The Dip - Audio

Hello VIPs, this is A.J. and it’s time for our lesson this month. This one is very interesting
it’s called The Dip, which I’ll explain in a minute. It’s an idea I got from Seth Godin, one
of my favorite business writers. He’s a real creative guy, not a normal boring business
guy.

Let me just talk about the vocabulary first…A Dip is a drop. This is the normal meaning
of the word, there are some other meanings, but a Dip is let’s just imagine something is
going steady and then there’s a sudden drop that we call a Dip. It’s also a verb with
other meanings, but that’s what we’re focusing on in this lesson a Dip, which is a drop.

What the hell are we talking about? What I’m talking about is this. Set Godin talks about
this idea of The Dip and, in fact, I think he has a book called The Dip. Here’s the idea.
The idea is that between good and great there is a Dip, that this is normal. This is the
normal situation, the normal way that businesses, people and everything progress.

Let’s imagine, if we can have a graph that you’re starting something new, let’s say
English. In the beginning you’re terrible and you don’t know anything and then you start
getting better, better, better, better especially if you’re using Learn Real English or
Effortless English. So you keep going and going and eventually what happens is you’re
gradually improving and you have plateau’s which we’ve talked about where it seems
like nothing is happening. Then you go up again and eventually you reach a point where
you’re good, maybe even very good.

Maybe you’re at that point now. But, a lot of people reach that point of very good. Some
people just stop there and that’s okay if you don’t care about becoming great at
something it’s fine, we don’t have to be great at everything we do. Let’s say you do want
to be great.

Here’s what Seth Godin is talking about. He says that to go from this point, good, up to
great, first you have to go through a Dip where you actually will feel like you’re getting
worse. In fact, you actually will get worse. Your abilities will go down. Your confidence
will go down. Everything will get worse for a while and then if you don’t quit you’ll shoot
back up and then you will become great, a master at whatever it is.

I knew about this idea for a while and didn’t really think much about it, but recently in my
life I’ve realized that this is absolutely true. I can look at parts of my life and especially
recently in my life where I’m trying to go from good or very good up to great and guess
what’s happening? I seem to be getting worse. Everything seems to be getting worse.
This Dip is happening and a lot of you may face this now or in the future with your
English or with other parts of your life. So I want to talk about this and talk about why it
happens and how you can get through that Dip and get to great.

Let’s first talk about this idea of why it happens. What typically happens is, to go from
nothing up to good or very good, it may take us some time, we might have plateaus
where we’re kind of flat and then go up again, but generally it’s fairly clear. When you’re
a beginner it’s easy to get better because you’re already terrible, but here’s what
happens.

Eventually you reach a point where you hit a limit where, if you keep doing the same
things that made you good they’re not going to take you any farther, you’re just not
going to get farther. Let’s imagine, for example, English. You use traditional methods of
English; grammar, textbooks, conversation partners, all that stuff you’ve probably tried
many times. Maybe after years and years and years of doing that, it was painful and
difficult but maybe you became good at English.

I mean, you could certainly read English fairly well. Just to sign up for Effortless English
you had to read my website and understand it. You had to watch my videos and
understand them, so you were okay, maybe a little bit good. I know maybe you felt like
your speaking wasn’t great or maybe even not good, but you did get better from zero up
to a certain point but then what happened?

You seemed like you couldn’t go any farther. It doesn’t matter, how much more you
studied grammar rules your grammar never seemed to improve when you were
speaking. It didn’t seem to matter. You could keep studying more and more vocabulary
lists yet, when you’re actually speaking in conversations you’d forget them and you
could never use them.

You felt stuck. You’re like ah what do I do I’m not getting better, I’m trying these methods
my teacher’s told me to use and I’m stuck, they’re not working. Then you made a
decision. I know, because you’re a VIP member that you made this decision, you said I
want to be great not just good or mediocre or so-so. You decided, I’m going to try this
crazy Effortless English thing.

Now, in the beginning you may have felt like you got worse, because suddenly you had
to change everything. No more grammar books. No more vocabulary lists. Suddenly,
you’re learning things in a very different and strange way, totally different, focusing on
listening. Listening to all these crazy stories and probably in the beginning it felt very
uncomfortable and strange. You may have even felt that your ability or at least your
confidence actually went down.
Because suddenly you’re changing everything and your brains is having to learn all this
new stuff and while it’s learning all this new stuff you’re going to get some hesitation.
Maybe it’s going to cause some difficulty and that’s The Dip.

