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Hogue where A .J.'s more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills.
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I am A .J. Hogue, the author of Effortless English.
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Today's show, Mission and Purpose.
Mission and Purpose.
What is the purpose of your life?
What is your mission in life or missions?
Typically, we have more than one.
And I'll discuss the mission and the purpose of Effortless English as well and invite you to join our community, our international, effortless English family.
All right, so let's talk about it.
Mission and purpose, mission and purpose.
Purpose is, you know, why you do something.
Let's get, let's get a dictionary definition of purpose just for that, just for the heck of it.
so purpose the object toward which one strives your aim or your goal okay so your goal your purpose right it's the reason it's the reason you're doing what you're doing in life and then mission see what the dictionary definition of mission is.
A special assignment given to a group or person.
A specific objective.
So they're quite similar, as you can see.
Mission and purpose.
But this is important because what happens is a lot of times in life, people do things, they're living their lives, lives, trying to get good grades, pass tests in school, go to college or university, possibly go to grad school, make money, get a good job or a good career, become rich, become healthy, whatever, right?
You have these goals, but what is the purpose of these goals, right?
Right. What is the reason?
Why are you doing? Why are these things good?
Why are they important?
You should think about this.
These things. Why do you do what you do in life?
Because honestly, most people, most people in life don't think about it.
They just do these things and they just accept that these things are important.
We understand that money is useful, for example.
You know, you have more money, then you can buy more nice things.
You have less stress in your life about financial things, at least. OK, so at a basic level, we understand we need some amount of money.
But how much? Right.
Because many, many people just assume they are.
They think that, well, more money is better.
More money is always better.
More, more, more. And soon the money becomes the goal.
The money becomes the purpose.
And they forget really why they're keep getting more and more and more money.
You can see this with people who become very, very, very rich. Which, not all, but many of them, becomes completely focused on just getting more, more, more.
And they're not really thinking about why.
Of course, they do have reasons.
They often have subconscious reasons, you know, psychological reasons they're not thinking about.
Like maybe they want everybody else to think they're important.
That's called significance, right?
Right. Importance. A lot of people worry about that.
What other people think and they think, well, if I make more money and I buy lots of nice things and people will respect me more.
But why is that even important?
I mean, really? Do you really need to have lots and lots of people thinking you're great?
So this becomes very, very important.
It's not just money.
It's just anything we do, it's very important that, you know, when you do it at a younger age, it's better, as soon as you can, to think deeply about your purpose in life.
The way I think of it is, you know, purpose is kind of like your highest or most basic fundamental reason for being alive.
life? This, I think for many people, this, if you think deeply about it, the highest purpose, the most important purpose would be a religious purpose.
Okay. It's what is the meaning of life?
Why are you alive? Why are you here?
What happens when you die?
Okay. These kind of questions really will help you answer this question.
What is the purpose of your life?
What is the purpose of life in general for everybody why are we alive why are we here so that's purpose mission missions I would say because there's more than one missions are more specific things we do in life like okay to build a business to uh to help people learn English is one of mine obviously to uh raise your a good family, to serve your children, and your wife, and your husband, these are all different missions, and ideally, they should connect to that highest purpose, they should fit, because if you have a mission, or even just goals, goals are kind of like, I would describe goals as
just smaller things you want, goals are just things you want to get, There might not be a very deep reason for them.
My goal is to buy a Ferrari because I think they're cool cars and it would be fun.
Or people would think I'm cool if I drive around in a Ferrari.
Or maybe you love cars and you just want...
Ferraris are fast and you're a fan of Ferrari.
Whatever. That would be a goal.
Is it going to make you a much happier person?
Will it change your life?
Is it a spiritual reason?
Is it a deep, deep, deep purpose?
Does it connect to that deepest purpose?
of life, the meaning of life.
No. Okay. It's just basically a goal and it's okay to have some of those goals.
But the problem is people are kind of programmed at a young age by schools and by media primarily, mostly, and oftentimes by other people they know that, you know, to to go after these goals, but they really don't have any purpose.
This is a common question I get in comments.
Maybe number one, how do I find my purpose?
How do I find my purpose in life?
Because there's so many young people who are doing everything their parents told them to do.
They got good grades.
Again, maybe they're in school or they graduated with a good degree.
Maybe even got a good job at a big company, but they're unhappy.
They're miserable. Life seems like it has no meaning.
They have no deeper purpose.
They're just doing these things like everybody else.
But after a while, it feels empty.
Go to work. You do the job working for some company, making the company money.
Maybe doing things that you don't really care about.
You don't feel like you're really making the world better or helping anybody or doing anything you love you get your nice paycheck okay you get a you save up you buy a house get an apartment get cars maybe whatever get married maybe have kids and just keep doing it every year every year every year and it just starts to feel empty empty, and kind of pointless.
Like why? I've met so many people who this happens to them.
For some, if you're lucky, it happens when you're young, because then you've got plenty of time to change.
It's actually a good thing if you're young and you have these questions.
It's very good, because it's more sad when people don't wake up until they're 50, and then they think, or 40, And then they suddenly, what is the purpose of my life?
I've been living the last 20 years.
What have I been doing?
Why? I don't care about any of this.
I'm not happy. None of it's making me happy.
None of it has a deeper purpose or meaning at all.
