Power English

Excitement Main Text

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to our next lesson. This one is called "Excitement." We're

going to talk about excitement and I'm going to read a little section from a book called

The 4-Hour Work Week, which is a fantastic book. I love this book.

In fact, I'm going to do a few lessons based on sections of this book because I really,

really love it. I think it's just an incredible book that really has a very creative way of

looking at life and work and enjoying yourself.

The theme of the book, really, is enjoying your life. I mean that is really what the book

is all about and Tim Ferriss is the writer of the book. Again, the book's title is The 4-

Hour Work Week written by Tim Ferriss. Absolutely excellent book, I highly

recommend it. Now the section we're going to talk about today is about excitement.

So let me read what Tim has to say about excitement and then l'll talk more about it.

So here we go.

"What do you want? Well, first let's ask a better question. Most people will never

know what they want. I don't know what I want. If you ask me what I want to do in the

next five months for language learning, on the other hand, I do know. It's a matter of

specificity. What do you want is too imprecise to produce a meaningful and actionable

answer. Forget about it.

What are your goals is similarly fated for confusion and guesswork. To rephrase the

question we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Let's assume we

have 10 goals and we achieve them. What is the desired outcome that makes all the

effort worthwhile? The most common response is what I also would have suggested

five years ago, happiness. I no longer believe this is a good answer. I no longer

believe that happiness is the reason we achieve goals.

Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and the idea of happiness has become

ambiguous through overuse. There is a more precise alternative that reflects what I

believe is the actual objective for achieving goals. Bear with me. What is the opposite

of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin,

so are happiness and sadness. Crying out of happiness is a perfect illustration of this

idea.

Excitement Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Excitement." Let's start.

Our first word is specificity, specificity, a little difficult to pronounce, specificity. In fact,

many native speakers have trouble pronouncing this word, especially if you say it fast

in a sentence, specificity, specificity, specificity. Sometimes have trouble

pronouncing it, too, but I'm doing it correctly now, specificity.

Specificity is the noun. Specificity means, um...specific-ness is what it really means,

right? It means being specific, being detailed, being very exact. It's kind of the

opposite of generality. Generality is the situation of being very general. So, for

example, you say “I want a lot more money." That statement is a generality, right? It's

not detailed. But if you say “I want $2,496", well that statement has specificity. It has

detail. It has specific-ness, so that's specificity.

Our next word is imprecise. Imprecise is an adjective. And, in fact, it's the opposite of

specific and it's the opposite of precise. Precise is very similar to specific, it means

you'd be very exact, very detailed. So, again, “I want $2,496.20." That's precise,

that's detailed.

The opposite is imprecise, meaning not detailed, not precise. Imprecise means "I'd

like some more money," right? That's not detailed. It's very general, it's imprecise.

So Tim Ferris is saying that the question "what do I want", it's an imprecise question.

It's not a specific question, it's too general. It's too imprecise.

Our next word is fated, to be fated. He says the question "what are your goals", that

question is fated for confusion, it's fated to cause confusion. To be fated for means to

be destined for. It means something that absolutely will happen in the future or soon.

So to be fated for confusion, it means it absolutely will create confusion in the near

future or in the far future. So that question, that general question, what are your goals

or what are my goals or what do I want, it's fated to cause confusion. It absolutely will

cause confusion.

Next is the word worthwhile. So he's saying "What is the purpose of goals? Why are

goals worthwhile?" Worthwhile means beneficial. So why are goals beneficial? Why

are goals useful, helpful, good to do, good to have, worthwhile? So worthwhile, again,

beneficial, helpful, useful, worthwhile, so worthwhile, why are goals useful? Why are

goals worthwhile? Why are they worthwhile?

Automatic English For The People

Excitement POV Text

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the point of view mini-stories for "Excitement." Let's get

started.

Since last year Brad has needed money for school. He has been very poor since last

year. He lost all his money last year, so since last year he has needed money for

school. Of course, he has had a worthwhile purpose for needing money. He's had a

worthwhile reason for needing money, during this whole time from last year up until

recently.

So Brad has needed money for school since last year and since last year he has had a

worthwhile purpose. And during this time he has thought about money every day. He

has tried to find a way to get more money, but he has failed. Since last year, up until

recently, he has failed to get more money, so he has not been able to go to school.

Well one day he got a great idea, he got a gun and he went to a convenience store.

He went into the store, he pointed the gun at the clerk and he said "Give me some

money!" And the clerk said “Now that's a very imprecise request, how about some

specificity? Don't be ambiguous. Tell me exactly how much you want."

Well Brad was surprised and he was silent for a while. And then finally he said "I don't

know. Ah, bear with me while I think." Well then Brad was silent again. He stood with

the gun, thinking for a long, long time, thinking about the clerk's question, the clerk's

request.

He thought for seventeen and a half hours and then, finally, after seventeen and a half

hours Brad asked for $7,298, precisely. And because Brad's request was precise the

clerk gave it to him. The clerk gave him exactly $7,298. Brad ran home. Then he ran

to school with the money. He paid for school and he started to study again. Of

course, Brad was very, very happy. What a happy story.

Okay, next, same story, this time from a future point of view. This time using a future

timeframe, let's go to the future, shall we?

In the future there will be a student named Brad and Brad is going to need money for

school. He'll be a poor student and he won't have money for school. Brad's going to

think about this problem a lot. Now, of course, he'll have a worthwhile purpose. It's a

worthwhile purpose to need money for school.

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Automatic English For The People

Excitement Mini-Story Text

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Excitement."

* * * **

There was a guy named Brad. Brad was a student. Brad was a poor student, he

needed money for school.

What was Brad?

A student, Brad was a student.

What did he need?

He needed money, Brad needed money.

What did he need money for?

For school, Brad needed money for school.

What kind of student was Brad?

Well, he was a poor student. Brad was a poor student and he needed money for

school.

Was he a rich student?

No, of course not, he was not a rich student. He was a poor student. Brad was a poor

student who needed money for school.

So he needed money and he had a worthwhile purpose.

Was his purpose worthwhile? Was it good, beneficial, useful?

Well, yes, it was, it was worthwhile. It was a good, beneficial, purpose.

What was his purpose? Why did he need money?

Automatic English For The People

The Art of Power Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "The Art of Power." Let's get

started right away, here we go.

Our first word is subconscious. We've talked about this word already several times, so

I'll review it quickly. Subconscious means the deep part of your mind. It's the deep

emotions, the deep thoughts. They're not at the top of your mind, you're not thinking

about them. You don't realize that they are there, they're deep down.

And then, of course, the other kind of mind or consciousness is your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind is what you are thinking about right now. You know what you're

thinking about. You can kind of see it or hear it in your brain. But the subconscious is

deeper. You don't see it or hear it immediately, it's not obvious. So that's

subconscious.

Our next word is dormant, dormant. So Thich Nhat Hanh said that often these seeds

of anger or the seeds of violence or the seeds of sadness and depression, often they

are dormant. Dormant means sleeping. Quite simply it means sleeping, so, again,

dormant. If the seeds are dormant it means they're sleeping. They're not growing,

they're not active. They're not awake they are sleeping, so dormant means sleeping.

You hear this word with volcanoes sometimes. They'll say it's a dormant volcano.

Volcano is a big mountain, right? It explodes sometimes. Well if it's a dormant

volcano it's a sleeping volcano. It's not exploding, there's nothing happening, it's

asleep. Okay, so dormant, again, dormant means sleeping or asleep.

Our next word is formation, formation. He says that when these negative emotions,

these negative seeds are fed or watered, when you give them energy they become

mental formations. So a formation is just a thing, an organized thing. So, in other

words, they become real things. They become alive, they become awake, they

become real things.

So before you had this seed of anger, but you weren't angry. It's down there, it's

asleep, nothing is happening. But then maybe you watched the news or you're around

a lot of angry people and then suddenly that seed starts growing. And now anger

becomes real, it becomes a mental formation, it becomes a real idea. It becomes a

real feeling in your brain, in your mind. So, again, formation is something that is real

and organized, something that exists in reality.

The Art of Power Main Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to our next lesson. This lesson is called "The Art of Power"

and it comes from a book. The topic comes from a book with the same name. The

book is called The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist Monk, he is a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and really

one of my favorite writers, one of my favorite people, one of my favorite teachers. And

I've been reading Thich Nhat Hanh's books and listening to his audio teachings for

many, many years and he's a very special guy.

Thich Nhat Hanh, again, he's Vietnamese, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, and during

the Vietnam War he created an organization and he created a movement for peace.

So I believe he was in South Vietnam during the War and he did not support either

side. He was not supporting the Communist North. He was not supporting the United

States-backed South. He was just trying to end the War. He was trying to get peace

in Vietnam and the Buddhist Monks that were in his group were doing the same. They

were just trying to help people and trying to stop the War, stop the killing.

Well, unfortunately, as happens in the world, because he would not join either side

both sides didn't like him. So the Americans and the South Vietnamese, they thought

he was bad because he was trying to stop the fighting and the North Vietnamese

Communists, they didn't like him either because he was trying to stop the killing and

the fighting.

And, so, Thich Nhat Hanh, he had to leave Vietnam. His life was in danger from both

sides. And, eventually, he had to leave Vietnam and he could not return. I think he

just recently returned a couple years ago. The Vietnamese Government allowed him

to come back because I guess he's still quite popular in Vietnam.

But, anyway, he moved to France and he started to teach and write books and tapes.

And he created a monastery in France where he teaches people about peace and

about making your life better and about helping other people. And while he is a

Buddhist, many of his students are Christians or Muslim or Jewish or not religious or

Hindus, it doesn't matter. He's not like a strict Buddhist like you must be a Buddhist,

he just wants to teach the principles of peace and understanding and love.

So he's a wonderful person and he's got many great books, this book is called The Art

of Power. And, of course, the power he's talking about is the power to be good, the

power to control your own life and to have a good life and to help other people. So it's

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the POV stories for "The Art of Power." Let's start.

