S06 - 4 Motivation

Native English speakers answer exam-style questions about motivation.

7 different speakers, with different accents, talk about how they stay motivated. So you’re gonna hear some fantastic language, like idioms, phrasal verbs and top-level vocabulary. And there is a little word-formation quiz in the middle interval too. Trevor picks out the best bits and gives useful tips for exams. As usual we have plenty of top vocabulary, phrasal verbs and idioms.

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Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast. This episode is about motivation. This is a great topic to cover as it is connected to so many other topics, work, study, sport, learning English even. So we have 7 different speakers today, with different accents, talking about how they stay motivated. So you’re gonna hear some fantastic language, like idioms, phrasal verbs and top-level vocabulary. And there is a little word-formation quiz in the middle interval too. 

If you would like printed transcripts so you can follow everything that is said then you can get these on the website, realexamenglish.com

Alright, let’s get going with the questions.

How do you motivate yourself to do tasks you don't enjoy? 

Food. Food helps. Resting and I generally tend to use the…what's called the carrot method instead of the stick method. So, I don't punish myself, but I do motivate myself through positive motivation. So, I will give myself a treat or I will, or I will read my book or, I just, I can do certain bits of work that I need to do, and then I know at the end of it I will feel better. So some of it is mindset, some of it is physical motivation. 

What makes certain motivational speeches, books, or videos effective whilst others fail? 

It depends on the writer, the speaker, or the performer. Because people can be very, very good and very, very good with their tonality and very good with how they speak and can be extremely motivational because of the cadence of their voice and the commitment to what they are saying can come across as feeling very, like you feel seen, you feel very, very seen compared to not feeling seen around certain others. So other people may come across as boring. The books may read flat, so it doesn't feel good to read, it doesn't feel inspiring, or the videos, we don't connect with them because we don't see ourselves in them. 

Alright, in the first answer she mentioned the carrot method and the stick method. These are opposing ways to motivate, the carrot method is reward based motivation, as if you are riding a donkey and you put a carrot in front of it to get it to move. And the stick method is punishment based motivation, you are hitting the donkey with the stick to get it to move. So, some people need a carrot, whereas others need more of a stick.

In the second answer we had some lovely vocabulary to describe motivational speakers or presenters in general. She said they are good with their tonality. So that is the tone of their voice. And she also mentioned the cadence of their voice which is kind of like the rhythm or the rise and fall of their voice. This may be something you can all relate to actually as the cadence of your mother tongue is probably quite different to the cadence of English, which takes a while to master. 

We then had a good example of this phrasal verb that we looked at in the last episode, they come across as boring. Or similarly she said the books may read flat, which kind of means dull or unexciting. Another example would be, the singer’s performance seemed a bit flat today, she didn’t have her usually energy.

Do you find it easy to stay motivated?

If there's money involved or a reward system, yes, I can stay motivated. Even, I mean, discipline is better than motivation any day of the week, isn't it really? Let's be honest. So like with the gym, for example, like if I'm not motivated in the gym, it's going to be a rubbish workout. But if I've got discipline, I'm still going to go and I'm still going to get the results. So like, it's not about motivation. It's about discipline at the end of the day.

How do you motivate yourself to do tasks you don't enjoy?

I reward myself. Like I like to reward myself. So, if I do this, I can do that type of thing with anything. So if I do that, I can do that. If I do this, I can do that. If I finish this report, I can go and play a game on my phone. Or if I finish this, I can go and take a longer break. So I always have like a reward structure. I don't just tell myself, I have to do this. I have to do this. Because what it happens to me in uni where like, I've got this dissertation to do, I've got this assignment to do. And I just procrastinate, just keep procrastinating, procrastinating, never get it done. And before I know it, the deadline's tomorrow. I've got 4 hours left to get it submitted and I'm just failing. Yeah.

