www.EffortlessEnglishClub.

com
Accountability Audio
Hello my special VIP member, how are you today? I hope you’re having a great day, a
great week and a great month. Guess what? It’s time for your new VIP lesson. The topic
this month is a tough topic. This topic is probably the toughest challenge for leaders and
in fact the toughest challenge for anybody.

In fact, this is a subject, a topic, that probably I would not share with our general
members because I think it’s just a little too tough, it sounds a little hard sometimes,
maybe their confidence is a little too low and they may not want to hear what I’m going
to say to you.

You’re a VIP. That means that you want to really grow more and more and more
confident. I know that. I know you want to speak very confidently in English.

As a VIP I also know that you want personal success in your life, success with English,
of course, but also success in your career or job, success in your family, success with
your relationships, with your health, with all areas of your life however you define
success.

Because you want success that means you want challenges, right? You don’t want life
to be easy, easy, easy all the time, sit on the couch and watch TV all day. A lot of people
want that, or they think they want that, and you don’t. You want more.

All of these things tell me you’re special. Of course, by joining the VIP program you’re
also telling me you’re interested in helping other people also, to be a true leader.

What is the topic? What is this difficult challenge? The difficult challenge is
accountability, personal accountability. What does this word mean, accountability or to
be accountable?

To be accountable, means to be responsible for your own life, 100% responsible for
your own life, for the results you get in your life, for your own emotions and feelings, for
your own thoughts, for your own attitudes – for everything.

I know you’ve heard this idea before, but I also know that you’re not completely doing
this. How do I know this? Because you’re human and there’s not a human on the planet
who is 100% accountable for their own life all the time.

I’m already hot I’m going to take off this jacket. Let’s keep going.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
To be accountable, means that you think and feel that you are responsible for your own
life. That is a tough challenge. Naturally what we want to do is blame. We want to blame
other people we want to blame the situation. We want to blame the world, the economy,
the society, our culture, someone else’s culture and blame our teachers – all of these
things.

There are bad situations, bad teachers, bad things in our societies, of course, there are.
Right now the world economy is very bad, but the truth is that you and I cannot change
that as individuals right now. We’re not going to just suddenly change the economic
situation by ourselves.

We can whine and complain about it, but that only makes us weak. What leaders do
most of all is that they take accountability. They take total responsibility for themselves,
for their lives, for their emotions, their thoughts, their actions, the results they get;
everything.

That’s a constant challenge because when things get bad, we just naturally want to
complain and whine. I do it too. I’ve done it many times in the past. Let me give you an
example, a big example from my own life.

When I was I think 15 or 16 years old I got my first job. It was at a fast food restaurant
called Arby’s. I hated it, I hated that job. I hated it, it was terrible. It was boring. It was all
dirty and messy and stressful, and even worse, I didn’t get paid much money. It was
horrible.

You know what? I realized at that first job, I don’t know how or why but I just realized in
my brain I’m not going to like working, I’m going to hate jobs. Of course,, I was right.

The next job I got was as an intern, a student intern at IBM. I hated it. It paid me very
well at that time, it seemed like a lot of money, but it was so incredibly boring. Oh my
God, that was the most boring job I’ve ever had, and I hated it.

Guess what? This pattern continued. Year after year, I went to college and university, I
got more jobs; part time jobs, serious jobs, career jobs – all kinds of jobs, and I really
hated them all. Some were worse than others, some felt a little better, but I basically
hated working for another person, having a boss, somebody else telling me my
schedule, somebody else telling me what to do and how to do it and usually not paying
me very well.

I hated the whole idea of jobs, I hated it. A lot of people feel this way. Some people don’t
admit it but I know a lot a lot of people feel this way too, or have felt this way in the past,
nothing new about that.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Here’s the problem; I continued to work in jobs for decades. My first job was at 15 or 16.
Let’s say at the age of 35, I was still working for other people in jobs and complaining
about it. For that whole 20 year period I complained and I whined and I blamed and I
pointed my finger. I blamed my bosses for being terrible. Some were terrible. I blamed
the whole idea of jobs.

I complained about our society, I complained about our economic system, I complained
and I complained and I blamed other people. Oh my God, I was unhappy and I did not
take responsibility.

Actually though, eventually, after I blamed everything else and complained and
complained about society, the economy, the government – this job, that job, this boss,
that boss – complaining and pointing my finger, it’s their fault, they’re the reason I’m so
unhappy; eventually I got tired of that and guess what I did next?

I know a lot of people do this, maybe you have – I blamed myself. When I got sick of
blaming all these other people and all these other situations I started to point the finger
at myself and beat up on myself and feel bad about myself. Something is wrong with
me. Why can’t I be happy in a job like a lot of other people?

Maybe I’m too lazy. I should start my own business but I’m too lazy, or I’m not good at
business. I’m not a business person, I’m this kind of poet, artist, world traveler – that’s
what I want to be. I don’t know business. There’s something wrong with me, I can’t do it.

I spent several more years blaming myself. All of this is the opposite of accountability.
Accountability does not mean you blame yourself and you say bad things – oh what’s
wrong with me, there’s something wrong with me, I’m weak, I’m bad, I’m lazy – that’s
not accountability, that’s just blaming yourself. Self pity is what that is. That is self pity.

Here’s the problem; when you blame other people, when you blame society, when you
blame the economic system, when you blame your spouse or your friends, your family,
your past – whatever – are you empowering yourself or disempowering yourself?

To empower means to give power, to increase power. Dis-empower is the opposite.