Since 2002 Sally has craved chocolate. She has wanted it every day, every hour of

her life since 2002. She has become, unfortunately, super fat because she has craved

chocolate so much. So Sally, since 2002, has become super fat because she has

craved chocolate every day and every hour.

Now, of course, during this time she has wanted to lose weight. She has wanted to

lose weight all this time. Every day she has thought about it. Every day she has

thought, oh, I want to lose weight. In fact, every day she has tried to suppress her

craving for chocolate. She has tried to push down the craving. She has tired to

pretend that she didn't crave chocolate.

But, of course, this suppression has failed. It has always failed. In fact, one day it

failed in a huge way, it was a super big failure one day. Because one day she saw a

candy bar in the store and the candy bar triggered her craving and she bought 4,000

chocolate candy bars. She ate all of them in one day.

So on that day she stopped trying to suppress her craving. Instead she decided to

study yoga. And she went to a yoga studio and she studied yoga. By studying yoga

she learned discipline and diligence. And because she learned diligence her

chocolate cravings lessened. They got weaker and weaker, until one day they

became totally dormant, totally asleep, totally quiet. Her chocolate cravings became

dormant.

And after that she ate only wholesome, healthy food. And because she ate only

wholesome food she became thinner and thinner. In fact, she became a thin,

gorgeous and sexy cow. And so all the male cows wanted her, they her because she

was thin, gorgeous and sexy.

Okay, that's the end of our first POV story. Next we go into the future. You already

know this, so let's do it! Let's start.

In the future there will be a cow and her name will be Sarah. Sarah is going to crave

chocolate. She's going to crave chocolate every minute, every hour of every day. Of

course, she'll become super fat. Sarah the cow will be a super fat cow because she's

going to crave chocolate.

The Art of Power Mini-Story Text

Hello, welcome to the mini-story for "The Art of Power." Let's begin.

* * * * *

Sally was a cow. And Sally the cow craved chocolate. She desired chocolate.

She had to have chocolate all the time. She always wanted chocolate. She

craved it.

Who craved chocolate?

Sally, Sally the cow craved chocolate.

What was Sally?

She was a cow. Sally was a cow.

How did she feel about chocolate?

She craved it. Sally craved chocolate. She wanted it so much. She thought about

chocolate all the time. I must have chocolate!

So she craved vanilla, right? No, wrong, she did not crave vanilla she craved

chocolate. She thought about chocolate all the time.

So do you think Sally was thin or fat?

Well exactly, of course, she was fat. She was obese, very, very fat. Sally was an

obese cow.

Why was she an obese cow?

Because she craved chocolate every day and she ate chocolate every day.

Why was she fat?

Because she craved chocolate and ate chocolate every single day, all the time.

Healthy Heart Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Healthy Heart." Let's get started.

Our first word is fibers, fibers. So in the story there was quote from Herman Melville,

he said, “A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men." Fibers are really like

strings, basically, it's just strings. It's just long strings. Usually we talk about fibers, for

example, in clothing. So if you have, you know...your clothes are made of lots of little

fibers that are woven together, that are put together. Each individual string is a fiber,

so fiber.

So he's saying we're connected by a thousand strings. So, obviously not really, but if

you think about it kind of poetically it's a metaphor. So you can imagine that we're

connected in a thousand different ways to other people. We cannot be separate.

That's what the quote means.

Alright and then next we have the phrase moved by. The sentence says "Perhaps this

explains why we are often moved by people caring deeply for one another." Now you

know the normal meaning of move, to move, but to be moved by something. I was

moved by the movie, for example. It has a different meaning. When you say was

moved by something, it means that you felt strong emotion, it made you feel

emotional.

Usually, kind of...kind of positive emotions, not negative emotions. So you could say,

for example, you go to see Titanic, the movie Titanic, a romantic movie. And you say

"Oh, I was moved by that story." All right, it means it made you feel very emotional.

Maybe you cried and it was so, you know, powerful, it was a very emotional story. So

you say "I was moved by the story. The story made me feel emotional," strong

emotions.

So in this quote it says "We are moved by people caring for one another." So when

we see two people who care a lot for each other, they love each other a lot, we are

moved. It means we feel strong emotion also, just seeing them. Just seeing two

people who are very kind to each other, who love each other a lot, if we just see them

we also feel some kind of strong emotion, right? We are moved by them, they make

us feel strong emotion also.

Alright, our next word is implication, implication. And the sentence said "There are

also medical implications to whether we think of others or only of ourselves." There

are medical implications. And implication is a consequence or a result, a result of

Hello, welcome to the point of view stories for "Healthy Heart." Same stories, different

points of view, different timeframes, let's start.

Since he was a teenager Zach has loved bright, expensive clothes. In fact, since he

was a teenager he has always worn conspicuous clothes when he was on the street.

He has always been very conspicuous every time he walked on the street, since he

was a teenager and continuing until he was an adult, until very recently.

And since he was a teenager Zach has been totally self-absorbed. Zach has been

completely self-absorbed, he has only thought about himself and his clothes. So,

since he was a teenager he has loved bright, expensive clothes. Since he was a

teenager he has always been conspicuous, noticeable. And since he was a teenager

he has always been self-absorbed, he has only thought about himself and his clothing.

But one day he bought a coat made from gold fibers and he bought the coat at Saks

Fifth Avenue. This coat was worth $72 million, a super expensive coat! Zach loved

the coat. He looked in the mirror and he talked to himself and he said "I'm so

handsome. I'm so wonderful. I'm great!"

However, a few weeks later, he woke up one day and looked in the mirror and he felt

sad. He realized that he had lost touch with his happiness. He had lost touch with his

happiness, he had lost touch with other people and so he felt very sad. He realized

that he was totally alone.

He went outside for a walk and while walking he saw a poor homeless man, a poor,

suffering, hungry, homeless man. Oh, so sad. And Zach was moved by his suffering,

he felt emotional because of the man's suffering. And so Zach said "Here, take my

gold coat and buy a big house."

And the man took his gold coat, he was so happy. He ran to the bank, he sold the

gold coat, he bought a big, big mansion and he ate a lot of food. And Zach also felt

very happy because he helped this man. He connected again with a person, so Zach

was very happy and the homeless man was also very happy.

Okay, that is the end of our first point of view story. As always, in these first stories,

you'll hear a change, usually, and the change is between something that has been

happening a while. It started in the past and it has continued happening for some time

and then we change because something just happened suddenly.

Healthy Heart Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Healthy Heart." As always, let's take a

deep breath, leť's get our bodies standing up strong or sitting up strong. Lift your

head, big smile on your face. I'm doing it now, so do it with me. Feel good?

Let's move a little bit. Let's move our bodies a little bit. I'm standing up right now I

can't really move, but l'll jump around a little bit and get my body moving. You move

your body, too, and let's start. Now for the mini-story, here we go.

* * * * *

There was a guy named Zach. Zach loved bright and expensive clothes.

Did Zach love dull clothes?

Oh, no, no, he did not love dull clothes, he loved bright clothes.

Did he love bright clothes or did he love dull clothes?

Well, of course, bright. He loved bright clothes.

What kind of clothes did he like?

He liked bright clothes and expensive clothes.

So did he love black and gray and brown clothes?

No, no, no, those are not bright colors. He loved purple and green and pink clothes.

He loved bright clothes.

Who loved bright clothes?

Well, Zach, Zach loved bright clothes.

He loved bright, cheap clothes, right?

No, no, no, no, wrong. Not bright cheap clothes, bright expensive clothes. Zach loved

bright, expensive clothes.

Hi, this is AJ, welcome to the next lesson. This one is called “Healthy Heart" and l'm

going to talk about, again, a section from Healthy at 100 -- the book Healthy at 100 --

by John Robbins. I've already talked about it a little bit and I'm going to talk about a

different section this time.

And in this section John Robbins talks about another factor that contributes to a long

and healthy life. Now before we talked about diet and what you eat and how that can

really affect your healthy, your longevity, meaning how long you live, how strong you

are, everything.

Well there's another very important factor other than diet. Diet is very important, but

another important factor that John Robbins found when he studied all these people

who were 100 years old or more and they were still strong, still healthy, well he found

something else.

So a kind of vegan diet, that was number one, but the next thing he found was these

people have strong social ties. They have rich social lives. It means they're not alone.

They have friends, they have family. They have communities. They're connected to

other people in many, many ways. And so what he found was that emotion and love

and caring and connection were equally important to diet and exercise. They're both

very important.

So let me read a section from his book -- the same book -- Healthy at 100 and then ll

talk more about it. Here we go.

"We cannot live for ourselves alone,' wrote Herman Melville. 'A thousand fibers

connect us with our fellow men. Perhaps this explains why we are often moved by

people caring deeply for one another.' 'There are also medical implications to whether

we think of others or only of ourselves,' as Larry Scherwitz found when he conducted a

most unusual study. He is now the Director of Research at California Pacific Medical

Center's Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco.

"Dr. Scherwitz taped the conversations of nearly 600 men. About one-third of these

men were suffering from heart disease, the rest were healthy. Listening to the tapes,

he counted how often each man used the words I, me and mine. Comparing his

results with the frequency of heart disease, he found that the men who used the first

person pronouns the most often had the highest risk of heart trouble.

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for the "Attractor Factor." Now the

vocabulary lesson is sometimes a little...not so exciting, right? It's probably the least

exciting lesson, so it's even more important that you breathe and you bring your

shoulders back and you move your body during this lesson.

You have to keep your energy high so you'll focus, so you'll concentrate on the

vocabulary lesson. Are you feeling good? Wake up! Let's do it!

v Our first word is activate (verb is to activate).

And Joe said we don't realize that we are activating the attractor force in a negative

way. Activate really means to turn on. That's all it means. It means something was

off before or something was not happening, something was not working and then

suddenly you turn it on, suddenly it is working. Suddenly it is happening.