But then if you stick with it, three months, five months, six months, eight months, ten
months, twelve months– somewhere in that range– everyone’s different. What you
found is that there was a moment where it started to work. Suddenly, all this new stuff
you’re doing started to work, you started to get better and then your ability started going
up. Now you’re on your way to greatness.

This happens in golf. A lot of golfers, professional high level golfers do this. They get
very good and they want to be great. They’re swinging, they have a certain way that
they swing their golf club, but they reach a point where they’re not getting any better
and their coach will tell them. They will realize I have to change my swing to become
great. To go from where I am now, which is very good, and to become great I have to
change everything because I can’t go any farther like this.

So, they’ll start changing the way they stand, the way they hold the golf club, the way
they swing it and guess what happens? For a while they get worse. Their scores get
worse. They feel really uncomfortable and strange. Everything seems to get worse,
they’re not even good anymore and sometimes they become bad. This happens in so
many areas, but here’s the danger.

A lot of people quit at that point. They say oh, this is terrible. I’m worse than I was before
and they quit and just go back to the old way of doing things. They stay stuck forever.
They never become great. A lot of people do this with English, as you know right, they
get stuck and maybe they try something new, maybe even Effortless English, this does
happen with some people.

They tried for a month, they feel oh this is strange, these stories are weird or oh, I’m not
comfortable and then they just say no and they go back and start studying grammar
rules again. Those people probably don’t ever get much better. They’re probably stuck
forever. This happens to so many people and this is the BIG danger.

The other danger, the other thing people do is they become very good or even just a
little bit good and they’re kind of just comfortable. They don’t want to take a chance
anymore, because when you become good it feels comfortable, you don’t feel like a
beginner anymore. When you’re a beginner you feel kind of uncomfortable, it’s not a
great feeling sometimes, but when you become good or okay, then you feel more
comfortable and suddenly, you can lose your motivation to keep improving.
This also happens to a lot of people. They don’t want to go through that Dip. They don’t
even try it. They see and realize that if they change things it could get worse there’s a
risk, so they just don’t take the risk. So they stay stuck forever.

So, what I want you to do is think about this in your own life.
For one thing, what I would like you to do is identify the parts of your life where you do
want to be great. It’s not necessary to be great at everything. I like lifting weights a little
bit just for health and fitness, but I don’t care to become super great with huge muscles
like some big bodybuilder. I’m just not interested in that. I don’t care about it, so I don’t
care about being a great power lifter or something.

It’s not important to me and that’s fine; however, there are areas of my life where I do
want to be great and in those areas one is general health, energy and vitality. I want to
be great I don’t want good health. I want great health. I want super health. So, in fact,
just recently in my life I went through this Dip, because last year I decided okay my
health is good, it’s pretty good compared to most Americans but it’s not great and I want
great, so I had to change everything.

Change all the foods I was eating. Change the way I exercised. Change it all, and for a
while it was really difficult it was a struggle to not go back to the old way. It felt strange,
I’m eating all these new things and I’m not quite sure, is this helping me? One thing that
happens when you become really healthy, especially when you start eating really
healthy is that your body can detoxify.

This means it starts to get the poisons out of your body that have been there a long time
and it will start to release them. That feels like you’re getting sick, so you’re like I’m
eating better right, I’m thinking I’m eating better, I’m doing better but I feel like I’m
getting sick and getting worse, what’s happening?

That’s the danger point where a lot of people will go back, it’s not working, and they’ll go
back to the old way and just be okay or a little bit good.

So I went through some of that, Tamoi did too, and still going through some of that, but
now I’m starting to feel like I’m going towards super health, going towards something
really-really great a high level. I’ve gone through that Dip and now I’m on the way back
up and I feel fantastic and it’s great. But, it was tough going through that Dip point and
not easy.

Another area happening in my own life is with Effortless English. I feel that Effortless
English has been quite good, very good for the last several years. However, I want
Effortless English to be great and when I say great I mean I want us to change
education, to change the whole idea of education and learning around the world. Right
now people have this idea that education is something that happens when you’re
young, which is bullshit, not true!

My best learning in life has all come as an adult after I left school, outside of school and
yet, a lot of people are stuck with this idea that learning happens in school, where in
fact, the best learning happens outside of school. Also, it was part of our mission to be
great with Effortless English, I want to get this idea out and to change the way people
think about learning.

When you’re a little kid learning is fantastic! You’re curious, you’re fun it’s amazing, kids
love to learn and they’re so excited and passionate about it. What happens as older
children? In school, people begin to think that learning is something that’s boring,
something that’s passive where you sit at a desk while you do it and that’s not really
learning in my opinion, but that’s the idea of education.

