IELTS Plus: Episode 55 - Future Goals

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, students from around the world. Welcome to another episode of the IELTS Plus English podcast, where today we're going to be talking about future goals. So future goals. This is quite an interesting one because it's definitely going to be future, right? There's going to be a lot of talk about future. And I remember recently I had a question from a student saying, well, Jack.

Especially part two, the student said to me, you have a strategy where you cover the past and present. So if the part two question is about the future, What can I do? Do I have to just ignore your strategy? So I answered simply that, yes, you can. You know, you can be flexible. You can focus entirely on the future. But... There's often a way to apply my strategy, which includes the past, for future-focused questions. That's all I'm going to say for now because...

What you're going to listen to today is how I do that. So when we get to part two, let me just check. Yeah, describe a goal you want to achieve in the future. Definitely a future focused question. I'm going to show you how to apply my structure going from past to present, perhaps, but most importantly, going to the past before.

we start talking about the future. So let's see. You'll kind of wait for five minutes and I'll show you how to do that. Of course, for my structure, for today's language, which look... Not too bad. There's some interesting vocabulary in here. And for all of that, go to www.brickplus.net for my textbook. Textbook is called IELTS Plus Total Speaking. And that's...

The whole point of it is to get you ready entirely for the IELTS speaking exam. So, of course, that follows this podcast every episode. So follow along. learn some vocabulary, and most importantly, get some structures and strategy. Good, okay. So I do have a student challenge for you today, and it's another part two, like a couple of weeks ago.

Please answer the following in the comment section. Describe a goal you want to achieve in the future. That's it. I believe, yeah, that is my question as well. You can write your answer in the comments and you could benchmark my question, my answer, if you would like, which I will give you soon. So why not start? Let's get straight into it.

Part one questions. First question is, do you think it's important to set goals? I think goals are important to maintain our motivation and to... keep something in our sights depending on what you're doing so for me when it comes to exercise and business primarily those two areas it's really nice to have short, medium, and long-term goals to give me something to focus on and aim towards? Good. The next question, what short-term goals...

have you set yourself recently? I have a lot of short-term goals. It's a huge list because it's kind of daily and weekly. Some of them are related to my podcast. making sure I'm upgrading the way I deliver these podcasts. Some of them are related to exercise. um i'm quite a goal-oriented person so when it comes to exercise if i can have some weight to aim for or some time to aim for in whatever activity

That's quite motivating for me. It helps me persevere when things get tough. Great. Let's move to part two. And as I said, what I want you to listen for... This is definitely a future-focused question, but I'm going to show you how I'm going to take you through the past. I have an idea what I'm gonna talk about. And the question is, describe a goal you want to achieve in the future. So two minutes are on the clock and we'll get straight into it. My time starts now.

I would like to tell you about moving to the UK. A few weeks ago, I went to the UK to visit my family and also attend my sister's wedding. And while I was there... I saw that my daughter really adapted well to British culture and British lifestyle. And she had a wonderful time in the garden and the parks and in the nice clean air and with so many dogs around it. There's all these elements of British life.

that really seemed to suit my daughter. And it got me thinking that I do want to move to the UK one day. My whole family does. And perhaps we should be going there sooner rather than later. So let me tell you a little more about my goal to move to the UK. I'm really determined to get to the UK before my daughter starts kind of middle school, when things get a bit serious with school and education.

I'd like her to be in the UK because I want her to have a happy life. And I think sometimes in Korea, there's so much competition when it comes to education. And that's not... So much the case in the UK. I really aspire to live in an area of the UK where there's a nice atmosphere. There are plenty of parks. I'd love to have a dog and meet other dog walkers. I'd like there to be good exercise facilities. So, you know, I have a real ambition to live in

an ideal location, if possible, in the UK. So for me... Okay, there we go. So... Most of that is true. I would like to move to the UK one day. I don't think it will be in the near future, but all of that... was true in terms of my daughter, certainly. I think it's quite important that we move to the UK one day. Anyway, in terms of my answer or the strategy, you heard... I gave context to my future goal by talking about the past. And I think you can too, if you have a goal to lose weight.

Talk about the past, the difficulty you've had, or perhaps you've been overweight recently. If you have a goal to earn a certain amount of money, well, what's your experience in your past that makes you want that? Have you had a... poor upbringing or have you just simply had a bit of difficulty recently and you haven't been able to save or do the things you want to do so give context to this future thing

by talking about the past. Great, let's do some part threes. What are some common goals that people set in your country? Um, I think that... I think goal setting is quite common in Korea. And I think very often it is related to health and weight, particularly weight. I notice a lot of my students and friends here in Korea, they have a certain target weight. And by setting that goal, okay, I want to be...

70 kilograms for example it makes them more proactive with their choices of lifestyle or their hobbies you know going to the gym nowadays there's a huge trend of running jogging. So yeah, I think goal setting is very common and it allows them to not only have sort of inspiration by seeing these people they want to be like, their target weight, but also it makes them persevere and get to that target weight in this case. Good. Okay, I'm slipping some of that.

Interesting vocabulary from today's vocabulary list, so I hope you're catching that. Next question, what obstacles might people face when trying to achieve their goals? I think that probably the biggest obstacle is perseverance. And because of... So simply... Being able to continue doing something and, you know, when it's not a habit and you're really trying to use your motivation to go to the gym every day or save a certain amount of money every week.

I think a real difficulty is making it an unconscious habit. And therefore, as I said, perseverance. A lot of people after a few weeks or a month, they give up. They lose the habit and it's so difficult to get back to it. In my case, I lost the habit of going to the gym fairly recently. getting back to that has been incredibly tough. Good. As you noticed there, my example was about me. I've told you this before. Try not...

to give yourself as an example in part three if possible, but sometimes it's okay. Last question. How can technology help people achieve their future goals? I think that technology has, there's so many ways it can help, but perhaps the best way is nowadays YouTube, we have such quick and easy access to... celebrities or fitness influencers who can be a real inspiration for us so you know at any time you can get your phone

and watch a video, a TikTok, a short, whatever it is, and get some inspiration and motivation to go and exercise yourself. Not only these... celebrities who are thin and they look great but you get these people that show their whole journey from overweight or unfit to amazingly muscly or thin or whatever they've achieved. And it's so inspirational to watch their journey and then apply their tips to yourself. Good.

I think that's a pretty easy topic today. I did enjoy it. And that's all I have time for today. So I hope you enjoyed that, showed you a bit of a different strategy for part two. That's the focus today. And as always... Leave your answers for today's student challenge in YouTube comments. But please, if you're listening to this on Spotify, there is a comment section and I do check it. I know I think.

Podcast listeners, me included, don't tend to leave comments, but you can and I will check. So that's everything I have. And next week, we have a really tough one. definitely, and that's globalization. So I want you to study passionately this week, and I will see you next week to talk about globalization. See you then. Bye-bye.