No Compromise | Don't Give An Inch!

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Go there. EffortlessEnglishClub.com EffortlessEnglishClub.com No compromise. No compromise. Don't give an inch. That's our topic today. Don't give an inch.

Don't give an inch. What does that mean? That's an idiom, and it means don't compromise. Easy, simple. An inch, of course, in American measurements, an inch is, what is it, three centimeters, something like that.

So it's a small little amount. Don't give an inch means... Like we might think of it in American football where they're fighting over territory, right? One side, you're trying to push the other side back and forth.

And the idea don't give an inch means don't let the other side, don't let the other group, don't let the other team, don't let the other person get anything from you. Don't give them anything. Don't cooperate at all. Don't compromise at all, right?

Give nothing. Resist completely. Fight completely. Don't give an inch. Don't give an inch. This is a very, very, very common idiom. Super common idiom.

Don't give an inch. Don't give them an inch. And there's kind of another idiom that's connected to this, a longer one. It has a second part. Don't give an inch, or if you, I think that actually the more common way to say it is, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile.

If you give them an inch, they will take a mile. One second. So if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. What does that mean? It means that if you give, like, let's say another person, if you compromise a little bit, if you give them just a little bit,

they will take more, more, more, more, more. A mile is like a kilometer. It's actually, it's about two kilometers, okay? So if you give, if you give, I'll try to convert it to metric.

If you give someone, you know, one inch, if you give them three centimeters, they will take two kilometers, right? So this idea is that some people, some groups,

You know, they're very greedy or they're very aggressive. You can't trust them. And so you cannot give them anything. You cannot compromise with them at all.

Not at all. Not even a tiny bit. Because if you just give them a small amount, if you compromise a little bit, they will try to take a huge amount from you. Right?

If you give them $1, they will try to take $1,000 from you, or they will try to get $1,000. This is the idea. Don't give them an inch. Now, let's get into the actual deeper topic today, because this is a persuasion technique.

This is a technique, and the reason I'm thinking about it is I'm reading again a book about persuasion. This is a technique used by advertisers. This is a technique used by the media, the so-called news media, the professional liars, the professional persuaders. This is a technique used by politicians to change your behavior and to change your thoughts and attitudes.

And this is used very skillfully. I actually have a... I'm giving a presentation this coming Saturday to a group called ISDS, Acharya G's group. And I'm talking about some persuasion techniques.

We talked about this in Brave New World. We talked about this in Animal Farm. Well, this is one that I just found... I was rereading again... In this book called Persuasion by a guy named Roberto Caldini.

Roberto Caldini. He's very famous in marketing and persuasion. A lot of politicians, I think. I'm not 100% sure, but I think during the election, Hillary Clinton hired him.

At least maybe it was just a rumor. But this guy is very famous for being really good at persuasion, right? Changing people's attitudes. So let's read a little section from his book.

And the name of this book is called Persuasion. He's written a lot of books. A lot of marketers and, like I said, media people will read his books. So let's look at it real quick.

Just this one section because it's connected to our idiom today. All right, here we go. All right, let me get my screen going here, get the camera. All right, so here he's talking about what he calls like the six most powerful concepts, the six most powerful, you could call them kind of techniques or methods for persuasion, for changing people's minds, for changing behavior, right?

Right. And one of the six, one of them, he calls consistency. Consistency. Let me read this little section, and then I'll explain the vocab, I'll explain the meaning.

Okay, here's the section. Normally, we want to be and to be seen as consistent with our existing commitments, such as the previous statements we've made, stands we've taken, and actions we've performed. Okay? Therefore, communicators who can get us to take a persuasive step, even a small one, in the direction of a particular idea will increase our willingness to take a much larger step when asked.

All right, there's some hard, difficult vocab in here. If you didn't understand that, it's okay. So let's go section by section. Okay, back to the beginning.

Normally, we want to be seen as consistent. Consistent, right, means kind of the same, right? If you're not consistent, then it means you don't do the same things. So for example, with exercising, let's say you exercise, you go to the gym.

If you're consistent, you go to the gym every day. You go to the today, I'll go tomorrow, like daily. That's very consistent, daily exercise. The opposite would be inconsistent.

That would mean, like, today you go to the gym, but then tomorrow you don't go, and you don't go the next day, you don't go this week. And then 10 days later, you go again, and then you have another break, like two weeks. Then you go two times. Then you don't go for one month, right?

It's not regular, right? There's no regular schedule. It's not consistent, right? There's no pattern. There's no pattern. Right? So what he's saying is psychologically we, as people, we want to be consistent.

What does he mean by this? He says we want to be consistent with previous statements we've made. See, we want people to think that we're the same. That's what he's basically saying.

So it means if, let's say before you said, I don't know, I hate vegetables. Okay? You've said that to people. You've told lots of people, I hate vegetables.

So now, if someone asks you to try another vegetable, you're probably going to say, I hate vegetables. It's consistent with what you said before. You've had this statement. You've said before.

So probably in the future, you will continue to say the same thing. Right? We have, psychologically, we want to be consistent with our statements and with our ideas and also with our actions. Right?

Okay, this is common. Can we all know this? However, this can be used against us. It can be a weak point. Because it means that what if we have a wrong idea?