I want to change all of that. To change all of that and have a big affect all over the world,
we have to make Effortless English great. So just recently, and right at this moment
we’re changing everything. We’re re-designing our website. We’re changing our emails.
We’re doing different videos. We’re changing everything and it’s caused some
problems.

Our sales are down, we’re having all kinds of other problems, the website has been
crashing and it’s been stressing me out. I’ve been really stressed and it’s not
comfortable, whereas I was really comfortable before. We had our whole system going
everything was very smooth with no problems. It was pretty easy and simple. Now that
we’re changing everything all kinds of problems are happening. We’re in The Dip. We’re
not coming up yet though, we’re in the part where we’re going down and it’s very
stressful and difficult.

So again though, I’m not going to quit. I know I have to get through this so that we can
get back to going up again and eventually we’ll shoot up and become great.

So all you need to do, this is your homework for this month and I’ll talk more about it in
the commentary, but I want you to think about this in your life.

Where do you want to become great?

I also want you to think about where in your life are you good and comfortable?

Your relationships
Health
Job/career
English, whatever
Think about that.

Where are you good and comfortable?

And because you’re comfortable you’re not really trying much anymore. You’re not
taking chances. You’re not pushing. In which of those areas do you truly want to be
great? What do you need to do to go into that Dip? What do you totally need to change?
Because to go from good to great you have to change everything and everything you
thought was right you have to change and rethink it again.

That’s what I want you to do is identify one or two areas in your life that you want to be
great in and I want you to really think about totally changing everything in that part of
your life to make it better. And, to realize that when you do that, when you start that, it is
going to feel really uncomfortable. It is going to feel like you’re getting worse and you
probably will get worse for a while, but be persistent and don’t stop, because eventually
you will make that turn and you’ll shoot up to greatness.

When you do, share your experiences on our site of course. If you’re struggling, if you’re
in The Dip and having problems, share that on our site and we’ll cheer you up and
encourage you so you keep going.

That’s the idea of The Dip, I’ll talk more about it in the commentary but I want you to
think about this, it’s a serious subject and it’s something that just naturally happens.
Don’t get discouraged when it happens, you can see it as a sign of progress. Just keep
going, keep going and you will make that turn and you will achieve greatness I promise
you.

Have a great month. I’ll see you again soon. Bye-bye.

The Dip – Mini Story
Hello, this is A. J. and welcome to the VIP mini-story for “The Dip”, let’s get started
immediately.

**************

There was a guy named Dirk and Dirk was a daredevil. In fact, Dirk had always
wanted to be famous when he was young. When he was young he had always
dreamed about being famous, becoming a famous daredevil.

Now a daredevil is someone who likes to do crazy stunts, crazy dangerous

things. We call that person a daredevil. And he’d always wanted to be a famous
daredevil. In fact, when he was young, Dirk’s hero was Evel Knievel. Evel Knievel
was a very famous daredevil in the past.

What had Dirk always wanted?

Dirk, had always wanted to be a famous daredevil.

Who had always wanted to be a famous daredevil?

Dirk, of course.

Dirk had always wanted to be a famous daredevil.

So, he had always wanted to be what?

A daredevil.

He had always wanted to be a famous daredevil.

Now, had he always wanted to be a fireman?

No, no, no, no, no you know, in his youth he had not always wanted to be a fireman; he
had always wanted to be a daredevil.

He had always wanted to do crazy dangerous things and become famous.

Who had always wanted to do crazy and dangerous things and become famous?
Of course, Dirk. Dirk had always wanted to be a famous daredevil.

When he was young, who was his hero?

His hero was Evel Knievel.

Whose hero was Evel Knievel?

Dirks; Evel Knievel was Dirks hero

When was he Dirk’s hero?

When Dirk was young.

When Dirk was a kid, his hero was Evel Knievel.

And so, when he was 10 years old Dirk used to jump his bicycle over cars.

What did he do when he was 10 years old?

He used to jump his bicycle over cars.

He created a ramp, a ramp is like a piece of wood or something at an angle that

goes up. He would ride, hit the ramp and fly over the cars with his bicycle.

When did he used to jump over cars?

When he was 10 years old.

When he was 10 years old he used to jump over cars with his bicycle.

Does he still jump over cars with his bicycle?

No, he doesn’t.

He used to do that, but not anymore.

Who used to jump over cars with his bicycle?

Dirk did.
And, when did he used to do that?

He used to do that when he was 10 years old.

