Welcome to the breakout business English podcast where I help you to communicate better at work in English.
Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I am still a business English coach. Thank you so much for listening and today's topic is Perseverance or when to stop trying when to give up and when to continue.
I think we all have times when we're trying to achieve something and it just feels like too big of a challenge or that it's too challenging for us to succeed.
Maybe there are difficulties that seem insurmountable, some insurmountable difficulties, or maybe we've bitten off more than we can chew.
In today's podcast we're going to talk about making the decision to stop doing something or to continue working on even when it is difficult.
We'll hear some natural and native vocabulary that we can use to talk about these situations and both informal and formal ways to discuss this issue.
Let's get started today with something positive and this is encouraging your colleagues.
If you're struggling with something then And it's always great to know that you've got people in your corner.
Here are some natural and native things that you might say to show your support for a colleague who is struggling with something.
Don't throw in the towel just yet.
Just keep at it and you'll figure it out eventually.
Don't throw in the towel just yet.
Just keep at it and you'll figure it out eventually.
The management team has every confidence in you, the management team has every confidence in you.
Your perseverance really is second to none, your perseverance really is second to none.
Okay, so as always, we've got some informal English in there and some formal English too.
We're going to start our vocabulary conversation today with the informal vocabulary in the first example and that is don't throw in the towel just yet.
Don't throw in the towel.
To throw in the towel is an idiom that comes from the sport of boxing.
If you picture a boxing match in your head what do you see?
Well you probably see a boxing ring with four corners and ropes on the sides and each fighter has a team of supporters or coaches in their corner helping them out and preparing them for new round.
Traditionally in a boxing match if a boxers coach, their trainer feels like their fighter cannot continue then they will literally throw a towel into the ring.
They'll take the towel that their fighter is using between rounds, between parts of the fight and throw it into the ring.
This tells the referee, that the match is over and that this fighter has lost. They give up and don't want to continue.
There are lots of English phrases and idioms that come from the sport of boxing but this is definitely one of the most common. I also mentioned that a boxer usually has coach and some supporters in their corner of the ring.
The place that they go between rounds between parts of the boxing match for help and support.
Similarly you can use this phrase to show that someone supports you and what you're doing.
If I tell you that I am in your corner then you know that you can rely on me for support.
We also had the phrase to keep at something.
To keep at something.
We can of course use the word keep with verbs like trying, going or working.
Keep trying, keep going, keep working to encourage someone to continue.
However, we can also use the preposition at to do the same thing.
If you're trying to solve a problem and it's taking you a long time and a lot of work then I can perhaps say to you you're doing great keep at it, you're doing great keep at it.
Okay let's look now at some more formal vocabulary.
In third example we heard the phrase your perseverance is second to none.
Your perseverance is second to none.
Perseverance is the idea of not quitting, the concept of continuing to work at something even though it is difficult.
If very long running race a marathon then you'll see some people finish just after two hours.
These people worked really hard to achieve this yes but it's the people who finished the marathon after five or six hours who really had to persevere.
They might have stopped several times, they might have thought about quitting and been really close to giving up at different moments in the race maybe they wanted to throw in the towel however they kept at it they didn't throw in the towel and they persevered until they reached the finish line personally I've completed a half marathon but I've been injured for the past few months since December actually I've been unable to run so I'm definitely hoping to start running again soon.
I really want to run a marathon. I feel like a lot of people in their mid -30s these days have this as a goal though.
I don't know if I'm just like a lot of people having a 30s crisis, a mid -life crisis.
Is it a mid -life crisis in your 30s?
but anyway i'm a i'm a lot more into sports than i was in my 20s.
persevere is a regular verb this means that in the past tense we can just add the letters ed as in i persevered until i succeeded i persevered until i succeeded and the noun form is perseverance the noun is perseverance as in really admire your perseverance.
I really admire your perseverance.
We also had the quite nice phrase second to none.
Second to none. Again this is a slightly more formal way of speaking.
If something is second to none then it is the best. There is nothing that is first causing this to be second.
For instance I might tell you that when it comes to design many people believe that Apple products are second to none.
Many people believe that Apple products are second to none.
I'm saying there that there are no other companies that design better electronic products than Apple.
Maybe you disagree with me there but I'm saying that there is no one else that could take first place on this list and move this company or this thing down to second.
There's no one superior or better and if you want your English to be second to none then maybe we can work together.
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Okay let's move on.
There is a book called The Dip written by a marketing expert called Seth Godin.
I often find myself discussing the ideas in this book with people I work with.
I work with a lot of people in marketing and business leaders in many areas and fields and we often have interesting conversations about perseverance and quitting strategically.
That idea quitting strategically is something I want to discuss with you now.