What if our statement was wrong in the past? Our statements, what we said. What if our ideas were wrong? What if our actions were not healthy, were bad?

Well, we will still continue to say the wrong thing just because we don't want people to think we're not consistent, right? Because it's kind of, I think it's rooted in pride, pride, right, in our egos. We don't want to say, oh, I was wrong before. I think I was wrong before, right?

People don't like to do that. So how do they use this against us? So here's how the media can use this against you. A salesperson can use this against you.

A politician can use this against you. He says if we can get people, get someone to take a small step in a direction, then later they are very likely to take a much bigger step, a much bigger step.

This might seem small, but this is actually very big, and I'm going to talk about some specifics. He's saying this is how you get people to change. You don't get people to do something, take a big change all at once.

You just get them to take a tiny, tiny little step first. If you can just persuade people, you, me, anybody, to take one little step, in one direction, then it's very easy to get them to take another step, another step, another step because of consistency. If they just do the first step, the first step is the big one.

This is called the slippery slope. It's another idiom we have. Slippery slope is like a slide with oil on it. It means if you step on that slide, you're going to go down really fast.

Just that one first step and then boom, you're going down. That first step is what gets you. So let's talk about how this is used, and I'll give you some very specific examples.

I will give you an example. The whole virus craziness. If you remember in the beginning of it, what did they say? What did they, the media, what technique did they use?

What small step? Did they just tell everybody, we're going to close the economy and give you lots of vaccines and we're going to make you wear a mask for years and years?

No, of course not. Everybody would have said, no way, no, ah, right? So what did they do? They just need, they started just the tiniest step. If you remember, they had a phrase called two weeks to flatten the curve, right?

What it means is, okay, everybody, just two weeks. This is the little step they sold you on for consistency. They just want to get you to make this one little step.

And then they knew later they could get you to keep doing it more and more and more. So it was just two weeks. Just wear a mask for two weeks. Just don't go, just shut down your businesses, shut down the economy for two weeks.

Just two weeks. That's just a little step. It's okay. And what? Most people did it. So then what happens? Once they took that first step, then it was very easy.

Oh, two more weeks, another month, and now what? We're two and a half years later, and there's still, like people in Japan, everybody's still wearing a mask two and a half years later. Even though most people really know that it's nonsense, but they keep doing it. Because why?

This is why. This consistency. Because once they got them to take the step one time, It was easy to get them to do it more, more, more, and now it's become such a strong thing.

They've been doing it for so long now that they won't stop. Right? Same with the vaccines, the poison vaccines. Did they tell you in the beginning that you would have to take five of them?

Or maybe keep taking them, you know, every year, forever? No, no, all just one! One! And you'll be totally immune! Everything will be safe. Oh, it'll be great.

It'll all be over. Just everybody take their one shot, their one poison vaccine. And then later, oh, oh, actually, oh, you need a booster. I'm sorry, you need two.

Oh, whoops. And then a little later, once they got you to take two, oh, actually, you need three. Oh, no, actually, you need four. Oh, did we say four?

No, actually, it's five. And this will go on forever now because they've gotten, once you take the first step, Most people, I'm not saying you personally, I'm saying you generally people.

Most people, if they get them to take the first step, it's very easy then to get them to do everything else. So this, you must be careful. And this is why today's topic is advice I'm giving you.

Never take the first step. This first step will always seem small. It will always seem like, it's just an inch. I'll just give an inch. I'll just do this little thing.

I can wear a mask for a few days, for a week. Sure, I'll do it. You know, I can just take, oh, I'll just do this, right? And it's not just this topic.

It's any topic, okay? We'll get you one little thing. That's all. And then once you do it, though, then it becomes so much easier for them to convince you with fear, with social pressure, to take the next step and the next step and the next step.

And then you are doing all kinds of terrible, evil things or hurting yourself or doing really stupid things because you took the first little step. So the easiest way to resist all of this is resist the first step.

Don't take the first step. Do not compromise at all. Never do the first one, the little one. Never give an inch because they will take a mile. They, the media.

They, the politicians. They, the big companies. They will always try to get more, more, more, more, more. You must be very careful about the first battles, the little battles.

Never think, oh, it's just small. Oh, just a small thing and then it's over. It will never, never, never be that. Never accept the small thing. I'm happy personally.

I refused in the beginning. I will not wear a mask. And then it was then because I fought the first battle and resisted it and said no. All the other nonsense that came after has been very easy for me to say no.

Even though I walk around, even today, I am like the only person without a mask everywhere I go. But I feel no pressure at all. In the beginning, that first little battle, I felt a little social pressure.

But it was not too bad at the beginning. But now because I won that first battle, I did not compromise. No compromise. Did not give an inch at all. Then the rest of it has been easy for me to ignore.

So you must be careful in all these areas of life when any group of people are trying to get you to do some small thing. And if that small thing, if you have like a little bit of a bad feeling about that small thing, don't do it.

Here's the second part. The second part is that be aware of this psychology. We all have this. We all have this. It's just human nature. So be aware of your pride.

So if you take a first step, this is the next thing. Maybe you take the first step because you don't realize. You know, it's ignorance or you're just not sure or whatever. You're in a weak mood and you actually do take the first step, whatever it is, something small.