And, in fact, he crashed many times. Many times he crashed and hit the cars, he
fell and he had a big crash.

Did he crash a few times?

No. He crashed many, many times.

In fact, by the time he was 15, Dirk had broken 29 bones in his body.

How many bones had he broken by the time he was 15 years old?

Twenty nine, 29 bones.

He had broken 29 bones by the time he was 15 years old.

By when?

By what time?

By the time he was 15 years old, he had broken 29 bones in his body.

Did he become famous?

No, he still was not famous.

He had broken 29 bones in his body, but he was still not famous, poor Dirk.

How many bones had he broken?

Twenty nine

By when?

By the time he was 15 years old.

By the time he was 15 years old he had broken 29 bones in his body, and yet, still he
was not famous.
At the age of 15 he made a change. He started riding Harley Davidson
Motorcycles.

When did he start to ride Harley Davidson Motorcycles?

At the age of 15.

At the age of 15 he made a change, no more bicycles, he started riding Harley

Davidson Motorcycles.

What kind of motorcycles did he start to ride?

Harley’s, big Harley’s…Harley Davidson Motorcycles

When did he start to ride motorcycles?

At the age of 15.

Did he just quietly ride the motorcycles down the street?

Of course not! Dirk was a daredevil.

He liked to do dangerous things he didn’t just ride his Harley motorcycle. He

jumped his motorcycle over buses. He stopped jumping over cars with his
bicycle and he started jumping over buses with his motorcycle.

What did he jump over?

He jumped over buses.

In fact, one time he jumped over 39 buses at once.

What was the maximum number of buses he ever jumped over with his motorcycle?

Thirty-nine

He once jumped over 39 buses with his Harley motorcycle, he was a daredevil.

Now unfortunately, he also crashed and wrecked his motorcycle many, many
times. He wrecked his motorcycle many, many, many times doing dangerous
stunts. Of course, to wreck and to crash are similar; they mean basically the
same thing. So he wrecked his motorcycle. He crashed his motorcycle many,
many times.

Did he crash? Did he wreck his motorcycle a few times or many times?

He wrecked his motorcycle many, many times.

Who wrecked his motorcycle many times?

Dirk wrecked his motorcycle many times.

Why did he wreck his motorcycle many times?

Because he was a daredevil.

He wrecked his motorcycle many times because he was a daredevil, because he was
always doing dangerous things with his motorcycle but mostly he was trying to jump
over buses.

So he wrecked his motorcycle many, many times and so, by the time he was 25 he
had broken 57 bones in his body; even more bones broken.

How many bones had he broken by the time he was 25 years old?

Fifty seven

Fifty seven bones

He had broken 57 bones in his body.

By when?

By the age of 25

By the time he was 25 he had broken 57 bones in his body

Had he broken 72 bones in his body by the time he was 25?

No.

So, by when had he broken 57 bones?

By the time he was 25

By when had he broken 29 bones?

By the time he was 15

So, by the time he was 15 he had broken 29 bones. By the time he was age 25, he had
broken 57 bones.

Now, by the time he reached age 25, had he become famous?

No, no, at the age of 25 he still wasn’t famous.

He had broken all those bones, yet still wasn’t famous.

Poor Dirk. Poor, poor Dirk, terrible.

Well finally, at the age of 38, he lined up 129 jumbo jet airplanes and he jumped
over all of them with his motorcycle

So what kind of airplanes did he line up?

Jumbo jets

Jumbo means very, very big. It means large or huge.

He lined up really big ones, like the kind of jets that we use to fly from America to
Europe. Big jumbo jets. He lined them up. He put them next to each other one
after the other, next to each other and then he jumped over them with his
motorcycle.

How many airplanes did he jump over?

He jumped over 129 jumbo jets.

Did he jump over 172, 150 or 129 jumbo jets?

He jumped over 129 jumbo jets.

At what age did he jump over 129 jumbo jets?

At the age of 38

At the age of 38 he lined up 129 jumbo jets and he jumped over them.

What did he jump over them with?

He jumped over them with his motorcycle, his Harley motorcycle.

Who jumped over 129 jumbo jets at the age of 38 with his motorcycle?

Dirk

Dirk, at the age of 38, jumped over 129 jumbo jets with his Harley motorcycle.

Did he become famous?

Yes, he did!

In fact, he did. All of the news stations covered his stunt.

*******************

Now, when we say covered, like a news station covers, reporters cover, it means they
watched the event and then they write about it or show it on their station. So the news
stations covered his story. It means they focused on his story. It means they talked
about it or showed it. So, all the news stations covered his story. All the news stations
covered his stunt.

