This is the Business English Podcast. Don't fall short with your goals in 2024 and win a contest.
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.
For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
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Hello, Aubrey. How's it going today? I'm great.
How are you, Lindsay? I am excited to ask you a quick question on the microphone this morning or this afternoon.
Are you ready? Yes, let's hear it. All right.
So have you realized any big or maybe small goals for yourself recently?
Oh, yeah. The last couple of weeks I had set a goal to cycle every day.
I have like an indoor bike that I had stopped using very much.
And so I set a goal to do even if it's a five minute ride every day.
And I have realized that goal. I'm going on two weeks with a ride every day.
Quite a few of them are five minutes, but that's OK.
I'm getting on it every day. Yeah, you're doing it's more about doing it on a consistent basis.
I love that. I love that habit. That's very cool.
You know, I just had a cool experience a few years ago.
I found a website where you could email yourself in the future.
Have you ever done that? Email to yourself for the into the future.
Maybe we'll do an episode on this something about grammar.
But I wrote myself an email in December of 2020 of what my life would look like now, like in January of 2024.
And I just got it. And I forgot about it, of course.
That was awesome. What did it say? Have you realized the goals that you set?
I'd say about 50-50. That's not bad. Yeah.
Like I thought I would be married by now and have a dog and certain things of my personal life.
Yes. And you thought you'd be president of the U.S. and that one hasn't happened.
Yeah. It's really cool, though. You can Google it.
I think if you just Google like email my future self or something like that.
So I recommend it. I love that. Because usually you forget it's coming and then it comes and you think, wow, you know, right.
What was on my mind at that time? Very interesting.
Well, this is a really interesting vocabulary.
The way you asked me, have you realized any goals recently?
To realize a goal, we're talking about this today, it means to reach a goal, but it sounds very professional and polished.
We use this a lot at work in business English to talk about realizing goals.
Yeah, it's funny because normally we use that word realize more about like come to consciousness about something or become conscious, conscious of something, right?
Yeah, but we also use it this way to talk about reaching a goal.
There are so many ways to say this, right?
Reach a goal. hit a goal, meet a goal, attain a goal.
But also we say this, that I've realized a goal.
And it's a little more rare, but I do feel like it up-levels your English, right?
In a presentation, especially in a meeting, this sounds so professional to talk about realizing a goal.
Why are we talking about this today, Aubrey?
Why are we talking about goals? I think our listeners know, but let's go through it again.
Yeah, in case you haven't heard. I know we want to know your English learning goals, guys.
We have created a five-minute survey that we would love for you to fill out to let us know your goals.
So we can create content here on our podcasts and in our courses that's most helpful for you.
Yes, this survey is simple, guys. As Aubrey said, it's five minutes to complete.
And I'm going to give you the link right now.
And then we're going to give a little bit more information today, talk a bit more about this vocab.
And then we'll, you know, we'll remind you guys about the survey at the end.
So go to allearsenglish.com slash M-E-E-T to get started on that survey.
Again, it's just five minutes. And Aubrey, what are we doing at the end on January 4th when the survey ends?
Yeah, this is exciting. We are going to choose three listeners who filled out the survey that will win a meet and greet with the All Ears English host of their choice.
So Lindsay, Michelle, me or Jessica, you get to chat with one of us for 15 minutes.
We can't wait to get to know you better.
So definitely fill out the survey for a chance to win.
Yes, guys. Fill that survey out. AllEarsEnglish.com slash meet.
But now let's just go into a little bit more vocabulary so that our listeners actually have, you know, you guys could put this stuff right into your survey, right?
That's what I would like to see. That would be cool.
Yeah. Share with us the goals you want to realize, right?
We are sharing two interesting vocabulary phrases today.
One of them about meeting goals and then one of them of not meeting a goal.
And these are both very interesting. very interesting native phrases.
We'll share some example sentences here.
Yeah, just kind of on a philosophical level, that's common too, that we actually don't meet that goal.
And that's okay, because it's more about the act of setting the goal.
Usually when we set our goals, they're high, lofty goals.