That doesn't mean you have to take the second and the third and the fourth step. If you wake up at some point, if you realize, I don't like this, then change your mind. It's okay. Just tell everybody, I was wrong before.

You can have so much psychological power and so much success in your life if you will just say I was wrong. Don't make excuses. Just say I was wrong. Yeah, I used to think that I was wrong.

Yeah, I thought the masks were okay. Now I realize, no, I was wrong. Don't say, no, no, they did. Don't blame everybody else. Just say it openly. I was wrong.

There's great power in that phrase because it lets go of that ego. that ego to try to show everybody you're perfect, that your first idea is always right. I'm always right. I don't need to change my mind.

I was always right. My opinions are always correct. No, no, no, they're not. You know, I've been wrong about many, many things. I will continue to be wrong about many things.

And I'm not afraid of that because when I realize it, I just say I'm wrong. It takes a while to realize sometimes when you're wrong. That's okay. But when I finally do, when I realize it, I will just say, I was wrong.

Or I am wrong. I'm wrong. Yeah, sometimes you feel foolish. Sometimes you feel foolish. But it's better to feel foolish than to continue to do bad things.

It's better to be foolish, to feel foolish, than continue to do wrong things. So it's totally fine to just say, I am wrong. I was wrong. Or even if you want to be even stronger.

I was foolish. I was stupid. I was foolish. Well, now, so you can change, okay? This is called learning, okay? Learning requires that you admit it, that you say, I was wrong or I didn't know.

Okay? And that's totally fine. Another nice phrase that will help you resist this kind of persuasion and these kind of techniques is the phrase, I don't know. This also kills your ego.

Because sometimes when things are happening in the beginning, we don't really know what's happening. It's very confusing. The media always lies. That we do know.

They're always lying about everything. What we don't know is what is the truth. Sometimes the truth isn't obvious. So in the beginning of all this virus stuff, I didn't really know what was going on.

There was so much information online. And of course, I knew the propaganda was a lie, but I wasn't really sure what was going on. And so it's okay to just say, I don't really know. I don't really know what's happening.

I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't know. These are all great phrases. We don't need to appear all the time that we know everything.

Right? And we also don't need to pretend that we're always right because sometimes we're wrong. Just say it. I was wrong. And this will free you from this technique.

This technique, you know, as I said, there are six techniques in his book. Is it Kildani? Kildini? Kildini, I think is how you pronounce it. Kildini. Yeah.

This is one of them, and it's a very powerful one. Another one is authority, which is a very common one too, right? So they get the power of the expert. Ah, they put the expert on.

The doctor, because he's got a little white suit and he's a doctor. Even celebrities, people will see them as experts, so this is another one. They'll use experts. But that's a different topic for a different day.

So you don't need to be consistent all the time in your actions because that means you're not growing. It means you're not learning. It's totally fine to change your mind, to change your actions, to change your beliefs. I mean, my beliefs about everything in life are very different than when I was, let's say, 25.

In many cases, the exact opposite. About religion, about family, about money and business, about politics, pretty much about everything. That's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. Because I look back and I'm like, I was a stupid idiot.

Of course, at that time, when I was 25, I thought I was so smart and knew everything. And I was so sure, but I was just a programmed zombie. Because where was I getting my information from? The media, schools.

It took me a long time to wake up more and more and more. And of course now, you know, hopefully 25 years from now when I'm in my 70s, I'll be more awake and I'll be happy to still say, yeah, I was wrong when I was 50.

When I was 54, I was, you know, I knew some stuff and I was still wrong about some stuff. Okay, that means you're growing. All right, let's get into our comments and questions now. We can discuss this.

Yeah, this is a good point. Takumas Anna says, haven't people in Japan been wearing masks before? This is a really good point. This is, I think, why the mask nonsense has been so strong here.

Because, yes, they already had a habit of wearing masks when they were sick. This was already like a social thing in Japan, not just Japan and much of Asia, where if you have a cold, let's say you're sneezing.

So it was considered polite to put on a mask when you go out. Kind of a polite thing. It's been proven they don't really work. They don't actually work.

They're not effective at all. So it's just social image. It doesn't actually help at all. But whatever. But they already had that. So this is, see, you can see consistency.

They already had taken one step in that direction. Of course, it was not for the reasons, the globalist reasons that we have now. But they already had that. So I think that's why, especially the mask part of it, has been so powerful and so hard to break in Japan, maybe in other parts of Asia.

I don't know. I haven't traveled in other parts of Asia recently. But... I'm guessing that's why. See, they'd already taken that step. They already had it part of their culture.

So that one was a really, really easy one to do. Whereas the vaccine stuff has been much weaker here in Japan. Interesting. So that's right. It's another great example of why, like, I just look around and say, why are these idiots still wearing masks?

It's so stupid. It's so, it's retarded. But that's why I understand now why I understand the psychological reason behind it now. The persuasion technique that has been used on them and has been used very effectively.

And like I said, it's still working very powerfully. Yeah, Sarah said, two weeks to flatten the curve turned into six weeks, which turned into 20 weeks, then 40 weeks, then 52 weeks, right? And then two and a half years. And it will continue going.

And if this finally gets weak, they'll come back with another one. Oh, now it's the... Now it's the gorilla pucks. Oh, right. Uriel, everybody, do you have any update about the Power English or the courses webpage?