And this is such a big difference, by the way, in life.
often we think in life that all you know many people think well if if my life gets better then I'll be happier right if I have more money I'll be happier if my health problems are gone and I'm feeling great I'll be happy if I get the perfect job then I'll be happy if I get the perfect girl or boy and then I'll be happy but it's not really that I'll tell you it's not it's not okay that's not what it is and just having no problems in your life is not the answer you will always have problems big or small the answer is to be happy to have a deep feeling of purpose and meaning even when life is very
very tough i'm speaking from experience especially the last six years of my life have been extremely stressful difficult scary challenging not easy at all the hardest period of my life the last six years also the most meaningful and the happiest it's not ease you don't need your life to be easy that's not the key to happiness is okay sitting around is watching tv and you know eating food and having you know having unlimited money and everything's easy easy easy will not make you happy in fact probably the opposite you'll become bored and miserable and depressed getting rid of all problems making
everything easy is not the answer purpose and meaning when you have purpose and meaning Meaning you can handle difficult things because there's a, you feel there's a purpose, there's a reason.
Okay. It's like if I just grabbed you and forced you to run while I was behind you with a whip, okay, or with a gun.
And I said, get moving, run, run, run.
And I made you run for five hours, six hours, hard up and down hills.
you'd probably be, oh, this is terrible and yet people go and they will sign up for marathons and they do it for fun the same exact thing, but they choose it and it has some purpose, okay, it's not maybe very deep, but still when you choose the challenge, when there's a reason you're doing it, the suffering has a reason, the pain has a reason the difficulty has a purpose and a reason and then you can handle it and in fact you can even enjoy it you can even learn to appreciate and be grateful for the difficulty i mean it's this in a very small way it's like going to the gym you go to the gym and have a hard
workout if you just focus on your body you know you realize oh you're sweating maybe your muscles are very pained maybe the next day there's a lot of your whole body hurts and yet people do that they choose to do it and they feel good doing it and when you do it a lot you actually want to do it you feel bad if you don't do it that pain that difficulty the challenge is meaningful you know you're improving your body you know you're getting stronger you know you're building more energy more fitness you know long term you're doing great things it has purpose it has meaning and so the difficulty is fine
purpose makes the difference when life feels meaningful the suffering is meaningful the pain and difficulty are meaningful if you don't have purpose then any suffering any problem will feel absolutely horrible horrible you will easily lose hope and even when your life is super easy even if life is perfectly easy then you'll just still feel depressed because you're like it's easy but there's no reason for it no and the deeper the bigger reasons are always beyond ourself when you're looking for a purpose you want something bigger than yourself because we're small as individuals you know you You
and I, we're nothing.
We're nothing. We're tiny.
You know, our lives in 50, 60, 70, 80 years, boom, we're gone.
We will be forgotten completely.
Everything we did will be forgotten.
Okay, so we're small.
And so if your goal, if your purpose is just about you, I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be famous.
Me, me, me, me. It's also an empty purpose.
It's weak, and it will not bring you happiness.
So you want a purpose that goes beyond you.
Of course, the biggest purpose would be God, right?
Spiritual purpose. And then here on earth, you know, it would be, you know, family, community, you know, more than just yourself.
Contributing to and helping others.
and like I said I've had a very very tough time the last six years and yet it's also the best time of my life and I you know when I was younger I kind of thought the same thing I'll just be everything should just be fun and free and then I'll be happy but I wasn't and many times I would feel bored or there was just something missing and now the difficulty is fine I'm grateful for it now connected to this talk about a quick announcement that our effortless English community our social website is ready it's done finally our own social site it's basically like our own little uh Facebook I'm gonna give
you a screenshot and show you what it looks like it's very basic just a very simple it's like a very simple Facebook.
Here it is. There's a picture of me.
I posted this on there yesterday, I think it was.
Okay, so what this is, this is for just members.
So it's ours. You have to log in to our courses site.
This is a social site only for effortless English members, only members.
That means only people who are in one of my courses, who bought one of my courses.
When you join my course like Power English Original, Pronunciation, Business or if you're a VIP member now you can get into this course and I mean into this website for life so even if you got Power English from me 15 years ago you can still join this website just go there if If you forgot your password, there's like a little thing that says forgot password and it will email your password to you.
OK, so if you ever bought any of my lessons, please get on here.
And here is where you can connect with other effortless English members.
You can this is the place to meet people if you want to make a conversation group.
Maybe you want to chat, do some video calls, some Zoom calls, practice your English.
If you just want to make friends, you want to learn about other effortless English members in different countries, different cultures.
We've had so many great experiences in our past community.
And then, you know, we had all these technical problems with it because it wasn't our own.
I was using another software.
then I tried using Facebook I tried using gab but there's there was too much spam too much politics too much pornography garbage no so I just stopped doing it so for a few years now a couple of years a few years we've basically had no community site actually for several years so I'm so excited that now we have our own so rules on this website on our social site number one no politics none zero no politics it's not the place to talk about it not american politics not world politics do it on your own facebook page i don't care whatever but we don't do it there so we stay positive also no spam no trying
to sell anything nothing like that and also no spamming with lots of memes and just you know tons of garbage like that nothing no no no no this is where we're going to meet and have very positive connections with members around the world.
In the past, people made so many friends on our past social site and we actually made such good connections that we had some meetings.
I went to Spain and a lot of our members came to Spain and we all met together.
People made book clubs on the social site where they meet once a week or once a month and talk about books.
It's just is a great place where you know everybody's positive and everybody follows our code and on this website you'll see on the right side it says our mission this is the mission of effortless english because it's important for you to have your own mission and purpose in life but also any group any organization any community even your family your own family you should have a mission a reason right what is the purpose of your family you know certainly to love each other but what else so our mission is this is the effortless english mission since 2010 to explore new opportunities for growth
to bring confidence happiness and vitality to people all over the world to boldly go where we have never gone before then it lists our values which everyone on this Effortless English site must follow.