So if you activate the attraction force, the attraction power, it just means you turned it

on, right? It was off before now you're turning it on. Now you are causing it to start.

v Our second word is manifestation (verb is to manifest)

A manifestation just means a happening. It means something becomes real. It means

to become real if you're using it as a verb, to manifest. To manifest means to become

real. So, you could say my idea manifested. It became real. Before it was only in

your head, it was an idea.

For example, I have this goal, this dream to speak English well. Then, finally, I speak

English well. You can say I manifested my idea. The idea manifested, it became real.

Before it was an idea and now it's real. So a manifestation is a thing that becomes

real.

All right, he's saying if you focus on these positive things with your mind, eventually

they will become real. They will become real manifestations, real things or real

happenings.

V Our next word is springboard.

He says that your dreams are your springboard to miracles. A springboard is

something that begins a process, something that causes a beginning or a start. It

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Hello, welcome to the POV (Point of View) mini-stories for "Attractor Factor." Let's

begin.

Since starting 10 years ago, Eve has felt bad. She has felt tried every day. She has

had no energy. This started 10 years ago. Before 10 years ago she felt great, but

since 10 years ago...you know until now, until recently...she has felt very tried. She

has not had energy. She hasn't had energy.

In fact, starting 10 years ago she has gotten sick all the time. She has frequently

gotten sick, since 10 years ago until recently. And during that time she has tried many

different things. She tired exercise one time, it did not help. She tried various

medicines and drugs, but none of them helped.

So, since 10 years ago, during this time she has been very frustrated. She has been

frustrated because she felt bad. She has been frustrated because she couldn't find a

solution. Until one day she decided to abstain from eating mice. So on that day she

decided “no more mice." She was surprised. After a few days she felt better. And

she felt better, stronger and more healthy, it was amazing.

And so, she forbid her kittens from eating mice, too. And they began to feel healthier

and stronger. She thought "wow!" And this became the springboard for a whole new

healthy life. It was the sudden beginning of a whole new healthy life. Abstaining from

mice was the springboard to a whole new healthy life for Eve and for her kittens.

And so next she abstained from eating fish, too, and she felt even better. So, she

forbid her kittens from eating fish and they felt even better. Wow, she was feeling

great. So finally, she decided to abstain from drinking beer. She stopped drinking

beer, no more beer and she felt outstanding!

Now, of course, she did not forbid her kittens from drinking beer because we all know

that kittens need beer to grow. So her kittens continued to drink beer, but they

abstained from mice and they abstained from fish and they felt great, too. And so, as

a result, Eve and all her kittens became healthy and happy and had lots and lots of

energy.

All right, that's the end of our first story.

Attractor Factor Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Attractor Factor." Let's begin.

There was a cat named Eve.

Was Eve a doggy?

She was not a doggy, she was a cat.

Eve was a cat. She was a cat who decided to abstain from eating mice.

What did she abstain from?

She abstained from eating mice.

Did she abstain from eating chicken or did she abstain from eating mice?

Well, she abstained from eating mice.

Who abstained from eating mice?

Well, Eve. Eve the cat decided to abstain from eating mice.

So did Eve eat mice?

No she didn't, she did not. She abstained from eating mice, she did not eat mice.

What was Eve?

A cat, Eve was a cat.

Did she eat mice?

No she didn't. She abstained from eating mice, she did not eat mice.

Attractor Factor Main Text

Hello, welcome to the next lesson. This is AJ from EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Let's

start our next lesson the "Attractor Factor."

The Attractor Factor is the name of a book by Joe Vitale. Joe Vitale is an interesting

man. He is an Internet marketer and businessman. He's kind of a marketing expert,

especially for Internet marketing. But, he also writes about very general topics,

how to achieve your goals and how to reach your dreams in life.

about

He's a very positive man. He has a lot of energy, a very interesting and creative guy.

I really like him. I use some of his information and skills that he teaches. Tuse it for

my own business, for my own Internet marketing.

He wrote this book The Attractor Factor as a more general book to help everybody get

what they want in life, to help everybody achieve their dreams. The Attractor Factor is

a quite simple book, a very simple idea and yet it's very powerful. Joe believes that

we attract things to our life. And how do we do that? With our thinking and our

emotion.

So for example, if we always think very positive thoughts and we always have very

strong positive emotions, he believes we will attract positive things and positive people

into our life. On the other hand, if we think about negative things, problems all the

time, and we're always feeling negative, frustrated, angry, sad or depressed, than we

will attract more negative stuff into our life. It's the basic idea of The Attractor Factor.

And so, he states very strongly and clearly that we have to be careful what we focus

on, what we think about and which feelings we feel during every day. Because of

course, we want to attract, bring, positive things into our life, things and people and

events. So, I'm going to read a little bit from The Attractor Factor and then l'll talk

more about it. Here we go.

Most people I talk to every day know what they don't want. 1 don't want this

backache. T don't want this headache. T don't want these bills. I don't want to

struggle in my business.' You know the list. You have one of your own.

Unfortunately, that's where most of us stop.

The nature of our conversations, the nature of our newspaper reporting, the

nature of our radio and television shows and our talk shows surround us with

ideas of what we don't want.

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Automatic English For The People

Leaders Make Mistakes Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Leaders Make Mistakes."

Let's go to the beginning. They have a phrase "they make no bones about it." Tom

Peters says "Leaders make mistakes and they make no bones about it." So that's a

little idiom there, to make no bones about something. When you say "they make no

bones about it", it means they don't apologize for it or they don't try to hide it. They

don't feel bad about it. That's the meaning of this phrase.

It means you do something and you're not worried about it. You don't apologize for it.

You don't feel bad about it. You don't try to hide it. You feel good. So it says they

make mistakes and they make no bones about it. It means they make mistakes and

they don't feel bad about making the mistakes, they feel good. They make mistakes

and they don't apologize. They don't say "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I made a mistake,"

right? They make no bones about it. They do not apologize.

They are direct and honest about it. They don't try to hide it, they don't feel bad about

it and they don't apologize. They make no bones about making mistakes. They don't

apologize for making mistakes. They don't try to hide their mistakes. They don't feel

bad about mistakes. They make no bones about it.

Okay, then a little later he says "In placid times leaders can pretend to have the

answers." Okay, placid. Placid means calm, calm (c-a-l-m), calm. So it means

nothing is changing, right? Everything is calm and slow and relaxed. So during placid

times in the economy, in history, when everything is calm, then the leaders can

pretend they are strong. They can pretend they are perfect. They can pretend they

know everything. So in calm times leaders could, in the past, pretend to know

everything. They could pretend to be perfect.

But he says "In turbulent times leaders must have the best questions, not the best

answers." They can't pretend to know everything. Instead, they have to ask a lot of

questions, always asking questions, asking questions. So that's what happens in

turbulent times, what must happen in turbulent times.

Now turbulent, of course, is the opposite of placid. Turbulent means not calm. It

means rough or changing fast, chaotic, so in chaotic times, in rough, difficult times, in

times when everything is changing quickly, in turbulent times, turbulent. Turbulent is

the opposite of calm, turbulent, not calm.

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Leaders Make Mistakes Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Leaders Make Mistakes." Let's start.

* * * * *

There were two penguins; their names were Todd and Louis. Todd and Louis

were penguins, they lived in Antarctica.

Where did Todd and Louis the penguins live?

They lived in Antarctica.

Did they live in Florida or Antarctica?

Well, they lived in Antarctica.

What were Todd and Louis?

Well, they were penguins. Todd and Louis were penguins.

Were they ducks?

No, they weren't. They weren't ducks they were penguins. Todd and Louis were

penguins and they lived in Antarctica.

How is the weather in Antarctica?

Well, it's cold. The weather is always very cold in Antarctica.

Did Todd and Louis like the cold?

Well, they were penguins, but they did not like the cold. Todd and Louis didn't like the

cold, they were strange penguins.

What didn't they like?

Well, they didn't like the cold. Todd and Louis the penguins didn't like the cold.

Leaders Make Mistakes Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the mini-story for "Leaders Make Mistakes." Let's start.

* * * * *

There were two penguins; their names were Todd and Louis. Todd and Louis

were penguins, they lived in Antarctica.

Where did Todd and Louis the penguins live?

They lived in Antarctica.

Did they live in Florida or Antarctica?

Well, they lived in Antarctica.

What were Todd and Louis?

Well, they were penguins. Todd and Louis were penguins.

Were they ducks?

No, they weren't. They weren't ducks they were penguins. Todd and Louis were

penguins and they lived in Antarctica.

How is the weather in Antarctica?

Well, it's cold. The weather is always very cold in Antarctica.

Did Todd and Louis like the cold?

Well, they were penguins, but they did not like the cold. Todd and Louis didn't like the

cold, they were strange penguins.

What didn't they like?

Well, they didn't like the cold. Todd and Louis the penguins didn't like the cold.

Leaders Make Mistakes Main Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "Leaders Make

Mistakes" and it comes from a book called Leadership by Tom Peters.

Tom Peters is one of my favorite business writers. The reason I like Tom Peters is

that he's very passionate. He's not a boring businessperson. Most business books

are boring, but not Tom Peters. His books are excellent and they're full of passionate,

emotional language and words and emotional passionate ideas about how to make

business into something more, something special, not just greedy little people trying to

get more money, but really trying to contribute and help people and do great things.

So that's what Tom Peters writes about and it's why I really like him. He's got a great

Website TomPeters.com and he's got a lot of great books. And this book that I'm

talking about today is called Leadership. And there's a little section and the section is

called "Leaders Make Mistakes", so l'm going to read this small section and then l'll

talk about it more. So here we go.

"Leaders make mistakes and they make no bones about it. On the wall of my writing

studio in Vermont hangs a quotation by David Kelly, "Fail faster, succeed sooner."

Next to that quote hangs another by Diane Arbus who told her students “Learn not to

be careful."

