Hi there, this is Harry, welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry, where we try to help
you to get a better understanding of the English language. We help you with your vocabulary and
your grammar proficiency tests when you want to prepare for them, or even those all-important
job interviews with international companies. Whatever you need, we're here to help you.
So in this advanced English class, we're looking at collocations. And we're looking at collocations
connected or related to achievements. Now, achievements are as a topic that frequently
comes up in IELTS exams and other proficiency tests. So it has come up quite a few times in the
last few years. They ask about an achievement. They can... they might also ask about topics
relating to a goal. So some of these words and expressions, or words and expressions that you
can use when you're talking about achievements, or goals sort of help you when you're preparing
for those all-important proficiency exams. As I said, IELTS or Cambridge exams, whatever it might
be. So I've got as always, you know, the drill by now I've got 10, particular examples I'm going to
give them to you, and then we're going to go back and give you situations when you can use them.
To pursue a dream. Well, we all dream, we all have our dreams, we all like to think that we're going
to be able to achieve or get that dream in the end. So to pursue a dream means to go after. So
when you pursue something, you go after it, a cat will pursue a mouse or a bird, a dog will pursue
the ball if you kick it and throw it far enough. Or if you try to catch up with your friend who's
cycling faster than you, you will pursue him. Or finally, the police will pursue a robber until
they capture him and put him in prison. So pursue is about the chase. It's about the achievement,
it's about the attainment of that particular dream. So if you have a dream, and you want
to pursue the dream, then you have to plan and you have to see how you go about getting there.
Sometimes we never get there. But sometimes we do tick the boxes to see you know the thing about the
bucket list, when you achieve something that you wanted to do, or you... You've finally got to that
place where you wanted to visit or that particular position in the company, whatever it might be,
you tick the box and other box ticked. So to pursue a dream is to go after that particular
dream. primary goal. Well, primary goal, anything primary is a number one position, the premier, the
premier of the company, the Prime Minister, the number one minister, so your primary goal is your
main objective. If it's in business, your primary goal might be to get to your next assessment,
you might get assessed every six months, that could be your primary goal, or your boss might
give you your key objectives. So your objective, your primary goal for the next six months is to
make sure that all of those key objectives have been met, in which case, then you get a
much better assessment and perhaps you'll get the salary increase or whatever is attached to that in
some form of a bonus payment. So your primary goal is to do that, in a game of football the
primary goal and we're not using the pawn here, the primary goal is to win the match professional
team at all costs, we have to win, or at worst, we have to avoid defeat. So we don't lose ground
on the other team. So the primary goal is your main objective, what are you trying to achieve?
Number three is an attainable goal or an attainable target. The word attainable
means something that you can actually get, okay. Very, very little point and very,
very disheartening. If the goals that are set by a boss are not attainable,
meaning you have no chance of getting them, he doesn't want to pay you the bonus, he doesn't
want to give you the increase. So he sets the targets so high that he knows and you know very
quickly that there is no chance that you're going to be able to attain those particular targets
or goals. So an attainable target is really, really important because it helps you with your
confidence. If you believe that it's something you can attain, then you will work harder to get it.
If you believe it's unattainable, the opposite unattainable, then you'll just give up because
there's little point what is the point of I'm not going to get it. There's no point putting in the
work. So an attainable goal, not an easy goal. an attainable goal something if you apply yourself
if you work hard if you do what you do best, then you will attain that goal or that target
so it's something that you can reach. Okay, so if you want to run the marathon 40 kilometres,
it's an attainable target, but only if you do the practice the build up the, you know, you run the
two kilometres and then the four kilometres and then the six can the eight and the 10, and so on,
you build up the stamina in your legs or at some stage, you will be able to run 15, 20,
25, you're never actually in the training programme, run a full 40 kilometres,
because that's the ultimate goal on the day. So you're building up all the time, the stamina,
so when you get to that particular day of the race, you will be able to finish it, it doesn't
matter whether you finish in 2 hours 20 or 3 hours 20. You will have achieved your particular target,
you will have reached your attainable goal and target by finishing your marathon.
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Strive for success. To strive for something means to work really hard, okay? You go to school,
you strive for success in your exams, you do your homework, you do your study, you do your
preparation, you sit the exams, you're successful in the exams, you're striving all the time for
success, you get to the last two years of your school run, knowing that you need certain points
to get to university. So you strive for success to achieve the highest points that you can get,
so that you can do the course that you want to do. Okay, so striving for success is about
working in a smart way to get the end result that you want to strive for success. Now.
We all strive or we can all strive it doesn't mean we'll all be successful things can happen,
we get a bad exam paper or we don't understand something so well. So it might not always happen.
And you might have to do it a second time or work a little bit harder. But the overall objective is
to strive for success to try your best to get that particular goal. So strive for success.
Often when we do a test or we try to improve our particularly in the work environment. We
do so because we are motivated and usually we are financially motivated. So this is the next
collocation financially motivated is one of the easiest ways to motivate people. Often they will
ask you Well, what's in it for me if I do this? What will I get if I achieve my business goals?
What will I get if I sell 20 cars? What will I get? So financially motivated is the easiest
way to motivate people. Okay, particularly salespeople, this is the thing that they get,
you know how much money I'm going to get as a bonus, okay, so to be fun, to have financial
awareness to be financially motivated as a good way to get those particular achievements
to get those particular goals. And once you set down clearly what the financial reward will be,
and they can see the financial motivation, you won't have to do anything else. So achieving
something by way of financial motivate motivation. So to be financially motivated, can for some
people be really, really important. Some people are motivated by other things, by just the fact
that they do it but 99.9% of the time, and then from a business perspective, people are more
likely to be motivated financially than any other way to overcome obstacles is our next colocation,
overcome obstacles. There are always problems, they're always blocks, they're always barriers,
these are what we call obstacles. And if we want to achieve something, we often have to
get over or around those particular obstacles, the obstacles could be physical, the obstacles could
be an aspect of knowledge or understanding on your part. So, if you want to achieve something,
you need to know what it is to achieve, you need to know what knowledge you have to have, what
tools you have to have, so that you can achieve that particular goal or that particular target.
