This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1611.
How to pump yourself up in English.
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Before you enter a big presentation, a meeting or even just a long day, what can you say to yourself in English to get motivated and ready?
Today, get new English phrases to give yourself a pep talk in English.
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Hey, Michelle, how's it going?
Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
I'm excited.
Yeah, we're on YouTube today and in the podcast world.
Guys, you can come on over to our YouTube channel to check it out.
Awesome.
I love it.
Yes, it's fun when we do these YouTube episodes.
It is fun.
It is fun.
Lindsay, what's a pep talk?
A pep talk.
Oh, my gosh.
A pep talk is when you are preparing for something.
And usually someone prepares you.
They give you a little thing.
They tell you something to get you ready.
It's common in sports, right?
Or performance.
I mean, you did a lot of performing, Michelle, right?
I think on stage.
Did you ever have a pep talk from anyone, your parents or someone?
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
There was always, you know before you know, going on stage.
It would always be like where the cast kind of has this special moment.
It's a big pep talk, you know, maybe the director gives a speech, something like that.
But like, I sometimes I...
I love to give a good pep talk.
I don't know.
Like to my students.
I always like giving pep talks.
You know, if someone is feeling like a little bit shy or uncomfortable or something,
So I like to give a good pep talk.
But do you ever give yourself pep talks?
Yeah, sometimes before I get on the phone.
Speaking of the phone Michelle, there is a web class coming up which I want to make sure we let our listeners know about it.
To be honest yeah, when I was a kid I think I've shared this before I used to actually get so nervous before getting on the phone.
I would write my notes out of what I was going to say, like to a friend or to someone.
Whoever I had to call, I would make notes and prepare.
I want to give you a hug.
I think I was kind of an awkward kid.
And look at you now.
You can talk.
A lot of talking going on here.
We talk a lot on this show.
But yeah, so that's something we don't want our listeners to have to do.
Right, Michelle?
To make notes and to feel nervous and to doubt themselves.
So what is the way to feel more confident?
Yeah.
Well, don't wait for somebody to give you a pep talk.
Give yourself a pep talk.
Yeah.
Um, so we have a listener question about this today and I, and I just love it.
I love the idea of giving your, motivating yourself.
So Lindsay could, well, let's talk about the web cluster.
No, I just want to give our listeners the link on where to sign up before we get into it.
So guys go to sign up for that live web class.
It is coming up this end of the week, end of this week and this weekend.
Okay, so go to allersenglish.com slash phone and sign up.
Be there on time or early to do a pre-party with Aubrey and Jessica and get those phone skills that you want in your career.
Okay.
Definitely.
Love it.
Yes.
Okay.
Now, Lindsay, would you read the question?
Yes.
Now we're officially ready.
This is a question from Tuan.
And Tuan says I've been listening to your podcast for so long and the impact on my listening skills and speaking is obvious.
That's awesome, Michelle.
Great.
What a good feeling.
Thank you so much.
I love this question.
I love this idea of like taking control.
I mean, and just giving yourself that pep talk, right?
Like we can't rely on people to just like oh, you can do it, it you know you can't rely on that all the time, like maybe as a little kid you can, but like as somebody, as like a global professional or you know somebody, an adult right, you can't always rely on another person to tell you oh, things are gonna be okay right like, you can do this right exactly, we want to learn how to do this ourselves.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I remember working in Japan, walking to work, right?
In Tokyo, it was a hot day all the time.
And I was thinking to myself, I can do this.
I can do this.
I can do this.
I can do this.
And walking in and having to be confident once you open that door.
But there is a moment of self-doubt.
So if we have something we can say to ourselves.
Yeah.
On the way to work or on the way to that meeting.
We can be so much more successful in our careers right.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
It makes me think of that book because I read it to my son all the time The Little Engine That Could.
Oh, yeah, of course.
We read that as a kid too, right?
How long is that going to be around?
Forever.
Probably.
And in the background, you might be able to hear my son screaming.
So I apologize for that.
But hopefully not.
Anyway, but yeah, so the little end of that cut, it says I think I can, I think I can, I think I can right.
Right, of course, of course.
It's so famous.
It's so famous.
So have we done any episodes on this topic before, Michelle?
Yes, well, we did a similar episode to this, but this was from 2016.
So I think it's worth another look-see, right?
Another look-see.
So this is episode 552.
What do you dread?
How to motivate yourself to get stuff done in English.
But guys, we are doing an updated version today.
I mean guys.
To me it sounds like You know our listener is asking about motivating.
You know how to motivate yourself rather than others, right?
And the language can be pretty similar, but we're really talking about that self motivation today.