In placid times leaders may think they have all the answers. In turbulent times leaders

must have the best questions, questions that encourage others to undertake voyages

of mutual discovery and the essence of that process is letting people screw up. If you

try new stuff you screw up. If you try a lot of new stuff you screw up a lot. In fact, the

best leaders make big mistakes.

Mistakes are not enough, big mistakes are mandatory.

My all-time favorite PowerPoint slide is this 'Reward excellent failures, punish

mediocre successes.' These tumultuous times beg for bold initiatives. While

thoughtless recklessness is not to be applauded, the word reckless must be examined

carefully.

Most people who change the world -- Martin Luther King, Galileo, and Picasso -- they

were indeed reckless, but not thoughtless. The Martin Luther Kings of the world, the

Galileo's, the Picasso's, the Churchill's, the de Gaulle's, they attempted to create an

Small Is Beautiful Vocabulary Text

Hello, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Small is Beautiful."

Let's talk about our first word. Our first word is cultivate, to cultivate. Of course,

cultivate means to grow or to encourage something. So it's to cultivate, it means to

grow or to encourage something.

to

Our next word is envy, envy. He says our cultures are cultivating envy, they're

encouraging envy. Envy really means jealousy. Jealousy, it means someone else has

something good and you don't like it, right? You are jealous. You're jealous of them. If

they have something better than you, you don't feel good about them. You don't feel

happy because they are happy. Instead you feel mad or angry or jealous. You feel bad

because you think "Ah, I want that. I want that. I want that," right? So envy really

means jealousy.

Our next word is frenzy, a frenzy. A frenzy is uncontrolled action. It really means just

constantly doing a lot of things without control. So, for example, sharks in the ocean,

you throw a dead fish in the water they will..rawr...they will start attacking the fish and

they all go crazy. So that's this idea of, that they just start attacking and moving and

doing all of these things without control. So frenzy really means kind of go crazy, just...

aaaahhhh...just start doing a lot of things, going crazy about it...lots and lots of actions

with no control.

if

Our next word is consumerism, consumerism. Consumerism means the philosophy or

the idea that buying stuff is most important in your life. It's the most important thing. So

that you get meaning from buying things, that buying stuff, buying cars, buying

expensive houses, buying more, more, more, more, that's what is most important in life.

That idea is called consumerism. Consumerism, so Schumacher is saying that right

now most of our cultures are consumerist cultures...that we are focused on

consumerism in most countries.

Our next word is abate, to abate. He says that consumerism in most of our countries

does not abate as we get richer. So to abate means to slow down or to stop, or to abate

can also mean to lessen. To get smaller, to get weaker, it has this idea of slowing down,

stopping. So he's thinking if someone gets rich then their greed, their desire for money,

should go down. It should become lower. It should abate. But he's saying it does not

abate. It does not slow down. It does not get less. So again, to abate, to get less, to

lessen, to slow down.

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Small Is Beautiful Point-of-View Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the point of view lesson for "Small is Beautiful." Same

story...different points of view, different time frames. Let's go.

* * ** *

Since they were children Jeff has always had great hair. And Michael has always

been bald. He's never had hair. When Jeff was a baby, he came out with long,

blond, beautiful hair. He has always had long, blond, beautiful hair. And Michael

has always been bald, from when he was a baby until now. And so, Michael has

always envied Jeff's hair. Michael has always wanted hair, since he was a little

baby. He has always wanted to have great hair. He has always wanted to have

long, blond, beautiful hair like Jeff.

Michael has been preoccupied with Jeff's hair every day since he was a little

child. He has been totally preoccupied with Jeff's hair since he was a little child.

His preoccupation has never abated. Not one day, it has never abated. It has

never lessened. It has never gone away. Michael has been preoccupied with

Jeff's hair every day. His preoccupation has never abated. In fact, he has gotten

more and more envious every day of his life. He has gotten more and more and

more envious.

Well, one day Michael finally got into a frenzy. He just went crazy, "I must have

Jeff's hair! Imust have Jeff's hair....aaaaahhhhh!" He got into a frenzy on that

day. And on that day he grabbed a big knife and he went to Jeff's house. He

knocked on Jeff's door. Jeff opened the door. And Michael said, "I must have

your hair! I'm going to cut off your hair!" And Jeff said, “This is absurd. Just

buy a wig."

And Michael stopped. Suddenly his preoccupation with Jeff's hair abated. He

dropped the knife and became calm. Then he ran to a wig store and he bought a

long, blond, beautiful wig and he put it on. And every day he wore it and

everyone loved his new hair. Michael was very happy and Michael and Jeff

became very good friends.

The End

* * ** *

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Automatic English For The People

Small Is Beautiful Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to “Small is Beautiful," the mini-story. Take a deep breath.

Smile, move your body. Shoulders back, let's go!

* * ** *

Jeff had great hair.

What kind of hair did he have?

Great, Jeff had great hair.

It was long, blond and beautiful.

What kind of hair did he have?

Well, great hair, long, blond, beautiful hair.

Who had long, blond, beautiful hair?

Jeff, Jeff did. Jeff had long, blond, beautiful hair.

But there was a problem, of course. Michael envied Jeff's hair.

What did Michael do?

Michael envied Jeff's hair.

What did Michael envy?

He envied Jeff's hair.

Did he envy Jeff's money?

No, not his money...Michael didn't envy Jeff's money. Michael envied Jeff's long, blond,

beautiful hair. Michael wanted great hair also.

So did Jeff envy Michael's hair?

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Small Is Beautiful Main Text

Hi, this is AJ again. Welcome to the next lesson. This lesson is called "Small is

Beautiful." Small is Beautiful is the name of a book by E.F. Schumacher. It's a very

interesting book. It's a little bit difficult to read. The level of English is actually fairly

difficult, but I do recommend it. If you have an advanced level of English, go ahead, try

to read Small is Beautiful. It's an excellent book. E.F. Schumacher was an economist,

still is an economist. And he wrote Small is Beautiful to talk about the economic

problems we have in the world. Now this book was published back in the late 70s, I

believe, and it has been updated more recently. But the basic idea of Small is Beautiful

is that our economies in the world are big, big businesses, have become too big. And

they are not sustainable anymore.

Too big, in other words, we're destroying the planet Earth because we are consuming

too much. Our economies are too big; our population, too big; our companies, too big.

Everything has grown too large and his solution, as you might guess, is that we need

smaller economies, more local economies, more green economies. So he was writing

about this long before Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth and a lot of other things which

are quite common right now. But he was writing about these things way back in the

'70s.

He realized that we're going to have to make some changes. Our planet is being

destroyed, we have to do something. And we need to start at the economic level. We

have to change our economic system so that it is more human, so that it serves human

beings not just super large companies. And, of course, he talks about these economies

and his solutions in a lot of detail. Like I said, he was an economist, he is an economist.

So he has a lot of very detailed economic arguments and he analyzes things from an

economic viewpoint. It's very interesting.

Today I want to read to you just a short passage from his book and this book and this

passage really talk about the key, central core problem in his opinion. What is the most

basic problem? What is causing all these economic problems we see in the world, all

the environmental destruction, the wars we see constantly, what's the root cause? And

let me read from the book right now.

"Economically our wrong living consists primarily in systematically

cultivating greed and envy and thus building up a vast array of

totally unnecessary wants. It is the sin of greed that has delivered

us over into the power of the machine. If greed were not the

master of modern man how could it be that the frenzy of

consumerism does not abate at higher standards of living and that

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Big Picture Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "The Big Picture." I've got some

good news. This is a pretty easy article so the vocabulary lesson is quite short. Yay!

Let's start it.

Our first word is memorize. Dennis said real learning is not memorizing knowledge.

Real learning is knowing how to use and find knowledge or facts. To memorize means

to remember. It really means to force yourself to remember...force to remember. Make

yourself remember. Force yourself to remember. That's memorizing. For example, you

have a word list and you want to memorize the meaning of each word. So you repeat it

again and again and again and again and again. Memorize means remember.

Memorize means remember. Memorize means remember. Memorize means

remember. Force to remember, force to remember, force to remember, force to

remember. Memorize means force to remember. Memorize means force to remember.

That's the memorization technique. Memorization is the noun. You are memorizing the

meaning...just repeating again, again, again, again. You are memorizing the word and

its meaning. So we don't memorize here. Do not do that. Just listen to the vocabulary.

Don't try to study it, okay? We don't study at Effortless English. We listen and we

enjoy. That's all. So you listen to the vocabulary a few times and then you listen to the

other lessons. The other lessons are the most important. Don't try to memorize. Don't

force yourself to remember. It'll happen. You will remember automatically with our

method, don't worry.

Our next word is integrate. Dennis says real learning is knowing how to integrate

knowledge and use it. To integrate means to mix or combine or merge. It means you're

putting things together, putting things together...mixing...so to integrate means to mix.

And what it means is, it means you learn something new, it's not enough. You have to

combine it, you have to mix it with everything you already know, right?

You already know a lot of things then you learn something new. You have to combine

the new thing with the old knowledge. You are mixing them together. You're seeing

how they go together. You see how they fit together. How they integrate, how they mix.

So integrate has this idea of mixing and combining, putting things together in a useful

way. So to integrate...again, to integrate...put together, mix together in a useful way, in

an effective way. That's integrate.

Our next word is noted. Noted, he says as noted psychology expert Seymour Sarason

said...and then he tells you what he said. Noted psychology experts, so Seymour

Sarason is a noted psychology expert. Well, noted just means famous, that's all it

Big Picture POV Text

Hello, welcome to the point of view stories for "The Big Picture." Let's get started, same

story about that amazing dog Athena.

* * ** *

Well, since she was a puppy, Athena has wanted to be the most famous dog in the

world. It started when she was a puppy. Now, of course, a puppy is a baby dog.

We don't say baby dog, we say puppy. So since she was a baby, since she was a

puppy, Athena has wanted to be the most famous dog in the world. She wanted

that. When she was young she would think about it.

