Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the English with Neil Learn English podcast.
How's everyone doing today?
In today's episode I'd like to share a little life lesson that I learned when I was back in high school playing for my school's basketball team.
So when I was 17, I made my school's varsity basketball team.
Varsity just means the main team of the school.
So when I was in high school, I made my school's varsity basketball team.
But before I made the team, I played a lot of street basketball.
Street basketball is just playing basketball in the park.
Just having fun with your friends.
Playing pick up games with the other people in the park.
It's relaxed.
There's not really too many rules.
And it's just a fun time.
It is a time to build with people, to connect and just enjoy the love of the game.
But I had this goal in my mind.
I said, you know what, before I graduate high school, I want to make the team.
And so I played more basketball.
I went to the gym.
I started training.
I got stronger.
And to my surprise, I made the school team.
I didn't think I would make it to be honest.
I wasn't the best, but I was good enough to make the team.
And so I made the team, and I learned something in that moment that street basketball and organized basketball was completely two different worlds.
When you play street basketball, there's no referee, there's no coach.
There's no one yelling at you.
There's no place to remember.
But when you play organized basketball, you have rules.
You have coaches.
There's a system.
You have a lot of things to memorize.
And I thought wow this isn't what I signed up for.
I thought playing for my school's team was going to be like playing at the park.
But it was completely different.
And while I was on my school basketball team.
My love for basketball slowly started to fade away.
I didn't like playing basketball as much.
I didn't like going to practice.
It wasn't the same experience.
So after the season was over, I stopped playing basketball for a little bit.
I took a little break.
I thought, maybe basketball, maybe this thing is not for me.
So I took a little break.
But one day my friend called me and said, hey, Neil, come to the park with us.
Play basketball a little bit.
I was like, nah, I don't really want to go.
He's like, nah, just come out.
Just come out and just have fun with us.
So I went out.
I went out, started to dribble the basketball a little bit, started to shoot a little bit.
And slowly.
I don't know where it came from, but I started to feel the enjoyment again, the excitement.
I started to feel warm again.
I started remembering when I was back out at the park with my friends, having a good time.
That feeling slowly started to come back.
And I thought, man, you know what?
This is where the love is.
My love for basketball isn't organized basketball.
My love for basketball is here at the park with my friends having a good time playing pickup games.
There are no rules.
There are no refs.
There are no coaches.
We're just here having a good time.
And at that moment, I realized, you know what?
I have to go back to love.
I have to go back to where my heart was at.
I have to go back to this feeling of why I loved basketball so much.
This is it.
This is here at the park.
It's not on the school team.
And so it just reminded me to go back to love.
And we can apply this lesson to pretty much anything in life.
Especially our careers.
Sometimes we graduate college.
When I graduated college, I thought that I was going to be a professional Japanese and English translator.
And I wanted to go to a really good school and get a really good job.
And so when I finished college, I realized, you know what, maybe I don't want to do this anymore.
Maybe this profession that I wanted, it's not really my heart's night in it.
I actually got a job being a translator.
I was a translator for two years.
And I thought, maybe this is just not for me.
My heart's not in it anymore.
My heart was in it when I was studying abroad in Japan, having a good time.
But when I stepped into that career, my heart wasn't in it anymore.
It just reminds us that, in order to really be successful with something, in order to be consistent, in order to stay with something, we have to love it.
We absolutely have to love it.
Our heart has to be there.
It can't be about money.
It can't be about anything else.
If our heart is not there, we won't continue.
And the same thing applies to English.
If you're learning English and it's hard and you're not having a good time and you hate studying, you're probably not going to continue because your heart's not there.
Make learning English fun.
Listen to music.
Dance.
You know, read funny books.
Read funny stories.
You know, make it fun.
You have to make it fun.
You have to play.
You have to play with English.
Not study English, but play with the English.
Make it fun again.
Make it fun.
So it just reminded me Always go back to love, Always go back To the reason why you started, The reason why it was fun.
Go back to love.
All right, my friends, that is it for today's episode.
Thank you for tuning in to the English with Neil podcast.
I look forward to speaking with you in the next one.
Take care, everyone, and talk to you soon.
Peace.
