welcome to the effortless English show with the world's number one english
AJ Hoge where AJ is more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English
without the boring text books classrooms and grammar drills
here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English
hi I'm AJ Hoge the author of effortless English learn to speak English like a
and this is the effortless English show the show that teaches you to speak
so there I was looking down at my gut
my little round stomach and I felt disgusted had this kind of look on my
face in fact is because as I looked down I did not see a nice flat stomach but
instead this little bulge this this little round stomach which came out a
bit fact we call this in English sometimes a spare tire
especially for men where it's just around your and your middle around just
your gut your belly your stomach area and it kind of goes around to your sides
to this was about one year ago I was looking down at my shirt on
just looking down at my little round cut and I was depressed because I let myself
disgusted and angry at myself you know I'm saying to myself inside the hell are
you doing look what you let yourself go to let yourself go means let yourself
I've never in my life had this much fat always been thin always been healthy
always been fit and in good shape but a year ago I'd reached the bottom I was
the heaviest i had ever been my stomach bulging out like a little not quite a
maybe like half a basketball-sized so just stared at it
then I sat down at my computer to distract myself in fact because I was so
so sad so annoyed with myself I didn't want to face the truth I didn't want to
think about the truth that I had let myself become lazy and a little bit fat
that my energy was low but in general I just wasn't feeling very good wasn't
feeling very energetic day today because I've let my health and fitness drop so I
you know like most of us right to distract myself this is what we do we go
we get on the computer watch a video watch TV
dude do something else we don't want to when we don't want to think about an
unpleasant truth so i go and i just opened my email up looking at my email
and I noticed an email from my good friend Joe Joe weiss from learn real
english and back some of you may know him
click it click that opened up the email and quickly start reading it and email
was not a normal email from Joe rather an email joe said I just watched again
the movie the way and I've been thinking
do you want to do you want to walk the Camino de Santiago with me in spain next
it was perfect timing so I thought for about five seconds but I said boom
I immediately to on the keyboard i sent a quick reply yes let's do it
I'm ready boom send fast decision didn't didn't think deeply about it i just knew
i needed to change not just been looking at my my fat little gut and feeling
disgusted and feeling sorry for myself feeling that that my life was gonna
going down that I was working too much on the computer and let my health and
fitness and vitality and energy drop and drop and drop and so is emo from him was
just like this boom like a quick lightning bolt doom
I realize that this is what i needed a total change something completely
no I replied yes next day I got a reply back from him
great let's do it and we scheduled it
we scheduled it after a few emails and decided to do it
spring of the next year which as a matter of fact is right now
so what's really interesting is what happened afterwards because of this one
suddenly I had something in the future to look forward to and actually quite a
big challenge and I knew that in walking the Camino de Santiago it takes about 30
to 35 days for most people i knew i would need to walk every single day 12
some days maybe 18 or 20 miles and i knew that i would be doing this
sometimes in mountains and hills that I would need to carry a backpack with you
all my clothes and everything I needed
and then I looked out of my little gut again and I realized I'm not ready right
my energy is low my fitness level
not good and I'm kind of a little chubby chubby means a little bit fat so
immediately though I felt this surge this increase in my motivation and i
started taking notes and writing out a training plan
yeah I started thinking okay so next year to walk the Camino what do I need
what do I need to be able to do and I realized I need to be able to walk long
every single day for one month or more and i need to be able to do that with
weight on my back which means i need some strength to so I'm going to need
much more endurance and I'm going to need some strength as well to handle the
but then as I let my mind go more ideas and more thoughts start coming into my
head and I realized wait i'm doing this in Spain and it's not in a big city like
this is going through some very small little towns it's very likely people
will not speak English or not much
so I'm going to need Spanish - I'm going to need to to at least be able to have
basic conversational spanish flu so I wrote that down on my training plan so
endurance strength spanish and i realize of course that the whole trip would be
much easier if I lost some of that fat right if I'm lighter that less weight i
the fat doesn't add any fitness so I knew if I got rid of some fat the whole
trip would be easier as well and so my training began quite slowly at first
last summer I started just walking more didn't really do much Spanish at that
point honestly I but I did start walking
going from for walks and started at least trying to eat a little healthier
start cut out some of the extra sugar that I had let myself eat things like
ice cream and stuff like that but then in the fall
it started getting closer right after falling whoa it's only six or seven
months away now I need to get serious right because it's still this Kamino
goal this Kamino experience I knew was coming up it was scheduled I knew we
were doing it in the spring of 2015
and so suddenly a little more urgency game into my in my mind in my heart and
I was in Japan in the fall so start running going to the local park and
running and I decided you know what I'm going to do I'm going to follow an ultra
i figured if i want super endurance well the best way to do that is to Train like
I'm preparing for a marathon or even an ultramarathon and then I thought well
i'm going to train for the Camino and get in great shape
I don't want to lose it you know I don't want to just do the Camino and then
afterwards become lazy again so I thought what I should do is choose
another challenge to do after the Camino in the fall of 2015
so I keep my momentum i keep my energy going
and that's when i decided i'll try to do an ultramarathon
enough a double marathon for five months after the Camino
so I'll be training for the Camino and an ultramarathon kind of at the same
who big challenge so I start running a little bit more each week and I followed
