This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 523.
Do you put your blood, sweat and tears into learning English?
Welcome to the business english podcast.
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For a presentation, a meeting or your office party, this is real business english, with your favorite american hosts, lindsay and michelle, coming to you from new york city and colorado, usa.
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Hey, Michelle, how are you today?
I'm good, Lindsay.
How are you?
Really good.
Really good.
What's going on today?
What are we talking about?
Well, Lindsay, do you still watch Shark Tank a lot?
I know you've watched that.
Yeah, yeah, I do watch that.
It's on TV a lot.
A lot.
And it's a good it is.
And it isn't a good going to sleep show because you know then you get sucked in and it's really interesting.
Interesting.
Yeah, you really want to know what's going to happen with the entrepreneurs.
Are they going to get their funding?
Who are they going to get it from?
It is a good show.
Really brilliant idea.
Yeah, and today we are going to teach an expression that is commonly used on this show.
I actually was just watching and I heard it.
That is also really great to show your passion for something at work or in your regular life.
And it's kind of a morbid sounding gross expression, but it's very common.
Oh my gosh.
So that expression here for today is drum roll, Michelle.
Do you have a little drum roll for us?
Yeah.
Blood, sweat, and tears.
Yeah, blood, sweat, and tears.
It is kind of gross.
These are bodily fluids, right?
Yeah, it's disgusting.
Yeah.
I mean, so what does it mean?
I mean, if you put your blood, sweat, and tears into something, what does it mean?
It just means that you are really or have been or are really dedicated to it, right?
Yeah.
You have, you know, you've worked on something for much of your life.
Maybe it has become your life.
You put everything into it.
Yeah.
So with these entrepreneurs on Shark Tank, I mean, they might say, yeah, we, oh, come on.
We put our blood, sweat and tears into this.
We work with everything, you know, like, um, so yeah.
It's basically, it's their passion.
They have put financially, time, they've really put a lot into this.
Yeah, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of sacrifice.
We're going to talk about this today because maybe you've heard this before.
You don't know what it means.
You're wondering how you can use it too, guys.
So before we get any further into the episode, make sure you hit the follow button right where you're listening on Business English.
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Okay.
Yeah.
So, yeah, often you will hear it used like this.
I put my blood, sweat and tears into X.
So, for example, I put my blood, sweat and tears into this invention and I'm not going to give up on it now.
Yes.
Good.
Or every day I put my blood, sweat and tears into this job.
It's my passion.
So this is not literal.
No, hopefully not.
Well, have you ever heard somebody say it about food?
It's like, oh, I made a baker.
I made this cake.
I put my blood, sweat, and tears into it.
And you're like, I hope not.
I hope not.
That sounds like a health problem.
Yeah, regulation, health regulation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Um, exactly.
Um so, but it you know it's, it's not literal, but it's very common and passionate and yeah, it can sound a little extreme.
You don't want to use it if you're something like meh about, you know?
Yeah.
Save it for the things that you really have put everything into.
Right.
Yeah.
And there are other, but this idea is I think it's definitely something that we love in American culture is having something that we dedicate our lives to.
Well, this kind of well this comes back to a bigger conversation, Michelle around work to live, live to work.
I think we respect this when people find something that they just throw themselves all in on and maybe we work more.
But I think a lot of people think it's worth it.
They feel that it's worth it to have like have the baby that they're growing, right?
In a sense, right?
Not everyone does.
Some people just want more of a balance in life.
And that's where they find their satisfaction.
But it is sort of a debatable thing, right?
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And when you do have a child, you know, a lot of times you have to make these decisions and kind of like reprioritize things that maybe you thought would happen versus what now?
You know things change.
Um, so it's, it's, it's very interesting.
Yeah.
You're talking about literal baby.
And what I meant by baby was was uh, sometimes people will call their business their baby, their baby.
That's true.
Okay.
Their business baby.
Yeah.
But then there's also the literal baby.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
But we're going to talk about other idioms or other ways you can kind of say a similar thing.
So the first one is eat, sleep, and breathe, which is another funny one.
This is about your interests.
It could be about how much work you put into something.
But this one is also it's a little less extreme.
But it's just maybe how you spend your time in general.
Yeah.
So, for example, I eat, sleep and breathe spreadsheets.
I know my stuff.
Nice.
Yeah.
Just, you're really good at something.
You do something all the time.
Right.
Could be a hobby too.
Right.
Something that you just, yeah.
Interest hobbies.
I eat, sleep and breathe team management strategies.
It's really important to me.
So maybe you go to all the conferences, you do all the coaching, you read everything about that.
You eat, sleep and breathe it.
Okay.
Exactly.
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All right.
So other things you might say is I give it my all, or I gave it my all or I give it everything?
I have right.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
It's another good one.
So I give this job everything I have, which is a good thing, but I also need to focus on a good work-life balance.
Or we gave it our all.
We have nothing to be ashamed of.
Sometimes you give it your all and it doesn't work out.
Like a business fails or you don't get the funding on Shark Tank, for example.
That's the reality of the open market, which is a good thing.
I mean, the market responds to what it wants, right?
Not so much how we could put all the work in the world and the business could still fail if you don't have a good product.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Or we're going to do one more to put your heart and soul into something.
Yes.
Yeah.
Also very similar idea.
We put our heart and soul into this project and now we just have to wait and see what they say.
Or we should feel really good about this.
We put our heart and soul into it and we should have no regrets.
And that's kind of true too, right?
When you take on something, you kind of want to put everything into it, because if you don't then you might regret it later.
You might think I should have tried harder.
That's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You never know how you're going to feel about a change that you make, when you make something different a priority.
There's just so many things that can come from it.
All right.
Let's do a role play, Michelle.
So here we Excuse me.
We are coworkers reviewing a project from last year.
So see what we did.
All right.
Okay.
Wow.
I really feel like we both put our blood, sweat, and tears into the project in January.
Definitely.
We gave it our all.
It was actually really interesting.
It really was.
You and I eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff.
So I'm not surprised.
Same.
We really put our heart and soul into it.
Yeah, we are all in, right?
All in.
Yes, that's another good one.
Yeah, to be all in.
To be all in.
So here you said wow, I really feel like we both put our blood, sweat and tears into that project in January.
And I agree.
Yeah, we tried really hard.
And Yusa, definitely we gave it our all.
Yeah, we did everything we could, right?
100% work.
And then, and then you said it really was you and I eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.
So meaning we were very involved with whatever it is that we were creating.
Right.
Yeah.
And then you said we've really put our heart and soul into it.
Good.
Yeah.
I mean, I think that's Yeah.
It leads to a bigger question that I feel like we could have with our community.
Guys, if you're in our courses, you're automatically invited to Open Conversation Club.
This is the kind of question we might ask in Open Conversation Club.
Is you know, I guess?
Do you live to work or work to live?
Or do you believe that it's worth putting your blood, sweat and tears into something in your life, at least maybe one thing?
Or are you more concerned with balance in life?
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very interesting.
Really interesting question that I want to address with our listeners another time.
So really good.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
Guys.
Check out episode 513 of the Business English podcast.
That was how to own your apology at work.
Really important stuff there.
Yeah, good.
And then that's kind of the takeaway is like go to the bigger idea.
Talk to your friends about this.
What do your friends believe about lifestyle?
Is lifestyle more important or is challenge and overcoming a challenge more important in terms of what is a good life?
What is a life well lived?
What does that actually look like?
Deep stuff today, Lindsay.
I know we're getting deep.
We like to get deep on this show, Michelle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, you have a good rest of your day and we'll be back soon.
All right.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye, guys.
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