Alright, I liked the first answer where he said discipline is better than motivation any day of the week, isn’t it really. Let’s be honest. So, he actually uses three different ways here to emphasise his opinion. Firstly, he uses any day of the week. We use this to express a strong opinion, or maybe a preference. For instance, I’d prefer pasta to pizza any day of the week. Secondly, he uses a question tag, isn’t it really. Remember with question tags we use the auxiliary verb from the first sentence and then change from a positive to a negative. So discipline is better than motivation any day of the week, isn’t it really. And then lastly, he uses let’s be honest, like what he said is undeniable, this one is often used for something that is kind of negative. Like, let’s be honest, dinner was a disaster. So altogether, he really emphasised his point, didn’t he really, let’s be honest. And to cap it all off at the end of that answer he said it’s about discipline at the end of the day. This a great way to conclude an answer or to summarise a situation in a succinct way. At the end of the day, this answer was excellent. Nothing beats discipline, at the end of the day.

In the second answer, he was talking about his college work and he said that he was procrastinating, and before he knew it, the deadline was the next day. This expression, before I knew it, or before you know it, is used when time passes more quickly than expected. Another example is, I really didn’t want to do my writing homework but I just started, and before I knew it, I had it all done. Or I started the 4-hour train journey and was totally captivated by the amazing landscapes, and before I knew it, we were pulling into the final station.  

What kind of goals are most helpful for staying motivated?

Making sure that you're in the right zone where you can achieve at a consistent level your little goals. So for example, if you're training for a marathon, you obviously, well, unless you're in really good shape, but if you're not in really good shape, you need to build up. And so having a big, for me, having a big chart on the refrigerator of all of my runs, And OK, so I started with being able to run 6 miles. Then as it progressed, the visual chart was really helpful to me to see my progress. So if you're looking for goals, making sure that you take your baseline data, your present level of fitness or your present level of performance, and also having what is your desired and intended outcome, and then scaffolding the steps in between to get there.

Scaffolding the steps, very nice. A scaffold is like those metallic structures they put up around buildings as they are constructing them, where the builders stand, if you will. So scaffolding, as the speaker means it, is putting up the structures around your goals that will enable you to achieve your goals. Other useful vocabulary she had was the baseline data, which is the information about the level that you start off at, so in terms of running, her baseline could be running 10km in an hour, for example. And then, as she said, you need your desired and intended outcome, so what you wish to achieve essentially, maybe running 10km in 50 minutes in her example. 

Ok, I have a bit of a challenge for you. As this episode is about motivation can you think of as many word forms and derivatives of the word motivation as possible, so all of the verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs you can think of. For example, if the word was happy, you could say happier, unhappy, happiness, and so on. Ok so for motivation, think of as many as you can. You can pause the audio now, if you like  and then I’ll give you the list of words. There are 15 in total.

Ok here we go:

So to start with the verbs you would say:

I motivate, he motivates, yesterday she motivated, right now he is motivating, and all of those have negatives, demotivate, demotivates, demotivated and demotivating.

In terms of adjectives, you can again use motivating or motivated, and their negatives demotivating and demotivated. Also, you have motivational, like a motivational speaker. Unmotivated, like the teenager seemed unmotivated. 

For nouns, someone or something which motivates is a motivator, you can have two motivators and the opposite is a demotivator or demotivators. Also, the negative of motivation is demotivation.

Lastly, as an adverb we have motivationally, like she spoke motivationally.

How many did you get right? You can let me know in the comments. For anyone doing Cambridge English exams it is useful to do this type of exercise as it is part of the exam in use of English part 3 and in general it is great for widening your word pool. 

Do you enjoy motivational talks or books?

I wouldn't seek them out, but it depends on the topic. So again, it's, there's been some that I've had to go through for work reasons or whatever, and some you'd just put it down to an hour of your life wasted, but others you actually take something from and go, okay, well, listen, that was interesting, or that point was of use maybe. So if you can pick and choose, you know, but as a rule, I think, They keep people in jobs to tell you what you already know.

A few phrasal verbs to point out here. He said he wouldn’t seek out motivational talks or books. To seek out kind of implies you put in a lot of effort to find something. For example, I need to seek out some unusual ingredients for the cake I’m making tomorrow. The he said he had to go through some talks for work reasons. To go through something means you had to endure something, something difficult. Like, my friends are going through a divorce right now. In fact, often when we use through in phrasal verbs, it means enduring something hard. Like to sit through a boring movie, or they’ve been through a lot, or we need to work through our problems. 

The last one he had was to take something from the talks, which means to get some benefit from attending the talks. For example, this podcast is great, I take a lot from it.

