Hello listeners, welcome to the english with neil podcast.
This is episode number 24, and today's episode is going to be a little different than normal.
Today i'm going to be rambling a little bit, so rambling means that i'm going to be talking about a bunch of different topics, in no particular order.
In a reason that I want to do this is because I've learned some things about myself this past week and I've gained some new insight, some new understandings about myself, and I thought the best way to connect with you, the listener, is for me to be completely vulnerable.
Vulnerable means that i'm going to be open, i'm going to be sharing some things, some struggles that i've been having for the past few weeks, And I thought this would be the best way to do so.
So today is going to be a ramble.
I'm going to be talking about different things, different struggles, new things that I've learned about myself.
This might be a good opportunity to listen to this podcast while you're doing something else like cleaning your house or taking a walk.
Maybe you can just use this episode as just listening practice.
It's me really just venting.
Venting just means I'm just going to be expressing different things in this episode.
So it might be a little long, but I have some things that I want to get off my chest.
That means some things that I want to express into the world.
And so the first thing that I want to talk about is feeling lost.
I've been feeling really lost for these past few weeks, especially in regards to this podcast.
So I started this YouTube channel.
And this podcast, if you're listening to the audio.
I started this six months ago.
And I was excited.
I was very excited when I started.
I thought this would be a new beginning.
I thought this would be a way for me to expand my brand.
I thought this would be a great way for me to reach a new audience, which I feel like I have done within this past six months.
But for the last few weeks.
I've just been feeling really lost.
I don't I've been feeling like I don't know where to go next.
In my head I was thinking I was going to create a podcast, have a website that I can bring people to to help them even more.
Which I did.
I have EnglishWithNeil.com.
And that is where you can find transcripts and vocabulary lists and study guides to go along with each episode.
I think this is a great resource for people learning English.
But somewhere along the way I started getting very discouraged.
Numerous times I wanted to quit.
The reason was because I was comparing myself.
I was comparing my podcast to all of the other Learn English podcasts there are on the internet.
And I got even more discouraged when I couldn't find.
I couldn't find my podcast when I searched for them.
When I typed in Learn English Podcast on Apple, I couldn't find it or Spotify or YouTube.
When I typed in Learn English Podcast, I didn't even show up.
I didn't show up on the first page.
I didn't show up on the 10th page, the 20th page.
I kept going and I never found my podcast.
So I got really discouraged and I really felt like I wanted to quit.
And so I stopped for a minute.
I had to take a break for about a week.
And within that week, I turned off all of my social media accounts, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter.
Reddit, all of these platforms that I consume content on.
I cut them out of my life for about a week.
And it was the most freeing, the most empowering.
The most insightful thing that I could have done for myself probably all year.
It's always good at least for me to take a social media detox, where you just don't use social media for a period of time.
Because I find for me, I have a love-hate relationship with social media.
I love social media.
I love the technology as a tool.
I love what it can do.
I love that social media allows you to connect with people all over the world.
I'm here in Japan and I've had people reach out to me from Brazil, from Vietnam, from the Philippines, from Afghanistan, from Egypt.
I mean all over the world.
Social media is a great tool.
I hate it because of the vanity.
I hate it because of the narcissism.
I hate it because certain things that show up in my feed.
But I can't blame social media.
I can't say it's social media's fault.
That's just the things that show up on my feed I guess I don't like.
So I have a love-hate relationship with social media so I had to cut it out of my daily routine for a minute.
And I realized that one.
I think the main thing that I realized within this past week is to just be original.
Something spoke to me and just said, Neil, just be original.
And that kind of made me a little emotional, because I've been using social media for the past 15 years and sometimes I make content or I put out ideas into the world that are that I try that I guess appeal to the masses.
There's really nothing original about what I'm doing.
And so this voice, we'll call it God, spoke to me and said, Neil, just be original.
And once I internalized that, I felt so much weight lifted off of my shoulders.
And it was just like someone set me free.
And I realized that, yeah, there are a lot of people doing the same thing as me.
There are a lot of people in the same industry.
But they are not like me.
They are not like Neil Allen Humphrey.
And so I had to learn.
I had to understand.
I'm still learning to embrace my authenticity.
And even just thinking about it now brings like this warm feeling inside of me.
It's hard to explain.
I wish I could explain it better.
But what I'm feeling now is just, I feel light.
I feel warm.
I feel like I have direction now.
And I just keep listening to that voice that says, just be original.
And so that's what I plan to do moving forward.
Moving forward, I don't just want to teach English the traditional way.
This podcast, what I have, this tool. it's so powerful.
It's so powerful.
And I think I would be doing you, the listener, and myself a disservice if I wasn't original.
And so one thing that I'd like to start doing on this podcast is sharing my original stories, because I write stories, I write short stories and I usually write the stories for my students.
I make these short stories and I and I put questions under them like reading comprehension.
So I want to start sharing my short stories on this podcast.
I think it'll be a great thing.
One because they're from me, they're original, but also because I think They'll really help you, the listener, if you want to get more listening practice.
It'll help you learn more vocabulary.
It'll help you learn the American pronunciation of words.
And so I'm really excited.
I'm really excited.
And I think for me, just wrapping this up, the biggest takeaway that I'd like to leave you with, if you're listening right now, is to be original.
Especially if you're a creator like myself.
If you create anything.
If you create videos.
If you create lesson plans as a teacher.
If you're an entrepreneur.
I really believe in...
People want something original.
People want something new.
People want something authentic, something genuine.
The only way to do that is to stop looking at what other people are doing.
And just share the things that are on your heart.
Whether people accept them or not, just be true to yourself and be original.
And that's what I'm going to be doing moving forward.
I'm just going to be original.
And that's it.
I just want to be original.
And my hope for you is that you will be original as well.
And just let your light shine in the world.
Let your light shine in this world.
And that's it.
So that is episode number 24.
It's a big ramble, just me sharing some things about myself.
Thank you again for listening, everyone.
And I look forward to speaking with you in episode 25.
Take care and talk to you soon.
Peace.