Obviously when you do these things you are taking away your power. The more you
blame other people and you make them responsible for your happiness or your success
or your lack of success or your lack of happiness, you become weaker and weaker and
weaker and weaker.

It feels good to point the finger at other people. We don’t want to say oh it’s me, and that
means I have to do something differently. That’s a hard challenge, and yet that is what
accountability is.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
In this program I’m teaching you a lot of techniques and methods to speak more
confidently, to be more successful, to be a better leader. This one however, is the core.
This is not a technique or a method, this is a core attitude, a core feeling and thought
and belief you must have. This is it.

If you don’t have this forget the methods and forget the techniques, people won’t
respond to them very well. People won’t respect you. If you get this one, you don’t even
need all those techniques so much. They will help you yes; these other methods will
help you yes, but this is the thing, this is it. People feel it, they know it.

They know when you are accountable to yourself. Just to yourself. They know when you
take responsibility. If you get a bad result you say “that was me, I did something and I
got that result. It was bad.”

You don’t cry about it – oh it’s terrible, I’m so depressed, there’s something wrong with
me – no. You just say okay, I took this action and I got a result I didn’t want. Fine, I’m
responsible for that.

If you need to you try to change it if you can. If you can’t, you just learn from it. You say
okay I don’t want that result again. Obviously, I need to learn more and try something
different next time. That’s the attitude of a leader. That’s the attitude of success in
anything; in English speaking, in life. It’s simple, but as you probably know it is not easy.
It’s one of the most difficult things in the world because when things are great, of
course, it’s easy to do that.

You get a new job, a better job or more money, and you say oh I did it, look at me, I’m
great. Fantastic! What happens when you get fired? Then we don’t want to say I did it –
no, no, no; that’s not very fun to think about.

What we want to do is say oh that job was terrible, the boss was wrong and we
complain and we complain. Maybe a lot of those things are true, but there’s also a
deeper truth, a deeper responsibility, which is; I did something to get that result, and I
should have or could have done something differently.

For example if you get fired – I’ve been fired, well not really – I kind of quit and got fired
at the same time. Anyway, I was responsible for that, in many ways. Number one, I got a
job and I broke all the rules at the job. I chose to do that.

I didn’t like the rules, I didn’t like the way they wanted me to teach, so I just said I don’t
care I’m going to do it my way, the way I feel is the best. I knew that probably eventually
my boss and the university would not like it and I might get fired, I knew that but I took

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
responsibility for it and said I don’t care. I’m going to do what’s right not what the rules
tell me to do.

Also, I chose to take that job knowing that it was a big bureaucracy, knowing that I
probably would not fit in very well there, but I needed some money. Nothing wrong with
that, but again that was my choice.

When I got fired from that job or quit, we had a talk my boss and I, we both agreed that
it was not a good situation, that I did not like working there and that probably I did not fit
in very well for them. We both agreed that I should leave.

You know what? I was a little stressed about the money but I also kind of felt good, I felt
relieved because I knew it was not a good situation for me. In that situation I took
responsibility, I was accountable, 100%.

I said well that was my choice, I knew it wasn’t a good thing. Actually that was the
beginning of Effortless English. Just a couple years later I started Effortless English and
built this company and now I’m so happy, now I never complain about my job. I love it, I
can’t work enough. I’m working, working, working, all the time.

I love doing it. It’s not work to me, it’s like I’m playing. I can’t believe that I’m getting paid
so much money from my company to do this. It’s amazing. That’s what happens when
you’re really, totally accountable.

It wasn’t luck. What happened is after 20 plus years of blaming myself, blaming other
people, I finally just decided to be accountable. I said, it’s not the economy. It’s not the
government, it’s not bad bosses, it’s not the system, it’s not that I’m lazy or bad, it’s not
that I can’t learn business – all of that is bullshit that I have been telling myself.

It’s me. I have chosen to work these jobs. I have chosen not to risk starting a business. I
have chosen not to learn about business. I have made a lot of choices. My situation now
is mostly the result of my own choices.

When I got that, when I changed that attitude, my whole life completely changed. Two
years later I was free. After 20 years of suffering it took me – well actually it took me two
years to start Effortless English, and in that two years I was reading business books,
doing a website and blogging, doing a podcast, learning and learning a lot.

After I started the company, in four months I replaced my job salary. I waited two more
months just to be sure before I quit my job. That was the last job I ever had, and the last
job I will ever have.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Do you see how fast you can change your life when you change this attitude, when you
become totally accountable? When you stop blaming, you stop blaming yourself, you
stop blaming others, you say the situation is not what I want but it’s my responsibility
100%.

No one else is going to change it for me. Nothing else is going to suddenly happen. I’m
not going to win the lottery. I’m not going to suddenly get some free money from the sky.
My perfect love and relationship is not going to walk through my door someday, I have
to do it.

I have to make the change. I have to find the right people I have to become someone
different. It’s the hardest thing to do in the world to get that attitude, but when you do it
your whole life will completely change in a huge way.

When I did that and started my company, in four months I was totally free and still am
today. In fact not only am I totally free, I’m making more money than I know what to do
with. I never imagined I could do that.

When I look back, I look back in the past and I find what started it. What started it was
me being totally 100% accountable for my life, for my own happiness. I decided other
people aren’t responsible for making me happy, that is my 100% responsibility.

I can enjoy them and increase my happiness with other people, but my basic happiness
is only my responsibility. My freedom from jobs, my freedom to live as I want and do
what I want, that’s only my responsibility it’s not someone else’s, it’s not up to someone
else to help me be free, it’s my life and therefore my responsibility.