In fact, she has been memorizing songs since she was a puppy. She has been

memorizing songs since she was a puppy. She started when she was a puppy.

She has been memorizing songs since she was a puppy. Now she knows 92,000

songs but she has been memorizing songs, one by one, since she was a puppy.

She has been practicing the piano since she was a puppy. It took time, right?

She had to practice a long time. So she has been practicing the piano. She

started when she was a puppy. She continued, continued, continued until now.

She still practices the piano every day. So she has been practicing the piano

since she was a puppy.

And she has been practicing the guitar since she was a little older, but still a long

time. So she has been practicing the piano since she was a puppy. She has been

practicing the guitar for a long time, for many years. Starting many years ago,

continuing until recently.

She has been practicing fighting for a long time. For many years she has been

training and practicing. It didn't happen suddenly one day. No, no, no, no, no.

She has been practicing boxing for a long time, for many years. She has been

going to the boxing gym. She has been practicing, practicing, practicing. And

then finally, of course, she started to beat other fighters. And finally she beat

6,022 boxers, 6,022 fighters, she beat them all.

And finally, she has been learning languages only a couple years, actually. Two

years ago she started. So since two years ago she has been learning languages.

In that time she has learned 55. In only two years she has learned 55 languages.

Wow. Amazing doggy!

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Big Picture Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story lesson for "The Big Picture." Let's start right

now.

* * ** *

Athena was the most famous dog in the world.

Who was the most famous dog in the world?

Athena, Athena was the most famous dog in the world.

Was she the most famous dog in the world or was she the most famous cat in the

world?

Of course, Athena was the most famous dog in the world.

Where was she the most famous dog?

In the world, in all of the world. She was the most famous dog in all of the world.

Why was she so famous?

Well, I'll tell you.

First, Athena memorized 92,000 songs and played them all on the piano.

How many songs did Athena memorize?

She memorized 92,000 songs.

Did she memorize 97,000 songs?

No, she didn't. She didn't memorize 97,000 songs. She memorized 92,000 songs.

How many did she memorize?

92,000, she memorized 92,000 songs.

What did she memorize?

Big Picture Main Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "The Big Picture." And

it comes again from a book called The Big Picture. And The Big Picture is by a man

named Dennis Littky. Now Littky is spelled L-i-t-t-k-y, Dennis Littky. The name of the

book is The Big Picture. I love this book. This is a book about education and Mr. Littky

is an extremely interesting guy. He is just a fantastic teacher, a fantastic educator.

Mr. Littky used to be a teacher and then he became a principal of a middle school.

Actually I think he started as a principal of an elementary school and then later a middle

school, public school, just a normal public government school. Well, he created an

incredible school at his first school, just an amazing school. There were articles written

about his school. It just became so famous because this school had a lot of low income

students, students from poor families. So this was not in some rich neighborhood with a

lot of money. And before Mr. Littky became the principal, the school was having a lot of

problems.

But he came in and he changed everything. He changed the teachers. He hired only

passionate, excited, energetic teachers, but not only that. He changed the whole

system. He stopped focusing on testing. He stopped focusing on grades. He focused

on the students as human beings. He wanted his students to grow as people. Not just

to memorize a bunch of facts, but to really learn how to think. And even more

importantly how to use their thinking and use their knowledge. So for example, most of

his classes were project-based. In other words, the students did not study textbooks

and take tests, no, no, no. What they did is they created a project. And each project

was individual. Each student chose a project or projects based on their own interests.

And of course the teachers helped to guide these projects and structure them.

So for example, if one child really loved dinosaurs they would create a project about

dinosaurs. The teachers, the math teachers, the science teachers, etc., the English

teachers, would help that student learn math, learn science, learn English, learn history,

learn everything, all focused on dinosaurs because this kid loved dinosaurs. So they

would use dinosaurs to teach math, for example. Maybe they had to learn how to

calculate the size of a dinosaur's bones or something. I don't know exactly how they did

it, but they used the students' individual passions to teach. And the students had to do

these incredibly, amazing, huge, difficult projects. These were not easy. They were

really tough. But the kids were very passionate about what they were doing.

And another thing that Dennis Littky did, he involved the community. His school had

mentors, advisors, helpers, from the community...parents, especially parents, but also

experts. So for example, if a kid really loved dinosaurs or maybe a whole class was

really interested in dinosaurs, they brought experts from museums, from universities to

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Taoism Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Taoism." Let's get started.

Our first word is skull, skull. Alan Watts said "You have all the necessary intelligence

you need inside of your skullI." Now your skull is your head bone, right? It's the bone

that protects your brain. We call that the skull, your skull. So again skull is simply head

bone.

Next is the word strain. He said "You can strain your head just like you can strain a

muscle." To strain means to try very hard, to work very, very hard, a lot of effort.

Sometimes it has the idea of working too hard, trying too hard, too much. Sometimes it

has this idea of too much. So if you strain your muscle, you work your muscle too

much. Maybe you're lifting something, it's a little too heavy. If you strain your mind,

strain your brain, it means you're thinking too hard. So it's trying very, very hard. To

strain, to strain, one more time, strain.

Okay, our next word is contemplate, contemplate. Alan says you need to contemplate

your problems. Don't think about them, don't strain. Just contemplate your problems.

Now to contemplate means to calm your mind. It means to have a calm mind, calm

brain, very relaxed. It's the opposite of straining your head, straining your mind.

Straining is trying hard. Contemplating is relaxing and thinking calmly. So it's thinking

very slowly, thinking very calmly, or maybe not thinking at all, just a calm quiet mind. So

to contemplate means to make your mind calm, or to think very calmly and slowly, to

contemplate. Contemplate a problem, think very calmly and slowly about the problem.

Our next word is to visualize, to visualize. To visualize means to imagine. So he says

imagine your question, visualize your question, then simply wait. So he's saying just,

just have a question, your question about your problem. Just visualize it. Just think

about it in a simple way. Just imagine it. Imagine the question only. Don't think about

the solution. Just visualize, just imagine the question and then just wait. So to visualize

means to imagine.

Next is the word brute. He says if you try to solve your problem with brute mental

strength, you may be disappointed. Brute mental strength, of course mental means

mind or brain, so brute strength means like animal...animal-like. Brute means very

strong and similar to an animal. So brute strength means strength like an animal, very,

very strong. It's the opposite of subtle, if you know the word subtle. It's the opposite of

careful strength. Brute strength just means super strong and...rawr...like an animal...

rawr. So he's saying if you try to use brute strength, just if you try to use a lot of

strength, very strong strength, with your mind in this case, you'll be disappointed.

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Taoism Point-of-View Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the point of view stories for "Taoism." Same story, but this

time we start with "Since last year..."

* * ** *

Since last year Tomoe has wanted to fight a gorilla. She has wanted to fight a

gorilla starting last year until recently. Tomoe has wanted to fight a gorilla since

last year. In fact, every day since last year she has contemplated her goal.

Starting last year, she started to contemplate and then every day she has

contemplated her goal every day since last year.

What has she contemplated?

She has contemplated her goal, her goal of fighting a gorilla. Because she has wanted

to fight a gorilla for one year, since last year.

But of course, every time she has contemplated fighting a gorilla, she has

realized that gorillas have brute strength. She has realized every time that they

are hard to fight. And so every day since last year she has gone to the gym.

Every day since last year she has gone to the gym and she has strained to lift

weights. She has tried very hard to lift weights. Every day she has strained to lift

weights. Every day she has worked out, exercised. Every day she has gotten

stronger and stronger and stronger, since last year. So she has wanted to fight a

gorilla. She has contemplated fighting a gorilla. She has gone to the gym. She

has exercised. She has strained to lift weights every day since last year, until

finally she was ready.

One day she said "I'm ready. I will proceed with my plan." And she did. She

proceeded with her plan. She flew to Africa. In Africa she saw a big, strong, huge

gorilla. But there was a problem. The gorilla had such a cute little baby. Oh no.

Tomoe visualized the baby crying. She imagined the baby crying. And so Tomoe

took the baby into consideration. She thought about the baby. And Tomoe

decided not to fight the gorilla. Instead she played basketball with the gorilla and

the gorilla baby. And everybody was very happy.

* * ** *

Okay, that's all. That's the end of our first mini-story. Again, you probably noticed there

was a change in there. Actually a couple of little changes, you may have noticed that.

Taoism Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Taoism."

* * * * *

There was a girl, a very happy girl...a very beautiful girl, an amazing girl. She had

a big smile. There was an amazing, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful girl. Her

name was Tomoe and she wanted to fight a gorilla.

What was her name?

Her name was Tomoe.

She was Japanese.

What did Tomoe want to do?

Tomoe wanted to fight a gorilla.

What did she want to fight?

A gorilla, Tomoe wanted to fight a gorilla.

So first she contemplated her goal.

What did she do?

She contemplated her goal. She thought about her goal calmly and slowly.

What did she contemplate?

Her goal, she contemplated her goal.

What was her goal?

Her goal was to fight a gorilla.

Did she want to be nice to a gorilla?

Taoism Main Text

Hello, this is AJ again. Welcome to our next lesson, this one's a really interesting one

from one of my favorite writers. Absolutely love him, his name is Alan Watts. He

actually died back in the '70s but just an amazing man, so intelligent and actually quite

funny actually, just a great sense of humor. And Alan Watts is a very interesting guy.

He was one of the first western people, meaning American or European, to learn about

eastern spiritual practices, eastern religions. So he studied Buddhism, Taoism and

Hinduism, most especially Buddhism. He was a Buddhist. He became a Buddhist. And

then he came back, for example, he lived in Japan actually for several years and

learned Buddhism there in a monastery.