A stunt is a dangerous action of jumping over buses, jumping over airplanes, that’s a
stunt. Jumping out of a window and falling is a stunt, if you do it on purpose, if you’re
trying to do it. If you’re not trying it’s an accident. But, if you’re trying to do it safely it’s
called a stunt.

So, all the news stations covered his biggest stunt. They covered him jumping over 129
jumbo jets with a motorcycle, so his story, his stunt was shown on all the big
international news stations. Everybody covered Dirks amazing stunt of jumping over
129 jumbo jets with the motorcycle and as a result, he became a famous daredevil.

Who became a famous daredevil?

Dirk became a famous daredevil.

He had a lot of broken bones, but he finally reached his goal.

****************
That is the end of our mini-story for this month.

Listen to it as many times as possible. There’s some good grammar in there, but you
don’t need to think about the grammar just listen, listen, listen and you will learn it.

I will see you next time. Bye-bye.

The Dip – Point of View
Hello, this is A.J. Hello my VIP and welcome to the Point of View lesson.

Let’s get started, point of view stories.

*************

So there is a boy named Dirk and he is 10 years old. He’s a 10-year old boy. Dirk is
basically a normal 10-year old boy except that his hero is Evel Knievel. He loves Evel
Knievel and, in fact, Dirk wants to be a famous daredevil, just like Evel Knievel. So, at
the age of 10, he starts jumping his bicycle over cars. He loves doing these crazy
dangerous things, these crazy dangerous stunts and everyday he dreams about
becoming a famous daredevil, so he jumps his bicycle over cars.

He always tries to jump over more and more and more cars. He continues doing this for
many years when he’s young and so, by the time he is 15 years old he has broken 29
bones in his body. So now he’s 15 years old, he’s broken 29 bones in his body and he
still is not famous. So he’s 15 and he makes a change, he decides to start riding Harley
Davidson Motorcycles.

And he decides to jump motorcycle over buses. So he starts practicing jumping his
motorcycle over buses every single day. Now one time he actually jumps over 39 buses
at once. It’s amazing and he’s really excited, but of course, he also wrecks his
motorcycle many, many times and this continues for many more years, and he still
doesn’t become famous.

So, by the time he is 25, he has broken 57 bones in his body but still he isn’t famous. So
he continues trying to do more and more dangerous stunts and now finally, at the age of
38, he lines up 129 jumbo jets and jumps over them with his motorcycle. It is his biggest
stunt yet. And this time all the news stations cover it. They all cover his stunt and he
finally becomes famous, a famous daredevil, just like his hero, Evel Knievel.

******************

That’s the end of version one of our point of view stories. Let’s move on to version two.

******************

So there is a guy named Dirk and he has always wanted to be famous, starting when he
was young, all the way until recently. He has always wanted to be famous and his hero
has always been Evel Knievel, from a young age until now. So his hero is still Evel
Knievel now and his hero has Evel Knievel since he was young until now.

Now, when he was 10, Dirk used to jump his bicycles over cars and he crashed his
bicycle many times. In fact, by the time he was 15 he had broken 29 bones in his body,
but still had not become famous.

At the age of 15, he started riding Harley Davidson Motorcycles and he jumped his
motorcycle over buses. One time he even jumped over a 39 buses at once. But, of
course, during that time he wrecked his motorcycle many times. In fact, in his life he has
wrecked his motorcycle many times starting back when he was young as a teenager
until now. During that whole time period, he has wrecked his motorcycle many, many
times.

In fact, by the time he was 25, he had already broken 57 bones in his body. Yet, at that
time, he still wasn’t famous. He still had not become famous.

Finally, just recently at the age of 38, he lined up 129 jumbo jets and jumped over them
with his motorcycle and all the news stations covered his stunt and he finally became
famous and he is famous now.

******************

That’s the end of version two of our point of view stories. Let’s move on to version
number three.

******************

Changing the time period again, looking to the future. Imagining, dreaming maybe about
this possible future, this possible story that might happen in the future, that there might
be a boy named Dirk and he’ll want to be a daredevil.

Of course, his hero is going to be Evel Knievel. Of course, as you know, if you’re a
member of VIP you know ‘gonna’ means going to. We actually say gonna in casual
normal speech, it’s more common than going to.