But we can also talk about if you could use it with others as well.
Lindsay, are there any other episodes that our listeners should check out?
Well, talking about praising the effort or the result, this was kind of an interesting society episode, guys.
So if you want to just get some food for thought, as we say, go over to Allers English podcast, episode 1341.
Okay, go and find that.
If you're using the iOS or the Android app, you can just type that into the search bar.
It'll pull it up right away.
Really interesting conversation we had there, Michelle.
Yeah.
I love it.
So, yeah, we we are going we we talked about this expression, I think, on one of these episodes.
You got this right.
You got this.
And that's really useful.
But yeah, listen to to that episode.
I think that one was in 1341.
So, I mean, Lindsay, could you say like you got this to yourself?
Oh, yeah, of course.
Very common, right?
And what exactly are we saying when we say you got this?
Let's share with our listeners what we are saying grammatically.
There.
Right.
You've got this.
It's basically like saying you can do it, right?
It's like you have this under control.
You have this under control.
You have this.
You already possess this, whatever it is.
I say that all the time.
It's so common, guys.
So natural and native.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you can say this to other people as well, but you could use it with yourself.
So, for example, I could say to myself okay Michelle, it's going to be a long day, but you got this.
Yeah, yeah.
I think everyone talks to themselves.
I think everyone does.
They may not admit it.
Or may not even realize it.
Like, I'm not sure that I do that, but I probably do.
Yeah.
I know I talk to myself.
I certainly do.
Uh yeah, it's hilarious, it's so funny yeah, so right.
So okay michelle, it's been a long day, it's gonna be a long day, but you got this.
So what would be an example of when you might use this?
Michelle, where are you going?
What kind of situation are you entering?
I just had a long.
I had a very long day the other day.
I had two doctor's appointments in one day.
We were recording, I think in the middle of the day.
Yeah.
And I didn't sleep well the night before.
So like oh, and then Dan had a doctor's appointment and I had to walk around with our son for like two hours waiting for him.
Oh, that was a long day.
So I could have said to myself, like, you got this.
You got this.
Like, don't stop now.
You're visualizing the end of the day, right?
You're visualizing.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, yeah.
I mean.
So that brings up the question like why do we need to give ourselves these pep talks in the first place?
Let's see.
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I mean, you know, I think in our culture, in American culture, we do have a real bias towards being positive.
But there is something to it, right?
Because if we, you know, if we do that we say positive things to ourselves, our body does react and that changes the way we see the world, right?
We see what we look for.
So if you set a positive tone for your day, you will find the positive things in that day, in that meeting right.
Or in that presentation or that conference, right?
That day at a conference, it feels overwhelming at 8am.
You know, you've got a long day, a lot of sessions, seminars.
Or that phone call.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, so Lindsay, what are some other things that you can say to motivate yourself?
All right.
So come on.
Come on.
Right.
That means come on.
Right.
Come on.
So you guys, if you have the app, you'll see how to spell this and the keywords.
We use this a lot, too, Michelle.
It's very native.
Maybe if you don't want to exercise and I know Michelle, you've been working on your exercise routine and hopefully, what's your report?
I'm still going strong.
I just want to tell you that.
I've been exercising for like four months.
Okay.
I was going to check in.
I was going to check in and I'm glad to see that you're still sticking with it.
That's fantastic.
So do you say that to yourself sometimes to go?
Yeah.
I definitely could say that.
Like I could say like, come on, Michelle, let's get started.
You know like if I want to go faster or work a little bit harder, even in the, I could say it before getting started, or I could talk about it during right.
If you're doing like a circuit or something like that.
And it's like, I don't want to do this.
You could just say, come on, come on, Michelle.
Yeah, yeah.
And the other thing that i think about in today's episode is sports.
Right in the middle of a sports game, if you guys, right now the french we're recording this in uh june, but right now the french open is going on um, and you can hear i played tennis when i was growing up you can hear tennis players will say come on, come on right, let's go.
You can hear it under their breath, right.
They will say it so very common in sports as well.
Okay Right right right, right.
I love it.
Lindsay, what's the next one?
We kind of talked about this a little bit, I think, already.
Yep.
So you can do it or you can do this, right?
You can do it.
Again, these are so natural and native.
Let's say, for example, I'm taking a test tomorrow.
Michelle, what could I say to myself to get myself pumped up?
Well, you could say, okay, Lindsay, don't worry, you can do this.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And it sounds silly, right?
We're talking about talking to ourselves.
But again, I think everyone does it.
And it's just a matter of what is the dialogue going on in your own head?
