This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 12.
What Einstein can teach you about learning English.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
When you make a mistake in English, do you feel bad?
How can you start to think differently when you make a mistake today?
Find out how entrepreneurs and Einstein think about making mistakes and how you can change your mindset as well.
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Michelle, I have a question for you real quick.
Oh, what is it?
Yeah.
How do you do when you make a mistake?
How do you think of that?
Are you hard on yourself?
Would you say?
I have to say that I can be a little bit hard on myself with mistakes, but I know that I shouldn't be.
But it's tricky to get in that mindset of not feeling upset when you make a mistake.
What about you?
Yeah, same here.
I've historically been kind of hard on myself.
That's why our idea of connection, not perfection, it resonates with me so much, right?
It's almost like we are free to focus on the right thing, which is connecting.
But yeah, I would say I am.
Yeah, I do notice my mistakes.
I'm a little hard on myself.
I'm probably my worst critic.
Yeah, that's I always think of that quote.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So today, guys, we have a quote for you from Einstein.
Of course, Einstein had a lot of famous quotes.
Sometimes I wonder if this is really Einstein's quote or someone else.
But that's how we found it online.
And this is going to inspire you to think differently about your mistakes.
Michelle, do you have the quote for us?
I do.
The quote is, anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
And it's just so true, right?
What do you think when you hear that quote?
It's kind of comforting.
I mean in a weird way, because it reminds me, you know, and it sounds like maybe for you too, if you tend to get like upset about mistakes, it just it's just one of those things that is like no no, no.
Like this is mistakes are supposed to happen.
If you're not making mistakes, it means that you're not learning, you're not growing.
I just was watching something last night and they were talking about that idea.
And I do need to remind myself of this more, I think.
But I mean, for our listeners, this is, I think, very important because...
Practicing your English can be nerve wracking and scary, but the mistakes are OK.
And just look at it as a part of the process.
Totally.
And this really depends on who you surround yourself with.
Like I know in the entrepreneurial world, like the startup world, venture funded startup world.
The mistakes that people make, they're so proud of their mistakes.
They love to say they start their self intros with I founded my first company five years ago and I failed beautifully or I failed hugely.
They actually brag about their failures.
And actually what they say is venture capitalists prefer to invest in someone who's had a big failure.
They actually look because that means that they have learned.
It's actually a red flag.
If all of your companies have been successful, or it's your second venture and your previous one was successful, it means you probably didn't learn as much, right?
So mistakes are so important.
But we know a lot of you guys are stuck in perfectionism, right, Michelle?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Yeah, exactly.
This perfectionist outlook and like sometimes it can just lead you to stay still, right?
And we don't want to stay still.
We want to always move forward.
When you make a mistake and you're moving forward, it might knock you back one little tiny bit.
But if you don't even try, then you're just staying in the same place.
So that's why it's so important, I think.
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Yeah, so I think it's really about developing a new habit, a new way of thinking about mistakes.
It's really about what you do immediately after you realize you've made a mistake.
That's the only thing that matters.
It's how do you frame this?
We all see the world differently.
So why not see it in a way of, oh, okay, I made a mistake.
Let's correct it now and move on.
Or let's not worry about it, because the person in front of me is still making eye contact and I still have the connection.
Right.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
So don't worry about your mistakes.
Just kind of I don't know.
Yeah.
Try and look at it as those entrepreneurs that Lindsay was talking about.
Try and be like, yeah, this is all part of my growing experience.
And this is a this is a good thing.
The mistakes mean that I'm learning.
I learn from the mistakes.
So good.
So that's the takeaway for today.
And that's what we want to leave you guys with.
Just be okay with your mistakes.
Change what you think about right after you make that mistake.
And you're going to see an amazing amount of improvement.
And you're going to be able to connect with native speakers.
So good.
Michelle, what should our listeners do to make sure they never miss an episode of All Ears English?
Guys, follow the All Ears English podcast or hit subscribe wherever you are listening to the show, so you never miss anything.
We're here four days a week with connection, not perfection, and we love to have you listen.
Absolutely.
Very good, Michelle.
I'll see you on the next episode.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to all ears English.
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