The downloads aren't working. Yeah, I'm sorry. We're working on that right now. So our courses website where you get the lessons from the courses, the downloads are not working.

So there's a... technical problem on the website and the programmers are looking at it trying to figure out what's happening i'm sorry it's probably going to take a few days it might even take like a week to fix this because it's something we're still not quite sure exactly what's going on we'll fix it um so i i apologize those of you trying to get your new lessons don't worry you won't lose any lessons right you you'll still get all the lessons don't worry they're there uh when it's just when the

when it gets fixed, you can still download everything. So nothing will be lost. Thank you for your patience. Renier DeMarco, is the media always wrong all the time?

The media is always lying all the time. They're always deceiving you in some way. Sometimes it might be like 90%, they give you 90% truth and they put a little twist on it, a little deception.

Although nowadays, and that used to be the main technique, they would give you like about 80% truth, facts, and then the 20% twist. Now they don't even really bother. Now they just lie.

They just make up stuff completely, totally and completely lie about everything. So, you know, now it's just don't watch it, don't read it. Why would you read it? It's lies.

100% they're lying about everything. Yes. Yes. How they lie, it's different each time, but they're always lying. Kat says, people always have that sheep mentality.

They always follow what the majority says. Indeed, Kat, and this is another technique in the book. It's called social proof. Social proof. It's interesting.

You see, you guys, we all kind of know, right? So consistency is one technique. Another technique is authority, I mentioned. Authority, like somebody who's supposed to be a big expert or someone who's famous or something like that telling you.

And then people will believe it. Even though the person's lying, they'll believe it. And then another one, remember I said they're six. Well, another one is called social proof.

And it's exactly what Kat's saying. It means people follow the herd. They follow the group. So if they convince you that everyone else is doing it, then most people will also follow.

And the thing is, it might not even be true. Many times they're lying. So many times in the media, they'll try to convince you, they'll tell you that, oh yeah, most people are getting the poison shots. Most people are doing this.

Most people believe this. They'll do opinion polls, right? But these are all very manipulated and deceiving. So it might not actually even be true. It might be that actually most people...

are not doing it most people don't believe it but what they do is they tell you that most people believe it and they show you stories of people who believe it or doing what they want you to do and then a lot of people think oh well everyone else is doing it I guess I should too so this is another definitely and like so the mask thing here in Japan I think that's another part of it that social proof is probably even more powerful in Japan than a lot of other countries So everyone in a mask looks around, they see everyone else in a mask, so nobody wants to take it off. And like I said, I know, because I know personally, I know personally, I'm like real individuals here, that they know it's bullshit.

They know it's nonsense, but they continue to do it anyway. Why? Because they were doing it in the past, so they want to be consistent. And also, they look around, everyone else is doing it, and nobody wants to be different.

So this is another way to break it is you just have to have the courage to just say, just be different. And, you know, like I said, I'm always the person with no mask, the only one on the bus, on the subway, walking around outside. I'm the only one.

And you know what? It doesn't matter. I've never had any problems at all. I just ignore everything. I just live my life normally, and they do what they want to do.

And so... That's the other thing with social proof. When you go against it, you start to realize they have no power. Right? So it's... A lot of this is based on irrational fears.

Please don't spam my comments. Okay, hi from Brazil. Hello. Hi from Houston, Texas. Luzvin, Carla. Yeah, this is very good. Ramiro... Guevara says, I think self-confidence is very important for everything.

When you feel confident, when you're consistent, you have the power to grow. Conor McGregor is a great example of consistency and confidence. Yeah, there you go.

Conor McGregor, very, very, very confident guy. And you have to have the confidence to go against social proof. You have to have the confidence to say, I was wrong. That takes some confidence.

It actually takes more confidence than pretending to be right all the time. Pretending to be right all the time is a kind of fake confidence. But to just say, no, I was wrong.

So now I'm changing my mind and I'm doing things differently. I was foolish. That takes a lot of confidence because you realize that, hey, it's okay. I'm going to do what I think is right now.

And maybe I was wrong in the past. Yeah, Carlos Augusto says, I stopped watching social media. This way I can focus on things that will add to my life. Thanks, AJ.

Yeah, social media is another good one. You know, there are a lot of social media. If you look in comments, like comments on YouTube, for example, or on Twitter, a huge amount of those, I think from what I've seen, it's over 50%.

are fake. In other words, they're just programs. They're called bots, B-O-T-S, bots. It's not a real person writing those. It's some programmer and they're just sending out millions of these messages trying to change everyone's opinion.

They're trying to show a fake social proof. So, if you read that stuff, you read all these comments and you think, oh wow, everybody believes this, but in fact they don't. It's all fake. It's all just a bunch of

It's just a program sending out millions of comments. And they're very good, so the comments are not exactly the same. So this is, you know, again, if you're on social media, Facebook and Twitter and all this, the comments and all this stuff, you're not getting a real view of what people think.

The name of the book is called Pre-Suasion, P-R-E. So like, it's kind of a, it's not a real word. Uh, mind but he's calling it pre p-r-e suasion i'll write it pre suasion by is it robert or roberto i want to say roberto because it sounds italian but uh let's see what his actual name is it is robert i think he's american

I think it's an Italian name, but I think he's American. It's not Roberto Chialdini. It's Robert. I don't know how he pronounces it as an American. Chialdini.

