And that, my child, is a hard life.
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It's about who we become doing the work more than the outcome from the work itself and I love this, and this is a reframing of Proverbs, but the work works on you more than you work on it.
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Like in all labor there is profit meaning we always benefit from work even
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if the thing that we work on gets destroyed even
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if you went bankrupt even if you know that relationship didn't work out even if that partnership falls apart.
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The work you did is eternal because it changes you.
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For those you don't know who are new to my channel I lost everything five years into my entrepreneurial journey.
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And then I made a little bit more and then I lost it all again.
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But the thing is that I had this idea that, oh, I have to start from scratch again.
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But that's not true because you can only start from scratch once.
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Every time after that you start with an experience.
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A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an opinion.
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And you transition from the second to the first, the moment you begin working because you're no longer somebody who has an opinion.
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And as soon as you know what that truth is, because you've been there and you've actually done it, and you have the scars to show for it,
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then their opinions matter significantly less.
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I'll give you a different reframe that I've had for redefining pain as it relates to other people,
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which is, you can summarize just about every hateful comment on the internet into one thing.
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He lives his life in a way that I would not prefer.
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That's it.
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Everything is, he lives his life in a way that I would not prefer.
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To which I respond, yes.
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I do live my life in a way that most people would not prefer.
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And they live their life in a way that I would not prefer.
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And that is why it is their life, and they can live their life the way that they want to live their way, the way they prefer it.
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And I will live my life the way that I prefer it.
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They cast these stones at you as though it matters.
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My dad told me this when he was going through his divorce.
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He said he went through this divorce conference, and the speaker on stage said to somebody in the audience.
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He said, hey, here's a ball.
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And he threw it to him.
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And he said, okay, throw it back to me.
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So he caught the ball.
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He said, now I want you to imagine that this ball is a steaming hot pile of shit.
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And he threw it to the person again.
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And the person caught it.
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He said, why would you catch it?
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And so the lesson of that is just because someone hurls at you doesn't mean you need to catch it.
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You don't need to choose to participate.
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And I thought that was a really interesting frame.
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People can hurl whatever they want.
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It doesn't mean that they have justified a response or that you need to accept it.
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And that little reframe of, oh, I live my life in a way that other people would not prefer.
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Well, that makes sense.
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I'm not trying to live the same life as them. So, of course.
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And then they say, he made trade-offs that I would not make.
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And I say, of course.
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Of course I did.
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Why is this somehow an insult?
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When I was making those trades in the earlier days, I didn't know when I would be successful or if I would be successful.
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The only thing that I knew for sure was that I wasn't going to stop. And that was it.
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I know I can just not stop and that's something that I can commit to and that's controllable.
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I think a lot of the big gift of hardship is that it doesn't define you, it reveals you.
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The benefit is that you get to see who you really are and you make that decision yourself every day.
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I have this perspective on loyalty which is that like you cannot say that you are loyal until your loyalty is tested.
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You cannot say you're patient until your patience is tested.
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Otherwise it's an opinion, not an experience.
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You can't say that you handle hardship and that you are emotionally resilient until you've had something to be emotionally resilient about.
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The gift of the hard time is to give you proof of who you are
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so that the rest of your life you get to know that you did that.
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And you get to tell that story and relive that story to yourself for the rest of your life.
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And to me, that gives the hardship memory dividends that pay forever until the day you die.
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I'll tell you a story.
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and some of the SEC schools are renowned for hazing and aggressive stuff.
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And so I was going to join a fraternity.
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And obviously they build up how hard pledging is going to be and all this stuff, right?
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And I called my dad to talk about it.
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And he just said, remember there is nothing
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that they can do to you that is harder than what you've already been through.
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And it was a great reframe because I remember the times You know, like when, you know, things would be quote hard during that
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that season of pledging and I would just think about the things
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that I had already Survived the things that I had already been through at
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that point and it made what they believed to be suffering appear childish I was like this is cute
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But for the people who were present in the moment rather than being able to relive through their memory dividends
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Using it as a shield for my emotional affect during the
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moment was like All right I have these eight weeks where
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I have to stand here before you apparently give me a stamp of approval fine, then I will do that.
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I live my life in ways that you would not prefer.
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And that carried me a pretty long way.
Speaking Goals for This Clip: Mastering Authentic Storytelling & Persuasive Tone
This video is perfect for practicing shadow speak to build fluency in sharing personal stories with emotion and logic. You’ll learn to connect ideas naturally—like shifting from personal anecdotes to research examples—while keeping your tone engaging. It’s ideal for reaching that "conversational confidence" milestone, where you can discuss big ideas (like goal-setting) without sounding scripted.
Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Real-Life Chats
- "reframes the pain as the price of the thing that I want" – Great for explaining trade-offs in goals or decisions.
- "negative cycle of all that suffering was for nothing" – Useful when talking about setbacks or self-doubt.
- "threshold of pain quadruples" – A vivid way to describe increased resilience (perfect for debates or motivational talks).
- "give a man a purpose and the ability to achieve it, and he will crawl over broken glass with a smile" – A memorable quote to emphasize motivation in stories or speeches.
- "reinforcers can be negative, meaning it can be something aversive" – Helpful for discussing behavior or psychology in casual conversations.
Fix Your Weak Spots: Rhythm & Emphasis in Complex Sentences
The dialogue uses long, flowing sentences with pauses (e.g., "When I started my gym, I actually lived with six other people in one house…") that can trip up learners. Practice shadowing to mimic the natural rhythm—pause after commas, stress key words like "horrendous" or "meaningful," and vary your tone when shifting from stories to facts. This will help you sound more natural when speaking about complex topics. Pro tip: Use a shadowing site to slow down the audio and repeat phrases until you match the pace and emphasis.
Why This Works for English Speaking Practice
Learning English with videos like this one helps you master real-world language—not just textbook phrases. The mix of personal stories, research, and casual terms ("colloquial," "aversive") exposes you to diverse vocabulary. By focusing on shadow speak, you’ll train your mouth to form tricky sounds and your brain to think in English. Remember: The pain of practice is the price of fluency—and with a purpose (like sounding confident in conversations), that "pain" becomes a positive reinforcer. So hit play, repeat, and turn every challenge into progress!
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.