Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the English with Neil Learn English podcast.
How's everyone doing today?
I'm doing pretty good today.
I'm just chilling today.
It's a Saturday night here in Japan and I'm just sitting here writing and enjoying some red wine.
I don't drink alcohol too much.
But I just had a taste for red wine tonight.
So I'm just sitting here enjoying some red wine.
And I wanted to talk about this idea that's pretty popular in America and they have this similar concept here in Japan.
But in America, it's called the 1% rule.
Here in Japan, they call it Kaizen.
And it's basically this idea of continuous self-improvement.
And the idea is that you get better at something 1% every day.
It's this idea that it's more of a lifestyle of improving yourself in some way 1% every single day.
And I really liked the idea and I started doing this probably years ago, before I knew what the name was.
And I think it's important now, especially now.
In 2023, where we're at the pinnacle of technology, right?
Everything is fast.
Everyone is talking about speed.
And I'm wondering like, what is the rush?
Why is everybody rushing to do something?
What is the rush?
I think we should really just take our time and enjoy the journey.
Especially when we're talking about learning a new language.
Right, everyone wants to be a fluent english speaker fast.
Everyone wants to do things fast.
I'm thinking what's the rush?
Just enjoy the journey.
Just get a little bit better every single day.
No, life is not a race.
We say in America, it's a marathon, right?
It's this lifelong.
It's really a journey.
That sometimes we have good times, we have bad times.
Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're sad.
We have good days, we have bad days.
It's just a journey.
And within that journey...
You know, life gives us opportunities to just get a little bit better every single day.
And so let's apply this 1% rule to English.
I have these students here in Japan.
Japan is a very academic country.
They put a lot of emphasis on education.
Here in Japan, in order to get into a good junior high school or high school or even college, The kids have to take these very difficult tests, and one of the subjects that they have to be very proficient in is English.
And so they spend hours trying to memorize all of this vocabulary.
Trying to learn and memorize 20, 30 new words a day.
And I think it's so ridiculous.
I think it's just the wrong way to learn.
Instead of trying to cram in 20 to 30 new words in your head, why not just learn one new word a day, be able to use that word in a conversation and then do the same thing the next day?
Because when you try to learn 20 to 30 new words a day, how many of those words are you really memorizing?
But how many of those words can you really use in a conversation?
Probably none of them.
All of those words that you're trying to cram into your brain.
You can probably maybe, if you're lucky, use one or two in a sentence, but it's very unlikely that you can use 30 new words, right.
So this idea of 1%, It's a more practical way to go about learning.
And it's not limited to learning a new language.
You can apply this concept in your everyday life.
You can apply this concept at work.
Right at work, we're always trying to get better.
And.
So take work, for example, you have this skill that you want to learn.
You start out.
You're not good at it.
So you learn.
And then the next day.
You just get a little bit better.
And then the next day you just get a little bit better.
And think about this.
If you're if you're applying the 1% rule to your life.
In just over a little over three months.
You're going to be 100% better than when you started.
I think that's amazing.
100% better in three months?
I mean, that's fast.
That is really fast.
So this 1% rule, I think it's golden.
It's not really a rule, you know, that you have to be so strict about.
Because 1%, I mean, 1% is nothing.
You can get better 2% or 3% every day.
But 1% is just something to strive for.
I love this idea.
1%.
I've been doing this for such a long time.
I remember starting this 1% thing a couple of years ago.
No, not a couple of years ago.
Probably about 10 years ago when I first started exercising and I thought the exercise pull-ups, We're so cool.
Pull ups is when there's a bar above your head and you have to hold the bar and pull your chin over the bar.
And that counts as one rep.
One repetition.
And when I first started out, I was weak.
I was so weak.
I couldn't even do one pull up.
Seriously, I couldn't even do one.
But every single day I kept going out to the bar and just trying to pull myself up just a little bit more.
And then a little bit more.
And then finally, I think maybe after a week or two, I finally got my first pull up, and I was so, I was so happy.
I was so happy.
And then I went out the next day and I tried again and I got a little bit stronger.
And a little bit stronger and a little bit stronger.
And it took me about three months and my I got up to 11 pull ups.
That was my my max so far.
But it all started from one.
It all started from one.
I got to 11 pull-ups, but it started from one.
We have this saying in English, you have to crawl before you walk.
Another saying is you have to walk before you run.
Right.
You have to learn the basics before you become a professional.
Right.
So give this idea a try.
The 1% rule and just try to get better just a little by little by little.
And you'll see your life improve right before your eyes.
OK, everyone, that is it for today's episode.
I just wanted to remind you that all of the transcripts to my podcast episodes are at englishwithneilcom, so if there's some vocabulary that you don't know or something that you couldn't get while you were listening, go ahead to my website englishwithneilcom, And click on the episodes and you can get a full, free transcript of every episode.
So you can dive a little deeper and improve your vocabulary if you need it.
Okay everyone, thank you for listening today and I look forward to speaking with you in the next one.
Take care everyone and talk to you soon.
Peace.
