AEE 2627: Do You Play It Safe When It Comes to Your English?

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2627. Do you play it safe when it comes to your English? welcome to the all ears english podcast downloaded more than 200 million times are you feeling stuck with your english we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your american hosts lindsey mcmahon the english adventurer and michelle kaplan the new york radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.

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What is your risk tolerance? How has it changed throughout your life? Today, find out how to talk about this and why it matters for Connection. Do you ever feel like your English is good, but not quite where you want it to be?

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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Hey, doing great today, Michelle. How are you? The sun's shining here in Denver. How's the weather where you are? I mean, we had a huge snowstorm.

It's cold. Are you digging out from that storm? Yeah, we're out. It wasn't as bad as I think it could have been, but I'm not impressed with the weather.

But... Yeah, yesterday I actually went out in the snow with my kids. Wow. Yeah. Lindsay, I mean, we've talked about this sometimes before. Like, if we're big risk takers.

Yeah. Are you a risk taker? Like, when you're, like, in the snow. Not really. No. I'm pretty careful. Yeah. I mean, I take risks in business, I guess, but in like physical aspects of life.

I mean, I'm a skier, so that's risky. But like, yeah, if I go out, I'm not going to do crazy stuff. Like I'm not a 23 year old guy, you know? Um, yeah.

But what kind of risks are we talking about in the snow? Like jumping into a snow angel or. No, that's not like, you know, okay. If you see like an icy set of stairs.

Oh, I do avoid them. Do you like, what do you do? Well, if I have to go up them, I would take them. I just go really slow and hold the railing. Probably.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's good to play it safe in the snow, you know, guys avoid the ice and things like that. But yeah, play it safe. By the way, that is the expression that we were talking about today.

Yes. What does that mean to play it safe? Well, it can mean a lot of things. That's why today's episode is going to be interesting. It's not just about physically being safe, right?

Sometimes it's about leaving extra time so that you're not late. Sometimes it's about double checking details so you don't make a big mistake, right? Yeah. Yeah.

It just means to do something while being careful, right? To not be too risky. Yeah. Yes. You got cautious. Not too risky. Yeah. So for example, let's play it safe and leave a little early.

Lindsay, do you tend to leave early? Yeah. I usually leave on the earlier side. I was watching something or maybe it was something I saw on social media.

Someone was explaining... like how they're, they were saying they're a late person and how that happens, that they were saying that they once they'll have a moment when they're like, Hmm, I should leave right now. Right. I should leave this event starting.

I should leave. But they feel this sense of greed for their time. And like, maybe they're reading a book and they want to finish that chapter. So they'll override the intuition and they'll say, right.

Oh, no, no. I just want to finish this chapter. I deserve this. Like I, I deserve my time. And so they end up leaving late and being late. And so, cause I always wondered like late people, how does it happen?

You know what I mean? Like, how does it actually happen? I have friends who are late people and it's, it can be frustrating in American culture and Yeah.

Um, yeah. Yeah. Well, I think I've talked about, you know, my dad is very much, Oh, and early and then I think early person. Yes. And my brother is the total opposite.

I mean, yeah, yeah. Well, he, he just, he just, he does not play it safe with the time. Like even apparently they were visiting, uh, my, uh, My parents in Florida and my dad was going to drive them to the airport to leave.

And my dad said it was the time that they said they wanted to leave. And like my brother was like just going to take a shower. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. yeah that's a bad clash between your dad and your brother i mean yes yeah and so and then also once when my my brother like was uh he had like an internship um i think near where my dad worked and so my dad would take him every day and so that was yeah and so this is when i was growing up and then one time my dad was just about to leave and then my brother was like i'm coming i'm coming and he like wasn't wearing a shirt like running in the driveway like with a shirt over his shoulder like

Yeah. Some people just are that way. It's really interesting, but I always try to figure out like how, what is the justification in their head? Because they must know when they should leave, right?

Yeah. Like what is happening in the brain, you know? But anyways, it's not like, sometimes it's not just like about like what time to leave. This could also be about like,

um planning you know like oh when are you gonna start planning a party like i have to plan my daughter's birthday party and i'm really behind so it's just interesting what's another uh way to play it safe maybe yeah it sounds like you and i are we both play it safe by leaving early maybe but yeah so i'm in the middle yeah maybe you you i'm in the middle i'm not my brother i'm not my dad yeah okay you're on time then in that case i guess i try we could say i played it safe and went to a school near my parents house i wasn't ready to live away from home Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's another way of playing it safe, like safe with your heart, with your with your fear of, I don't know, independence, baby. Right. Right. It might be too much too soon to just go across the country or something.

Or I tend to play it safe with my food choices. I grew up as a picky eater. Do you have any friends or family members who are really picky eaters? Not too much.

Maybe my niece is, but she's been taught to be picky, right? So that's tricky. That's a whole other topic. Yeah, it really is. But yeah, I think kids can be picky if they're, I guess, if they're allowed to be, right?