a very simple plan that I had used in the past many years ago to train for a
and that is I would run to three times a week and then i would do one more run on
a long run every week I would increase that long run by about 10 minutes about
one mile for me and that's what I started doing so the beginning last fall
not very long distances at all when i start traveling in the wintertime
traveling around Asia Thailand Cambodia nepal and my running start getting more
and more like the distances started increasing and then because i was really
excited to prepare for the Camino
my wife and I decided to do a hike in nepal in the the tall Himalayan
I thought number one it'd be a great experience something I've always wanted
to do a number two it'll be a nice piece of training a nice bit of training for
the Camino helping me to prepare i'll have to carry a little backpack and i'll
so this will help me get stronger get ready for the Camino so we did the nopal
hike which was quite tough in fact and I've talked about that in a previous
show as a matter of fact when it overall it was a great experience
then this winter my training really became solid really became serious
meaning a focused committed dedicated the distances of my running started
getting quite long two hours two and a half hours three hours four hours and
then just this last week six hours
I also realized i need some more strength started lifting weights first
in the winter i went to the gym and did some heavy weight lifting in a squats
and deadlifts bench press big heavy weights then when I came to san
francisco i started doing push-ups and pull-ups and using the kettlebell to
increase my strength as a result
at this point I'm feeling fantastic now i'll talk more about this and i'll talk
about how you can totally change your life
when we get back from twitter but first a Twitter question her to the question
is from octane my deal and have the middle asks how can i improve my
alright so this is quite specific
I get a lot of questions about writing how can i improve my writing but this is
a little bit different because he's all asking about academic writing academic
writing meaning writing for school especially university and this is more
honestly it's a little more difficult i would say first focus on improving your
what's normal writing well normal writing is that is the writing we used
in the real world because college is not the real world universities not the real
world the real world business you know emails blogs articles
you know all those things real communication with people to improve
your general writing your real-world writing the best thing you can do is
lots and lots of books what kind of books read novels meaning stories in
English everyday as much as you can and then also you can read nonfiction if you
you know how to books self-help books are books about history books about
up to you whatever you're interested in but reading lots and lots and lots of
each day will help your writing because as you're reading you're also absorbing
so you're seeing you're getting that input you're seeing good
correct writing again and again and again every time you read and that gets
a little deeper in your brain and unconsciously you'll learn better
that's the foundation that's the number one best way to improve your writing
in addition to that you can also write a little bit each day but without pressure
what I recommend is just to write in a journal or even write a little blog
just write two to three paragraphs per day
now when you do this blog writing or journal writing do it quickly
so don't be worried too much about making mistakes don't try to make it
just get in the habit of every day writing in English
just don't worry about the mistakes and again as you do this day after day after
day it will get a little easier a little easier a little easier because you're
you'll find that your writing will slowly improve but in a quite natural
that's how you improve general writing now what about academic writing if
you've got to write research papers and stuff
that's a weird strange kind of writing it's actually not very good writing in
most cases but its necessary if you're in University and and you need to pass
your courses so you gotta do it
so the way to do that is again follow the same structure the same plan but
it's but just do it with academic material
so for example for academic writing you would need to read a lot of academic
read academic articles it in your field in your area of expertise
they're not necessarily fun to read all the time but it still
it will help you to get a feeling for the style and the more you read them the
more you will get a feeling for the correct style to use for research papers
and academic writing and then the second part every day do some academic writing
just like with the journal right so you have a journal and again you're going to
write every day but right about your topic
the field the topic that you are studying in school
so if you're a physicist right about physics
you could just summarize review what you've read for example you could read a
research paper and then right you're a two or three paragraph summary but do
that every day again right quickly don't make this perfect don't take a long time
to do your writing because then you
you're not going to do it make it quick and then just repeat this process day
correct writing and for academic writing it's even tougher because it's such a
strange and specific style of writing
so there's no like magic way to do it instantly in a couple days
it's a process that takes months but that's how you do it
good luck to you let's go back
how can you change your life right now and I mean massive huge big changes in
how can you do that how do you create those big huge changes a lot of us have
a dream of a kind the kind of life we want to live or the kind of person we
want to be and then we look in the mirror and we realize we're not that
we're not living that life and then we can feel sad and depressed because of
that and sometimes we can feel angry and disgusted at ourselves because we
haven't made the right choices we haven't done what we need to do or not
the person we really want to be right
I don't want to be chubby I don't want to be fat I don't want to be tired i
don't want to be lazy and I didn't
I was in that same position and yet this one decision is one decision to do the
Camino de Santiago to walk that path to do that adventure that one decision
a year later I feel completely different I looked down at my stomach is nice and
more importantly I feel fantastic
in fact right now a year later I am the most strong the most fit the most
healthy that I've ever been in my life
more I'm 47 now but i am i'm stronger and more fit than I was when I was 27 or
and you know most people we have this idea that all when you're middle-aged
when your forties or fifties or sixties you know that that means you're you're
getting weaker and you have to decline