When I changed that attitude – not just in my head but deep, deep in my heart, in my
gut, in my stomach – when I felt it, my whole life totally and completely changed and
that’s what created the life I have now where I’m totally free. I live the dream life I
always wanted.

I travel the world whenever I want. I work when I want, I don’t work when I don’t want to.
I work only with great wonderful people that I like. I do all kinds of cool adventures like
scuba diving and long hikes in Japan. I’m going to be bicycling around Italy next spring.

I have plenty of money and abundance to do anything I want to do. What changed it
was just becoming 100% accountable. This is my challenge to you, VIP. It’s not easy, I
know, but look at your life. There are some things in your life you’re not happy with, I
know.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
It might be your career, your job or your finances – maybe you hate jobs in general like I
did. It might be your family or relationships, or a lack of relationships. Maybe you’re
single and you really want to date somebody.

It could be your money, that you don’t have enough money. Maybe you’re just bored.
Maybe you’re just like, my life is the same every day, I’m sick of it. There’s no
adventure, there’s no romance.

I don’t know what it is, but you probably have blamed other people about those things a
little bit, maybe a lot. Maybe you’ve blamed yourself and you’ve decided I’m not
romantic, I’m not fun, I’m not good with money, blah, blah, blah – but you know deep
down its all bullshit.

My challenge to you this month is the hardest thing in the world for someone to do. This
is the essence of leadership. Do this and everyone will respect you. You’ll get people
following you. Without doing anything else, they will feel it.

People come to me for business advice. I’m like well, I’m in English teaching but okay, I
can help you. They just see what I’ve done. It’s not what I say, they can feel the results.
They can feel that I took 100% accountability for this in my life.

I want you to look at the things in your life that you’re unhappy about and I want you to
be really honest. It’s going to be painful to think about, but I want you to look at it and
see how you are responsible for that situation.

Don’t make yourself feel bad, like I’m terrible; just look at the choices you’ve made, your
attitude, your ideas and your beliefs. Look how those things have helped to create your
situation that you’re not happy about. Decide from now until you die that you will no
longer blame anyone else and you’ll no longer feel bad about it yourself.

Instead you will just say I’m 100% responsible for this, it’s my choice to change it or not.
I can learn new things, I can try new things and change it, or I can choose to continue
the same. Either way it’s my choice, my 100% responsibility, I am accountable for this
situation. It’s me and only me.

Do that. I’m getting hot because I’m so passionate about this subject. This one thing
changed my life. I’m so happy about my life now, and this is what changed it. This is it,
the big one, the big thing.

It’s hard and a lot of people don’t want to hear this. They don’t want to think about it but
you can do it. You’re a VIP you can do it. Look at your life, all the things you’re not
happy about, and say I’m responsible. Write down all the things that you have done to
create that situation, all the choices and beliefs.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Decide that from now on no more blaming, you are accountable for it. I’ll talk more
about this in the audio commentary.

Have a great day, and I will see you on our VIP site. Bye-bye.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Accountability Mini-Story Text
Hello this is A.J., welcome to the mini story my special VIP. With the mini story, you’re
just going to listen and answer the questions. You can pause when you answer the
questions, but after you listen to this for a few days you should get faster and faster.
Make it a game so you try to answer the questions more and more quickly.

Let’s begin our story.

*****

There was a pig named Penelope.

What was there?

A pig.

What was her name?

Penelope.

Her name was Penelope, Penelope the pig. What kind of pig was Penelope? What
was she like?

Well, she was a complainer. Penelope the pig was a complainer, she complained
all the time.

What was she like?

She was a complainer.

Who was a complainer?

Penelope Pig. Penelope Pig was a complainer.

Was she a super positive person or was she a complainer?

She was a complainer.

How often did she complain?

All the time, she constantly complained. She complained all the time.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Did she complain a little bit or all the time?

She complained all the time.

How frequently did she complain?

All the time, she complained all the time.

She complained, and she complained, and she complained. Especially Penelope
the Pig always regretted her decisions.

What did she always regret?

Her decisions.

Who always regretted her decisions?

Penelope.

What was Penelope?

A pig.

Penelope the Pig always regretted her decisions. How often did she regret her
decisions? Always; she always regretted her decisions. Did she regret her small
decisions? Yes, she did. She always regretted her small decisions.

What about her big decisions? Yes, she always regretted those too. She always
regretted her big life decisions, and she always regretted her small decisions, but
there were two decisions in her life that she especially regretted.

How many decisions did she especially regret?

Two.

Did she especially regret five decisions from her past?

No, she didn’t especially regret five decisions from her past.

How many decisions from her past did she especially regret?

Two. Two decisions in her life.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
There were two decisions in her life, in her past, that she especially regretted.
One was about work and school, and the other was about relationships.

What were the decisions about?

School and work, number one; and relationships number two.

You see, Penelope the Pig never went to college.

Did she go to college in the past? Did she go to a university?

No she didn’t, she never went to a college or university in the past. She never did.

She used to be engaged to Duke the Dog, a big strong manly dog; but she never
married him.

Did she marry Duke the Dog?

No she did not.

Did she go to college?

No she did not.

Was she happy about these two decisions?

No.

How did she feel about these two decisions?

She regretted them. She regretted especially these two decisions; never to go to
college, and not to marry Duke the Dog.

She constantly said, “If I had gone to college, I would be rich now.”

What did she constantly say?

If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now.

What did she think?

She thought that if she had gone to college, she would be rich now.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Did she regret that decision?