And then our code. We do the best we can.
We do the right thing.
We show each other we care.
Those are the basic rules of Effortless English of our community, our family.
Since we're talking about mission today, I want to talk a little more about the middle part of that mission for Effortless English.
To bring confidence, vitality, and happiness to people all over the world.
this is really my focus with effortless english of course the general purpose is to learn right to teach english right to teach people to speak english confidently and fluently that's the purpose right that's the the clear goal it's why people join effortless english but the deeper deeper mission is for me personally and for every member who gets on our community website here who joins our community if you want to join our mission this this is what we do we bring confidence vitality and happiness to people all over the world so it means when you're on this site what we're doing is we're all positive
leaders and we're there of course you're there to improve your own English, but also to help others, to help others feel more confident, certainly to feel more confident when they speak English, also just to feel more confident in general in life.
When you're confident, you believe in yourself, you're not afraid, you will have much greater success in your life, and you'll have greater success finding and following your own purpose and mission.
So confidence is very important because so many people are unhappy or they fail to help others.
They fail to live a life they find meaningful.
They fail just because they're afraid because they have no confidence.
So confidence is very important.
So we help each other feel more confident.
Vitality is just health, fitness, energy because it's just that feeling of being alive, that energy of being alive, to be alive as long as you're here we all will die but until then live life with vitality with energy with enthusiasm with passion with purpose and meaning and then you know very clear bring happiness to people right so that as you're learning English as you're communicating as you're in our social site here, our community site.
Your goal is to help others feel more confident, more vital, more alive, and happier, happier, right?
So we're not there to criticize.
We don't criticize each other inside the community.
We don't correct each other's grammar mistakes.
We don't try to look like we're better than everybody else, right?
We're there to help each other, to give positive comments to each other to help each other feel more confident, more strong, and more happy.
So that's the Effortless English mission.
Alright, let's get to our comments and questions now live.
All right, first we have a chat...
Oh Fernando Diaz, good to see you.
Thank you for the donation.
Appreciate it. good to see you as always many familiar names on here okay great let's see I'm just gonna I'm just looking at the comments here comments this is weird okay here we go lots of people saying hello live Abraham Ali who is on our community site that i just showed you it says aj what a nice surprise it's good to see you it's good to see you and abraham it's good it was good to see you join the uh the community site so quickly thank you for doing that we will soon have lots more people joining zafran says i am zafran from pakistan i'm very satisfied with your VIP program thank you Gina FD
says most people don't even know what it is that they enjoy doing well that's actually a good point that they're you know children this is not a problem with children it's always adults people so people lose this because with children children will explore children can find enjoyment in so many different things they're curious they don't care so much about their performance they will just do things and enjoy them but then as adults you know as people get older and older go through the school system longer and longer things start to get worse and people do often because they're they're doing things
that others tell them to do school school school work work sometimes even sports sometimes you know kids are pushed into sports by parents or or maybe their friends even though they don't really enjoy them that much so it can become a problem where people do lose sight they they sort of forget or don't find what they truly love doing what makes the activities that feel meaningful to them that feel enjoyable to them which is sad how what if that happens to you what do you do just start trying lots of things don't worry about performance about me don't worry about being good if you think just think
something if you're you're curious about something try it I don't know why people seem kind of afraid to do this sometimes like I think they're afraid of looking foolish which is crazy so if you think jiu -jitsu might be fun go do it if you think boxing would be fun go do it you think oh I think I'd like to try skiing try it running cycling volleyball it doesn't matter I'm giving sports examples but it it could be anything so yeah okay let me see those are questions mm -hmm excuse me just a second I'm just adjusting things here come stream Stream settings.
Da -da -da -da -da -da. Okay.
One second, guys. Okay, next question.
Banal asks, how is your son?
Is he doing well? Yes, he's doing quite well, thank you.
you. Nurgal says, I like the way you explained these kind of feelings.
You're like a life coach. Your work makes us feel motivated.
Well, thank you. Here's somebody, I can't read the name, but it says, do you have any connection with Joe, Weiss, and Kristen?
Because I haven't heard anything from them since 2008.
Yes, you know, I recently have had a few people asking me about Joe and Kristen.
They're still my friends.
I talked to them. I talked to Kristen last week.
I text with Joe, you know, every month or so.
So they're still in San Francisco.
They're doing fine, but they've kind of retired from English teaching.
They're kind of done with it.
Joe has a job and he's a computer programmer.
So he's got a job in San Francisco with a a company doing computer programming and Kristen I think she's basically retired if not working just volunteering but yeah they're doing fine they're doing great okay one second all right more questions okay as jean says hi aj good to see you again the thing is we younger people understand living a simple life is good we want to live in this life but people around us don't believe this idea especially our parents yeah i can relate you know this is a um You know you're not the first generation to deal with this issue I think that I don't know you know there
are there yeah many times people will have parents and you know let's say it your parents care about you right but that this problem is is that a lot of people, especially, I guess, in this modern world, a lot of parents, they worry about their kids.
They want their children to have a good life.
But they have a completely materialistic idea about this.