He's a pretty famous guy in marketing and persuasion and politics and media. This guy's pretty famous. Hey, Sriracha, good to see you, as always. And Lukfam, good to see you.

He says, now I'm learning independently. He quit his community college. Lukfam says, I quit my community college. I learned all this crappy stuff. I asked myself, what did I learn last semester?

And then I answered, I didn't learn anything. Yeah. So I'm learning independently about everything. I noticed that when I don't go to school, like summer break, my English was much improving with your courses.

Awesome. So yeah, learn, learn, learn. Build your skills. It'll take time. It's not instant, but good luck to you. So again, that was Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini.

Wellington from Brazil. Good to see you. Wellington asks, have you considered to invite Luke from Luke's English Podcast for an interview? We did an interview one time.

Luke and I did. I was living in San Francisco at that time, and he visited San Francisco. Somewhere in my old podcast somewhere, there's a conversation with Luke from Luke's English Podcast.

Maybe I could do it again sometime. I haven't stayed in touch with him, so I don't know what he's been doing or what's going on with him. Yeah, Sarah says, pre-suasion, she's explaining now the word pre-suasion and the book title. Pre-suasion, pre means before, right?

Pre-suasion is the practice of getting people sympathetic to your message before they experience it, right? It's kind of, this book is about preparing people for your sales message, right?

So instead of just saying, do this, what he's saying is you start with these little things first. And he teaches some other techniques in the book to get people ready. So then when you say, do this, they're even more convinced. They're more easily persuaded.

Give me an example. Before the virus stuff, there were lots and lots and lots and lots of movies that Hollywood made, and TV shows too, about terrible pandemics that turned everyone into zombies or killed everybody.

That was persuasion. That was preparing people for the idea of suddenly some deadly virus would go around the world and kill everybody, right? But it was just entertainment, supposedly, but it put the idea in everyone's head.

because we've all seen shows or movies about that topic. Then... When something comes, it's not actually that deadly at all. But what? Everyone has these images in their mind from all those movies.

So it was easier to convince them. Using these other techniques like consistency and social proof, it was much, much easier to convince people because they already had these ideas, like the pre-suasion. That was the movies and the TV shows.

Pre-suasion. It's kind of, you know, it's kind of demonic, all of this. I'm not so sure this guy, Robert Cialdini, is a very good person, honestly, because he has helped a lot of truly evil people use these techniques.

So, you know, sadly, you know, I guess you could use these techniques in a positive way for something good, but... you know, there's an element of deception, right? Because none of this is being done openly, right? So the person they're trying, the people, the person, the people they're trying to persuade, you know, it's all trying to work on the subconscious and it's manipulating people, all these little techniques.

So I studied all this when I was studying marketing, but I have to say more and more, I don't really like these kind of things. I just feel like they're not honest.

And they're mostly used by some pretty bad people. So I don't necessarily recommend using any of this yourself. I think it's... What I do recommend is you understand it because it will and it is being used on you all the time.

It is constantly being used. Every advertisement, all marketing, all news, all media, even television shows and movies are using these techniques on you all the time. Everything you read, all the media you read. It's not just television.

So... When you learn these techniques and you know them, you'll be able to see them more when it's being done to you. This has helped me a lot to resist this stuff because now it's very obvious, right? The newest thing that comes out.

Oh, now, you know, it's just suddenly everybody's talking about the newest big thing we're all supposed to care about and be afraid of or worry about, right?

Changes in an instant. And then you realize, you see all the same techniques being used again and you can realize, this is the next nonsense thing. I'm just going to ignore it.

So I do think you should learn these techniques so that you're not easily manipulated by them. And of course, just turn the media off. That's the easiest thing to do.

Mr. Cicero says... To what or to whom should we occupy ourselves? So what should we focus on? And to what should we not surrender to? That's a very good question.

My answer to the first one, what should you focus on? Who? To what or whom? I would say God and family. And that's what you should focus on and surrender to.

Especially God. And what should you not surrender to? Don't surrender to the media. Don't surrender to the media, the schools, the big companies, the government.

They're all one at this point, right? Don't surrender to them at all. Don't give them an inch. Carlos Augusto says, how's your jiu-jitsu by now? I'm a little frustrated recently with my jiu-jitsu, honestly.

I'm 54 years old and I'm getting my butt kicked a lot in the gym. you know, it's tough because, you know, I realize that I'm never going to be great at jiu-jitsu. I'm 54. I'm only a blue belt.

There's not enough time. I don't have enough years. And I, first of all, I can't train enough. My body can't handle it enough. I can't train enough hours in a week.

So, you know, all the younger guys are training much more than I am. And, of course, they're already faster than I am and stronger than I am and have more energy than I do. So, yeah, it's hard to, you've got to, it's humbling.

It's humbling to just recognize your limitations and accept them. Right? Because we all, you know, especially as a man, I've got that competitive part in me, but recently I feel very humbled by Jiu-Jitsu.

But I'll keep going. It's good for the ego to get humbled. Mark says, I really love your method of learning English. I hope I will be able to fluently speak it soon.