Yes, she regretted it so much. That’s why she always said, “If I had gone to college, I’d
be rich now. If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now. If I had only gone to college, I’d be
rich now.”

Was she rich?

No she wasn’t rich, she was kind of poor.

Where did she work? She worked at McDonalds. Penelope the Pig instead worked
at McDonalds.

Did she have a good job or a bad job?

For her it was bad, she didn’t like it.

Did she make a lot of money or a little money?

A little. She did not make much money at McDonalds.

How did she feel about her job at McDonalds? She hated it, she hated her job at
McDonalds, she always complained about it. What did she always say? Yes, you
know – “If I had gone to college I’d be rich now. If I had gone to college I’d be rich
now.”

She said this every day while working at McDonalds. She was an unhappy pig.

Did she have a wonderful relationship with a great guy? No. In fact, she was very
lonely. That was her other big problem in life. She always complained about being
lonely.

Was she in a great relationship or was she lonely?

She was lonely she was not in a relationship at all. She was not dating anybody, she
didn’t have a boyfriend.

How did she feel?

She felt lonely.

Who felt lonely?

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Penelope, the Pig.

Was she happy about being lonely?

No.

What did she do constantly?

She complained, she constantly complained of course.

She constantly complained and said, “If I’d married Duke the Dog, I’d have a baby.
If I had only married Duke the Dog I’d have a baby and a family. If I’d only married
Duke the Dog I’d be happy.”

Did she marry Duke the Dog?

Nope, she never did.

Did she have a baby?

No, she didn’t.

Was she happy?

Obviously no, she was not.

How did she feel instead?

Instead she felt very, very lonely.

Did she complain about being lonely or was she accountable?

She complained about it all the time. Here’s what she said, “If I had only married Duke
the Dog, I’d have a baby now. If I had only married Duke the Dog, I would have a baby
now.” Instead she felt lonely.

In fact not only lonely, Penelope was really a miserable pig.

Was she a little unhappy or super unhappy?

Super unhappy, she was miserable– miserable, super sad, super unhappy.

She was what?

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Miserable.

Who was miserable?

Penelope the Pig was miserable.

One day after many years she finally made a decision to change her life. She
decided to be fully, completely, 100% accountable for her life and her life choices.

Did she decide to blame a lot of other people?

No, she did not decide to blame a lot of other people, or dogs, or pigs.

Who decided to be fully accountable for her life?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig finally one day, she was just so miserable – she
was fed up. Fed up means you don’t like a situation, you’re totally sick of it.

She was fed up with the situation, tired of it completely, and she just said; “I’m
going to be fully accountable for everything in my life. I’m responsible, no one
else.”

What did she decide to be?

Fully accountable.

Fully accountable for what?

Fully accountable, fully completely responsible for her own life, her own life situation.

She was what?

Accountable.

She became what?

Accountable for her own life.

Then everything changed. She made a decision. She enrolled in a computer tech
school.

What was her first decision?

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
To enroll in a computer tech school.

Where did she enroll?

At a computer tech school.

What did she study?

Computer programming and computer technology.

Who enrolled in a computer technical school?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig enrolled – joined, registered for – a computer
technical school.

Was she being accountable or was she complaining?

She was finally being accountable, finally taking responsibility for her own life.

Did she take responsibility or did she blame?

She took responsibility.

Did she take responsibility or complain?

She took responsibility. She took responsibility and made a decision.

What did she do?

She enrolled in a computer tech school.

Not only did she enroll, she actually finished the program. She finished the
computer programming program. Then what did she do? She got a job at
Effortless English and she fixed all of their computer problems. A.J. was really
happy.

Where did she get a job?

At Effortless English.

Who got a job at Effortless English?

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Penelope, the Pig got a job at Effortless English.

How did she get a job at Effortless English?

By studying computer programming. She had to do that first, and then she got her job.
She got a job by first studying computer programming.

Did she eventually get a job by blaming and complaining, or did she eventually get a job
by being accountable?

She eventually got a job by being accountable.

How was she accountable?

By first enrolling in a computer tech school.

Where did she get a job?

At Effortless English.

She got a job at Effortless English, when?

After finishing computer tech school. She got a job with Effortless English after finishing
computer tech school.

What did she do at Effortless English?

She fixed all of their computer problems, it was great.

There was one other area of her life that was not so great; relationships. She took
accountability in that area too. What do you think she did? I’ll tell you; she joined
a singles outdoor adventure club.

What did she join?

She joined an outdoor adventure club, an outdoor adventure organization, for single
pigs and people and dogs and animals.

She joined a singles outdoor adventure club. She rode mountain bikes, she
climbed mountains, she went swimming. She kayaked; she did all kinds of great,
cool, wonderful outdoor adventures.

What kind of adventures did she do or have?

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
She had a lot of outdoor adventures, she did a lot of outdoor activities.

Who did a lot of outdoor activities?

Penelope, the Pig. Penelope the Pig did a lot of outdoor activities with the singles club.

While doing these activities she met someone. She met Stan the Studly Boar.
Studly is a word we use for men, and it means kind of very strong and powerful,
and handsome too.

It’s a noun. We can say he is a stud. You can imagine a guy with muscles and he’s
strong and handsome; he is a stud. We can use it as an adjective. We can say he
is very studly. He’s very strong and handsome.

Stan was a studly boar. A boar is a wild pig. He was a strong wild pig, and his
name was what? Stan.

What was Stan?

A boar, a wild pig.

What kind of boar was Stan?

He was a studly boar.

Was he strong or was he weak?

