English Podcast: Belief and Confidence | Advanced — Transcript

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1. 0:00I think believing in yourself is the
2. 0:02most important thing when it comes to
3. 0:04learning something difficult or trying
4. 0:06something new. And the reason I've been
5. 0:08thinking about this recently is because
6. 0:11I'm planning to make some new types of
7. 0:14videos soon, which I'm sure I'm going to
8. 0:17find very difficult and very challenging
9. 0:21because all of the videos that I've made
10. 0:22so far are me talking to you in a park.
11. 0:27Sorry, the train's behind me if you
12. 0:29could hear that. But I'm planning to
13. 0:31make some videos in like louder places,
14. 0:35like even louder than this train now.
15. 0:37And with lots more distractions and lots
16. 0:40more people. And it will be hard. And I
17. 0:44was thinking like when I was thinking
18. 0:45about how I'm going to do these videos,
19. 0:49it was like quite fear inducing. It was
20. 0:52quite stressful. And like obviously
21. 0:55that's true because like anytime the
22. 0:57brain experiences something new, it sees
23. 1:00it as a threat. So it makes sense that I
24. 1:03was finding it so stressful. But I'm
25. 1:05going to do it anyway. And it got me
26. 1:08thinking when you're trying something
27. 1:10new, what comes first? Is it belief or
28. 1:13is it action? Like do you need to
29. 1:15believe in yourself to try something or
30. 1:18do you try something and then after a
31. 1:21while start to believe in yourself? And
32. 1:23I think it's an interesting question
33. 1:25with regards to language learning as
34. 1:27well. So for me, when I started learning
35. 1:30Spanish, uh I thought about like how do
36. 1:34I want to learn Spanish? That's the
37. 1:36first step, right? How do I do this? And
38. 1:38I I found comprehensible input and
39. 1:40that's how I learn Spanish. And then the
40. 1:42next step was okay, like how long is
41. 1:44this going to take? Um, and I basically
42. 1:49found out that to reach a good level,
43. 1:51it's about 1,000 hours. 1,000 hours I
44. 1:54can be confident that I'll be at quite a
45. 1:56good level. And I thought, okay, 1,000
46. 1:58hours, sure, that sounds easy. Um, and
47. 2:00then I broke it down and I was like,
48. 2:02okay, let's say I want to get good in a
49. 2:04year and a half. Call it 500 days.
50. 2:06That's 2 hours a day for 500 days. And
51. 2:11like before I started doing it, like why
52. 2:14would you believe like why would you
53. 2:16believe in your ability to do something
54. 2:19before you've done it? And at first I
55. 2:22really struggled like I just couldn't
56. 2:24hit 2 hours. Like I couldn't focus for
57. 2:27long enough. I couldn't find content
58. 2:29that was interesting enough. Especially
59. 2:30when you're a beginner, it's really hard
60. 2:32to find anything interesting. And my
61. 2:34time management wasn't good enough. And
62. 2:37I reached a point almost where it was
63. 2:39like, am I even going to be able to do
64. 2:42this? Like the with the amount that I'm
65. 2:43doing each day, it's going to take me so
66. 2:45long to reach a high level. But I kept
67. 2:48going. I kept iterating. I kept trying
68. 2:50to improve. Uh I kept, you know, trying
69. 2:53to improve my focus, trying to find
70. 2:55slightly more interesting content. And
71. 2:58like over time you get better at it. And
72. 3:01you know suddenly I was doing 2 hours a
73. 3:04day one day and the next day and the
74. 3:07next day and then after weeks and months
75. 3:09of that you start to build up this like
76. 3:12backlog of evidence and you become like
77. 3:16subconsciously confident in your ability
78. 3:19to do it because you've done it for so
79. 3:22long. So I think naturally a lot of
80. 3:25people talk about belief following
81. 3:28action and I think that does make sense
82. 3:30and as a side point if you've had days
83. 3:32where you're struggling to focus like
84. 3:34that's so normal so don't worry like
85. 3:36just keep trying. Um,
86. 3:38but I think it's it's not always as
87. 3:40simple. It's not just as simple as
88. 3:43saying belief follows action because
89. 3:46confidence follows action and ability
90. 3:49follows action. But there has to be
91. 3:51something that gets you to start in the
92. 3:54first place. Like you have to have this
93. 3:56self-belief that you can improve at
94. 3:59something and that you can because when
95. 4:01you first start doing anything, anything
96. 4:04that is hard to do, you're going to be
97. 4:06bad at it. And there needs to be
98. 4:08something that gets you through that
99. 4:11initial period where it's really hard
100. 4:13and you're not good at it. I think a
101. 4:15good example is like my YouTube videos.