Testing something. They have a completely materialistic idea about this, meaning they worry about their kids making money, money having nice things it's all financial financial financial i see this here it's the culture right it's what it's the programming of the media etc etc i think that like my parents generation was uh especially brainwashed in this idea and uh it's uh it's sad so yes i think you're right i think a lot of young people realize it a lot of young people realize i don't want to work in some big company at some boring job my whole life i'd rather make less money doing something
meaningful or enjoyable i'd rather make less money and have more freedom right that was me that's that was my mindset i chose freedom over money i wanted to travel and see the world and i didn't want to work for some big company and be stuck in an office all day for you know my whole life so um you know once you're an adult you have to make your own decisions and that means sometimes you go against your parents you just have to do it do it it's your life when you're an adult that's what being an adult means being an adult means that you are the master of your own life now you're responsible so you
know i i don't understand this quite honestly because maybe i was a more rebellious child i don't know but um you know i know people younger people who are 25 28 even 30 and they still don't do things because they're worried what their parents will think and i think that's That's absolutely crazy.
You can make your own decisions.
You have to make your own decisions.
You have to do that.
To be an adult, you have to do that, or otherwise you're still a child.
You have to do it, and you're not exactly your parents.
So that means definitely you're going to do things your parents would not do.
Doesn't mean you don't respect them.
You can still respect them and of course love them but it's your life so don't use your parents as an excuse oh my parents won't like it well oh well did my parents like it when I lived in my car for a year probably not I don't think they liked it they thought I was crazy but you know what I wanted to do it it was an experiment it was something I wanted to do I had a purpose and a mission at that time and And that was part of it.
And my my mission at that time was to live the most simple life I could and to cut my expenses super, super, super low.
And I did not want to pay rent.
I realized that rent on an apartment was my number one expense.
And if I could cut that, then I was quite free.
Then I could just work part time at some, you know, what that I was delivering sandwiches.
That's the job I had.
I got a decent, a decent paying job, a pretty good full time job when I was living in my van, actually.
But I quit it after like one month because I like, well, this is no fun.
This is not free. I'm working.
They want me working all the time.
So I quit that job and I delivered sandwiches at lunch. I just worked at lunchtime for like four hours a day and drove around in my van with my dog delivering sandwiches.
And I had the rest of the time, you know, including the weekends, to just do anything I wanted to do.
My parents did not understand it.
You know, my dad worked at big companies his whole life.
and my dad was quite focused on career and money and financial things his whole life and you know I remember even when I was in high school I realized I did not want that I wanted freedom and you know I remember arguing and arguing with my dad about this but I was right I was right for me okay I didn't ask him to do it it's not he lived his life how he wanted and that's fine I did I'm not gonna i don't question him for that he did what he wanted to do and you know i'm fine but uh from for my life i had to choose my own way and you do too and it might be quite different it might not it depends
but sometimes we have a very different purpose than what our parents think you know i think maybe if you're lucky you're you have parents who understand who don't have just a materialistic view of this, where it's not just focused on money and school.
I see it all around me.
I'm a parent, and most parents in the United States are completely focused on money.
They think that being a good parent means they help their kid grow up and get a good job and make good money.
that's like the not only the number one thing it is it is like almost the only thing they focus on it's all and that's why they focus so much on school they don't care about they're not focused on education on being intelligent on having a great education on learning it's just about grades because they think do well in school get good grades then get a good degree then make good have a great job and make lots of money.
Yeah. Maybe the second thing that a lot of parents in America focus on, sports performance, right?
If their kid is athletic, some parents go crazy over this, where they're training their kid all the time.
And it's like their kid is like a professional athlete at age 12.
It's really crazy. But these are a complete completely materialistic goals and i find that sad so i i think that uh it's financial education for your kids is important because it's the world we live in and then this the economic system we have yeah they'll need to make enough money to to live and have a decent life financially you know just to pay for their food and housing and things like that but that is not at all the meaning of life it's a necessary part of life you need to eat but eating is not the purpose of life right so you need money but money is not the purpose of life so a spiritual
purpose i think that very important for parents to teach their children that this idea of mission and purpose and ideally a spiritual purpose and certainly with my own kids I am focused on that I don't talk about money and finances with them much I will teach them about that stuff later when they get older we home school so we don't care about grades or tests so I want my children to have you you know great faith want them to have a strong feeling of purpose and meaning when they grow up as adults i want them to be able to have good loving family families since i have two kids each of them and yeah
enough money so they can have those things and have whatever the freedom to live as they want but you know money's down here it's just a practical thing it's like health too that's another thing that parents forget about but for me health is way more important than money and so try to teach your kids teach them to cook teach them how to eat healthy teach them about exercise and how to keep their body healthy and have good energy teach them to contribute teach them how to to love one another and take care of their family and take care of each other these These are all far more important than money.
Yeah, Amina in the comment says, Hi, AJ, a mission describes how you will pursue that purpose.
Exactly. Acting as a framework for achieving your goals.
Well put. Exactly how I think about it, Amina.
So let's say your purpose is to serve God.
Okay, but then you think, well, okay, well, how do you do that?
Well, God doesn't really need me.
Okay, so what does that mean, actually, in this life that I'm living now?
That's where you got to figure out your mission.
Like, okay, what does that mean?
Well, okay, that's where you have to figure out, well, you know, what is it you're meant to do to live a virtuous life, a dharmic life, a life that, indeed, is, you know, devoted to God, but what, well, God gave you a family maybe.
So maybe, you know, part of that is raising your children, but not just raising them so they grow up to be rich, but raising them to be good, loving people, to be kind, to become a much, much better person yourself, to practice and show devotion.
Maybe it's by, you know, serving and helping others.
Maybe it's by, you know, helping people who are sick.