He was strong. He was a studly boar.

What was the studly boar’s name?

Stan.

Did Penelope like Stan? Oh yes, she liked him a lot, but did Stan like Penelope?
Yes he did. Why did he like Penelope? He liked Penelope because she was so
accountable for her life, because she didn’t complain, she didn’t whine.

She had totally changed. He didn’t know about her past.

Why did he like Penelope?

Because she was so accountable.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
She got a great new boyfriend, Stan the Studly Boar, and a great job with a great
boss at Effortless English, and she was very, very happy. If she had continued
feeling sorry for herself, if she had continued to complain, she never would have
gotten the job at Effortless English and she never would have met Stan.

If she continued to complain, would she have met Stan?

No she never would have. She never would have met Stan if she had continued to
complain.

Did she continue to complain?

No she didn’t, she did not continue to complain. She stopped complaining, became
accountable, and she did indeed meet Stan. If she had continued to complain, then she
never would have met Stan.

If she continued to complain, would she have gotten the job with Effortless English?
No she wouldn’t have. If she had continued to complain she never would have gotten a
job at Effortless English.

Did she get a job at Effortless English?

Yes she did.

Did she continue to complain?

No she didn’t, she stopped. She became accountable for her own life, and so she did
get a job at Effortless English, and she did meet Stan.

Now she’s very accountable, very strong, and very, very happy.

*****
That is the end of our mini story. As always just enjoy the mini story, answer the
questions, don’t think about the grammar rules and don’t think about it. Don’t think about
why, why, why; just answer the questions and listen.

Listen to this every single day for the next month and you will learn this grammar. It’s a
little bit of complicated and difficult grammar in some parts, but don’t worry about it.
Listen to the story, understand the meaning and answer the questions. That’s the
secret, that’s the power of the mini story lessons.

I’ll see you again next time, bye-bye.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Accountability POV Text
Hello VIP member, how are you today? Welcome to the point of view grammar stories
for accountability. Let’s just get started. The first one is happening now.

*****

Penelope the Pig is a complainer. She complains about her life constantly. She’s always
complaining, complaining, complaining about her life. She complains because she
regrets a lot of her past decisions.

She regrets her past small decisions, and she regrets her past big decisions. She
especially regrets two big life decisions. Number one, she regrets not going to college in
the past and number two, she regrets not marrying Duke the Dog.

In fact, she always says, “If I had gone to college I’d be rich now.” She also says, “If I
had married Duke the Dog I’d have a baby and a family now.”

She complains, especially about these two things, all the time. She says these two
things constantly, all the time. She complains, she complains, she complains.

She has a really terrible job at McDonalds that she hates. She’s really unhappy at
McDonalds. When she’s working at McDonalds she complains. She says, “If I had gone
to college I’d be rich now.”

She’s also very, very lonely. She doesn’t have a boyfriend, she’s not dating anyone.
When she’s at home alone she always says, “If I’d married Duke the Dog, I’d have a
baby and a family now.” And then she cries.

After doing this for years and years and years, she finally decides to make a change.
She decides to be fully accountable for her own life, to take full 100% responsibility for
her own life.

She immediately enrolls in a computer tech school. She learns computer programming
and computer technology, and she finishes the program. Even better, after she finishes
the program she gets a job. Where do you think she gets a job at? Where does it
happen?

She gets a job at Effortless English. At Effortless English she fixes all of their computer
problems. She fixes them all and her boss, A.J., is really happy.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Next, she also becomes accountable for her own social life, and she joins a singles
outdoor adventure club, for single people and pigs, and dogs, and cats; and other
animals. She joins a singles outdoor adventure club.

She rides mountain bikes, she climbs mountains, she swims, she kayaks; all kinds of
cool outdoor adventures. In the club she meets Stan the Studly Boar. She meets Stan
the Studly Boar. He’s a strong handsome boar, a wild pig.

She meets him and then she begins to date him, and then he becomes her boyfriend.
Of course, she’s super happy. She changes her life by becoming accountable.

Of course, if she had continued feeling sorry for herself she never would’ve gotten the
job at Effortless English, and she never would have met Stan. Instead, of course, she
did become accountable, and now she’s very happy.

*****

That’s the end of version one. Our next version begins with since she was 20 years old.

*****

Since she was 20, Penelope the Pig has been a complainer. Something happened
when she was 20 and she became very negative. She became a complainer.

Since she was 20 she has been a big complainer. She has always complained about
everything in her life. She has complained about small things, she has complained
about big things. During this whole time from when she was 20 until recently, she has
complained and complained and complained.

She has especially complained about two big things. She has especially complained
about not going to college, and she has especially complained about not marrying Duke
the Dog, one of her past boyfriends.

She has complained and she has said, almost every day she has said this – she has
said, “If I had gone to college I’d be rich now.” Almost every day since she was 20 until
recently, she has said “If I had married Duke the Dog I’d have a baby now.”

Instead, of course, since she was 20 until now, she has worked at McDonalds. She has
worked at McDonalds and every day she has been very unhappy at McDonalds. Of
course, at McDonalds nearly every day she has complained and complained, and she
has said “If I’d gone to college, I’d be rich now.”

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Of course, nearly every day at that time she has been lonely. Nearly every day, she has
complained and said, “If I had married Duke the Dog I’d have a baby now.”

Instead she has been very, very lonely – until one day she’s finally decided to change
her life. She decided to become fully accountable for her life. First, she enrolled in
computer technical school. She finished the program and then she got a job at
Effortless English, and she fixed all of their computer problems.