102. 4:18Like my first videos are so bad. Like
103. 4:20they're really bad. Um and I knew they
104. 4:23would be bad. Like I didn't I wasn't
105. 4:25arrogant enough to think I could just
106. 4:27start making YouTube videos and they'd
107. 4:29be really good. I knew they would be
108. 4:32bad, but I also was confident that, you
109. 4:35know, other people can do this. So like,
110. 4:38why can't why can't I as well? I've just
111. 4:40got to put in the time to try to do it.
112. 4:43And I think something that I like try to
113. 4:46keep in mind whenever I'm like trying
114. 4:48something new or taking on a new
115. 4:51challenge um is how to do it first
116. 4:55thing. Second thing is how much time is
117. 4:59this going to take me? Am I willing to
118. 5:01put in the time? And I think like
119. 5:04there's almost I really believe like
120. 5:06genuinely there's really very few things
121. 5:08that you can get good at obviously like
122. 5:10professional sport. I'm never going to
123. 5:12be a professional football player.
124. 5:13That's fine. But like if lots of other
125. 5:16people can do something, I think like
126. 5:18why can't I? And I feel like it's very
127. 5:22possible to do a lot of things if you're
128. 5:23willing to put in the time is what I'm
129. 5:25saying. So like is it possible to learn
130. 5:28English? Of course. Like of course it
131. 5:30is. Um you just need to put in the time
132. 5:33doing the right things. Um, and it's
133. 5:36something that like I've always felt
134. 5:38very confident in my ability to get good
135. 5:40at Spanish because lots of other people
136. 5:42have done it. It's very well documented
137. 5:45how to improve in a language. Uh, why
138. 5:48can't why can't I do that? Um, and then
139. 5:50once you believe once you've got the
140. 5:53evidence of you doing what you need to
141. 5:55do consistently for a long time,
142. 5:58um, you really feel this belief and you
143. 6:01feel this confidence and it's it's a
144. 6:02really great feeling and you know, but
145. 6:05to get there
146. 6:07you need to be like very failure
147. 6:10resistant. You need to get very
148. 6:12comfortable with failing. Um, I think
149. 6:15like something I try to be in my life is
150. 6:17like comfortable with failure because
151. 6:20those first phases when you're trying
152. 6:21something new, when you're putting
153. 6:22yourself out there, they are really hard
154. 6:24because it's not it's not nice to not be
155. 6:26very good at something. And I think if
156. 6:29you can just get used to failing and be
157. 6:31confident in your ability to like fail
158. 6:34and not be good and like if you're
159. 6:36speaking English be confident or not
160. 6:38confident but be willing to make
161. 6:40mistakes and to speak and maybe not feel
162. 6:43embarrassed that you're making mistakes
163. 6:44and realize it's all part of the
164. 6:46process. I think it's a a a life skill
165. 6:49that I try to follow and I think is
166. 6:52quite useful for learning languages. I
167. 6:54think with other things uh like maybe
168. 6:57learning a language is quite well
169. 6:59documented and a lot of people have done
170. 7:01it. I think with other things like for
171. 7:04example I guess making YouTube videos
172. 7:07it's quite a hard thing to try to do
173. 7:10because at least in my friendship group
174. 7:12no one makes YouTube videos. It's not
175. 7:14like something my family do. And there's
176. 7:16lots of research and lots of evidence
177. 7:18that shows we feel more comfortable and
178. 7:21we believe in ourselves more when people
179. 7:23around us are doing the same thing and
180. 7:25we're surrounded by people who have done
181. 7:27it. So I guess maybe for things that are
182. 7:31slightly different, this probably
183. 7:33touches more on limiting beliefs. Um,
184. 7:36and you need to like let go of this idea
185. 7:39of being like I'm not the type of person
186. 7:41who can make YouTube videos or I'm not
187. 7:42the type of person who can do this, who
188. 7:45can do that. And I think maybe if you're
189. 7:48if you have people in your circle who
190. 7:49have learned English, you will probably
191. 7:51feel more confident that you can learn
192. 7:53English because you know them. So you
193. 7:55think like why can't I do that? But I
194. 7:57understand if you're someone who isn't
195. 7:59surrounded by anyone who's learned
196. 8:00English, if your family don't speak
197. 8:02English, if not a lot of your friends
198. 8:03speak English. It's difficult to
199. 8:06necessarily believe that you could do it
200. 8:07as well. So I think if you can boil it
201. 8:10down to this is how I do it. am I
202. 8:14willing to do it? I think that really
203. 8:16helps. And of course, belief comes and
204. 8:18goes. Um especially with something like
205. 8:20learning a language, it's like such a
206. 8:23long process. There's going to be times
207. 8:25where you're feeling more confident.