Finally, he said that as a rule, he thinks motivational talks keep people in jobs to tell you what you already know. Ok so as a rule means for the most part or generally. Like, as a rule, I am more motivated in the mornings. Or as a rule I do better at listening than reading. By the way, for anyone doing English exams, I highly recommend doing lots and lots of reading practice. Not many of us are reading as much these days as in the past and a lot of teachers are reporting that their students struggle with the reading parts in exams. So, make sure to get plenty of reading practice, from a variety of sources, be it news articles, film reviews, short stories, travel blogs, whatever. But the more you do, the easier it will be.

Do you enjoy motivational talks or books?

Yes. Yeah. But I don't want the person to be like, so get up in the morning, do what you need to do. Make sure that you take three deep breaths and get on with your day. That's not the kind of motivational talk I want. I want someone to encourage you to look beyond limits or perhaps give a story of something that they had to overcome. Someone who might narrate a story about an adverse situation, to me, that would be more motivational.

Some nice motivational language here. She said she wants someone to encourage her to look beyond limits, that’s a lovely little phrase isn’t it. You could also say to push beyond limits or to think beyond limits. She also said she likes stories where people had to overcome something. So we use overcome with difficulties or challenges, like we had to overcome terrible weather conditions while climbing the mountain. This is an example of an adverse situation, as she mentioned she finds people telling stories about adverse situations to be motivational. Another example would be the pandemic was an adverse situation we all had to overcome. 

How do failure and mistakes affect a person's motivation?

It can be very disheartening. And I'm also prone to, I will beat myself up a little bit sometimes when I fail. I'm getting better at it. So like I say that statement. Failure is good. That's where the lessons, I'm talking to myself, I'm reminding myself because I run my own company. There was a lot of learning from little Melissa from the Bronx that had to occur, including how to deal with people and how to make sure your employees are motivated. All that stuff that sometimes where you grew up with or who you grew up with and what you've seen as other leaderships, as in, well, I'm the boss and I told you to do it, so you should do it, doesn't necessarily get you the outcome that you want. So I had to learn to look and be like, okay, that is failing me. Like, that's failing you. And that's okay. Let's fix it, right? And then you won't have this problem anymore. 

Super vocabulary at the start of this answer. She said failure can be very disheartening. This means you lose hope or confidence and you feel discouraged. Like failing my English exam after all my hard work was very disheartening. She said she was prone to beating herself up a little bit. If you beat yourself up then you are very hard on yourself, you blame yourself too much for something or other. For instance, when my goldfish died because I didn’t feed it, I beat myself up for a while, I felt so guilty. 

How can teamwork increase or decrease motivation?

Mike: Well, if you're part of a good team, you kind of spark off each other and that kind of gives rise to, you know, you're motivated to do well for yourself and the team.

Whereas if you're part of a team and it's all bitching and moaning and not working together, even if you started off motivated, by the end of it, you're going to be pretty demotivated and disinterested, disengaged.

Nice list of negative words there, demotivated, disinterested and disengaged. Also, on the negative front he said it’s all bitching and moaning in some teams. These two things, bitching and moaning, mean more or less the same thing, they both mean complaining, and they are very often used together, and when used together they should follow this order, bitching and moaning. Moaning and bitching sounds a bit weird. An example of how to use it is, instead of sitting there bitching and moaning why don’t you get off your ass and fix the problem yourself. 

On the more positive side then he said that in a good team you kind of spark off each other. This means that you interact with each other in a dynamic and energetic way, creating new ideas and being pretty productive. For instance, the students in my classes really spark off each other during interactive debates, true story that! Or when the kids are pretending to be pirates, they really spark off each and have great fun.

Lastly, he said that people sparking off each other gives rise to an increase in motivation. This expression to give rise to is super useful. It’s another way to say results in, or leads to. This kind of expression you need to use a lot in English exams, both in the speaking parts and the writing also. I’m thinking about essays, reports and proposals. For example, investing more in schools will give rise to better educated children. Or the growth of social media has given rise to an increase in misinformation. Super handy that one and it sounds great. 

Alright guys, that’s all we have time for today. Hopefully you took something from the episode and you feel motivated to listen again and to keep learning new English! 

Till next time, take care of yourself, 

Trevor