Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone To Build Your CELPIP Skills + PODCAST Update

So if you've been wanting to improve your speaking skills in English, especially for the CELPIP exam, and in English in general, this episode is going to be for you. Hi, I'm Aaron. Welcome to the Celpip Success podcast. Today I am in the middle of a challenge that I am laying down for me.

You see, I've been podcasting for almost two and a half years, probably, and during that whole time, my methodology, or the way that I've been going about creating those podcasts, has been scripting out every single word that I'm going to say. And then I go back and I record myself reading those words. And of course, I'm trying to put feeling and emotion in the.

In the way that I read what I have worked so hard to script out. But that has become my comfortable place, my comfort zone. And I don't do hardly any riffing.

You know, I don't do hardly any going off of script because whenever I've tried to go off script, all of a sudden I feel. Naked, kind of like I'm exposed and. And I. I get afraid and I get nervous, and I feel like, oh, no, maybe I don't have anything interesting to say.

So I kind of run back and hide behind that script. And over those two years or so, I probably invested well. I don't even know how many hours, but countless hours.

I haven't been tracking them, but on average, it takes me about three to four hours per episode to put them together from. From scripting what I'm going to say to recording it to editing. Takes a long time to put each episode together. And.

And I'm not complaining about that. I actually love doing podcasts. I love making them. It fits in my personality really well.

Like, the audio version of this is just like an introvert's delight because I'm not in front of people, people aren't looking at me. And I always had that security blanket of just reading what I'm going to say, which felt very comfortable.

But as I was saying a moment ago, over those two years, I began to. Maybe feel a little bit like I want to do something more to push my skills or to help me get to be a better speaker, a better. A better podcaster.

And I've heard people say things like, they don't script, they just use bullet points.

And I've talked about this several times on the podcast before where, you know, I've wanted to try to do bullet point only podcasts, but each time I've tried, it's been so frustrating for me. Because I would make mistakes, because I'm not following a script.

And then I would give up because I would say to myself, look at all the mistakes I'm making. Look at how extra long time this is taking you to do. Maybe just go back to what's tried and true and just follow a script.

But as I've been sharing over the last few weeks, I've been working really hard to try to do things to reduce the drain on my battery, you know, my. The drain on my, my mental energy and my physical energy and my emotional energy, whatever.

I've been trying to do things to reduce that because I think I'm struggling with burnout a little bit. I've shared that before, so this is not news to you.

If you've been listening to this podcast and one of the things that came to mind was the duration of these podcast episodes and also the amount of work that goes into them, that's something that I can work, work on. And so I've set myself a goal. No more scripting, at least for this month, probably a lot longer than that.

But I'm going to give myself this challenge. Aaron will not script his episodes. He will only use bullet points. Also, Aaron will create shorter podcast episodes.

And I need to hurry up if I'm going to stick within my goal of. I'm going to do it in 10 minutes or less and I'm not going to be editing this. It's a one take, that's it.

And I've been actually listening to a couple of really quite funny podcasts and I'll link to them in my, in my show notes.

They're not like funny funny like they're telling jokes, but they, they just make comments that really strike me as insightful when it comes to why people like to script and, and also the value of going off script and not using such tight constraints or such comfortable comfort blankets that those scripts can be because you hide like, one of the things that they talk about is that you hide behind those scripts and you don't let the real you come out.

And one of the really interesting things that they point out again, and I'll be pointing out to these, to these videos if you want to check them out yourself.

But one of the things that they point out, which I find quite interesting, is that in this age of AI, where everything can be faked, everything can be, you know, computer generated, one of the things that people are going to be craving are real, authentic people.

And real, authentic people talking make mistakes all the time, and they don't use a script when they're talking, they just go with what they're going to say, mistakes and all. Anyway, that's, that's a side note. And if I were following a script, you wouldn't get that side note. That's just my.

My head pulling in things that I've been thinking about. But anyway, the thing that I'm going for here is one take, no editing. In fact, I've deleted and canceled my.

