Hey everyone and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast. My name is Oliver and today we are going to be talking about self improvement. So in particular we are going to talk about self improvement books and content. So videos and media online, do they actually help? And what can we do about them? Today there are countless, so, so many titles or books or videos promising growth, motivation, success, money,
health. And so we are going to look at whether these resources, these videos or books truly help us. Are they useful? First off, why are they important? There are so many self improvement books, podcasts, videos, and seminars and these offer things such as advice, insights, so someone's view on something and strategies to achieve personal growth and to overcome or beat challenges and improve our health and well-being. well-being simply means how we are.
I am guilty as well of listening to lots of self improvement books and podcasts. I like hearing about ways that I can improve my life, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. There is a lot of useful knowledge in books and videos and motivational speakers, but there can also, in my opinion, be a problem. So there's something we call
diminishing returns. So what this means diminishing return is the more you do something or the more of something, the less benefit, so the less good things that you get back from it. So for example, for each hour you spend on watching or reading books about self improvement, you are getting less value, you're spending more time and listening how to improve and you're not actually doing
things. For example, if I was constantly listening to podcasts or books about how to stop procrastinating, so about how to stop not doing my work or the tasks I need to do. What I've done is I have spent more time not doing those tasks, and this can apply to anything. If we consume the content but we don't actually do it, we aren't improving. This is particularly true about things like motivational speakers.
We all know the likes of Gary Vee or Tim Ferriss or lots of these other motivational speakers that make YouTube videos, and I'm sure there are many in your country too. When we listen to motivational speakers, it can often make us feel inspired. It makes us feel motivated. And this can release a chemical called dopamine which makes us feel really good because your mind.
So your brain is already imagining or thinking about the things that you could do, almost as if you have already achieved these things and it feels good. But the more we listen and read and do these motivational things, time passes. And in reality, unless we actually do what we are reading or consuming, nothing changes. You can simply find another podcast or another book and the cycle so this continuous process
can repeat. So if this sounds like something that you do, then you maybe are consuming too much self help or motivation content. And what you should do instead is think of the following steps that we will go through. For a start, we need to identify the things that we actually want to change. So I know each of you will be listening or consuming things that you're interested in. Maybe it is having a better diet.
Maybe it is about exercising, Maybe it's about learning a language or improving your language skills. And once we know what we need to do, we should consume some content about how to do it and then immediately figure out how we are going to do it, how we are going to do it in our life. There's one thing thinking about it, but the hard part is doing it. Once we have thought about what we want to change and how we are going to do it, now comes the most important part, and that is doing it.
So starting to do it. And this is the hardest part and the best thing to do. We talk. I talked about this when I talked about actually a self help book that I read the over week about building habits. And the best thing to do is to start doing a little bit just to start. And once we start it becomes a whole lot easier to continue. The hardest part is actually starting and So what can we read or consume to help us that isn't
self help useful content. For example, if you want to learn a language, better start consuming content in that language. For example, this podcast don't only consume content about how to become better at the language. The same way if you want to
become better at business. So building a business or your career or field that you work in, read and consume content about that field, not only about how to become successful or how to become the best in the field, Start learning about what you are wanting to do. This means that we are not focusing on necessarily how to improve. We are actually starting to improve and it is still within that topic that you're interested in. Really the point is don't stop consuming content, but choose
what you're consuming. Choose things that help you to achieve what you're motivated about. There is no harm or problem with consuming some motivational or self help content, but once you've got that basic level of understanding about how to do something, you should start doing it. And let's take for example, myself. I recently wanted to start making some improvements to my diet. So what I eat. I'm not trying to lose weight or anything like that, but I want to eat healthier foods.
I have a problem with eating lots of junk food because I travel a lot. It's so easy to stop into a Burger King or eat a takeout sandwich, and I it makes me feel quite bad. So I want to eat better. I was reading books about diet, about processed foods, about how to improve your diet. I realized the more I read and the more I was consuming the content, I hadn't actually started doing anything. So I decided to stop and actually make some small changes.
So for example, at the start I began to eat 2 pieces of fruit a day and have some healthier snacks. I still continued to have my usual meals, but over time my diet and what I eat has been getting better. This is a great example or and way to start improving. So if you're in that position with English language learning, try to make small changes while you learn. Don't just try to learn how to get better.
I hope this podcast was helpful for some of you, or at least interesting to listen to. Thank you very much for listening and I hope you have an amazing day. Goodbye.