Her second great decision was that she joined a singles outdoor adventure club. She
went mountain biking, she climbed mountains, she swam, she went kayaking; she had a
great time.

She also met Stan, the Studly Boar. She started to date Stan and he became her
boyfriend. She was very happy. Of course, if she had continued feeling sorry for herself
she never would have gotten the job, and she never would have met Stan.

Luckily, happily, instead she did do those things, and so she became accountable and
now she is very, very happy.

*****

That’s the end of our second version of the story. Our final version we usually go into
the future. We’re imagining. You can think that we’re dreaming it, or we’re thinking of a
story idea that’s going to happen in the future, but whatever.

Let’s imagine this is going to happen in the future.

*****

In the future there will be a pig named Penelope. She’s gonna be a complainer. Gonna
means going to, which you probably know. Gonna and going to are the same, in the
future.

She’s gonna be a complainer, she’s always gonna regret her decisions. She’s always
gonna complain about her decisions. She’s gonna complain about her small decisions,
she’s gonna complain about her big decisions. She’s gonna complain and complain and
complain.

There will be two decisions that she’ll especially complain about. She’ll especially
complain about her school and job situation, and she’ll especially complain about not
marrying Duke the Dog.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Almost every day she’s going to say, “If I had gone to college, I’d be rich now.” She’s
also going to say, “If I had married Duke the Dog, I’d have a baby now.”

Of course, she won’t be happy. She will not be happy, she won’t be happy. Instead she’ll
be working at McDonalds. She’ll work at McDonalds and she’ll hate it. Every day she’s
gonna complain, and she’ll be very lonely.

She won’t have a boyfriend, she won’t be dating. She’ll complain about that too, until
finally one day she’ll make a decision. She’ll decide to be fully accountable for her own
life.

Next she’s going to go and enroll at a computer tech school. Not only is she going to
enroll, she’s going to finish the program. Then after that, she’s going to get a job with
Effortless English, and she’s going to fix all of their computer problems. All of their
computer problems will be fixed by her.

She’s also going to do another cool thing; she’s going to join a singles outdoor
adventure club. She’ll go mountain biking, she’ll go mountain climbing, she’ll kayak,
she’ll swim – she’ll do all kinds of cool outdoor adventures.

Best of all, she’ll meet Stan the Studly Boar. She’s going to like him, and he’s going to
like her. They’re going to start to date and then they’re going to become boyfriend and
girlfriend. She’s going to have a great, wonderful, happy life.

She’ll realize something; and she’ll say, “If I had continued feeling sorry for myself, I
never would have gotten that job at Effortless English, and I never would have met
Stan.”

Luckily instead she will have become accountable, and she is going to be very, very
happy.

*****

That’s the end of our point of view stories. As always, do not think about the grammar
rules just listen to these stories every day for one month. Listen to them carefully and
you will naturally develop a feeling for correct English grammar.

After that you will naturally develop correct English speaking grammar. All you need to
do is listen to these stories every day.

All right, you have a great day and I will see you again. Bye-bye.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
Accountability Commentary
Hello my special VIP member, and welcome to the audio commentary. Of course, this is
where I talk more about the topic this month. Our topic is accountability, being totally
100% accountable, responsible for your own life, for your life situation.

Let me be clear about this first, because I know some people will say AJ that’s not fair. I
didn’t choose my life situation. I was born into a poor family, or I was born into a country
where people aren’t very free. My mom and dad beat me and all kinds of terrible stuff.

Of course, I recognize that. Of course, we all have tough situations in our life that
happen to us. An easy example, the current world economy is happening to us. None of
us individually chose that. Of course, I recognize that, but if you focus on those external
things, those external situations that just happen in life, they always do and they always
will, you dis-empower yourself. You take away the power and the incredible power that
you have.

Your power comes from your choices; how you choose to respond to those external
situations. We have so many different responses that we can choose. I used to be a
social worker, and as a social worker I worked with some teenagers who were really
having a hard time.

Many of these youth, these children, had been beaten by their parents, their mom or
dad, usually the dad. Some had been sexually molested by their father or an uncle or
someone in the family. Terrible, terrible, terrible situations; but what determined their life
and the quality of their life was how they chose to respond to those terrible situations.

When those terrible things happen some people will blame themselves. Somehow they
deserved it or they did something to deserve it. It’s crazy, but that’s a reaction that some
children will have, a lot of children, in fact.

If they believe that and continue to believe it, their whole life can become horrible and
miserable and unhappy. Many times they will turn to strong terrible drugs like heroin or
something just to avoid that terrible thought and feeling.

However; other people choose to respond and think about it differently. Other people
decide it wasn’t me, I didn’t deserve it. I was just a child, I’m just a kid. They should
never have done that. This is a terrible thing in my life, but I’m going to use it to grow
stronger. I’m going to help other children and other people who have had terrible things
happen in their life.

I actually saw this a few times with a few very special kids, and they chose to try to help
other kids that had also had these terrible experiences. They didn’t focus on blaming

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
themselves, instead they decided to use this terrible situation to somehow grow
stronger and help other people in pain.

Of course, there are many other ways that people could choose to think about and
respond to that kind of truly terrible situation, the ones who are accountable – not
accountable for what happened, they don’t say oh it was my fault, that’s not being
accountable, that’s self pity and blame.

What they say is I’m responsible 100% for how I react now, for what I do now, for how I
respond to this terrible situation. Some of them for example would just go and they told
a teacher or they told a counselor and they got help and they got out of that family
situation.

