How to be disciplined ( B1) | Learn French Easily with Podcast | episode 3 | Easy French — Transcript

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1. 0:00Welcome to Simply French Podcast.
2. 0:10Hello everyone, and welcome to our podcast. I'm Victor.
3. 0:15Hello Victor. Hello everyone. I'm Amélie.
4. 0:22Hello Amélie. Things aren't going very well, I think. You seem discouraged
5. 0:26. I'm more than discouraged, Victor, I'm disappointed in myself. Monday
6. 0:33morning, I was full of good energy. I made a perfect plan for the
7. 0:38week. Exercise every day, start writing my blog, cook
8. 0:45healthy meals. It's a great plan, very ambitious.
9. 0:49And what happened? It happened that the motivation disappeared.
10. 0:55Monday, I did everything. I was a superhero. Tuesday, it rained, so I
11. 1:03didn't exercise. Wednesday, I was tired, so I ordered a pizza.
12. 1:09And today, I don't feel like doing anything. My motivation went on
13. 1:14vacation without me.
14. 1:19Ah, motivation. I completely understand your problem
15. 1:26, and that's the topic of our lesson today.
16. 1:30How to be and stay disciplined? Today, we're not going to give
17. 1:38magic solutions. We're going to talk about simple, concrete strategies for
18. 1:46building discipline. This is a B1-level lesson. So,
19. 1:53we're going to use slightly more abstract concepts.
20. 1:57I need your strategies, Victor, help me.
21. 2:02With pleasure. The first thing to understand, Amélie, is the difference
22. 2:08between motivation and discipline. Motivation
23. 2:15is an emotion, it's a feeling like joy or sadness.
24. 2:24It comes and goes. We can't control it. It's like the weather. One
25. 2:32day it's sunny, one day it's raining. Yes, that's exactly it. Monday, it was
26. 2:39sunny in my head. Today, it's stormy.
27. 2:43Exactly. And discipline isn't an emotion, it's a system, it's
28. 2:52a habit. Discipline is doing what you've
29. 2:57decided to do, even when the motivation isn't there. It's exercising
30. 3:04when it's raining. It's writing a page on your blog even if you're tired.
31. 3:12So you mean I don't have to wait for motivation to act
32. 3:16specifically. You have to act for the
33. 3:21motivation to come. You used the subjunctive.
34. 3:26I have to wait for the motivation to come. That's perfect. We use the subjunctive
35. 3:35to talk about something that isn't yet real, a wish, a
36. 3:40necessity. Okay? So discipline is stronger
37. 3:45than motivation. But how do we build this discipline? It seems
38. 3:50so difficult. We build it with small bricks
39. 3:55day after day. The first and most important brick is knowing your
40. 4:02why. La la
41. 4:06la to have discipline, your goal must have a deep meaning
42. 4:14for you. You must know why you're making this effort. I'm asking you,
43. 4:20Amélie, why did you want to exercise every day?
44. 4:25Um, to be fit. Being fit is too vague. It
45. 4:30's not a strong image. What does being fit mean to you?
46. 4:36Be more specific. It means having more energy to
47. 4:41play with my nieces. It means being able to climb the stairs without getting
48. 4:45tired. It means feeling good in my favorite dress. There
49. 4:50you go, those are strong whys, they are images, emotions. It's
50. 4:59not being fit. It's I want to laugh and run with the children I love.
51. 5:05That's much more powerful. And you think about one of your goals. What is
52. 5:12your deep, emotional why? Not the logical reason, the real reason.
53. 5:20A few seconds to think. For discipline to work, it's
54. 5:26essential that your reason be personal and strong.
55. 5:33The second strategy is perhaps the most important.
56. 5:42You have to forget the big end goal and focus on a tiny
57. 5:53daily system. Forget the goal. But that's the point,
58. 5:59right? The big goal can be scary. It can paralyze.
59. 6:09If your goal is to write a book, the blank page is terrifying.
60. 6:19But if your system is to write one sentence a day, that's easy. Anything,
61. 6:29write one sentence. Okay? So instead of thinking about the
62. 6:34big mountain, I just think about the first step.