I don't know. um yeah it's really hard it's hard i know yes you go in with all these good intentions and it's really hard but i remember um a friend of mine in college she was so picky i mean even because we think of kids as being picky but it can follow you into adulthood and i remember that she she really played it safe like she didn't like i mean she was just like like plain sandwiches like no condiments and no lettuce you know, things like that. Interesting.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. And then the last example, I wish she wouldn't always play it so safe. I think she could really succeed if she got out of her comfort zone.

So I think as human beings, we know that there's something good on the other side of risk. There's something good on the other side if we don't play it safe, but then our lizard brain tries to keep us safe in all these ways. Yes. Right?

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Exactly. So guys, make sure you hit follow wherever you're listening to the All There's English podcast so that you never miss anything.

Yes. But yeah, how do you, are there parts of your life, Lindsay, where you, I mean, yeah, you talked about like physical versus in business, but is there anything else in your life where you feel like you play it safe or you don't play it safe? Hmm.

Geez, that's a good question, Michelle. I'm not really sure how to answer it. But yeah, I mean, hmm. Well, maybe, you know, I've gotten a little like when I was younger, maybe I was better at, you know, reaching out and, you know, asking like a potential friend asking for their number.

Hey, let's hang out sometime. Right. A little more fast and loose with, you know, with that. Maybe I've gotten a bit more of a fear of rejection as I've gotten older.

Yeah. That's interesting. You would think it'd be the other way around. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. What about you, Michelle? What do you think? Have you gotten...

have uh i think i'm less it's interesting i think i'm less afraid of rejection as an adult but um it really depends then when you do find yourself in an awkward social situation it's can still you can still feel like a little kid again right like a teenager it's like oh my god i'm i'm a grown woman and there are still social situations where i'm like do these people like me or I don't know, you know, right. We all face that for sure. It's not just being a kid.

It's, it's being a human being, right. And wanting to be liked for sure. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. If you're ready for your business to start, go ahead with the business platform for entrepreneurs.

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You can find your period of 1 euro per month on Shopify.eu. Okay, so there are other things we might say. We might say be on the safe side, right? Like just to be on the safe side, you should make an appointment rather than go as a walk-in.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, that happened. Actually, I took my kids to the aquarium last week and I made a reservation only for my son because my daughter and I are members.

I didn't realize. And they said... Oh, did you make a reservation? Well, we're not busy today, but other days just to be on the safe side, you should make sure you have a reservation.

Yes. No, that's good. That's good context right there. And that makes sense because the risk is that you've wasted this time. Your kids get all excited about going somewhere, right?

And then you show up and you can't go in and maybe you have a temper tantrum on your hand or two. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't need that. Yeah.

And then in business, we might take a more conservative approach. So to take a conservative approach, we should consider taking a conservative approach this time. So maybe in business, you've made some mistakes. And this time you've learned part of it is just getting smarter, right?

Making more calculated risks. Yes, exactly. Exactly. So and then there's just be cautious, right? We need to be cautious when making big purchases online.

Yes, for sure. So there's so many what I like about this phrase and this idea is that there's so many places in life it applies to. right? Yeah, exactly.

And you might play it safe in one area of your life and the other, and in others, you're totally different. So it's interesting. Yeah. Isn't that weird?

How like in certain aspects of life, we're really careful and others were not at all. It's strange. Yeah, it definitely is. Um, yeah, I actually, I feel like I want to think about my own life more and think about where I play it safe and where I don't kind of interesting exercise.

Yeah. And that's what our listeners can do after they listen today. Think about your life and your risk tolerance, right? What is your, has that gotten like bigger?

Like, have you increased your risk tolerance or have you decreased it? You know, have you become more cautious as you've gotten older? Interesting question. Very interesting.

Yeah. All right, let's do a role play. So here we are friends talking about going to dinner. Okay. So should we make a reservation? Probably. It's a popular place, so we should play it safe.

Okay. And just to be on the safe side, do you think 6 or 6.30 is better? I'd say 6.30. Better to take a conservative approach. Okay. Yeah, let's be cautious.

So for some reason, doing the 630 feels safer, is more conservative. It could be maybe that we have a friend joining us. It could be traffic that we're anticipating. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it could be lots of things. Right. That context isn't here, but you can imagine it being there. Right. So, all right, let's go back through this. I said, you said, should we make a reservation?

And I said, probably. It's a popular place, so we should play it safe. And I said, okay. And just to be on the safe side, do you think six or 630 is better?

And I said, I'd say 630, better to take a conservative approach. And I said, oh yes, let's be cautious. Nice. Yes. All right. Good stuff today. Guys, go and check out episode 2623.

Whatever happens, you should be using this vocabulary. All right. Good one. Yes. Another good one. All right, guys. Takeaway for today is, yeah, we've talked about it a lot.

This is just such an interesting kind of mental exercise, a getting-to-know-yourself exercise about how you can play it safe in one aspect of your life and less so in another. Yes. And guaranteed. And the interesting part is guaranteed each of us, each of our listeners are going to realize that there are some aspects you've probably increased your risk tolerance and some you may have decreased it.

Yeah. And think about why. Like what experiences have led to that? Yeah. Really interesting. Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, I'm glad we talked about this today, Lindsay, and I guess I will talk to you next time.

All right. Take care, Michelle. Bye. Bye. See you next time. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life.

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