And then he came back and he wrote in English about these religions. The other

interesting thing about him is that he was a Christian minister before he became a

Buddhist. I believe he was Episcopalian which is a kind of Christian, but he was a

minister, he was a preacher. And so the very interesting thing about Alan Watts is that

he has a great understanding of both the western and the eastern religious practices,

religious beliefs. And not just the normal kind of religion, just go to church and pray and

read your little book, but really the deeper meanings of both Christianity, Buddhism, etc.

And he has a great way of teaching eastern religions, especially Buddhism and Taoism,

to western people in a way we can understand.

So anyway, he's also just a really funny, interesting guy and a very intellectual guy, very

intelligent. So this is from one of his books about Taoism. Now Taoism is actually

spelled with a "T", T-a-o-i-s-m, but it's pronounced "Daoism" like it's a "D". Why is that?

Because English spelling is crazy. English spelling, as you already know, is very difficult

and there's no logic about it, or very little logic about it. So it's spelled with a "T" but

pronounced as a "D". I don't know why. Why didn't we just spell it with a "D"? I don't

know. It comes from Chinese words so I guess they wrote it, they heard it wrong and I

don't know. Anyway, it's pronounced "Daoism" and the book is called "Taoism Way

Beyond Seeking" by Alan Watts, A-l-a-n and then his last name W-a-t-t-s. And by the

way, he has a great podcast, alanwatts.com I believe is his podcast. So in this book

Alan Watts talks about Taoism.

Taoism is a philosophy, not really a religion, I don't think. Maybe it is, I don't know, but

in my opinion it's really more of a philosophy. It's a way of living. It's a philosophy about

life. And it's a very natural philosophy. The basic idea of Taoism is that you should live

in harmony with nature. You should follow nature, be part of nature. And if you live with

nature instead of fighting it, your life will be much more successful and happy and easy.

It's a little bit like Thoreau's idea. Remember Thoreau, Walden, remember that lesson?

Well, Taoism has a similar kind of feeling. This idea that we don't fight against things,

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Superior Man Point-of-View Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the point of view stories for "Superior Man." Same story,

different points of view. Let's start.

* * ** *

Since 1999 Kristin has wanted to go to the moon.

What has she wanted?

She has wanted to go to the moon.

She has wanted to go to the moon since when?

Since 1999.

Since 1999 Kristin has wanted to go where?

She has wanted to go to the moon since 1999.

Who has wanted to go to the moon since 1999?

Kristin, of course, Kristin has wanted to go to the moon since 1999.

Why has she wanted to go to the moon?

Well, for spiritual reasons.

She has wanted to go for spiritual reasons.

What kind of reasons?

Spiritual, she has wanted to go to the moon for spiritual reasons.

In fact, she has wanted to meditate on the moon. She's dreamed about

meditating on the moon. That has been her dream.

What has been her dream?

Superior Man Mini-Story Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Superior Man." Are you strong? You

feeling good? Let's get started.

* * * * *

Kristin wanted to go to the moon. She wanted to visit the moon.

Who wanted to visit the moon?

Well, Kristin did. Kristin wanted to visit the moon.

Where did she want to go?

She wanted to go to the moon.

Who wanted to go there?

Kristin, Kristin wanted to go to the moon.

What did she want?

To go to the moon, Kristin wanted to go to the moon.

Why?

Why did Kristin want to go to the moon? She wanted to go for spiritual reasons.

What kind of reasons did she have?

She had spiritual reasons. Kristin wanted to go to the moon for spiritual reasons. Of

course, obviously.

She wanted to meditate on the moon for 10 days.

What kind of reasons did she have?

She had spiritual reasons.

Who had spiritual reasons for going to the moon?

Superior Man Main Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the next lesson. This lesson is called "The Way of the

Superior Man" and we're going to talk about a book with the same title, The Way of the

Superior Man, by David Deida, his last name is D-e-i-d-a. David Deida, another very

interesting book. I'm trying to introduce you to a lot of interesting books and after these

lessons are all over maybe you can go find these books and read them yourself. What

a cool idea. But first, let's get started. Get your body strong, strong physiology, right?

Breathe deep, chest up, chin up, eyes up. Smile big. Deep breaths, move your body.

Come on, get some energy in your body. Let's get started.

So, The Way of the Superior Man, it's an excellent book and it is in fact written for men,

although I think there are a lot of great ideas in there for women, too. But l do think that

men especially will enjoy the book. So, if you're a man, I especially recommend that

you go get it. But even if you're a woman you could read it. You're allowed to. It's

okay. Now this book is really about how to be a superior man, I guess what the title

says.

How to be a great person is what it really means. How to live that life of your dreams,

very similar to a lot of the topics we're talking about, right? They all have a similar

theme. Do you notice the topics are similar? Do you think I'm trying to convince you of

something? Well, I am. I'm trying to convince you to live the life of your dreams,

whatever that it. I don't know what it is, but you know. Whatever those big dreams you

have, I want you to get them. Now, of course, one of those dreams is to speak excellent

English and l'm helping you with that right now. You're helping yourself with that right

now, too.

And you're going to continue helping yourself speak excellent English, even after you

finish all of these lessons. You're going to keep following this system. You're going to

find more listening, more English listening, and you're going to listen to it every day.

You're going to find cool, fun, interesting English books, novels especially. And you're

going to read them every day. You're going to keep following this system even after you

finish all of my lessons. It never stops. It never ends. But that's okay because you

enjoy it. Because you're smiling, you're moving. This is great. You love it. So why

would you stop? No reason, you're going to keep going forever. Alright, so get that big

smile, come on – smile. And let's get started.

I'm going to read a section of The Way of the Superior Man. This section talks about

fear, because what stops us? What stops us from living our dreams? Usually it's fear.

Some kind of fear, fear of failure is a very common one. Probably the most common, I

think, fear of what other people think. Fear of other people's opinions. Fear of not

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Superior Man Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ Hoge. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Superior Man." Let's start.

Our first word is intimate, intimate. In the first sentence David Dieda says pick an area

of your life, choose an area of your life. And he says perhaps your intimate

relationships. So intimate, intimate relationship for example, intimate just means very

close, very personal. So your intimate relationships are your closest relationships. Your

husband or wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, daughter, son, those kind of

relationships. Maybe your very close, closest friends, so your intimate relationships,

your very close relationships.

Sometimes if someone says your intimate relationship, no “s", relationship, then they're

usually talking about someone you're dating or you're married to, so they're talking

about your

that kind of love relationship between a husband/wife boyfriend/girlfriend. But

sometimes it's a little more general and it just means your closest relationships. So if

there's an "s" there, intimation relationships, then we're talking about the people who

are closest to you.

husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. So sometimes it's used just to mean

Our next word is spiritual. He says perhaps you should think about your spiritual

practice. Spiritual is similar to religious. It's quite close to religious...spiritual, religious,

very similar. The difference is that religious is organized, or religion is organized, right?

So we're talking about Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, those are

religions. So if you're practicing one of those specifically, you can say "Oh, I am

religious. I am a religious person. I am a Buddhist, I am a very strong Buddhist. I am

religious."

But spiritual is really very personal. It's not organized. You might say you have a belief

about god or you have a belief about the universe or about life. But maybe it's not

Buddhism or Christianity or Islam, maybe it's not a specific religion. It's your own

personal feeling. Your own personal experience, that's spiritual. Spiritual. So spiritual

is the direct experience, the direct feeling. Religion or religious refers to something

organized. Okay, so your spiritual practice, it's your practice or how you pray or

meditate, for example.

Next we see the phrase "earn a living." He says are you currently doing something to

earn a living that gives you passion. To earn a living means to make money. It really

means to work, usually it's how you make money. So you can say "I earn a living by

teaching English," right? I make money by teaching English. It's my job. It's my career.

Alright, so to earn a living means to make money or to work. So in this article he talks

Walden Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Walden." Let's get started.

Our first word is advance, to advance. So this is a verb. Now you probably know

advanced in another meaning, meaning high level. But this is a different meaning. This

is a verb. It's an action. To advance means to move forward, to move forward. So

advance towards your dreams means move towards your dreams. Go forward towards

your dreams.

Alright, our next word is to endeavor. This is a noun also but in this paragraph it's a

verb, to endeavor to do something. To endeavor to live the life you have imagined. To

endeavor to live your dreams and endeavor means to try, to attempt. So, to attempt to

live your dreams, to try to live your dreams, to endeavor to live your dreams. So

Thoreau is saying you should endeavor to live your biggest dreams. You should try to

live your biggest dreams.

Okay, and then a little later he says if you do this, if you try to live your biggest dreams

and you try hard then you will have success unexpected in common hours. Unexpected

is kind of like a surprise, right? But in common hours means during normal times, like in

your normal life. So maybe right now, during your normal life you imagine your big, big

dream and you can't imagine success. It seems so difficult. It's like “Oh my god." So

this is sort of your normal time, your common hour. But if you take a big chance, if you

really try, your success will be huge. It will be bigger than you can imagine normally. So

in common hours means normally, during normal times, usually. It has that idea.

Little bit later he uses the word liberal. Liberal has a lot of different meanings and uses.

It can be used in a political way, but here it's used in a much more general way. He

says if you try to reach your dreams, then liberal laws will begin to happen around you.

So liberal here means flexible, free, open, tolerant. Okay, so it's this idea of more

flexible, more free, more tolerant and open. So what he's saying is that liberal laws,

laws as in like religious laws, spiritual laws, scientific laws, physical laws. He's just

saying that the universe or God or whatever will make things easier for you.

That the more you try for your big, big dream that things will become more liberal. Your

life situation will become more flexible. Your life situation will become more easy and

free. Your life situation will become more open. So he''s saying that your experiences,

your situation, your environment will become more liberal because you have this strong

belief for your big, big dream. Because of that your environment will become liberal,

liberal meaning flexible, liberal meaning free and open.

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Walden Point-of-View Text

Okay, welcome to the POV, point of view, lessons/stories for "Walden." Same story,

different points of view. The first point of view starts with “Since she was 16..." Since

she was 16 years old.