208. 8:26There's going to be other times where
209. 8:28you're not feeling as confident. Uh for
210. 8:30me, like recently, I've been very busy.
211. 8:32A lot of my friends have got married
212. 8:34recently, so I've had a lot of weddings.
213. 8:36I've had a lot of stags. Um, a stag or a
214. 8:39stag do is I guess it's what Americans
215. 8:42would call like a bachelor party. Um,
216. 8:45where the groom or the the person
217. 8:48getting married, the man getting married
218. 8:50goes on a night out or a trip away with
219. 8:53their closest friends and normally ends
220. 8:55up getting really drunk. So, that's been
221. 8:58something that I've I've been very busy
222. 9:00basically recently is what I'm trying to
223. 9:01say. Um, and it's meant that I haven't
224. 9:05spent as much time learning Spanish. And
225. 9:07I think when you go through those like
226. 9:08little lulls, those like points where
227. 9:11you're not doing what you would like to
228. 9:14be doing and you're a bit out of
229. 9:15routine, you subconsciously kind of
230. 9:18believe in yourself a bit less and it's
231. 9:19harder to get back into that routine.
232. 9:22But then after being back for a few days
233. 9:23and, you know, back on top of things,
234. 9:25doing my Spanish again, it's like, okay,
235. 9:27like this is something I do. I can do
236. 9:29it. Like there's nothing to worry about.
237. 9:31Um, so belief definitely comes and goes
238. 9:34and it comes and goes with different
239. 9:36things at different times. Like I guess
240. 9:37my confidence with making YouTube videos
241. 9:40is quite high right now because I've
242. 9:41managed to keep producing videos even
243. 9:44while I've been so busy. Um,
244. 9:47>> but yeah, it's it's not always super
245. 9:50consistent. Um, which is also I think
246. 9:54quite nice to remember if there's ever a
247. 9:56time where you're you're struggling a
248. 9:58bit. If you can understand me now,
249. 9:59there's no reason why you can't reach a
250. 10:02very high level in English. Because to
251. 10:04be able to understand me, you must have
252. 10:06put in lots of hours, lots and lots of
253. 10:09hours, and there's no reason why you
254. 10:11can't do that again, and you can't
255. 10:13improve your level even higher. So, if
256. 10:16you've reached this far in the video,
257. 10:18thank you for watching. Uh, it's getting
258. 10:20very dark now. I hope it's come out okay
259. 10:22on camera. Um, but thank you for
260. 10:24watching. Keep an eye out for those
261. 10:26videos I was talking about at the start,
262. 10:28which are going to be a bit harder for
263. 10:29me to make. Hopefully, they'll be coming
264. 10:31out soon. Who knows, maybe I'll be
265. 10:33terrible at them and they won't see the
266. 10:34light of day, but we'll see. Um, and
267. 10:37yeah, thank you for watching and I'll
268. 10:39see you in the next