Transcript: “Listening Time” Episode 79

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and
you're listening to Episode 79 of the Listening Time podcast. I hope you're all doing
well today, and I want to thank everyone that has signed up for my membership,
everyone that has signed up to become a Listening Time Member, Super Member,
Family Member, or Listening Time VIP, which is the newest tier. Remember that if you
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And I'll do this every week. So, if you want access to that, if you want to be able
to ask me your questions, and have me answer them, then make sure to become a
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That’s www.patreon.com/listeningtime

Alright, in today's episode, we're going to talk about worrying. This is a really
important topic because everybody worries, and some people worry too much. And it's
something that a ects our lives in a negative way, and it's something that we should
learn to control and to get better at. So today, we'll talk a little bit about the di erent
things that we worry about, and then maybe some ways that we can reduce our
worrying. So, we'll talk about that today.

Remember that you have the transcript for this episode in the Episode
Description. That's below the episode. So, just go down and click on that if you need it.
And you can listen to this episode as many times as you want. I recommend that you
use repetition, that you listen many times if you need to, until you can understand
everything that I'm saying without using the transcript. So, that should be the goal with
your listening, with the Listening Time podcast, to be able to understand everything
that I'm saying. And if you like this podcast, please give it a ve-star rating and share it
with anyone else who might nd it useful. Alright, let's get started. Okay, so let's talk
about worry.

So, what does it mean to worry? Well, my de nition is: worrying means that you
allow your mind to think continuously about real or possible problems. So, let's talk
about some of those real or possible problems that we might worry about during our
day or in our lives. So, one of the most common things that people worry about is
work, their job. And this can take many forms. For example, if you're very busy at work,
and you have a lot of important deadlines and things like that, this can cause you to
worry. In English, the word "deadline" refers to the date or the time when you need to
nish something.

So, if my deadline is next Friday, this means that I need to deliver the project, or
whatever, next Friday or before then. So, this is a deadline. So, when you have
deadlines that are tight and you have a lot of work, and you feel a little bit
overwhelmed, you might be worried that you're not going to nish your work in time.
And this can cause you some anxiety when you feel like that. So, you might feel
worried about that. You might feel worried because your boss is going to give you
feedback on your performance next week, and you're worried that he might give you
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 negative feedback and tell you something that you won't like or criticize your work, or
something like that.

Or maybe you feel worried because you have to give a presentation in English
tomorrow, and you have to do this in front of important clients or important people in
your company. And this is something that worries you because you think you might not
do a good job. So, these are all di erent things that might worry you when it comes to
your work.

And related to work is also job security. The term "job security" refers to how
safe you are from losing your job. If you have job security, this means that you're
probably not going to get red, you probably won't lose your job. But if you don't have
a lot of job security, this means that at any moment, you might lose your job. The
company might decide that you're not necessary anymore, and they might let you go.
So, this is something that people worry about. They worry about being laid o or red,
for example. In English, when we use the term "getting laid o ," this means that you
lose your job, but it's not because you did something wrong or you're a bad worker. It
just means that the company can't pay you anymore. They don't have the money, or
they don't need your position anymore, or something like that. In this case, you get laid
o .

That's di erent from being red, because when you're red, this means that you
did something that your boss doesn't like or your performance isn't good, or it was
something related to you. However, if you get laid o , it's not related to you as a
worker. It's related to the company's ability to pay you, or the company's need for your
position. So, getting laid o could be a big worry for some people if they don't have job
security.

Okay, another type of worry that some people have is in regards to their health.
So, this is one that I have had a lot of worry about throughout my life. I'm one of those
people that sometimes worries unnecessarily about their health. And I'm sure some of
you have had this problem, or you know someone with this issue. People that are a
little bit scared to go to the doctor or things like that because they're worried that they
might have some health issue. This is de nitely a big one. There are many people that
worry about di erent health problems that they could have. And for these types of
people, like for me, for example, we're worrying about things that we really shouldn't
be worried about. There's no evidence that we have any problem with our health.
There's nothing that's actually making us feel a lot of pain or something like that, and
we're just worried that we might have some problem.