They decided this is happening to me, I don’t want it to, but I can make a choice. I’m still
accountable for my choices and how I respond. I can choose to take it and be silent, I
can choose to blame myself, or I can decide that this is a terrible thing and I can choose
to get help.

Do you see how that works? It’s not that you decide it’s your fault for all the bad stuff
that happens, of course, not it’s just that when bad things happen you have to still
decide that you’re 100% accountable for the choices, for how you react, for how you
respond, for how you adapt to that tough, difficult situation. That’s what accountability
means.

It’s not easy. I’ll give you a less serious example from my own life where I have not been
accountable, and that is with dating. I know some of you may know that I got divorced
last year, (inaudible) and I are still great friends and I love her and I always will, but after
getting divorced wow, I felt really stressed.

All of you know me as this truly energetic, super confident, sometimes crazy guy, really
confident with my business, I’m really confident as a teacher. I have no problem
standing up in front of 200 people or 500 people or 10,000 people and talking and
teaching for two hours, three hours, six hours, eight hours – it doesn’t matter.

Not only do I have no problem, I enjoy it. I love it. I am super confident; but in a dating
situation I’m totally different. Suddenly, I become shy and nervous. It’s happened my
entire life and is the problem.

Going back to when I was high school I was a geeky nerdy guy. I was really, really
smart, but socially not so great. I’ve changed so much since then, yet some of those
beliefs and habits and ideas were still in my brain.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
When I got into situations with women or girls, those old beliefs would come back. I
would start to blame, blame, blame. Oh the girls here, they’re just not friendly. They’re
kind of cold, they’re too tough.

I would blame myself; oh there’s something wrong with me, women just aren’t attracted
to me. I don’t know what the problem is. I would blame myself, blame, blame, blame.
That’s not being accountable for it.

It’s true some things happened during my time as a student in high school in that age,
that young age when we’re all so awkward and insecure. It’s true that I was awkward
and insecure then, but finally what I’ve decided is I have to be accountable.

I realized something; I realized it’s a choice. This is a choice. I thought; most people are
terrified about the idea of standing up in front of 200 people and giving a speech. When
you read about research studies, public speaking is like the number one most scary,
fearful thing for most people. They’re just really terrified about it, and for me it’s easy. It’s
simple, I love it, I feel totally confident. I’m never scared about it.

I realized something; I thought this is crazy. How can it be that I’m totally confident in a
situation that scares most people, and I’m this super confident, super energetic guy
when I’m up speaking to people onstage or with my business, and then I get in a
different situation and suddenly I’m kind of nervous and shy?

I realized it’s just a choice, just a habit that I’m choosing. I could choose to be the same
in a dating situation. I could choose to be super energetic and confident. It’s part of me,
a real part of me; it’s who I am. I could choose to do that, all I have to do is learn how to
use that same part of my personality in a different situation.

Now I’m feeling much stronger about that idea. Do you see how this works? It works in
everything. In the video I gave the example from my life of work and jobs and business.

For so many years, for over 20 years, two decades; I didn’t take responsibility for my
own freedom and financial success. I depended on jobs and complained and blamed,
and everything totally changed when I just became accountable.

This is true in every single area of your life. It’s true in your relationships. If you have a
relationship that’s not good, or maybe a breakup or a divorce or something in the past,
you can blame the other person – that’s what so many other people do, right?

It’s their fault. She wasn’t friendly, she didn’t make me happy, she was selfish, she was
a bitch, or he. He was such a jerk, he was a dog – a dog means a guy who cheats –
and some of those things may have been true, but you chose to stay with that person.
You chose to date them and be with them.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
You don’t learn anything, you don’t grow, you don’t develop happy wonderful
relationships by blaming the other person. This is another area in life that is really, really
hard to be accountable for.

So often, especially in romantic dating and marriage situations we want to blame that
other person; it’s them. It’s not. It’s not them, it’s you. It’s me. I’ve realized this in my own
life.

I look at this painful divorce, and it’s very painful for me still – I don’t blame her. I look at
myself and I can see that in many, many areas and ways I made bad choices. I didn’t
communicate the way I should have, I didn’t give her the attention and presence that I
should have many, many things.

Here’s the great thing about accountability. By deciding that, by realizing that I was
responsible – it was me, 100% - she’s responsible for her part, I’ll let her think about
that or not, but I’m responsible. I’m going to look at what I did, how I’m accountable.

If I do that, then I can learn something. I look at myself and I learn where my beliefs
were not very good and how that caused problems. I can see the actions I took that
weren’t very great and how that caused problems.

By learning those things, even though they’re painful to think about – and they are very
painful to think about – but by being honest about it, being accountable and learning,
then I have the power to change.

I can say okay I did do those things, next time I won’t. Next time I can do something
different, I can try something different, or I can see I had these terrible beliefs, these
beliefs that were making me weak or beliefs that didn’t help the relationship. I can
change those beliefs and get new ones that are more powerful, more loving, more
supportive and more helpful, so that my next relationships can be great.

Not just with someone I’m dating but even with my friends, my family – it can improve
and help and enhance my whole life. This is the power of being totally accountable. It’s
painful, that’s why people avoid it, and yet it is the secret door to amazing happiness
and power and success and true leadership.

This is the reason true leaders are rare, because it’s painful to go through that door. It’s
painful to look at the failures, the things that weren’t successful and the results you don’t
like. It’s painful to look at those and say well, that was my responsibility, I made some
bad choices. I had some bad beliefs, I took some actions I shouldn’t have done that
didn’t work – it was me.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
It feels bad when you first do it. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a job or financial or family, it
doesn’t matter what the area is it feels painful. It was painful for me when I started
teaching and the students were not improving in my first few years.