* * ** *

Since she was 16 years old Inka has wanted to build a beautiful castle. She has

wanted to build a beautiful castle starting when she was 16 until recently. Since

she was 16 Inka has wanted to build a big, wonderful, beautiful castle. She has

dreamed of living in the castle like a princess by herself.

Who has dreamed of living in a castle by herself like a princess?

Inka, Inka has dreamed of living in a castle by herself like a princess.

What has she dreamed?

Well, since she was 16 she has dreamed of living in a castle like a princess by herself.

She has dreamed about this every day. Since she was 16 she has dreamed about

being in a beautiful castle. She has dreamed about living like a princess. Every

day she has dreamed about this. When she was 17 she dreamed about it. When

she was 18, 19, 20, 21, continuing...starting when she was 16 and continuing.

She has dreamed and dreamed and dreamed. Well one day she decided to

advance towards her dream. She decided to take action. And so she did, she

advanced towards her dream.

In fact she endeavored to build a castle out of diamonds. She tried to build the

diamond castle but it was too difficult. Diamonds are very expensive and big

diamonds are very heavy. And so she stopped. Next, she asked her friends for

help. She established a team of builders to help her build the castle. Every day

they worked on the castle. But they didn't build a diamond castle. They built a

huge castle out of gum. But that's not all. The foundation of the castle was made

of spaghetti. They built a gum castle with a spaghetti foundation. Eventually

they finished the castle. And they all lived together in the castle, Inka and her

friends. In fact, they lived happily ever after.

* * * **

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Walden Mini-Story Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Walden." Take a deep breath. Shoulders

back. Chest up. Big smile. Are you ready? Let's get started.

* * ** *

Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

What did Inka want to build?

Well, Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

What kind of house did Inka want to build?

A huge beautiful house, she wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

Who wanted to build a huge beautiful house?

Inka, Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

Did she want to build a huge beautiful car?

Not a car, no she didn't. She didn't want to build a huge beautiful car. She wanted to

build a huge beautiful house.

In fact, her dream was to live in a castle like a princess all by herself.

What did she want to live like?

Like a princess, she wanted to live like a princess.

Where did she want to live?

In a castle, she wanted to live in a castle.

How did she want to live?

Like a princess, she wanted to live like a princess in a castle.

Where?

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Walden Main Text

Hi, this is AJ again. Welcome to the next lesson. This week's lesson is called "Walden."

And we're going to talk about a book with the same name, Walden, by a writer named

Henry David Thoreau. Now Thoreau is probably my favorite American writer, I guess

maybe my favorite writer in general. He wrote back during the American Civil War, prior

to the American Civil War, and his book Walden is his most famous book. Now it's quite

difficult. There's a lot of big vocabulary in this book. And also the writing style is kind of

old, very, very, very formal English and a little bit of an old style of English. So l'm going

to read one paragraph from the book and then l'll talk about it more. And that paragraph

may be quite difficult for you, but don't worry. I'll explain it after.

Now, Walden, the book, is about an experiment, an experience that Henry David

Thoreau had. He decided to go and live in the woods. Go away from the town where

he was into the woods, into the forest, and then build a very small little simple house

and live in it by himself. And just think and relax and live a very simple life. And then he

wrote a book about this experience. Now, of course, this is something that people have

done for centuries and centuries, holy people, religious people, spiritual people,

philosophers.

In many different periods of history, in many different locations in the world, they've

gone off by themselves to some small remote place away from other people to think, to

live simply. And of course we have a lot of great intellectual breakthroughs from these

people. So it's a long tradition to do this and Henry David Thoreau was following the

same tradition. And it's not a usual thing for Americans, I would say. He was maybe

one of the first Americans to do this and write about it. I'm sure many did it but he wrote

about his experience. And this book is a book about his experience, his experiment, but

more so it's a book about his philosophy, a philosophy of life that he developed while

living in the woods alone.

And the main part of this philosophy is to live simply. That in fact we don't need so

much in terms of things, buying things, getting lots of things. So even at that time in the

United States people were always trying to get more, more, more...bigger, bigger,

bigger house...more, more, more money...more, more, more nice furniture. Just

always buying things and of course today we have more, more, more computers and

iPods and phones and bigger cars and nicer stuff. All the time people want more, more,

more. And he was saying this is a source of unhappiness if you're always trying to get

more and more and more you will never be happy. And so his idea was actually to be

happy with what you need and then focus on doing other things. Instead of always

trying to get more, more, more, live more simply and you will have a lot of time for

yourself. You'll work much less. You'll enjoy your life. So that is the basic philosophy of

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Healthy At 100 Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Healthy at 100." Now, I know

the vocabulary lesson is probably the least exciting and interesting lesson of the

collection. And that's okay. In fact, it's really my least favorite as well. l'd say listen to it

one or two times, maybe the first and second day, and after that you don't need to listen

to it every single day. The most important lessons are, y'know, the main, the main

lesson, the main audio and the mini-story and the POV. Those are the most important

but, y'know, listen to the vocabulary lesson a few times the first couple days of the

week. Alright, let's get started with the vocabulary lesson for Healthy at 100. There is

actually a good amount of vocabulary in this one.

Our first word is correlation, so he talks about the correlation between cancer and

animal food. Cancer and animal food, there's a correlation between the two.

Correlation means connection or association. It means the two go together. They

happen at the same time. If you're eating a lot of animal food then you're going to have

more chance of cancer. They're connected. There's a connection there. So that's

called a correlation, correlation. Now, it does have a little bit more specific, scientific

meaning if you're talking about research but you'll learn that in a research class or a

statistics class. The general meaning is a connection, an association between two

things, correlation. So correlation, there's a correlation between cancer, high cancer

rates, and eating animal food.

Next we have the word consumption. There's a correlation between cancer and animal

food consumption. So here, consumption just means eating. Consumption, eating,

very simple. Animal food consumption, animal food eating. When you consume, it's the

verb is consume, to consume means to eat or to use up. Use it all. So consumption is

the noun. It just means eating. Very simple.

Little bit later we have the word colon. There is a study of colon cancer. Women who

ate a lot of meat had high rates of colon cancer. So colon is part of your body, it's your

gut. It's your bowel. It's your lower intestine, right? So your food goes in. It goes down

your throat into your stomach. From your stomach it goes into your upper intestine...do

da do da do...and then finally into your lower intestine. Into your colon, and then it

comes out your body again. So colon is your bowel, your gut, your lower intestine.

Next we have the word dairy. Dairy products, dairy food. Dairy just means milk or

cheese. It's something that comes from milk or cheese. Comes from an animal, you

don't kill it. It's not meat. You know, meat is the muscle of the animal. But dairy

products, it usually comes from the milk of the animal. So milk and cheese are the most

common dairy products. Milk and cheese, dairy, dairy products. So the more dairy

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Healthy At 100 Point-of-View Text

Hello, this is AJ. Let's get started with the POV, point of view mini-story for “Healthy at

100." Same story, different points of view.

* * ** *

Since he was 16 Joe has wanted to be a movie star.

Since when?

Since he was 16, since he was 16 Joe has wanted to be a movie star.

Who has wanted to be a movie star? Bill?

Not Bill, Joe. Joe has wanted to be a movie star.

Since when?

Since he was 16, since he was 16 Joe has wanted to be a movie star. Starting when he

was 16 and continuing.

What has he wanted since he was 16?

To be a movie star, he has wanted to be a movie star since he was 16.

Has he wanted to be a music rock star since he was 16?

No, he hasn't wanted to be a rock star. He has wanted to be a movie star.

What kind of star has he wanted to be?

He has wanted to be a movie star.

Has he wanted to be a movie star a little or a lot?

Well, he has wanted to be a movie star a lot, really, really, really wanted to be a movie

star. He has wanted to be a movie star so much, a lot, since he was 16 years old. And

now he's 38.

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Healthy At 100 Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Healthy at 100." Let's get started.

* * ** *

There was a guy named Joe. Joe wanted to be a famous movie star.

Was he a famous movie star?

No, he wasn't a movie star. He wanted to be a movie star.

What did Joe want to be?

He wanted to be a movie star.

Did he want to be a TV star?

No, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't want to be a TV star.

What kind of star did he want to be?

A movie star, Joe wanted to be a movie star.

So, first he decided to get thin. He needed a good body. He stopped eating dairy

products.

What kind of products did he stop eating?

Well, dairy products, he stopped eating dairy products.

Did he stop eating cheese?

Yes, he stopped eating cheese.

Did he stop drinking milk?

Yes, he stopped drinking milk. He stopped eating and drinking dairy products.

Who stopped eating and drinking dairy products?

Healthy At 100 Main Text

Hello, this is AJ again. Welcome to our next lesson. This one is called “Healthy at 100."

Healthy at 100 is the name of a book by John Robbins. It's a fantastic book, very

interesting and the topic of this book is exactly what the title says. The topic of this book

is how to be a healthy person at the age of 100, which seems kind of amazing to most

people. Can you be healthy? Can you be strong? Can you have energy when you're

100 years old? And the answer is absolutely yes. Now how did John Robbins write this

book? It's very interesting. WelI, what he did, personally and then with his research

assistants, he studied cultures, places in the world where large numbers of people live

to be very old. But not only just live to be old, because, y'know, if you live to be old but

you're weak, that's not very fun.

So he studied places that had a lot of very old people who were also very strong, very

energetic, very healthy, very happy. There's a big difference if you're 90 years old and

you're in a nursing home and you're weak and sick, and ugh. Thať's a terrible life. But if

you're 90 years old and you're out running and you feel great, well that's fantastic. And

there are cultures like this and there are also a lot of individual people like this. And

when I say a lot, I don't mean a lot by percentage. It's a small percent of the human

population. But still there are thousands of these kind of people, I don't know, maybe

hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. I'm not sure what the exact number is. But

you can find these people. You can find specific cultures where there are a lot of them.

And then you can find individuals.