So remember, in my de nition of "worry," I talked about real or possible

problems. So, this is de nitely one of those possible problems, if you're worrying about
health issues that no one has told you that you have and there's no evidence that you
have. So, this is de nitely not a very good type of worry, because we're just worrying
about something that could possibly be wrong in the future. And that's de nitely not
very productive, to be thinking about those types of things. But regardless, a lot of
people have this type of worry. And for me, for example, I've had to try to work on this
and get better and not feel that worry when it comes to what might happen to me or to
my health in the future, or what problems I might have. I've had to learn to get rid of
these thoughts and to not think too much about this.

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 And I de nitely think that people who worry about this, in particular, can get
better at it and can improve in this regard and not feel so worried. I've de nitely
improved somewhat in this regard. In English, when you say that you do something
"somewhat," it means that you have kind of done it. You haven't done it a lot. You
haven't done that action 100%, but you've kind of done it. You've done it a little bit or
you've done it somewhat. Okay? So, I've improved somewhat when it comes to
worrying about my health, but I still have some room to improve. And I think that I'll
continue to try to not have this type of worry in my life.

And another worry that people have which is a very common one is worrying
about their nances. So, a lot of people are worried about their nances now or in the
future. And this worry might actually be justi ed. In English, when we say that
something is "justi ed," we're saying that there's good reason for something. So, this
might actually be justi ed because someone might actually have a very bad nancial
situation. They might be very irresponsible nancially, and they might be in a very
di cult position. And it's very easy to see why they're worried about their nances. So,
sometimes this can be justi ed.

But sometimes, it's more about thinking about what might happen in the future
to their nances. They might have a decent nancial situation now, but they're worried
that they're going to lose all their money in the future. And this is something that
anyone could possibly worry about because who knows what will happen in the
future? So, it's obviously not something that we should spend too much time thinking
about because we can always worry about something that might possibly happen in
the future that can cause us to lose all our money and be in a bad situation. We can't
control everything. So, we shouldn't spend our whole day worrying about that.

However, it's good to be prepared for the future. I think that if you're someone
who's worried about your nancial situation in the future, you might be able to spend
your time more productively, and not just worry about that, but instead, make sure that
you feel prepared in case something happens and you have some emergency nancial
situation and to make sure that you're a little bit more ready for things that might
happen in the future. I think that preparing and being responsible with your nances
now is a good way to deal with this type of worry.

But of course, a lot of people just worry about the economy in general because
there are many bad things that could happen to the economy in the future. And this is
something outside our control. It's not something that one person can change or
control. So, we have to learn to be okay with the fact that we don't know what will
happen with the economy in the future. We can prepare, like I mentioned, but we
de nitely can't control it. So, we can only do so much in this case. In English, when we
say "you can only do so much," this means that you can only do a certain amount, and
you can't do everything. You can't control or take care of everything. You can only do
your part. You can only do a limited amount, for example. So, you can only do so
much. You can't control the future of the economy.

And one other thing that people worry about is disasters. People worry about
war, about natural disasters, about things that might threaten the whole world or your
country, or something like that, in the future. And this is something that a lot of people
feel more and more anxious about as time goes on, because as time goes on, it seems
like the world becomes a crazier and crazier place with big events and disasters. And
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so, people have become more anxious about this as time has gone on. And it's
something that we don't have control over either. So, for a lot of people, it's very
worrying to see all this bad news that comes out, and it makes them think that there
could be some disaster in the future. So, that's another common thing that causes
people to worry.

So now, let's just talk a little bit about how we might stop worrying so much,
how we can deal with our worry. And I'm de nitely not an expert in this regard. I'm not
someone that can diagnose your situation and give you advice here, but I just want to
talk a little bit about things that I have done that have helped me control my worry a
little bit. So, I think one of the things is to identify the di erence between productive
worry and unproductive worry. So, productive worry is when you're worrying about
things that you can actually impact somewhat, you can control a little bit, and maybe
you can do something productive to help solve some problem that you're worrying
about. Right?