63. 6:38That's the best metaphor , and that first step has to be ridiculously
64. 6:46small. I use the 2-minute rule. A new habit should take less
65. 6:57than 2 minutes to start. So for my blog, my big goal
66. 7:04is to have a popular blog. That's the mountain. My 2-minute system
67. 7:10would be . It wouldn't be to write a post;
68. 7:15that's too long. It would be open the computer,
69. 7:21open a document, and write the title. That's it. It takes less than 2 minutes
70. 7:30, and once you start, it's easier to keep going.
71. 7:37Wow! Is that true? The hardest part is always getting started. This rule
72. 7:43takes the hard part out of the beginning. Think about your goal.
73. 7:49What's the first 2-minute step? If you want to learn guitar, the
74. 7:58first step isn't learning a chord, it's taking the guitar out of its
75. 8:05case. If you want to exercise, the
76. 8:10first step isn't running 5 km, it's putting on your sneakers.
77. 8:18Make the beginning easy, that's the secret.
78. 8:27Okay Victor, I like these strategies , but what happens if I miss
79. 8:33a day? If Wednesday I'm too tired and I don't write my
80. 8:39blog title. For me, when I miss a day, I give up on everything. I tell myself, "That's it,
81. 8:46I've failed." That's the most common trap, Amélie.
82. 8:50And this is where the third strategy comes in. Compassion is the rule of
83. 8:56two. Perfection is impossible. You 'll miss a day, I'll miss a
84. 9:02day. Everyone misses a day. It 's okay. Failure is part of the
85. 9:07process. Really?
86. 9:10Of course. The golden rule is simple. Never miss twice in a row. You
87. 9:17missed on Wednesday, no problem, but it is imperative that you do your
88. 9:222-minute action on Thursday. One failure is an accident. Two failures in a row is
89. 9:29the start of a new bad habit.
90. 9:32I get it. That's what happened to me last month. I started
91. 9:37meditating. I meditated for 3 days. On the 4th day, I forgot. And on the 5th day, I
92. 9:44thought, "Ah, no big deal, and I never did it again."
93. 9:49There you go. If you had applied the rule, you would have just started over on day 5 and
94. 9:56today you would have almost a month of meditation. You should be more
95. 10:01forgiving with yourself. This is very important advice. Never
96. 10:05fail twice, it's a simple and powerful rule.
97. 10:10And there we have it, our three strategies:
98. 10:15Have a strong, emotional why. Create a ridiculously easy
99. 10:242-minute system .
100. 10:28Never fail twice in a row. Now, Amélie, it's time for
101. 10:35action. Let's make a plan for your blog. Okay. My new action plan. I
102. 10:42'm ready. So tell me what you're going to do.
103. 10:46First, your why? Why do you want to write this blog? I want to write
104. 10:52this blog because I love sharing my ideas. I want to create a small
105. 10:56community. I want people to read my texts and laugh or
106. 11:00think. That's a great why. You have to
107. 11:04keep that image in mind. Now, the system. What's your
108. 11:102-minute action? My 2- minute action is every day after
109. 11:16work, I open my computer, I open a document, and I write a single sentence,
110. 11:22just one. And if one day you write 10 sentences,
111. 11:27that's great, that's a bonus, but the minimum goal is a single sentence.
112. 11:32And if one day you don't write anything, what happens?
113. 11:38It's not a big deal, it's an accident. But the next day, I must
114. 11:43write my sentence. I won't fail twice.
115. 11:47Amélie, that's a perfect plan. It's simple, it's clear, and it's resistant
116. 11:55to failure. I'm sure you'll succeed.
117. 11:59Thank you, Victor. I feel much more optimistic now. It's not a
118. 12:05mountain anymore, it's just a small step every day.
119. 12:09Your final mission is a planning exercise.
120. 12:15In the comments, we want you to tell us two things.
121. 12:21First, what is your big goal, your mountain? And
122. 12:28second, what is your tiny 2-minute action that you
123. 12:34're going to start tomorrow? We want to read your goals and your mini systems.
124. 12:39It's very inspiring. Thank you so much for this coaching session, Victor.
125. 12:44My pleasure and thank you for listening. Remember,
126. 12:52discipline is not a punishment, it's a practice. Goodbye.
127. 12:58Goodbye and good luck with your goals.
128. 13:02The podcast ends with the same calming, yet determined, manly
129. 13:08calm.