Hey,
it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English and welcome to your first Confident
English lesson of 2020 this is absolutely where you want to be every week to get
the confidence that you want for your life and your work in English.
That is definitely what we're going to focus on today.
If you remember a few weeks ago, just at the end of 2019,
I did part one of this lesson on how to accelerate your English confidence in
2020. Now that we're here,
it's time for us to create an action plan to move forward.
So if you haven't watched part one yet, I want you to pause this video,
use the link to watch part one and then come back and continue with me here in
part two.
I want to start today and the whole year of 2020 with a quote from Dennis
Waitley.
He is an American author and motivational speaker who focuses on high
performance and achievement.
He said that "to establish true self confidence,
we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the
negatives in our lives." This is exactly why I asked you to review your past
year and focus on the progress that you made last year and,
at the end of part one, I asked you to identify all the negative stories,
bad memories, fears,
and anxieties that you want to say goodbye to in 2019;
the things that you want to forget. We want to focus on high achievement,
on accelerating your confidence and that is absolutely part of the process.
Now that we've done that,
it's time to dive into part two of this lesson where we're going to create a
plan and set action steps so that you can absolutely make the progress that you
want in your English confidence in 2020. Then at the end of today's lesson,
I have a surprise bonus for you.
If speaking English confidently is your goal this year in 2020 I'm going to help
you take the first steps that you need to do that.
Before we get started with the first question,
I want you to get your notes from part one (the first five questions I asked
you) because you'll need to review some of those things and I want you to
continue writing with the five questions I have for you today.
Question one is what did you do in 2019 that helped you move forward in your
English confidence goals and can continue to help you into 2020?
When you review your notes of what you were proud of from last year,
what you learned and the challenges you overcame I you to write down everything
that helped make that happen and what you can continue to do going into 2020.
Remember,
we want to focus on the things that actually move you forward and stop doing the
things that waste your time or keep you stuck.
And now question number two, this is a fun one.
I want you to dream or imagine for a moment,
and this is where it's so important to put all those negative memories and fears
from the past in the past - forget about them.
Here's the question:
What would you do in English if you knew that you wouldn't fail?
Let me repeat that again because it's such an important question.
What would you do in English if you knew you wouldn't fail?
Is it a new job that you would get or a promotion in your company?
Would you start chatting with all your neighbors and build new relationships?
Would you study at a particular university or move abroad?
I want you to write down everything that you want to do in your life,
in English, and again, forget about possible failure.
Just focus on the things that you want. Now before I move on to question three,
I want you to review the list that you wrote down and there might be some
answers where you're thinking, Oh,
that's not really possible or that won't happen for me,
eliminate all of those negatives.
I want you to write the word possible next to each of the things that you want
to achieve because everything that you wrote down, it's possible.
This is what I help students do every day and you can do the same.
So there are no, I can'ts here.
Maybe you can't do it yet, but it's possible for you to achieve it.
Now that you've got that list of what you want to accomplish,
we need to create an action plan because dreams will always stay dreams if you
don't take action.
So question number three on that list of everything you would do,
everything you want to accomplish, if you knew you wouldn't fail,
I want you to circle one that is your highest priority right now,
the thing that you want the most.
The reason I want you to only choose one is we have to prioritize.
I want you to focus on the thing you want the most and then when you achieve it,
you mark it off the list and you go to the next one.
Your top priority might be getting comfortable talking to teachers where your
child goes to school,
or maybe your top priority is doing a job interview in English.
Whatever it is, I want you to circle it and make sure that it's specific.
Now that you've got your top priority,
it's time to zero in or focus intently on that goal.
We want to reduce overwhelm and help create a concrete plan.
So we're going to do it in a very interesting way.
I want you to imagine that it's the end of 2020 right now.
Imagine that it's December,
2020 and you achieved that thing that you wanted the most.
You did it! How would that feel to you?
How would your life be different?
What would your life look like?
What would you do if you were able to do that?
One thing with confidence in English,
I want you to write down everything that comes to your mind, how you would feel,
how you would act or behave, how your life would be different.
I know that this question can be a little difficult to think about.
So let me give you an example.
These questions that I'm asking you in part one and part two on how to
accelerate your confidence in English are the same questions I use every year to
help me set personal and professional goals.