So, his hero is going to be Evel Knievel and he’s going to love to do stunts. Dirk is going
to love to do stunts. He’s constantly going to be jumping his bicycle over cars. And he’s
going to crash his bicycle many times. In fact, by the time he is 15 years old he will have
broken 29 bones in his body, but he still will not be famous and he’ll continue, he’s going
to continue trying.
In fact, at the age of 15 he’s going to get a motorcycle, a Harley Davidson Motorcycle.
He’s going to start jumping motorcycles over buses. One time he will actually jump over
39 buses at once, but of course, he’s going to wreck his motorcycle many, many times.
And so, by the time he is 25, he will have broken 57 bones in his body but he still won’t
be famous. Of course, won’t means will not.

Well, he’ll continue of course, he’s going to keep going because it’s his dream to be a
big famous daredevil, so he’ll keep trying until finally, at the age of 38 he’s going to line
up 129 jumbo jets and jump over all of them successfully with his motorcycle.

And this time all the news stations are going to cover his stunt. They’re all going to
report about him and he will finally become famous. He’ll finally become a famous
daredevil.

******************

That is the end of our point of view stories. All kinds of grammar in there, some a little bit
complicated but you don’t need to think about that, all you need to do is listen to each of
these stories every day for at least two weeks.

Every day listen to all the lessons in the lesson set, for at least two weeks. You can do
longer, longer is fine. If it’s really easy for you, you could do shorter, but even if it feels
easy I recommend longer, at least two weeks. Then, this grammar, the vocabulary, the
pronunciation, all of it will start going into your brain more deeply, more deeply and more
deeply.

That’s why the repetition is so important, that you listen to these same ones again and
again every day for at least 14 days. That is deep learning, it’s very powerful.

I will see you next time, bye-bye.

The Dip - Commentary
Hello my VIP, and welcome to the commentary for The Dip.

Before I begin this commentary I want to talk about the name VIP. When I traveled
recently to Europe and talked to and met some of our wonderful and fantastic members
there, I found out that in some countries in the world VIP has a little bit of a negative
feeling. People feel that a VIP is some big super rich person or some terrible
government person or somebody who flies in private jets and stuff like that.

Well, that is not the case with our program. It’s also not the case in the United States, in
fact, because I’m American so this term has different cultural feelings, it depends on the
culture you’re in about what this term VIP means or feels to you. Apparently, in some
countries it means someone who’s very elite or something, but in the United States
that’s not the case.

In America we all like to pretend that we’re equal. We’re not, but there’s a kind of
cultural rule that we all feel we’re equal to each other, so we don’t really have this idea
of some super VIP. For us VIP just means ‘very important person’ that’s all it means, it’s
the direct meaning. And you are a very important person. You’re a VIP if you choose to
be one. You choose to be important. Nobody else gives that to you.

It’s not about how much money you make. It’s not about your job. It’s not about some
status of some official in the government or something, all that is bullshit. It’s about
feeling deep inside yourself that you are important, that your life is important. You are as
important as any rich person, as any person in any government position, as anyone else
in the world. Your life is just as important. Your success is just as important.

That’s what I mean when I say VIP, my VIP program, what that means to me is that you
are my most important students. Not because you have money, not because of anything
else but simply because you are the most motivated, because you care the most, not
just about yourselves but about each other and because you are really good people.
You are a really good person. Get on our VIP social site and it’s obvious that is the
case.

Luckily, I’ve been able to meet many of you in person and it certainly confirmed that,
that’s why you’re a VIP and that’s why I use the term VIP. Forget any negative ideas you
might have about it and realize yes, I am an important person. I’m just as important as
anyone else. My life is important to me. My friends, my family, which are a part of my
life, are important. No one is more important than I am. No one is less important either.
We’re going to have this same idea of, we’re equal. We’re all human beings on this
planet Earth and we all need to really take care of ourselves and to view ourselves as
important. The problem is not that some rich assholes think they’re super important and
more important than other people. I don’t care about them. I don’t care what they think.

The problem is that there are actually people in the world who feel they are less
important. They actually feel bad because they have less money or because their job
position, social status, religion, gender or race, that for some reason they’re less
important. They believe that and that’s the tragedy, that’s the bad thing. Those people
are VIPs too they just don’t realize it.

Think of yourself as a very important person and think of everyone else in the world as
very important too.

Now we’ll start the commentary, but that’s an important commentary too, very important.

**************
In this lesson we talked about this idea of The Dip, that there is a big challenge that
stands between being good at something, at anything and being great. That when
you’re going and trying to be good at something usually the pattern is that you improve
very quickly in the beginning, then you have a plateau where you don’t improve but you
don’t get worse its kind of the same.