God bless you. I'm watching. This is Mark from the Philippines. Thank you, Mark. Fernando Diaz says, I'm still talking in English every day with all my new friends I met on Gab after the 90-day challenge.

My improvement has been outstanding. Awesome. AJ, I hope you do more EE shows. I love them. Effortless English shows. Yep. I'll keep doing my best. Hi to the many people saying hi from India, hi from Brazil.

Hello to you all. Eduardo says, I never took a shot and I'm fine and so healthy. They couldn't manipulate me. Awesome. Good. Be proud. Be open about it.

That's great. And if you did, admit your mistake. Admit that you were foolish and don't do it again. Here's Sarah. Sarah's giving us the full title of the book.

Persuasion, a Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini. Lionel says you're already a black belt teacher. There you go. I'm a black belt in teaching.

Certainly not in jiu-jitsu. But, you know, you have to have perspective, you know, because compared to most 54-year-olds, you know, I'm a pretty good fighter and in pretty good shape physically.

Because most people don't do Jiu-Jitsu. They don't start Jiu-Jitsu when they're 50. Most people don't do that. So, yeah. It's still fun. I still like it.

I'm getting better. I'm better than I was three years ago when I started. So, that's the thing you got to do is compare yourself to yourself, not to others.

And it's very much like when I used to be a runner. It was the same thing. Like I was never going to win a marathon or anything. So what you do as a runner, as a hobby runner, like most people, you compare your time to your own self.

But even that, you know, when you get old enough, you can't beat your best, right? Even then, that's the hard part. There's always a point physically as you get older that you can't beat your best, right?

You can still be in very good shape and still enjoy yourself, right? But let's say if you're a runner, if you've been running your whole life a serious runner, so maybe when you're 30, 35, you get your best time, 5K, 10K, marathon. And then when you're 55, 60, you're probably not going to beat that time.

You're probably going to be slower. But you can still run marathons and enjoy them. But you're not going to be as fast as you were when you were 30, probably.

There's no way I can compete physically with the guys in the gym who are training every single day. Some of them train twice a day. The guys are really competitive. They have a special competition training on Sundays they do.

My body can handle about two to three days a week and I can't go super hard even on every one of those days. I maybe have one day where I fight hard, and the other two days I have to go kind of easy and light. And sometimes it means I'm going easy, and then the young guy's going really hard, and he beats me, and it's hard.

It's humbling because I want to just go as hard as I can, but then I know that I'm going to get injured. Yeah, this is part of life. We do get older, and we do die.

So, it's part of figuring out what is the purpose of life, right? Part of that is accepting that you are going to die, absolutely, 100%, and everyone you know is going to die.

So, when you know that, then you have to ask, well, if I'm going to die, so what is the purpose of life? Why am I alive? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life, really?

And what comes afterwards? This is the core question for purpose. Younger people especially ask me, how do I find my purpose? And usually I think they're talking about like a job more, right?

Like be an English teacher or run a business or do something. But I think that you have to be deeper first. That's just a job. Your jobs will probably change through your life.

it's hard to find one thing you can do definitely your whole life. I think purpose is not connected to your job necessarily. Your purpose is answering that deeper question. Why am I alive?

Why am I here? Who am I really? What happens after I die? Right? You've got to focus on that. Those are the real questions. That's where you find what your purpose is.

Once you know that, then you can figure out what jobs can fit that and which jobs fit your personality and your skills, right? Hirston says, 54 years old is not a big deal. If you have the opportunity to go to the gym, you'll look younger and stronger.

Well, exactly. It's just comparing, if I compare myself to a You know, a 22-year-old who's training twice a day. Or even once a day. Yes, I'm terrible.

If I compare myself to the average American 54-year-old, I'm pretty tough. Right? So, if I compare myself to myself three years ago, I'm much tougher.

It's all how you look at it. Cicero, I already answered your question. You should go back and listen again because I answered your question. Lookbump says, how are your kids with homeschooling?

Great. We're just starting. How could you persuade your wife to homeschool them? It was easy. She didn't like school. She agrees with everything I have said about schooling.

So I didn't need to persuade her. She was already persuaded. We already agreed. And this is important when you get married. You need to agree on these things.

these important values. So she's actually been very happy about it. And my kids are three, so they're just learning the sounds of the letters right now and a few simple words, right? So we're still working on the alphabet mostly and counting, like counting one to ten.

I mean, at this age, it's really simple. And mostly, we just go out and explore the world. Like, we're catching bugs recently, looking at them. Look at books, that kind of thing.

We read to them a lot. They can't read themselves, but we read to them. Cool. Lokbom says, I'm going to run a half marathon in October, November, and December as well.

Woo-hoo. Awesome. See, that's great. Yeah, I kind of miss running. I miss it. I might get back into running someday. We'll see. Or rucking, you know, long hikes.

It doesn't fit right now because it takes a lot of time. So with my small kids. But as they get older, I might get back into that. Because that's something you can do your whole life.

You know, there are 90-year-olds. People in their 90s who still... can do long runs long jogs or at least hiking long walks so that's a great one for life Abdinabi says through these videos you're kind of making people red pill thank you AJ for creating awareness in people's minds well thank you I hope so doing my best

I'm not always right about everything, just sharing what I can. Yeah, Zeno, I agree with you. There are major things that will happen after we die. We discussed this somewhat in our book club when we did Life After Life about near-death experiences, what comes after.