So at the beginning of 2019 I asked myself this question,
if I accomplished the specific goals I had in my life where I wanted to be more
confident, how would I feel?
At the end of 2020 how would I act? How would I behave?
One of the things I wrote down is that I would be more assertive.
That was one of the behaviors or actions I would take if I successfully became
more confident with this specific goal I had.
So that was a word I wrote down.
I knew that if I was successful with my goal,
I would be or act in a more assertive way.
So take a moment and imagine that you successfully accomplish the goals that you
have for confidence in English. What does it look like?
What does it feel like? How do you act and behave?
And that brings me to our final question. Question five.
Now that you know how you would act, behave and feel,
what steps or actions can you take right now to help you feel,
act and behave like that person that you want to be at the end of 2020 that's a
really complicated question. So I'm going to repeat it.
What steps or actions can you take right now?
What can you do starting today,
tomorrow and the next day that will help you act and behave or feel like that
person you want to be at the end of the year.
The truth is you don't have to wait until the end of 2020 to feel like that
successful person. You know,
you don't have to wait until the end of 2020 to behave or act in that way.
You can start to be that person now and take action steps that help move you
forward if you're not exactly sure what to write down.
Let me give you another example in question number four.
I gave you the example that I had a goal to become more confident in some areas
of my life and that meant that I would also be comfortable being more assertive.
I didn't wait until the end of 2019 to do that.
If you have been following me for awhile, you know that the very first lesson,
the first Confident English lesson I did in January,
2019 was how to be more assertive in English.
I shared with you some of the same skills I was starting to use in my everyday
conversations and in my language.
That was my first action step to share a lesson on how to be more assertive and
to identify language that I could start to use to help me do that.
Then every week I have a meeting with my team and I meet one on one with my team
members and I also started to include that language in my meetings.
I started to act like a more assertive person. I didn't wait for it to happen.
I made it happen.
I took action steps to do that and I want you to do the same thing.
So think about that person that you want to be in English at the end of 2020
what are some action steps,
things that you can start doing today to help you be that person?
Okay, so let's talk about this surprise bonus that I have for you.
I know that your goal in 2020 includes communicating confidently in English.
That is why you're here.
I also know none of that can happen if you don't start speaking English.
That is the only way to move forward. If you want confidence in speaking,
this is exactly what I do with my students in fluency school,
our advanced conversation course.
It's also how I help students prepare for job interview questions.
You have to practice speaking to build confidence in your speaking,
so if you're not sure about what action steps will help you move forward,
I've got a place for you to start.
It's actually a 30 day speaking challenge that I have for you.
This is a challenge that you can do from anywhere and you can do it no matter
how busy you are.
This 30 day speaking challenge goes perfectly with the confidence building
method that I share with you in my in depth training on how to say what you want
in English. If you haven't watched that training yet,
I absolutely recommend that you do because I teach you a very specific method
that you can use to build your confidence and fluency in English. Again,
no matter where you live or how busy you are,
so I'll include that training with this 30 day challenge.
Here's exactly what I want you to do. Number one,
I want you to visit the online lesson where you can download this 30 day
speaking challenge. I'll give you a link just below this video.
In this challenge,
you're going to find 30 different speaking prompts or questions,
things that you can focus on and each one will also help activate vocabulary on
a specific topic and you'll be focusing on specific grammar as well.
So step number one, visit the online lesson. Step two,
download the 30 day challenge. And step number three,
tell me if you're going to do this challenge because I want to cheer you on and
encourage you, motivate you to keep going.
Now to end this lesson on how to accelerate your English confidence in 2020 I
want to end with one of the most powerful quotes that I've ever heard.
It's a quote from Annie Dillard and she said,
the way that we spend our days is how we spend our lives.
It is such a simple quote and a simple truth,
but it is a powerful reminder that every day we have a choice.
We have a choice and how to feel, act,
and behave and in the person that we want to be.
So now it's time to go to that online lesson,
download the 30 day challenge with 30 different speaking prompts,
and then be sure to tell me if you're doing the challenge so I can cheer you on.
With that. Thank you so much for joining me. If you found this lesson helpful,
definitely let me know.
You can give it a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to this channel so you
never miss a future lesson.
Share it with friends and colleagues on Facebook or email it to someone directly
who would love to accelerate their confidence in English this year.
Thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you next time for your Confident
English lesson.