So to overcome obstacles, well, you need to be prepared for that. It could be a language barrier,
you need to learn the language. It could be an IT barrier or obstacle. So you have to understand
what is needed. What you need to know maybe you need to improve your skills on spreadsheets,
maybe need to know how to use the different platforms, whatever the obstacle is. You have
to overcome that obstacle and to overcome means to defeat or understand it in such a
way that it is no longer an obstacle for you. And then you'll get your ultimate achievement.
Time constraints. Well, often, when we are set particular goals or targets,
there's a particular time limit, it might be the end of the quarter, the end of the six months,
whatever the financial year is in the company, so you have to achieve these particular targets
in this quarter. And if you achieve them in this quarter, then you will get your reward in the form
of a bonus. So there is a time constraint. Or if you're writing a document or a paper,
you might have a time constraint of days or weeks. So the boss is waiting to have the paper so he
can submit it to the board for approval. So he tells you, Well, you got to next Friday, or the
following Friday, then you and I can sit down and discuss it, and then we can correct it. And we'll
only send it to the board when I'm absolutely happy to do so. So he puts in place certain
time constraints. And you have to work towards those targets. What is the time constraint when
you're doing exams at school, the exams are set by the Education Board. So you know that the exam is
going to take place in May or June every year. So that your time constraint you have to work to get
all the information on that course, understood and known before you sit the exam. So that's your time
constraint. When you actually sit down to do the exam, there's a time constraint of hours, paper,
one, one hour paper to one hour and a half paper three, two hours, whatever it might be, there's a
time constraint. And there's no point writing on the end of the paper, I run out of time,
because you should know what the time constraint is, how quickly you can write answers. That's why
we do preparation. That's why we do mock exams. So we can practice all about time constraints so
that we can do our answers in the time that is, and has been allotted. Once you do it,
satisfactorily, you'll achieve your ultimate goal. So time constraints to reach your target. Well,
that's the really, really important point when you actually get there and you can sit back and say,
job done, job done satisfactory. So you have a target, to sell 20 cars. At the end of the
first quarter, you've sold five, at the end of the first six months, you've sold 10. So you
have another 10 to sell in the last six months. So you're moving well. But if you get to the month,
10 or month, 11, and you've still got five cars to sell, you might feel under a little bit of
pressure. But when you ultimately sell that last car, three, four days before the end of the year,
yeah, you're really happy you have reached your particular target. And again, whatever the target
is, you're set yourself whether it's the training for the marathon, you reach a target on day seven,
you're supposed to run seven or eight kilometres, bingo, you did it on day 12 or 14, you've got to
run eight kilometres in a faster time than you did the previous week. Bingo, you do it. So once you
reach your target, you've got that satisfaction job done. So to reach your target. Number nine
is a crowning moment, a crowning moment means what? When a king or queen or crown that's the
moment when the crown is placed on their head. So the crowning moment is the last particular
detail. The crowning moment could be when your boss comes back and tells you Yeah,
the board have accepted the document. They've accepted the proposals. Well done, job. Well done,
we can move ahead. Yeah, so that's your crowning moment. You reach your target, you sell 20 cars,
and your boss comes in, says, Wow, that's a really great performance, I didn't really expect you to
do it. I really thought those targets were really, really tight, but well done you so the reward will
come when we review the bonuses in a couple of weeks, your crowning moment. That's the moment
when you can sit back with satisfaction knowing that you achieved what you did,
you're overcome. You've overcome the obstacles, you've got to where you want it to be, and it's
been accepted. You've got the board approval or your manager approval, you get a nice slap on the
back and you get financially rewarded. Okay, so that's your crowning moment.
And then finally, the last collocation about achievements is to fulfil ambitions. It's great
to have ambitions. It's even better to fulfil them. The feeling you get when you achieve
that when you fulfil those ambitions to make the school football team to throw the javelin an extra
three or four metres to get picked. used to be the lead role in the school play, whatever the target
is, what are whatever your goals are, whatever those plans and dreams are, when you fulfil the
ambitions, that's when you feel really, really good. So to fulfil something means to complete,
okay, to fulfil your dream, fulfil your ambition, achieve what you wanted to achieve, finish that
race, get that position, or part in the play, take part in the football team, run the race as fast as
you can, whatever your dream was, and you fulfil the ambition, you can feel really, really good.
So there are 10 collocations, advanced English, they're all really good words to use. And remember
what I said. These can come in handy when you're looking at IELTS and other proficiency exams
because they often ask you about, tell me about an achievement or tell me about something that you
achieved. So some of these words and expressions and phrases are what you can use when you're
trying to pass that particular test. Okay, so let me give them to you one more time. So as I said,
there are 10 to pursue a dream, your primary goal, an attainable goal or an attainable target,
strive for success, to be financially motivated to be able to overcome obstacles, time constraints,
that might be their time constraints. Reach your target, the crowning moment,
and then finally, to fulfil ambitions fulfil your particular ambitions. Okay, so practice those you
know the drill, practice them, see how you can introduce them into your particular conversation,
see how you can use them, make sure you can understand them. If you don't come back,
we can give you other examples. I'm really happy to help you always happy to hear from
you. www.englishlessonviaskype.com Give me a shout if you need anything else. Appreciate when
you watch and learn. This is Harry saying goodbye and join me for the next lesson.