So I highly recommend checking out that book club if you're interested in that topic, because I agree, of course. Cool. Michael Kyle says, AJ, I've always been an independent learner, and thanks to you, I started to believe that homeschooling is the best way to educate our children. Absolutely.

Good. You can do it. You can do it. It's awesome. Homeschooling is fun, too. It's fun. It's fun. It's very relaxing. It's not that hard. The earlier you start, when you start younger and younger and younger with your kids, it becomes easier and easier.

If you're trying to start homeschooling with kids who are older, they've already been in school a while, you might have more challenges, but you can still do it. You can still do it. Get online and do some research because...

You can still do a great job with it. But if you have a choice, start when they're really, really young and never send them to school. Fernando says, do you intend to go to Brazil someday? I'd love to go to Brazil someday, but we'll see.

I hope so. Kat says, I'd really like the idea of homeschooling. What about the social aspect? Oh, yeah, it's a common question. It's pretty easy. We socialize with family, first of all.

They have cousins, so they play with their cousins all the time. And just going out to playgrounds, we go to public playgrounds, and there's always kids out there, so they're always... They're starting to play with other kids now. My kids are only three, right?

So they're just now starting, but they like going out and playing with other kids a little bit at the playgrounds. And of course, eventually they can, like my kids are going to do jujitsu. So they'll go to the jujitsu gym. They'll meet all the other kids at the jujitsu gym.

So there's so many ways for them to make friends. So no problem. I remember when your hair was black. I think my hair was blonde, maybe brown. When I was young, it was very, very, very light, almost like my hair now, actually, when I was a kid, like almost white, so blonde.

Then it was kind of a gold color when I was younger, like teens, 20s, and it became a little bit of a lighter brown, and now it's white again. Yeah, I agree with Biweta. And also, I'll read this comment. I really agree with this.

We are here for a purpose. And that is the very first question, isn't it? When people say, what is my purpose? Well, the first question is, is there a purpose?

If you believe there's nothing after death, if you have that kind of view that's pushed on us in the media... and schools and everything then there really is no purpose it's called nihilism it means there is no purpose at all because after you die there's nothing everything disappears you're annihilated you're completely destroyed there's nothing continues so indeed it doesn't matter what you do and there is no purpose so do whatever you want that's sort of the message we're given in the media right so that's the first question you need to ask yourself is there a purpose

or not i think that for example even just the near-death experiences give enough evidence that indeed that's that is wrong and indeed there is a purpose and the next question is what is the purpose then then what is it be what the continuous he says we're here for a purpose if we don't know why we're here it doesn't matter if we die today or a hundred years after good point we're going to be a loser anyway exactly But the purpose of life is knowing the afterlife.

What is eternal? Eternal means what continues forever. So are you just molecules in your body? Or is there a spirit, a soul, an Atman? That's probably a good place to start.

right so I do recommend reading some of the books like Life After Life and other you can just find on YouTube there's some very nice channels that focus on near-death experiences it's quite nice sometimes to hear the people tell their stories directly you can see their face hear their voices they're both good Burby Master says are you more American or Japanese I'm very American still I am in no way Japanese I like Japan but I'm certainly not Japanese.

Okay. Okay. I think I'm almost done, guys. Thank you, Sarah, for putting writing in the comments some definitions and words that I'm saying. It's very helpful.

Thank you, Sarah. Yeah, Mr. Sermon says, the thought to stop existing, right, annihilation means total destruction, nothingness, is very scary. That's why I chose to believe in eternal soul.

Indeed. And do the research, too. Like, what evidence do we have? You know, this kind of was my argument when we were doing the book club, Life After Life, is that there actually is some evidence about this question.

Right? Real evidence. You know, in this case, eyewitness, you know, witness evidence. People who died and came back. And... These books do, not just that, but Live After Life.

There's one called Evidence of the Afterlife. I think I read about that one too. I read some sections of that. But they do a good job of examining these near-death experiences and analyzing them and not just looking at one of them, but looking at hundreds and even thousands of them and

dealing with some of the arguments about them and questions. So I think, you know, I highly recommend listen to that book club, read those books. Maybe you can find a book, a translation in your own language.

And then, of course, then from there, of course, then spiritual and religious traditions. But I find that actually reading about the near-death experiences will strengthen your faith in your religion.

So I think they go together quite well. Michael Kyle says, We know you live in Japan. Do you intend to come back to the USA when your kids grow older? Hopefully not.

Do you want to spend the rest of your life with your family in Japan? What about culture shock? Yeah, my intention, my hope is we'll stay in Japan. It's a much better culture and society than America.

It's sort of falling apart now. Culturally, religiously, spiritually, artistically dead. A disaster. So I have no desire to go back to America. I think in a very general way, the future is in the East and the South, right?

Asia and what's, I don't know, some people call it the global South and the East. So I think we can see that politically, economically, but I think also culturally, this shift where the West has become, the West meaning Europe, America, Canada, North America, Europe,

Australia, right? Really decayed and all kinds... It's just insane, culturally insane at this point. Whereas I think we can see rising Russia, Iran, China...