Then you start improving again some more and then a plateau and then improve some
more and then a plateau, until you become good. A good tennis player, a good English
speaker, a good English teacher, a good whatever, any skill this is the case. It’s also
true of companies.

Companies can grow and grow and grow and become good. But what happens is we all
reach this good point and when we reach that point of being good we have a decision.
At that point we have to decide, do I want to just continue being good and relax or, do I
want to become great at this particular skill, thing or area of my life?

It is a choice. It’s an important choice and there’s not a right or wrong answer, because
in some parts of your life, good will be good enough and in other parts of your life you
want to be great. It really depends on what your purpose is in life.

What is your mission in life?

What are the most important values to you?
What are the most important things in your life?
If family is the most important thing in your life then you probably want to be great at
that. You probably want to create a great family and great relationships, so you probably
don’t want to just be good.

But in other areas of your life you might decide good is good enough. Let’s say you are
an amateur tennis player, you really enjoy tennis and you do want to be good at it, so
you rise and rise and improve to the level of good. But, you might decide that to go from
good to great is just too much work. You don’t care about being some super incredible
tennis player. You’re not trying to get to Wimbledon or anything, so you might decide I’m
good enough. I don’t need to be a great tennis player, I enjoy it its fun, I’m good and
that’s enough.

That’s fine we have to do this in our life. We cannot be super great at every single thing.
At least it’s not possible for most people. I don’t want to say it’s not possible but it
requires a ton of energy and we all need priorities in life. We all have to choose what’s
most and what’s less important, and it’s different for everyone.

I’ll give you another example from my own life. For me general core health, that feeling
of energy and vitality, that I must be great at, so I am doing difficult things I’m pushing
through that Dip. I’m really going all the way to have super health. That is not the same
as super fitness. See, super fitness might be, let’s say with weight lifting. That might
mean I would try to lift weights and become like a big bodybuilder lifting incredibly heavy
weights, building big super strong muscles.

For me, that’s not important I don’t need to be a great strong man or something. I want
to be strong enough to have good super health, but I can be super healthy without lifting
1000 pounds or something. I don’t need to be a super weight lifter. I need to just have
enough strength so that I have good solid muscle mass, strong energy all day long and
am generally very healthy. You can see how this works, right?

The first step, which I talked about in the video and I want to emphasize again, is that
you have to be clear in your life about your priorities and you really need to consciously
choose what things in your life need to be great for you. It might be three, four or five
things. Might be just one thing, but you need to choose what those top priorities in your
life are. For me health is a top priority.

Another top priority for me is contribution and teaching. This is my mission in life and
obviously, you can see I’m not just focused on being an English teacher. I enjoy being
an English teacher, but what I’m really passionate about is teaching about personal
growth, learning, success, contribution and all the topics we have here in the VIP
program.
So that’s my mission and purpose in life, I want to be great at it. Therefore, I’m willing to
endure the extra difficulty, The Dip and the big challenge to go from good to great, which
I’m enduring right now. I’m having a lot of struggles and challenges as I try to push
Effortless English towards greatness. We’ve been good and trying to become great
means we have to change a lot of things. It’s very uncomfortable for me, as a lot of
things I mentioned in the video already.

But that is the process, so that’s why you have to decide do I want goodness or
greatness? What areas of my life do I want greatness? When you choose those, the
next thing you need to realize is there will be a Dip. You might be in The Dip already or it
might be coming, but the point is that to go from being good at something to being
great, you’re going to have a big challenge in between and that’s okay.

It’s kind of like a last test if you want to think spiritually. You could think of the Universe,
God or your own unconscious is providing you with a final test to see if you’re worthy of
being great in that area. So you’ll be challenged with a big test or, you could just see it
as a natural re-building process that needs to happen, because being good at
something is quite different than being great. Being great requires a much deeper level
of learning, consistency and focus.

So however you want to think of it, one reason I’m telling you this and talking about this
topic is that so many people get discouraged by that Dip and quit or go backwards,
saying good is good enough; I want to be great but it’s too difficult so I’m not going to do
it. They think this Dip will last forever and they think the discomfort will last forever, but it
won’t.

It might be a big challenge and it might last for a while, maybe even up to a year,
depending on what you’re learning and doing, it could be much shorter. But it’s going to
be difficult, it’s going to challenge your faith and determination, because when you
become good at something, let’s say English you’re a good English speaker and that
feels good. It feels good to be good. It certainly feels good when you compare it to the
beginning when you were bad.