We want it to be positive.
Okay, we want it to be English too, right?
Michelle, we don't want it to be the native language.
That's a very good point for our listeners.
Change your inner monologue.
The way that you might motivate yourself in your first language, change it to English.
You might feel differently.
Ooh, interesting.
We just struck an interesting idea there.
I think we may come back to that for the title or something.
Okay.
And what is the last one that our listeners could say?
Never give up or don't give up.
Right.
Yeah.
Like, for example, like, let's say I'm hiking with you and I can't get over a huge rock.
And of course, you've already you're already 10 rocks ahead of me because you're the hiker.
I could say like, OK, Michelle, don't give up now.
You're almost there, exactly exactly.
You know.
It's all about pushing ourselves, and those likes those can be really tough for anyone, especially when the altitude is getting you.
Michelle, you should come out here.
We should do a hike in colorado, that'd be fun, Oh my God.
That would be so embarrassing.
Oh my gosh.
I would not want you to see my, my hiking skills.
No, I mean like like big rocks, and I could see myself getting nervous anyway.
But yes, that would be fun.
I do like to hike, but yeah.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
Oh, I was going to say like again, some of these expressions, or most of them, you could really say to other people as well.
But we wanted to really focus on this idea of saying it to yourself, especially in English, like Lindsay said.
For sure.
For sure.
And I want to add, like a little bonus phrase for our listeners today, to get pumped up or to pump yourself up.
I don't think we covered that one, but it's really good and really relevant and modern, right?
To pump yourself up.
Okay.
So that's a good one, guys.
Write that bonus down.
So good.
Exactly.
I love it.
So, Lindsay, it's not always about talking to yourself.
Sometimes you have to find other ways to motivate yourself.
That's not just you know little expressions or things like that which are useful, but maybe even deeper ways to motivate yourself.
Lindsay, what's something that you could do?
I mean quotes are great, quotes that have deep meaning to you, and maybe someone famous that you resonate with that has been on a similar journey.
As you put it on the wall
Why not?
Right.
Put it on the wall and look at it every day.
Exactly.
And I didn't put this one in here, but I'm going to add.
Listen to a fun song like yeah, something that gives you energy.
And I mean, you'll feel so different.
You'll feel motivated if you listen to a certain song.
Yeah, a lot of people do that when they work out.
And I should do that too.
Like just put on Spotify or some like way to play music and listen, right?
Listen to some music.
So good.
So good.
Yeah.
You could also read books about people you admire, like autobiographies about someone who you think is really successful, and you could learn something from them.
So that's motivating as well.
Or talk to your friends.
Connection, connection.
It comes back to connection.
Ask them what they do or just have a conversation with them.
If you're really nervous about something, you're feeling overwhelmed.
There's nothing like stepping away, getting connected socially, and then come back to things with a fresh mindset.
Maybe meet a friend for a coffee before a big presentation, instead of stewing in your own nervousness.
Right.
Stewing.
Stewing in it.
You're just sitting.
Exactly.
Yeah, I definitely definitely talk to other other people about this.
Get ideas of how to motivate yourself from others.
Why not?
Yeah, I love it.
What's the takeaway, Michelle, for our listeners?
A few things, right?
Well, a few things.
I mean, guys, we focus a lot on the idea of giving other people pep talks.
Like when I hear a pep talk, I generally think, oh, to give someone else, right?
But what about ourselves?
We can't forget to do that either.
I mean so try these expressions out or these other ideas out, the next time you're feeling like down or maybe frustrated, or you just need that extra push.
And also remember, do it in English, right?
Do it in English.
Monologue in your head of what's going on and spit it out.
Motivate yourself in English to succeed in English.
Yeah, exactly.
I love that we hit on that topic.
We hadn't even thought about that in the beginning, but that is the way to become fluent and fearless, right guys?
To hit that 99% fluency level.
We need to be thinking and living in English.
So challenge yourself to do it, especially in these moments when your emotion is heightened.
Right.
Science has has proved that when emotion is heightened, we learn more.
So imagine if you could always be saying those pep talks to yourself in English when you're very emotional.
You would learn a lot faster.
So very cool.
Very interesting today, Michelle.
Really good stuff.
I absolutely love it.
Guys, remember, we have our web class coming.
Well, it's very, very soon.
It's very soon.
It's very soon.
But you can still sign up, guys.
So go to allersenglishcom slash phone and learn how to have fearless phone calls in English with Aubrey and Jessica live.
So good.
All right.
Awesome.
I love it.
Okay, Lindsay, this has been so much fun.
I will see you on the next one.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
All right.
Bye.
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