You know, you could become a nurse and help people, or you could have become a, you know, there's so many missions, so many specific things you could do to serve that purpose because that purpose is so huge and so kind of general and not clear.
So the mission is where you get more specific.
What do you actually need to do in this life now?
And the thing about mission is I like to say missions because you, you're probably going to have a lot of things things you're going to do.
Or you can have a general mission, but you have a lot of ways to do it, you know, like to bringing happiness to people all over the world.
Well, there's thousands of ways you can do that.
So when you're 20, you might be doing it in one way.
And then when you're 30, you might be doing it in a different way.
So your actual activities that you use to serve your your mission to serve your purpose can and will change in during your life okay Fernando Diaz says can you please tell us more about the new social section on the website how can we register okay so if you can get into the courses if you bought one of my courses in the past just go where you download the lessons okay is that the same website where you download your lessons power english original just log in there if you forgot your password just click forgot password okay and then we'll send it so first you log in to the courses website where you
get the courses and then on that website you'll see a link for community community click the link for community and then you join the social site Malik says you're coming you're coming live after a long time please try every week i'll try to get to it guys these children are making keeping me busy i'll do my best amina with another great comment says discovering your purpose is a personal journey of self -discovery involving reflection means thinking about on your values passions and strengths all of that and on the meaning of life What is the meaning of life?
Why are you here? And what happens after you die?
You got to decide that.
And then what are your values?
What are your strengths?
All of these things.
Exactly. It's a deep topic.
So you're probably not going to think about it in one day.
Okay. This is something you got to think, think, think, but it's your life that's the point.
If you don't think about it, what do you do?
People who don't think about these questions, they just follow what their parents tell them, what the school, what all the people, their friends do, what the media shows them.
and they're just kind of like zombies just going along doing all these things not really knowing why and not happy no feeling of purpose no feeling of meaning in their lives and people may do that in their 20s and 30s they distract themselves with games and movies and television and alcohol alcohol, and all this other stuff, but eventually, eventually, there's usually a crisis where they realize, oh my God, what am I doing?
I've been living my life doing all these things, but I have no purpose, and they feel quite depressed.
This is sometimes called a midlife crisis because many times it happens around age 40 to 50.
Don't do that. If you're young, don't do that.
If you're middle age, well, it's better late than never.
It's still good to think about these things.
You can change your life at any age.
Ibrahim Ali says, I like the new social site.
It's very fast and very clean.
Exactly, exactly how I wanted it.
Super simple, clean, works well.
Great place for us all to connect.
Okay, Hitek Kyaw says, how are you and your son?
Doing great, both of us.
Today I'm listening to your podcast, Leaders Make Mistakes.
I'm planning for my first online business.
This is my dream. I was afraid to start before I knew you.
Great. Well, that's part of my mission.
I want to encourage people to go after their dreams and try these things, okay?
Do it. Do it. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake.
If you fail, learn.
and then you can try again, okay?
There's nothing to worry about.
Are you still in America or Japan?
Ask Tajul Islam. Right now, in America.
America. Gina says, I agree, no politics.
Yep, no politics. I got sucked into politics a little bit on Gab.
It's easy to do because the whole site is focused on politics.
But it was a mistake.
And we're doing zero politics on our community site.
None. None, none, none.
It's fine to be passionate about different political things, whether it's in your country or internationally.
But it's just not the place.
And I'm telling you from experience that so much of politics is lies and deception, that we all – in propaganda – that we all get fooled.
We all get fooled. And so it doesn't matter how much you think you're right and that you're sure, usually about at least half of the political things, you're probably wrong, you're mistaken.
and okay i was i was i have been i have been i look back on my life when i was young and i and i i would i usually not very political but a few times i've gotten political you know and usually it's you know they always say these great things but then when you see what actually happens what actually gets done it's all lies it's all garbage it's all the whole media every politics it's all just lies lies lies and deception and whoever your favorite politician is probably they're just another actor also lying.
And if they actually get into power, if they actually get elected, they will do the opposite of everything they said.
And that is true for all sides.
There are no sides because they're all ruled by the same money and power.
Democracy is a lie.
It's all a lie. So we're not going to get into all that because it just makes people upset they just want to keep us fighting each other and angry and getting it's like wrestling professional wrestling it's all emotional and raw and big and loud but it's all planned before the fight they already plan out who's going to win and what they're going to do and that's politics that's democracy it's all planned so we're not going to get into that and have everybody fighting each other about different political things it's no good.
It just destroys the community.
So not going to do it.
You can do it on your own social media.
Of course, you're free to do that.
Okay. Ibra asking me about, you're in America now, what do you think about football?
Football. I'm not sure if you're asking about soccer, which is what Americans call it, or football is American football, right?
Where they throw the ball and they wear the big helmets.
I don't really follow any professional sports, so neither one.
I have no idea what's happening.
Hey, Sarah, good to see you.
She says you have a great mission, the greatest mission I have ever seen.
Great. Sarah, get on the community site, please.
Just log into the courses site.
Love to see you there.
Malik says, I can speak in an advanced level fluently, but when it comes to simple everyday things, I have difficulty.
What's the problem from your perspective?
So it sounds like the problem is you have been listening to and reading a lot of formal things, you know, advanced, more formal.
I don't know exactly what.
But you're not listening to enough, like very casual things, right?
So I would say if you want to focus on casual English, movies are a good source of that.
Modern movies are a good source because they'll have lots of idioms and slang and more casual ways of speaking.