My subscription to the podcast editing tool that I use every month. Not because it sucks, not because I didn't like it. I'm just really trying to push myself out of this comfort zone that I'm in by removing.

The possibility for me to retreat. I mean, I can totally retreat if I want to and go back into editing.

I'm not, like, being super hard on myself with this, but I really want to encourage myself to try this new thing. So my goal, short episodes, no editing, and just pushing it out.

Publishing what I create without very much work involved other than the work of thinking about what I'm going to say first. Yeah, like when I'm saying this, no editing and reducing my workload. I'm not saying that I'm trying to put out a trash episode.

I hope that you don't feel like this is trash. But what I'm trying to do here is to try. Try to help myself in lowering my workload.

I'm also trying to model something which I think is really important for you. Now we're going to talk about you, because that's what you're here for. You're not here to listen to me talk about what I'm trying to do necessarily.

I think you're here because you're. You want to be building your English skills and you want to learn how to. Speak with.

With greater confidence, especially when it comes to the CELPIP exam. And what I've found is this. What I've been struggling with, with all of what I was saying here right now is my comfort zone of using a script.

And I stayed in that comfort zone for over two years, even though I had moments of, hmm, I wonder what's on the other side of that comfort zone. But I avoided it. I didn't step into it because it's not comfortable. This does not feel comfortable.

What I'm doing here right now feels kind of scary for me. But it's something that I want to learn how to get better at. And you could probably tell where I'm going with this.

If you find speaking and using your English to Be something that is scary for you, that you don't feel confident in doing, then you probably avoid it, to be honest.

I mean, I know that for me, when I was learning Spanish, and I still am working on learning Spanish, I would often avoid chances to use my Spanish because I didn't feel confident, I didn't feel like I had the right skills. You know, I didn't feel like I was good enough to be able to engage in conversations, even though I could.

So what I want to invite you to begin doing is like what I am doing right here. Don't avoid the thing that scares you.

If speaking to other people in English is the thing that you try to avoid, my friend, I want to throw you down a very friendly challenge.

During this month in December, I want to challenge you to step out of that comfort zone of avoiding those English conversations and choose one person to engage with for like five minutes or less in a conversation. But put yourself out there.

No scripting, no like trying to think in advance necessarily what you're going to say, maybe come up with one or two simple questions to get the conversation going, but make it your goal.

Like, make it into an experiment or a game that you play where each day you try to get out there and play the game, and the game is, can I speak with just one person for five minutes in English and then stop. See if you can create that habit on a day by day basis.

And that would be your first objective, to get into the rhythm of creating those conversations.

No scripting, no, like, artificial protection around you that you can, you know, hide from the person, but that you can put yourself out there, have that conversation and retreat back to the safety of, of home, if you will. Anyway, that, that is my invitation for you. I'm already at my 10 minute mark, my 10 minute, my 10 minute limit. I've crossed it.

So I'm going to hit stop on this. But my invitation for you today is don't avoid the thing that scares you doing this. For me, it's scary.

And in the last, like one minute or so, I've had multiple thoughts in my head. This sucks. Maybe I should just hit stop and do this again. It's not perfect. It's not right. No, I'm not going to listen to that.

And you're going to have those similar thoughts in your head as you try to engage with the people around you. But my friend, if you really want your English to improve, and I know you do, which is why you're listening to this podcast, I think.

You really have to push through those feelings of giving up those, those resistance feelings that you have telling you you can't do this, you shouldn't do this, you suck at this. No you don't. Confidence comes as you use your English as you are out there talking with people. It doesn't come through a course book.

It doesn't come honestly through going to, going to more classes. It comes to actually you being out there using your English with real people and if you want to build that skill, start small. Start small.

This is my version of small. Okay, I'm at the 12 minute mark, I'm going to hit stop. What is your version of small and are you going to engage in it?

I'm going to encourage you and challenge you, challenge you to engage in it on a day by day basis. Have a great week and thank you for listening to the Celpip Success podcast. Bye bye.