Brazil, the BRICS countries, in many, many different ways. It's not going to be automatic and instant, but I think that it's all moving that direction, that Asia is the center of power and influence in the world is moving east and south.

I can feel it. I don't know. It's hard for me to explain it, but I just feel it. I've always been attracted to Asia, and maybe that's why. I don't know.

Not only Japan, I like Japan a lot, and Japanese people, but Thailand, India, etc. I think it's good news for most of the world. It's bad news for Europe and North America.

But, oh well. Karma. That's an interesting question, but Sarah says, you're so Japanese. You know what is interesting? I've talked about this before. There is a little bit of, there are certain similarities of Japanese culture to traditional, not now, but traditional, southern and midwestern culture in America, which is my background.

I grew up in the south. My parents are from the midwest. These are kind of, traditionally two kind of more rural, meaning not city, kind of cultures, Midwest and South.

And so there are some, for example, the focus on politeness, social politeness, very important in the South in America, very important in Japan, right?

There's other things like that, that, that are similar it's weird because sometimes I joke but it's only but I'm kind of serious too sometimes Japan feels more like old America than America does now even though it's obviously a very different culture in other ways

This is an interesting, deep question. Dawood Dirtis says, is human nature bad from the core regarding Hobbes' philosophy? I haven't read Hobbes, but it's a key question. I used to think the opposite, and now I believe...

I think that actually, I think that Sanatana Dharma and Buddhism... I think they all put... They kind of say it in different ways, right? So, like Christians will say, talk about the fallen nature of man...

so that people are basically bad. But the way that the Dharma religions put it is that is ignorance. And 100%. I mean, the last several years have shown me, yes, most people are, at the very least, ignorant.

Most people will do terrible, evil things. and terribly stupid things just to be like everybody else or just because somebody with power or authority tells them to.

So the idea that people are all basically good is not true. I used to think that and I do not believe that at all anymore. Does that mean everyone's automatically evil? I don't think that.

I think most people are just sheep. And they'll just They'll go any direction that they're pushed. That's what I've seen in the last several years. And if they're pushed in a direction and led in a direction of terrible, terrible evil, like doing terrible things to children, which we're seeing now becoming pushed and more and more normal, and I am shocked by the number of people, mostly in the West, who go along with it.

then it is, yeah, people will do terrible evil things. But on the other hand, if they're led and pushed the other way, then, you know, they need, there is an absolute need. I mean, that's just the practical argument for religion and morality.

That's practical. There's this deeper argument, but practically it is necessary. Because without it, you can see what happens. We're seeing it right now.

Just look at America, look at Europe, and that's all you need to know. Kat says, if you ask about the Midwest culture of the U.S., is it more laid back? Yeah, the South and the Midwest in the United States, traditionally, like it's hard to say now, most of American culture has been, like real American culture, traditional culture has been totally destroyed.

There's not much left. But traditionally, laid back, slower, more relaxed, not so busy, busy, busy. More farming. These were farming cultures. The South and the Midwest both were traditionally farming cultures.

So most people were farmers, right? Not city workers. And you'll find, you know, all around the world, this is kind of similar, right? Farming, people in farming cultures tend to be a little more relaxed, more connected to nature, right?

More natural. It's the cities where the craziness usually begins. Very generally. All right, I'll take a couple more. I just got to get going now. Miguel says, AJ, you're a great motivation.

You know, it's a gift of God. May God bless you with long life and health. Thank you. I'm learning English to preach the gospel of the Lord. Greetings from Argentina.

Thank you, Miguel. Thank you very much. Will you come visit Thailand again? I would love to visit Thailand. I'm sure I'll make it back to Thailand. I'm sure I'll make it back to India.

Those two, probably Nepal, too. Those two are... Those three are all fairly close. It's not too bad and not too difficult for me to travel from Japan south.

So I'm sure at some point my family will go down to Thailand again and other Southeast Asia countries. I personally would like to go to India, especially Vrindavan.

Again, I've been to India before, but I like to go back. And I just like Nepal. Maybe go hiking in Nepal again sometime. All right, guys, I think that's all.

My room's getting sweaty. I don't have air con in my room. The air con's in the front of our apartment, and my office here is in the back of the apartment, and I close the door when I do the show because my kids are out making noise out there. So my room starts getting quite hot in the summer, and I'm getting sweaty.

All right, guys, so lots of love to you all. Don't give an inch. Don't compromise. Don't compromise. Listen to this one again. You might get that book by Robert Cialdini if you're interested.

But just be aware. Like I said, you don't need to be afraid. There's nothing to fear. There's nothing to fear. Most of what's being done to us and most of all the craziness in the world, it's just through talking and images, like video.

Right? Most people, we don't have guns on our heads making us do these things. People are just being, they're using these techniques. So the good news is when you learn the techniques, you start to see them.

When you turn off the media, when you homeschool and you get away from the schools, away from the media, your mind will gradually get more clear, more clear. Their power will get less and less and less over you.

So no need to be scared or anything or worried or even upset. Just learn the techniques and then relax and live your life. Focus on your life and making your life great.

And if other people don't, that's their problem. All right. As always, go to EffortlessEnglishClub.com. Join my VIP program or get one of my other courses.

I will see you next time. Lots of love to you. Bye for now. Thank you.