Dramas. Romantic comedies are actually quite nice for learning this kind of casual English.
So that's what I recommend.
Do the movie technique, which you can find on my YouTube channel, how to do it.
But do the movie technique and watch and focus on a lot of movies like romantic comedies.
And I think you'll improve your casual English better.
And it's fun. Gina says, when I was a kid, I was taught by my parents I had to study and go to university.
But I never got the chance to do other things I might have been good at, like art, for example.
Yeah, well, exactly.
Exactly right. This is the materialistic mindset.
And we love our parents.
but let's face it a lot of just most people that includes everybody not just your parents most people are materialistic meaning they're focused on this material world and just which means like you know money can also mean things like you know money's uh sex social status these are all material things they all disappear when you die okay so um yeah a lot of you know this is the story of so many people where you know CS Lewis wrote about this where you know like instead of being full human beings we're being just reduced down to just these economic workers right economics is a part of life but it's
you know like if you're looking to watching me on video it's like a little small part but But then you also have art, music, God, spirituality, family, fitness and health, just play and sports and enjoyment and curiosity and creativity and exploring and travel and on and on and on.
We are much more than just workers.
workers, so it is tragic to just, that's why, it's, you know, it's one of the reasons I'm so focused on homeschooling, because I know what they do in the schools, and it's, I don't know what my kids do, so my kids, my daughter is very artistic, so she's making little art projects every day, I'm not artistic, so I've bought all these books that have about art projects and things, and you know like so just to give her ideas and I'll try to do it with her but I've never really been very good at that stuff and never really enjoyed it much but I kind of having fun doing it with her but she's super
she's like amazing it's great she also just started wanting to play piano so she plays around on the piano now and she asked me oh I want to learn to read music so I you know I get online and I print out stuff and now she's learning to read the notes and the music and do it with her piano and um it's great it's fantastic and she's you know and i also still read to them where i'm reading the hobbit to them now by tolkien which is one of my favorite books and we read other books and she's learning japanese and so of course my son is he's got different interests uh he he he loves books he's he's
gonna uh both of them love like books but but my son is like crazy about books, loves them.
He'll just sit there and he just brings them to me.
Like I'm sitting on the couch, he just goes and grabs like a stack of books and brings them to me and sits down and he wants me to read them all to him.
And so, you know, this is what I love about homeschooling because you can let each child find their way.
They'll both learn to read, okay?
I'll make sure they both learn to read.
I'll make sure they both can do, you know.
the math that they need to do in life.
They'll learn those things, but there's so much else.
Okay, Sarah Ahmed says, how can I improve my pronunciation?
I was just listening to your video, now I want to speak, But other people make fun of my accent.
These comments always annoy me because, I'm not annoyed with you, Sarah, but other people making fun of your accent.
Who are these other people?
My guess is their accent's not that good either.
It's just mean. It's not nice.
Bad friends to do that.
Anyway, Sarah, I have a pronunciation course.
or you can just get on my YouTube channel and search for shadowing do a search for pronunciation I've got a bunch of videos in the past I talked about these topics so I give you a lot of stuff you can do for free if you can also join my pronunciation course on my website here on the screen effortless English club .com and you will improve your pronunciation but you know don't worry about what other people say, okay?
People who, you know, make fun of others' accents.
It's a stupid thing for them to do.
Okay. Psycho... fundamental cores of our mission are also of also my own personal mission, explore new opportunities for growth.
So that's kind of like the idea of learning, always learning, learning, learning, uh, to contribute, right.
It means to help others to boldly go where I've never gone, like to explore, try new things.
Don't be afraid of trying new things and going new places.
I love it. Bex Sultan says, Where are you living right now?
I am in Indiana. That's in the, pretty much right in the middle of the United States.
Not quite the middle.
East. It's called the Midwest. But it's near Chicago, is the nearest big, big city.
Fernando Diaz says, A time ago, I wasn't sure about my mission.
But because of English and talking so much with so many beautiful people, I finally live according to my mission in life.
Thanks, AJ. Enjoying now and giving more.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.
Well said. Very well written.
That's great. right.
Uzmanov Dilmorad, another longtime fan and listener says, since I was on holiday, I'm a couch potato and did not want to improve myself.
Then I listened to your podcast named Low Motivation Solution.
It helped me a lot.
I'm coming back to my studies step by step.
it happens to all of us it's happened to me you know like i've mentioned in my some of my audio podcasts my last year for me the last year year and a half were very very very stressful and difficult for me and me too i kind of lost all my motivation to do anything i gained weight i stopped exercising i just everything because i was just so stressed out about my child uh and worried about him that i couldn't i just couldn't focus on anything else now he's doing well and i'm claiming back out exactly what you're saying it's good that it's summer like all the the sun always helps you know i find
that when it's sunny and warm outside my energy goes up i struggle a bit in the winters like a lot of people so anyway i'm exercising every day now feeling much better feeling much more energetic positive motivated everything so this is what you do you just gotta climb back out again sometimes we do fall sometimes we do get depressed sometimes life hits us with a lot and we struggle but you just get up keep going like the Buddhist thing says you know what is it seven times down eight times up right if you fall seven times you just get up again right you You fall.
You get up. You fall.
You get up. You fall.
You get up. That's the way life works many times.
Just keep getting up and you'll be all right.
Pateek Singh says, I bought your Effortless English Pronunciation course.
Great. Get onto our community site.
What should I add to learn the best in six months?
I'd say Power English.
Power English plus the Pronunciation course.