well that's bullshit bullshit wrong except I i I'm in the best shape of my
life and I just ran last week six hours
I could never have done that in my twenties or thirties
well i guess i could have if I had trained but I didn't the point is I
didn't think I'm actually feeling more alive more strong more fit than ever
what caused that that one decision to say yes let's do the Camino just one
what else my energy is at a peak I feel fantastic i really have a lot of energy
right now again probably the most energetic
I have ever felt in my life more than when I was in my twenties or when I was
a teenager or when I was in my thirties I have more energy than ever
also I'm now speaking Spanish now I'm not a great Spanish speaker I'm kind of
a low intermediate spanish speaker but I can't have your basic conversations
yeah let's make a lot of mistakes so what the
point is that when i was in high school and college and took spanish for two
I couldn't speak at all and now when you're later
I can speak some spanish after making that decision about the comido and the
truth is I didn't really start my spanish learning until just a few months
ago and I started training physically earlier last year in the fall but I
waited on the Spanish until I probably should've should've waited so long but I
waited until fairly recently but the point is that i'm really excited because
now i'm enjoying Spanish for the first time in my life I'm actually able to do
some communicating in Spanish and I'm making little improvements every day
every week I'm getting a little better and now most important of all for me
I have the belief i'm certain that yes i can eventually learn to speak spanish
well huge change huge transformation compared to 1 year ago another huge
change in my life I'm much closer with my friend Joe now
our friendship is closer we have a closer friendship because of the shared
experience of preparing for the Camino just just preparing for it has brought
us closer because we're constantly emailing and calling each other or now
I'm in San Francisco so now we're meeting in person
chatting about the Camino chatting about our plan
and comparing notes about how we're training and it's helped us improve our
communication and become even closer friends I imagine actually doing the
Camino will make that even stronger and in general
I'm just so much happier now you know a year ago I was feeling really kind of
exhausted and overworked from the business effortless English and now I
all of this from one single decision
how can you change your life completely you do it with one single decision
now what kind of decision it needs to be a decision about a big inspiring goal or
event something that will push you that will demand from you
some changes but for me it was the Camino had to prepare for the comido was
a whole long process of one year that kind of decision deciding to do that
kind of a challenge will completely transform your life but let's talk about
what a decision is a decision is not a maybe I think maybe i might do the
that's not a decision that's a thought maybe I'll do it don't know who the
decision is a hundred percent commitment when you really truly decide you cut
it means you're choosing this one thing this one goal
this one action and that's it you're doing it is done is decided in your mind
no other possibilities that's how i made the community decision once I decided to
do the Camino and I did I decided very quickly
there was no other possibility I was not going to change it
I was not going to change my - hello maybe not
I was not going to decide to do something else no was a total and
that's what a true decision is so as you're deciding now how you want your
life to be choose one goal and by a goal make it an event something that you have
to perform something you have to actually do that will challenge you need
to be inspiring and challenge challenging to you and then write it
and after you decide announce it to the world tell everybody you're doing it it
might be something physical like like the one I did with the Camino or it
might be something mental like I'm going to travel to America and speak only
something like that and I don't know you have to decide something that will
inspire and change you and transform you
the key thing about a decision is is that is a total commitment so you you
don't allow any other possibilities
once you decide it's done you will not change it at all
complete commitment that is power
that's how you totally change your life that one decision to do the Camino
look at all the changes and transformations that have happened in my
life because of that one single decision
that's power decisions are power
finally the effortless English news
what's happening well as i said i'm going on the Camino i'm going to Spain
I'm gonna walk the whole camino de santiago that decision
one year ago is now coming to life
I'm doing it i'm off to spain next week
of course I'm excited I feel fantastic and I'm really excited to to make this
I'll take some pictures and I'll share them with you but i guess the main thing
you need to know is that this is the last effortless English show until june
so i'll be walking in Spain the entire month of May and of course i won't be
doing any effortless English shows during that time in fact i won't be on
twitter i won't be on facebook
I'm going to avoid the computer during this time because i want this walk to be
I don't want to be on the computer thinking about work during this time I
want to just be completely focused on the experience of doing the Camino de
Santiago and so no show no Twitter no Facebook so I'm sorry i'll miss you for
but once i get back a promise that i will share pictures and i will tell you
stories about my experience walking the Camino de Santiago
during this time please help each other help each other on our member forums
help each other on our VIP and acc sites help each other on Twitter answer each
other's questions support each other
encourage each other please this is what makes the effortless English
international family so important and so strong because we help each other we
finally let me remind you of our mission and our code our code we do the best we
can we do the right thing and we show each other we care
please continue to do those things while I'm gone over the next six weeks or so
as always thank you so much i love connecting with you
I'm going to miss you but I'll see you and six or seven weeks see you in June
I'll have lots of pictures to share all have lots of stories to tell and i
imagine i'll come back with even more energy even more excitement for you for
effortless English for teaching for this show for life in general
until then see you have a great few weeks and as always go to effortless
for information about my courses my book anything else about effortless English
effortlessenglishclub.com see you when I get back from the Camino