And so John Robbins was very curious about this and he wanted to know why. Why,

why do some people live strong, long, healthy, active lives for a very, very long time?

Why are some people so strong when they're older and live so much longer? And then

other people, y'know, they're 60 years old, they're already tired and sick. Whať's the

difference is what he wanted to know. And so he studied different groups. One of the

groups were people, traditional people, on the island of Okinawa, Japan.

So we're not talking, Okinawa now has a lot of modern culture, a lot of American

influence. And those people do not live so long. And they're not so healthy. But the

kind of people who live on Okinawa in a traditional way, the way they always have for a

very long time, those people are very special. They live very long lives and they're very

strong and healthy. They're still working when they're 80 or 90 years old, working like

on farms, like hard, physical work.

He studied another group of people in Pakistan, same thing. They lived to be 90, 100,

over 100, and the whole time they're working, doing heavy, hard, physical work. It's

pretty amazing. And then another thing they did is they studied individual people.

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Unlimited Vocabulary Text

Unlimited Power Vocabulary

Hello this is AJ again. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Unlimited Power." Let's

start right away.

Our first phrase is roll of the dice, roll of the dice. Now the sentence in the article says:

The difference between people who produce positive results and those who do not is

not some sort of roll of the dice.

Okay, roll of the dice means a random event, random event. So a roll of the dice is a

random event. It's kind of a random chance, random chance, random event. So he's

saying it's not a roll of the dice, it's not random. In other words, it's not chance that one

person is really excellent and another person is not. It's not luck. It's not luck, there are

reasons, there are very consistent reasons that one person is very excellent all the time

and another person is not. Okay, so roll of the dice kind of is this idea of luck or

randomness or a random event. Roll of the dice. He's saying it's not a roll of the dice,

it's not chance, it's not luck, it's something else.

Okay, another phrase in this article, the phrase within the reach of all of us.

Excellence is within the reach of all of us.

Within the reach of, within the reach of. Within the reach of means near, or easy to get

or possible to get. Excellence is within the reach of all of us means excellence is near

all of us. Excellence is easy to get for all of us. Excellence is possible to get for all of

us. Okay, so again, within the reach of means something that's possible to get. We can

reach it, we can get it, we can grab it, we can have it. Possible to get, near. So it's

within the reach of.

Our next word is unleash.

Unleash the magic within us all.

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Unlimited POV Text

Unlimited Power_POV

Welcome to the POV stories for "Unlimited Power." And of course, POV means point of

view. Same story about Marco, the hot, sexy man. This time we're going to start with

"Since 1979."

Since 1979 Marco has wanted a hot, sexy body. Since 1979 March has wanted a

perfect body. But, he didn't have one. Unfortunately, he was a little bit fat, a little

bit weak. Not terrible, but he didn't have a perfect, sexy body. So since 1979 he

has wanted a perfect body. His aspiration was to have a perfect body.

What was his aspiration?

His aspiration, his hope, was to have a perfect body.

Since when has he wanted a perfect body?

Since 1979, since 1979 he has wanted a perfect body.

Who has wanted a perfect body since 1979?

Well, Marco, of course. Marco has wanted a perfect body since 1979.

So in 1980 did he want a perfect body?

Yes.

In 1983 did he want a perfect body?

Yes.

In 1985 did he want a perfect body?

Yes.

Unlimited Mini-Story Text

Unlimited Power Mini-Story

Hello this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Unlimited Power." Now get some power

in your body right now. Get some passion in your body. Start with your body, look up

not down. Get your chest up. Get your shoulders back. Stand tall, if you're sitting, sit

tall. Big deep breaths. And then if you can, start moving and finally, big smile on your

face. I'm smiling right now. You should be, too. Alright, now we've got some energy in

our bodies. I'm energized, you're energized. Let's start the mini-story for "Unlimited

Power."

* * ** *

There was a guy named Marco.

What was his name?

Marco. There was a guy named Marco.

Was he a girl or was he a guy?

He was a guy, of course. He was a guy. His name was Marco.

And Marco did something foolish.

Did he do something intelligent or did he do something foolish?

Well, he did something foolish.

He bet all his money in the stock market.

Oh no, what did he do?

He bet his money in the stock market.

How much of his money did he bet in or on the stock market?

Unlimited Main Text

Okay, hello, it's me again, AJ, and we're back for another lesson. This lesson is called

"Unlimited Power." Great title and of course it comes from the book by Tony Robbins

who is another one of my favorite teachers. In fact, I really love Tony. I just got back

from a seminar of his. He is fantastic and I highly recommend his books, his tapes, his

CDs, his seminars...anything you can get from Tony Robbins...fantastic!

And we're going to again do a little excerpt, a little section from one of his books and

this section talks about the number one trait that determines success and happiness in

Tony Robbins' opinion, and I agree with him. And that number one trait, that one factor,

that one thing that really creates success and powers and gives energy to everything

else is passion. So this is a little section about passion from Tony Robbins' book,

Unlimited Power. So I am just going to go ahead and read that section and then I will|

talk about it more. So here we go.

* * ** *

Success is not an accident. The difference between people who produce positive

results and those who do not is not some sort of random roll of the dice. There are

consistent logical patterns of action, specific pathways to excellence that are within the

reach of us all. We can unleash the magic within us. We simply must learn how to turn

on and use our minds and bodies in the most powerful and advantageous ways. Have

you ever wondered what a Steven Spielberg or a Bruce Springsteen might have in

common? What do John F. Kennedy and a Martin Luther King, Jr. share that caused

them to affect so many people in such a deep and emotional way? They have been

able to get themselves to consistently take effective actions toward the accomplishment

of their dreams. But what is it that got them to continue day after day, to put everything

they've got into everything they do?

There are of course many factors however I believe there are fundamental character

traits that they have cultivated within themselves. Characteristics that give them the fire

to do whatever it takes to succeed. These are the traits that can insure your success as

well. Trait number one: Passion. All of these people have discovered a reason, a

consuming, energizing, almost obsessive purpose that drives them to do, to grow and to

be more. It gives them the fuel that powers their success and causes them to tap their

true potential.

Reading Power Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ again. Big smile...deep breath. Move that body, let's start the

vocabulary lesson for "The Power of Reading."

Okay, one of the words we had in there was competence. Now, Dr. Krashen said

people develop competence when they read. They develop the competence they need

to move from the beginning level to a level where they can use the language for more

difficult purposes. Competence, competence. Competence means skill or ability. So

when you read you develop more advanced skill in English. You develop more

advanced competence in English. So competence means skill or ability.

And then we have the word demanding, right? He says you develop the competence

for more demanding purposes. More demanding purposes, more demanding actions.

More demanding challenges. Demanding just means difficult. Difficult. So in other

words you get better and better. You can do more difficult things with the language. So

in the beginning maybe you have very simple, low level English or maybe intermediate

level English. Probably most of you are intermediate level. If you read my website and

bought my lessons you are definitely intermediate level. So if you're intermediate level

but you want to use English for more demanding purposes, more difficult purposes.

Maybe now you can talk a little bit but you can't go to a high level business meeting and

use English very well. That's a demanding purpose. It's a more difficult situation. It's a

more demanding situation. So again, demanding has this idea of difficult, something

that's difficult.

Alright, then we also had the word literacy. Literacy, that people develop literacy by

reading. Surprise, surprise, that seems pretty logical. Literacy means the ability to read

well. So again, literacy is just the skill, the competence, the ability to read well. It has

this idea of proficiency or ability. It means you're good at something. Now, usually it

means good at reading. We do sometimes use it in a more general way, where you

could say "I have good computer literacy," for example. Now, we're not talking about

reading. We're just saying computer ability. Basic competence with a computer, we

would say computer literacy. It means I understand computers, I can use computers.

I'm not an expert but, y'know, I'm good enough. But more specifically, and in this article

especially, literacy just means the ability to read well.

Okay, we had another little phrase, well read. In the sentence it said "We rarely find well

read people who have serious problems with grammar." Okay, so well read means, it

just means that you have read a lot of books. A well read person is someone who has

read a lot. That means you have read a lot. You know a lot about books. Well not

about books, it means you actually have read books. You've read a lot of books. So

Reading Power Point-of-View Text

Okay, welcome to the POV, that's point of view, lesson for “The Power of Reading."

Okay, and I'm going to tell the same story about Filbert the monkey. We're going to

have tow points of view. One is going to start with "Since 2002..." and the other one will

be in the future. So let's start with the first one. You ready? You feel good? You

smiling? Standing tall, shoulders back! Deep breath, let's do it.

* * ** *

Since 2002, since the year 2002, Filbert has enjoyed shooting mosquitoes with his

gun. He has liked to shoot mosquitoes with his gun, since 2002.

In 2001 did Filbert enjoy shooting mosquitoes?

No, no he didn't. Not in 2001. In 2001 and before he never shot mosquitoes, but since

2002 he has liked to shoot mosquitoes with his gun. He has loved it, in fact. Since

2002 Filbert the monkey has loved to shoot mosquitoes with his gun. From 2002 right

up until almost now, during that whole time. So since 2002 he has enjoyed shooting

mosquitoes.

And since 2002 he has practiced every day. In fact, in the morning, in the

afternoon, in the evening and at night, he has practiced shooting mosquitoes

every day since 2002. Since 2003 he has had total competence with his rifle, with

his big long gun.

Since when?

Since 2003 he has had total competence. He has had total competence with his rifle.

Since 2003 he has had what?

Since 2003 he has had total competence with his rifle.

Now of course, shooting mosquitoes is a very demanding, tough thing to do. It's

very difficult. So he has practiced constantly shooting mosquitoes with his rifle.

Now Filbert the monkey has also been a very well read monkey for many years.

For many years he has read philosophy books, every day reading about

philosophy and shooting his gun at the same time, pow, pow, pow, read, pow,

pow, pow, read. He has been a very well read monkey. Probably since 2001,

since 2001 he has been a very well read monkey. Something happened recently.