But then, when you decide I want to be great, and you start pushing towards greatness,
there’ll be a point where you’ll feel like oh my God, I feel like I’m getting worse. Oh my
God this is terrible I feel really uncomfortable. For example, with your English let’s say
you decide that I’m good but my pronunciation is not so good and that’s why I am not
great, so you decide to start focusing on pronunciation constantly.

You listen and try to imitate and copy my pronunciation and you use movies to do that,
you’re going to feel really bad for a while because, for probably a few months you’ll feel
like you’re not getting better. You’ll feel like well, this is really different, I used to focus on
just grammar and vocabulary, stories and stuff where it was easy and now I’m focusing
on the pronunciation it feels more difficult, it’s uncomfortable, I feel like I’m not good
anymore and all these emotional things will come up.

That’s normal. That’s what happens in The Dip. A lot of people will quit because of those
uncomfortable emotions, but if you don’t quit if you just continue focusing on that
pronunciation then after maybe four, five or six months, I don’t know exactly how long
but after some time period, suddenly you’ll feel it. You’ll feel a change and suddenly,
your pronunciation will get much better. It tends to happen quickly in The Dip. When
you’re going between good to great it tends to be very tough for a while and then
suddenly, it feels like everything starts working better. Then you start improving very
fast.

So, with your pronunciation if that was what you’re focusing on, for example, you would
feel really bad for a while. You’d feel horrible like nothing is improving at all, and then
after a few months you would suddenly feel like oh my God, it’s getting better. Then it
will start getting better, better, better very fast where people start noticing and telling you
wow, your pronunciation is much better.

This is also true for all parts of English. If you’re focusing on mini-story’s and answering
them faster, just learning as deeply as I can and repeating these lessons every single
day for one, two hours or more as much as I can really intensely, here’s what’s going to
happen again.

For a while it’s going to feel really tough, because you’re going to be doing all this extra
time, focus, effort and energy and it’ll feel like nothing is happening. Again, all those
negative emotions will come up. The doubt will come up. Oh, maybe this isn’t working.
Maybe this doesn’t work. Maybe this system is not good, I’m going to go back and study
grammar again.

Then you’ll have impatience, you’ll say why am I not getting better? All these emotions
will come up during this Dip, this period and a lot of people quit at that point because it’s
very uncomfortable, so they go back to what they were doing before and they never
become great.

But, when you continue, keep pushing and push through that Dip, again, same thing.
Suddenly, something is going to happen and your English will start becoming more and
more automatic. You’ll feel it happening suddenly and then your improvement is going to
get faster, faster, faster very quickly.

This is true of anything in your life, it’s not just English. It’s true of health, of relationships
and like I said it’s true of whole companies or organizations. It can be true of whole
families, so the key thing here is that once you decide to become great just be ready for
it.
Be ready for that Dip and when you’re really focused on trying things different, doing
everything differently and everything seems uncomfortable, be ready for those negative
emotions to come up, because they will, and see those negative emotions and realize.
Say to yourself okay, I’m feeling frustrated, upset, doubtful and uncomfortable, that’s
okay this is normal. This is a normal part of The Dip but I’m not going to quit I’ll keep
going. It’s going to get better.

Just keep listening to this commentary, to this lesson if you need to, because after a few
months, whether three, six, nine or ten but after a while you will feel a sudden big
change, a big improvement and once that happens, after that your improvement will be
very quick.

That’s my message to you. That’s my encouragement to you as you move towards

greatness in whatever area of your life you want to.

So the homework I’d like to mention is again, get on the VIP site and tell us about the
areas of your life where you want to be great. It should only be a few, one to five
maximum, but it’s probably helpful to focus on just one, two or three areas of your life in
the beginning where you want to be great. Where you’re not great yet, but you want to
be great, tell us what those areas are and tell us about the challenge you’re facing. Tell
us about that Dip that you must get passed.

Have a great day, a great month and remember, you are a VIP. You are a very important
person and, in fact, we all are.

I’ll see you again soon. Bye-bye.

 “You will speak ENGLISH powerfully
and fluently using my EFFORTLESS
ENGLISH system”
-AJ Hoge

..the author of “Effortless English: Learn To Speak Like A Native”

..host of “The Effortless English Show” with over 40 million downloads worldwide.
..trainer of corporate leaders, government officials, and most importantly people like you to speak English successfully.
..creator of the Effortless English teaching system and the highly successful Power English course.

Imagine the best new ideas and research from experts all
over the world used in a totally new kind of English
lesson. Wouldn’t that be exciting? You have never used
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Learn Naturally and Playfully Like a Child

Never Study Grammar Rules
Learn With Your Ears, Not Your Eyes
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