Right, Aubrey? Absolutely. And if we're realizing we haven't met a goal, we're still winning because we are assessing.
We're like paying attention. We're not just forgetting our goals.
We are going back and saying, okay, did we realize that goal?
Did we meet it? And if not, what can we do to keep reaching toward it?
Exactly. What is that? What is that quote that says, shoot for the stars if you or shoot for the moon if you miss you land among the stars or something?
Yes, something like that, which is so it's so perfect for goals, right?
Aim further than you expect to. And no matter what, you'll gain success.
I really think it's true. I really think it's true.
So any examples here for realize a goal, the first piece of vocabulary?
You might say, we are excited to announce that we have realized our sales goal this quarter.
That just means we met it, right? We reached a goal.
But this is another interesting way to say it.
We have realized our sales goal. Right.
Or it's vital that we each do our part to realize this goal.
So this comes back to teamwork and knowing our role in the team and what we all can do to bring us to that goal.
And if you're looking for that vocabulary to impress in a meeting or a presentation, right, you're talking about goals, getting the team excited, but you want to up-level your vocabulary, a verb like this does that.
Right. It's vital that we each do our part to realize this goal.
Love that. OK, then on the other side, as we've said, we don't always hit the goal and that's OK.
So let's go into that second vocabulary term.
Aubrey, what is it? This one is to fall short of a goal.
It just means to not quite reach a goal.
Give us an example of how we might use this at work, Lindsay.
Okay. So you could say, it looks like we'll fall short of our goal this quarter, but we should hit it next month.
Nice. Yeah. And sometimes that happens too, right?
It's just about timing. Right. It's just, maybe you don't get it in March, you get it in April.
Exactly. And I love how optimistic this phrase feels.
If we say like, it looks like we didn't meet our goal, it just is a little more blunt, doesn't feel quite as optimistic, whereas fall short of softens that just a little bit, right?
Oh, it looks like we'll fall short of our goal.
It's more about like, we haven't met it yet.
We're staying very optimistic. Yeah. And Aubrey, I think for the business world, this is going to be strategic for our listeners if they're presenting something to a manager or a boss.
And you don't want to say, we didn't meet our goal.
You want to say, it looks like we just barely fell short of our goal.
And then focus on how you're going to reset the goal and get to the goal.
We fell short of our goal this year. And then I love your thought there, Lindsay, that that's going to be followed by what are we going to do to make sure we reach that goal?
Because it's never too late. We didn't quite reach it.
We are still working toward that goal always.
Yeah. Right, because it's not going to go away, right?
You still need to get there. And so probably focus that time in preparation on how are you going to get there?
What's the strategy going to be? So Aubrey, where should our listeners go to fill out this survey?
One more time. Yes, guys, go to allersenglish.com slash meet, M-E-E-T.
And don't forget, you're going to be entered to win a chance for a meet and greet with one of the hosts of Allers English.
We can't wait to see you there. Yeah. And on this survey, guys, you know, it's easy to fill out.
Again, it's five minutes. Many of the questions are multiple choice or just yes or no.
And then there are some places on the survey where you really get to dig in and give us deeper answers on what are you frustrated about when it comes to English?
What are you dreaming about? Why does English matter for you?
You get to explain all of that to us. We really want to know what you're thinking about when it comes to your career and English.
You can actually use this survey as a structured way to sit down and think about your English learning goals for the new year to make resolutions, right?
If you need that push to think about those goals, write something down, do it in our survey, share it with us.
Yeah. And then you can take one further step.
And once you finish the survey, go and copy that information into an email to your future self.
I love it. I love that idea. So cool. So guys, go to allearsenglish.com slash M-E-E-T.
Fill out the survey. It takes five minutes.
And if you enter your email in the very last question and your choice of a podcast host of who you want to meet with, that automatically enters you into the contest where we'll select three people who have filled out the survey to meet with the podcaster of their choice.
Good stuff, Aubrey. So fun. Awesome. Hopefully we'll see you guys there.
And I'll see you next time, Lindsay. All right, Aubrey, you have a great day.
I'll talk to you soon. You too. Bye. Bye.
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