One of the key ideas in the book is that being successful is not about persevering all the time but instead being very specific and selective about what you persevere with and what you choose to quit.
I know that with my business there are certain things that I was doing that were taking up a lot of time.
I think I could have been successful with these things if I had persevered however I knew that the of effort and time that these things would take was quite a lot.
Instead I decided that my time was better spent working on other areas of the business.
We might think about this as an ROI calculation, a return on investment calculation.
The book suggests that the rewards for being the best in the world at something are really high and then these rewards drop off quite quickly as you go down the the quality and the level of someone's work.
Whether you're the best athlete, best marketer, best recruiter, best software developer or indeed best English coach. Therefore if we decide very strategically how we're spend our time, then we can get closer to achieving these things.
Very few people find massive success by being quite good at a lot of things.
Instead, it can be a great idea to focus on a very small group of things, or maybe even just one thing and become really great at it.
The Dip by Seth Godin is a fantastic book for anyone who has things that they want to achieve and I highly recommend it.
Equally feel free to book a call with me at my website BreakOutBusinessEnglish .com and we can discuss these ideas together.
Let's take a look now at some vocabulary, both formal and informal, that we can use to talk about quitting strategically.
I think it's time to call it a day.
I'm surprised I was able to tough it out this long to be to be honest. I've decided to step away from this project to focus on other things.
I've decided to step away from this project to focus on other things.
I think that my time is better spent elsewhere so I've decided to cease working on this project.
I think that my time is better spent elsewhere so I've decided to cease working on this project.
Let's jump straight into the formal vocabulary in that last example then and And from this I really like the word cease, cease.
This is definitely a formal word, perhaps one that you might find written down a little more than you'll hear it spoken.
However, if you want to be very clear and formal about what you're saying, then cease might be a great word to choose.
we sometimes hear on the news if fighting has stopped in a particular conflict or war then a newsreader might refer to this as a cessation of hostilities.
a cessation of hostilities that's the noun form cessation.
I should mention that the word cease is spelled with a C at the beginning so this is C -E -A -S -E, C -E -A -S -E.
So that's a C sound as in city center that you're hearing at the beginning.
I can also imagine a lawyer saying this when representing their client.
For instance, my client ceased working on this project in 2014.
My client ceased working on this project in 2014.
We heard in the first example the phrase, to tough it out, to tough something out.
Well if you are tough what does this mean?
T O U G H. A tough person is resilient, they are strong, they're able to last a long time and deal with difficult things.
So if a tough person can deal with difficult things and difficult situations then to tough something out is to remain strong, to remain resilient and to deal with a difficult thing over a lot of time.
If you're thinking about quitting what you're doing maybe you could tough it out for a couple more weeks or a couple more months.
I've definitely been asked by a boss in a previous job to tough something out for a little bit longer until they can send another member of staff to replace me.
Can you just tough it out until lunch time and then I'll send someone over to help if you can tough it out until lunchtime.
In the second example, we heard the phrase to step away from, to step away from.
As in, I've decided to step away from this project.
I've decided to step away from this project.
To step away from is a really polite, perhaps even diplomatic way to say that you'll be spending less time on something.
Now you'll hear people using this when they want to be a little unclear or vague about whether they're quitting something completely or just reducing the amount of time that they'll be spending on it.
If a business leader tells us that they to step away from the marketing side of the business for a while.
We don't really know if they want to leave this to other people completely, or just reduce the amount of their time that they devote to it.
So, it's a nice phrase to use if you want to keep your plans a little more secret.
We also sometimes hear people say that they're going to take some time away from something I'm going to take some time away from this and this really has the same meaning in the first example we had a phrase which is a lot more clear a lot more direct and that is to call it a day this is an idiom so it's generally considered informal if you call it a day then you're saying that well it's the end of the workday.
If you're working late into the evening then you might use the phrase call it a day to say that you're finishing your tasks and going home.
However in that context you'll be back tomorrow, but depending on the context we also often use call it a day to say that we're quitting something entirely.
If a band or a musician releases a statement saying that they're grateful to their fans but it's time to call it a day, then we understand that they've decided to stop working completely on that project or task.
I don't know if you've heard of band Aerosmith.
Does anyone know the band Aerosmith?
Quite a big rock band.
I always wanted to see this band live.
And then the lead singer Steven Tyler, we discovered, or we found out that there was something wrong with his voice.
And before their farewell tour, they said that Steven was calling it a day.
They weren't going to be performing live anymore.
And I remember being really upset because I realised I would never get to see this band live but there we go sometimes musicians eventually they all call it a day.
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Thank you as always so very much for listening and for your time.
I really do appreciate it and I will talk to you again next time on The Breakout Business English podcast.