That's great combo can do them both together at the same time Sarah says everybody has to find their mission by themselves to be able to achieve that yep no one can tell you your mission you gotta find it yourself well you make a course about engineering I'm thinking about it engineering and medical English English for engineers english for medical are two possible courses i might do in the future we'll see let's see uzmanov says a great question it's kind of a cultural question why do most americans not live with their parents when the parents are old I think it's unfair to let old people live
alone and be lonely because they take care of the children when they're kids well I agree and it is sad it's part of this materialistic culture of you know the kids don't it's it's difficult right if they have to take care of their their parents they want to be out there making money and having fun and it's a it's a shallow hollow materialistic thing.
Instead, they just want to pay money and put them in a nursing home where they're alone and lonely.
It is sad. And I agree with you a hundred percent.
Now I'm happy that, you know, my mother's side of the family, they did not do that.
My mom and her brother took care of my grandmother.
She was 96 and she died at home with my mom and my uncle in the the house so she stayed in her house her whole life she she did not die in a hospital she did not die in a nursing home she lived with her own children they took care of her they drove her around so it's not every American's uh and I'm very happy that my mom did that and my uncle so I respect both of them for doing that and I think it's great but you know it was hard work and I I agree, you know, living in Japan, it's more, much more normal.
I think in most parts of the world, parents live with their children, right?
When the parents get old, they live with one of their children, or maybe the children share the parent and they kind of move around.
I don't know. I hope my kids will do that for me.
We'll see. We'll see.
Um, but no, I agree with you.
I think it's a a terrible part of i would say you know modern american culture because if you go back in history of course uh it was it used to be normal for parents to live with their kids as they got older it changed with my parents generation but like i said my mom was not like that and bless her so yeah you know there's yeah it's sad I agree yeah it's like Gina says now I have a little purpose which is teaching English to my two little sisters they're beginners any recommendations yeah just you know I I think cartoons and simple things in English are perfect for little kids.
My kids, you know, I generally don't like them watching stuff a lot, but especially now, we're in America so they need more Japanese input.
So we show them some cartoons, we watch them first to make sure they're nice.
And so they watch some cartoons.
In fact, they're doing it right now.
They watch some cartoons in Japanese sometimes.
And I think things like that.
Storybooks and little cartoons.
You can find them on YouTube.
It's for free. So that's nice.
You're contributing.
You're helping your little sisters.
It's a good feeling.
Curious, why do you cut your hair like this?
It's hot. I usually do this in the summers.
Shave my head. Because it's cool.
It feels great. That's the only reason.
I don't care much about hairstyle fashions.
In the winter I let it get long because it keeps my head warm.
So sometimes you'll see me in the winter with long hair and a big beard. It keeps me warm.
And in the summer everything gets shaved.
Because it keeps me cool.
yeah gina with another nice comment says i believe we're here to give the world the best we can offer i've been listening to great speakers about this topic including uh louis hay wayne dyer god by buddha which i'm familiar with that one uh so yeah exactly you want to read read philosophy read scriptures read read you know spiritual books think about these questions and topics you know this is it's one of the things you'll get you'll get this in movies and in media it's not always direct but there is a message that gets sent to us by by the materialistic culture we are in the message is that philosophy,
spirituality is somehow, oh, it's not important.
It's not practical, right?
Oh, you do, you need to focus on making money and things that are important.
Practical, practical, right?
And just dreaming and thinking about the purpose of life and God and spirituality and all this.
They make it sound like it's just some kind of weird, crazy stuff.
It is the opposite.
that's the only thing that's important it's the material stuff that is small and not so important because you gotta know why you're doing things if you have no meaning or purpose in life if you're not thinking about the big questions those big questions those are the most important ones that's the most important topic everything else depends on your answers to those questions Vladislav says two months ago our 20 year old cat died for the last few years she seemed to feel unhappy her everyday was the same I guess she didn't realize her purpose how to help pets feel well yeah well you know pets
are atman they're also spirit soul and it's a good example of this I think we can see it in zoos sometimes with the animals on one hand they are much safer than in the wild but often they are they are clearly less happy and sometimes less healthy so you know it's like Like, well, being safe in a cage or an apartment or a house, yeah, is maybe not the best thing for them, right?
I don't know. I don't know how to answer it for animals.
But I think that this kind of show, because you can see this with people, the same phenomenon, when people retire, for example, right?
They're not working anymore.
more they're older they're 60 70 i'm almost 60 myself yeah anyway um that they just kind of like seem to lose purpose they kind of sit in their apartment all day watching tv or something and okay they're safe um they don't need to work so they're free but they have no purpose so they They just sit there and become, you know, more and more depressed, less and less healthy, less and less energetic.
It just seems like they kind of lose all their life energy, right?
So that purpose is extremely important.
All right, a couple more and then I got to go.
I've been going an hour and eight minutes.
so about time to stop Guzman off Dilmarad what kind of books are you reading at the moment look forward to a new book I'm actually reading The Hobbit right now with my children I think I already did that one didn't I I think I did The Hobbit as a book club amina says some people they're always busy every time they tell you i'm busy i'm busy 24 hours a day they're busy these people are negative people they don't have any purpose there are yeah yeah i mean that's what did i think it was sugyo rinpoche a tibetan buddhist monk he called this active laziness active laziness he said in the in india he
was telling a joke he's like in india people are lazy they just you know they just sit around in the park and don't and do nothing he's like in the west people are active active lazy they they run around doing all these things but they have no purpose they're just distracting themselves with all this activity to look busy but they have but there's no meaning there's no purpose to it so you know his point being that just being just running around and trying to be busy all the time doesn't mean you're actually doing anything important of course he's right oops oops sorry just a couple more greetings
from Thailand says beginner LG so what the crop or my parents still alive my dad is alive my mom died a few years ago Ibra says what are the best was the best movies you've ever watched and which What films would you recommend for learning English?