I could’ve just continued like other teachers. Most other teachers blame the students –
oh it’s the students, they’re lazy. Oh those students, they’re just not learning. Sometimes
they’ll blame the school – oh it’s the school with all these stupid rules. They’ll say oh,
adults can’t learn English well. They make excuses, they blame, and because of that
they never become better teachers.

I had to do something painful. I had to take total accountability and say it’s me, I’m a
bad teacher. I suck. That’s what I had to admit to myself. It’s not the students, they’re
really actually quite energetic and they’re really trying hard; it’s me. I’m not a good
teacher right now.

That was the beginning of my success and power, by just admitting that and saying it’s
me, and then not crying about it and saying I’m a bad guy, instead saying it’s me but I
can choose something different. I can decide to learn and try different things, and
eventually I will find a better way.

That’s what I did. I took 100% responsibility, it’s up to me. It’s my job to become a great
teacher. I have to learn more, I have to try different things, I have to go search for better
methods. I’m going to do that if it takes me 10 months or 10 years, it doesn’t matter. I’m
not going to quit, and I will become a great teacher. That’s how I did it.

Again I look back, and it all started with being responsible and accountable, saying it’s
me. It’s not the school’s problem – I don’t have to follow their rules. It’s not the students,
they’re actually really great. Nope, it’s not the textbooks because I don’t have to use the
textbooks if I don’t want to – it’s my choice.

Yes the textbooks suck, yes the school sucked, but I didn’t have to use them. I didn’t
have to follow the rules, it’s my choice.

When I started making different choices that’s when everything changed and gave me
the life, again, that I have today. You can see how this is tough.

It’s really hard, but that’s okay, it’s also the thing that will give you everything you want in
life. It’s worth a little pain. It’s worth the pain of admitting – I haven’t been doing what I
should be doing, or I don’t know what I need to know so I need to go out and learn it, or
I’m afraid.

Sometimes you have to admit you’re afraid. Before I started my business I made all
these excuses and blamed and blamed, but finally one day I just said to myself you

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
know what? I’m just afraid. I’m just afraid to start my own business because I’m afraid
that I’ll fail totally and completely.

I’m afraid my family will laugh at me and I’ll be embarrassed. When I admitted that I
decided it’s my fault, it’s my responsibility. I’m afraid and it’s fear that’s stopping me.
Then I could say okay then, so I need to do something about this fear.

I started working on my psychology and working on that emotion more and thinking
about it, and then I changed that fear. It didn’t go away completely, it was still there
somewhat, but I changed it enough that I could take action.

Once I took action I started getting success, and the fear finally disappeared. Do you
see how this works?

I’ll give you the same challenge I did in the video; find the most terrible thing in your life,
the thing that you’re really not happy about, you’re really, really unhappy about it. It
might be a past girlfriend or boyfriend, they broke up with you and you still feel terrible
about it and you’ve been blaming them so many years.

It could be your job; you hate your job and you’re miserable and you have been for a
long time, yet you’re still there. Maybe you lost your job or maybe you failed the final
exam on English and you’re just not improving the way you want to.

Maybe you’re fat and unhealthy, and you’ve been making all kinds of excuses about it,
but you just need to be responsible and realize you’re the one choosing what you eat,
and you’re the one choosing how much you move your body and how you do it.

Find that area in your life that is most difficult, most painful; you’re most unhappy about
it. Sit down quietly, alone, and decide that you are 100% responsible for the situation
now.

Maybe you didn’t cause it in the beginning, but right now you’re 100% responsible for
either staying in a situation or changing it, nobody else. Write down all the beliefs that
have caused this situation to continue, and all the actions you have taken in the past
and continue to take that are causing this situation to continue.

For example, if you’re in a job you hate, you probably have some kind of belief about I
can’t leave because I won’t be able to find another job, it’s a good job, or what will
people think – whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, you need to be responsible for that. It’s
you.

That’s the tough assignment. Write down all the ways you’re accountable. If you want a
positive part of that assignment, you could do step two. In step two what you’ll do is

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
you’ll write down all the things you could do differently if you wanted to. You don’t have
to, just write down all the things you could do.

You could go out and read books on this subject and learn more. You could find another
person who is successful or has the life you want, and get help from them or ask for
advice from them.

You could change the beliefs that are causing problems. You could take different
actions, small or big. There’s a lot you could do, you could write that down too.

If you’re really brave – I know most of you probably won’t do this, but if you really are
serious you could go to our VIP site and you could share all of this. You could be really
open and honest with all the other VIP members about what you have not been
accountable for and what you now will be accountable for.

It’s not actually fun for me to share some of these things with you about my past
relationships or business or whatever. It’s painful still to think about it, and then to just
share it with all of you, that’s even harder, and yet it’s even stronger.

When you share it with other people it’s even more accountable. You’re saying I’m not
going to be ashamed of this, I’m not going to be secretive about it – I’m just going to be
totally open. This is the problem, and this is how I have been responsible for it, and this
is what I could do differently if I chose to.

Do that, it’s really powerful. That’s my big challenge for you, to go through the whole
exercise and then get on our VIP site and share it.

You know that our other members are wonderful people. They’re going to encourage
you and support you, so take that strong step and share it.

Alright, I hope you have a great powerful month. This thing will completely change your
life, even it seems a little painful; do it.

I’ll see you next time. Have a great day and a great month. Bye-bye.

www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com