So, if I'm worried about my presentation that I have to give next week in front of
many important clients, then instead of just worrying and thinking that I'm going to do
a bad job and I'm going to ruin everything, I can actually start preparing, and I can start
memorizing my main points, and I can start practicing, and I can actually do something
here. I can get really prepared. And then, when it comes time to give my presentation,
I'll do a good job, probably, because I've prepared so much. So, that's a type of worry
that can actually help you be productive and solve some problem that you have.

However, there is a lot of unproductive worry, where you worry about something
that you have absolutely zero control over and you can't do anything about, and
worrying doesn't help you do anything productive. So, for example, if I'm constantly
worried that I'm going to have some problem or accident or something in the future,
and I'm going to die, or something like that, this is probably unproductive worry,
because I can't control everything in the world. I can't control everything about what
happens to me. I can't control all the people around me, so I can't guarantee that I'm
just never going to have any accident or anything bad happened to me. And I can't do
anything about that.

So, if I'm worrying that something can happen to me at any moment, and I can
die, this is not something I can turn into a productive solution. Right? There's no
solution to that. So, I'm just worrying about something I have absolutely no control
over. So, it's not useful to worry about it. So, this is how we can identify productive and
unproductive worry, and how we can use it to our advantage.

So, if it's a productive worry, we can actually start acting and doing something
and helping us and help ourselves feel less worried because we're actually doing
something to prevent the bad thing from happening, for example. But if it's
unproductive worry, we can't do anything about it. So, we should tell ourselves that it's
not worth worrying about. Just forget it. Right? So, that's something that I've tried to
do. I've tried to separate my worries into productive and unproductive worries. And I've
tried to identify those a little bit better.

And another thing that I de nitely need to work on is to not overthink things.
When you overthink something, this means that you think too much about it. You think
in deep detail about something, and this is not productive. So, I need to make sure I
don't overthink or overanalyze every situation. Because if I overthink something, if I
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 overanalyze something, this can cause me to worry about it, and this worry is probably
not productive. And it's a lot of what ifs. What if this happens? What if that happens?
And I can think about a million di erent what if scenarios that could happen, and that's
not something I should be thinking about. Right? I shouldn't overthink or overanalyze
every situation. I should try to just think in a productive way about it and not go too far.
Right?

And one other thing that I think is really important, something that I need to
improve more on, is accepting what I can't control. People that worry a lot usually don't
like to feel like they don't have control. And unfortunately, there are many things in our
lives that we don't have control over. And this has been something that I've struggled
with. I want to feel like I'm in control, and when I feel like I don't have control, this can
de nitely cause some anxiety, and I can worry because I can't control that thing. And
so, I can't prepare 100% for that thing or whatever.

And this is something that I need to continue to get better at: feeling like it's
okay if I don't have control over everything. It's okay if there are some things that
happen that I can't do anything about, and I don't need to worry about those things. I
need to be content with the things that I can't control. It's as simple as that.

Alright, why don't we stop there for today? I hope this episode was interesting
for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening. Remember that you can
become a Listening Time VIP now, and you'll be able to ask me all your questions
regarding English, and I'll answer them every week in a video Q&A session. And of
course, you can just become a Listening Time Member, Super Member or Family
Member too if that's what you prefer. If you become a Listening Time Family Member
or Listening Time VIP, you'll also have access to my advanced podcast. So, every
month I released two new advanced episodes where I speak at normal speed, so you
get to practice with fast English.

So, if you want that, then make sure to sign up. The link is in the Episode
Description below this episode. That's www.patreon.com/listeningtime And please give
this podcast a ve-star rating if you like it, and share it with anyone else who might nd
it useful. Alright, thank you for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next
episode of Listening Time.

*Click on this link to access my Q&A Sessions, Advanced Podcast Episodes, Bonus
Episodes, and Listening Practice Seminars: www.patreon.com/listeningtime
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