So this is a separate topic.
My favorite movies.
I like The Matrix. There's a meaning, you know, if you think about a little bit of the deeper meaning behind it.
I like a movie called Master and Commander.
It's just an interesting movie to me.
It's not necessarily deep, but I like it.
there's a movie called The Mission which is quite nice, an old movie Robert De Niro movie I just like the kind of redemption story of the main character Robert De Niro I have mixed feelings about Lord of the Rings movies I like them but they also so i i'm a you know i love love love tolkien and lord of the rings and so you know they did do peter jackson did make some changes that sometimes are i find irritating i think he did overall a very good job with lord of the rings the hobbit not so much i don't like those movies i don't like the hobbit movies he kind of they're not like the books the book
at all but lord of the rings those are nice movies um yeah i don't know there's a few i'm not such a movie person anymore arman says i've been following you for a while but rarely i remember you said that fasting is helpful for healing can even heal broken bones how to do fasting for healing okay well i'm not like a super expert on this but uh i don't remember specifically about bones but uh you can probably go to snake diet cole robinson has a ton of stuff about fasting uh there's a doctor i can't remember his name and he's chinese i believe anyway do a search on fasting there's tons and tons
and tons of research about fasting and the many many many many benefits of it physical and otherwise was i'm from japan says yugi sasaki hello konnichiwa oh dina says god by buddha is a spanish youtube channel There you go.
Dios segun Buddha. Interesting.
Max Svirdanov says your Apple podcast is truly a powerful way of learning.
Yeah, by the way, you should do that.
Join my just if you get on Apple or whatever, any podcasting app.
Search for effortless English podcast. podcast, you'll find my audio podcast. I put my, I put the videos on there too, usually, but I also do extra audios that you'll never see on YouTube.
Walk and talks, I call them, or I, in fact, I just got a new mic so I can actually put the microphone on my jacket and I can do my exercise outside while I talk to you.
I'm going to try that soon.
So you'll get a lot of extra audios on my audio podcasts that are kind of like bonuses that you will not find them on YouTube.
Yes, You Can by Priscilla Candido says, thank you for your words.
You always have something powerful and inspiring to say in order to make our day better.
Thank you. you. Katia says, as a Brazilian woman, I see learning English as a meaningful goal that enables me to contribute globally and support my community, especially beginners learning English.
Wonderful. See? Contribution.
Connecting with people around the world.
Great. AJ, I want to travel to America.
See you in America if I can.
You know, people on our community site on the courses website uh we've been talking about this because we talked about last time i did a social gathering for effortless english members and the last one was 2000 it's like 10 years ago crikey uh was in barcelona and i did i've done a few in barcelona always barcelona and then i've done smaller social meetings in other places like in osaka and Thailand, Malaysia.
I did some seminars.
Vietnam, of course.
In Europe, I think only Barcelona in Europe.
But anyway, people are asking me, AJ, do another, do another gathering, do another social meeting for members.
Right now with my kids, traveling far, traveling internationally is quite difficult to six -year -olds.
It's a little challenging.
But, you know, if people would travel here I would be willing to do one in America I could do one in America if people are interested so we'll just talk about it on our community site so on the community side joint get on go into the courses website join the community site and if if enough people are interested if enough people would actually come to America or if you're already here if you would come to I don't know maybe Chicago Chicago or Indianapolis, if you would actually travel, then yeah, we could do a gathering.
It would be kind of fun.
Hey, hey, hey. Kids are breaking into the room.
Hey, little boy. I'm almost done.
Okay. I'll take one more, and then I got to go.
Sorry. Sorry, kids are breaking in, they're done.
Okay let's see, show me the money.
The matrix, yes, yes.
Okay, oh yeah, yeah, so the other question was about learning English.
Jerry Maguire, I think romantic comedies.
I'm just gonna give a general answer.
What movies are good for learning English, studying English?
I think romantic comedies like Jerry Maguire, like Hitch, those are great.
It's a good general list. Gina says, I'd love to participate.
I'm in Miami. Oh, that's not too far.
Okay, last comment.
Vladislav says, our cat lived a comfortable life.
Every day was basically the same.
Seemed it wasn't a happy life for her, but she always returned home.
She couldn't live in the wild.
I know there's kind of a metaphor there for us isn't there for humans too that how many humans choose a comfortable life that's the same every day but it doesn't have purpose it doesn't have meaning and there's no meaningful challenge there's nothing inspiring right so this is a good point by avoiding difficulty by avoiding challenges we also end up avoiding avoiding meaning and purpose because if you have a meaning or purpose it comes with difficulty i'll tell you like my two kids have come with a lot of difficulty and one of them has had a lot of health problems and extremely difficult but i'm
so happy so so happy right and grateful for that challenge so a life with no challenge and with no difficulty with no problems is also a boring life with no meaning so don't be afraid of problems if you want something if you think something is gives you purpose and meaning and excitement if it's super difficult try it and do it anyway all right guys get on to our site our social site log into the courses site say hi on the community i'm there every day i check it every day i post and answer questions so you can connect there with me at effortless english courses on our courses site log into the community and say hello lots of love to you find your mission find
your purpose see you next time bye for now I'm done Thanks for watching.
