– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

if you have an addiction that brings you

great shame or just a nasty nasty bad

habit that you for some reason can't

stop doing or even if you have something

that is a good thing that you want to

start doing maybe it's going to the gym

maybe you want to be the type of person

who goes to the gym but you just can't

bring yourself to do it maybe you have

done it successfully a couple days in a

row usually during the new year but

something always happens you do the new

good thing for a little bit or you stop

doing the bad thing for a little bit but

a couple days in you start to feel it

it's like a mounting pressure and all of

a sudden you have one bad day a day

where maybe you were a little bit too

lazy to go to the gym or maybe you were

a little bit too weak in the willpower

Department to not do the bad thing that

you're avoiding and it feels like the

whole thing comes crashing down you

lament it's like the House of Cards

finally came crumbling down and you

binge yourself to death on the thing you

are trying to avoid or the old lifestyle

that you were trying to get away from if

this has been your story with sticking

to a new habit change or trying to

change your life in any meaningful way

then there's a very good chance that

you've been falling for the myth of

vertical progress what is the myth of

vertical progress I don't know if it's a

result of Internet self-improvement

culture or recent studies in habit

formation psychological something or

other but everybody seems to have this

idea that if they just make it to a

certain amount of days then everything

will make sense they fetishize 21 days

or 30 days or 90 days 365 days they

think to themselves damn me in this

piece of mode right now if I could only

make it to 90 days then everything would

make sense 90 day me is legit he just

feels better about himself he lives a

better life he's not by bothered by

trivial things because he's sort of

gigachad viewing lifestyle change like

this is viewing progress as a vertical

thing you know you stack day two on top

of day one day three on top of day two

and then when the stack of days gets big

enough then your life changes and the

wild thing is almost everyone thinks

this way for some reason we think in

terms of streaks but the issue is that

no habit that you currently have was

ever built like this even if you thought

you were building your habit that way

the reality of this situation is that

every single successful day that you had

you were building progress you were

strengthening the muscle of that new

lifestyle so many of us believe that in

order to change our entire lives all we

need to do is hit a certain amount of

days and then everything will make sense

it's like nothing really matters up

until that point but then we hit that

magical number and our lives change

forever and even if you don't believe

that sort of dramatic narrative there's

still a subconscious understanding that

oh if I just hit this amount of days

then things will become easier what was

once unnatural will feel natural you

know it'll officially be locked in as a

habit and then I don't need to try very

hard anymore it's just automatic but the

problem is not only is this type of

thinking psychologically inaccurate but

it also adds so much pressure to hit

this magical day we're approaching

lifestyle change as if it's a Jenga

Tower you know you stack days on top of

days on top of days and eventually at

the top you hit your goal but the

problem with the Jenga Tower is that

with each block you add it becomes more

unstable so this pressure of messing up

becomes bigger and bigger and bigger the

more days you have under your belt and

when you think like this it almost

always feels as if though if you make it

really far like halfway say your goal is

90 days and you make it 45 days if you

mess up after 45 days it's almost like

the floodgates are open you're like oh I

knew I couldn't do it and then all of a

sudden you binge into the old behavior

and you figure maybe three years from

now I'm gonna try again but the thing is

progress is not vertical it's never been

vertical we're not building a tower

we're building a road a road that we're

planning on taking for the rest of our

lives a road that we do take with each

day that we partake in that new activity

because every single habit that you have

is just a road that leads you to a

desired destination even your bad habits

you do them because you get something

out of it you know they give you some

sort of feeling that you want to feel

the problem is that over time as we walk

a certain road we learn that this road

is actually pretty treacherous you know

it hurts us in the long run maybe it's

infested with Wolves maybe there are

slopes that make you slip and muddy your

clothes maybe it's a super inefficient

route and you're traveling and

exhausting yourself way longer than you

need to in order to get your desired

outcome whatever the case is not all

roads are created equal sometimes we

establish roads very early in our lives

that lead us to this destination that we

want but we learn as we get older that

there are way more efficient and

healthier routes to get to that result

and this road that we established that

we laid all these bricks on and created

this highway on no longer serve us the

reward it proposes is no longer worth

the injury we inflict upon ourselves by

taking this road so we decide through

our conscious effort to start

constructing a new road and a lot of the

time taking this new road to this same

destination that we want a road that is

less treacherous a road that won't hurt

us as much it'll take some work because

a lot of the time you know you know day

one day two day three we're all

motivated to sort of bushwhack and

create this new road through the weeds

but in the long run we know that this

new road is going to be way better way

more efficient and just a road that we

want to walk and every single day that

we opt for this new road instead of the

old one the old one is starting to grow

over you know some weeds are starting to

take effect there's some overgrowth

starting to develop and every single day

that we spend working on this new road

it becomes more comfortable and more

likely that we use this road in the

future because we are telling our brain

that yes this road leads to what we want

so this new lifestyle that you've been

working on that you occasionally try

every January 1st it's still there it's

always been there but the degree to

which it's developed is solely based on

how much you've been using it and just

because you have a bad day and you

understandably choose the old road one

day it doesn't mean that that road that

new road you're trying to build doesn't

exist anymore maybe you were tired maybe

you didn't want to bushwhack that day I

get it the old road probably looks very

tempting maybe you forgot why you were

building the new road but just because

you picked the old road one day doesn't

mean all of your progress is lost on the

new road you're building it's not and it

feels so much better and more

encouraging to know that the longer that

you spend developing the new road

planting bricks in Solid Ground day

after day that old road is starting to

get overgrown the more time you spend on

this new road through conscious effort

the easier this road becomes to walk not

harder there is no mounting pressure so

if you mess up after one day and you

want to burn the whole thing down that's

entirely up to you you can go back back

and start removing bricks on this new

Road Brick by Brick but just know that

it will be through conscious effort

because it doesn't just explode

automatically you can choose to abandon

your new building project and let the

weeds grow over so that the next time

that you try it again you have to Bush

whack right from the start again but it

will reveal a road that was already

there that you placed through effort so

it'll be just that much easier to start

up on that new road again so hopefully

this is a profoundly encouraging thought

changing your entire life has never been

about okay let's see how far we can go

with this and if I have one bad day well

it was worth a shot guess we'll try

again three years from now it's like no

we're in the business of developing new

defaults

like deep grooves to sink into day by

day we place a new brick we whack a new

weed until this road is a far more

comfortable road to travel to get what

we want and then eventually by using

this new road more and more and more The

Old Road will start to get consumed by

overgrowth it will become a road that

just feels very questionable you know

it's like oh why would we choose that

road when this road is so much better

that we've built but it just takes some

time to get there relinquish yourself of

the pressure of vertical progress it

doesn't exist stop chasing these

arbitrary numbers that have absolutely

no resemblance to living your life day

by day decision by decision try to find

ways to make building this new road as

easy and as efficient as possible remind

yourself constantly of why you're

building this new road and try to help

yourself develop it so that it's one

that you prefer taking 10 times out of

10. Let The Old Road die away and become

infested with parasites I don't know

what that was that was kind of stupid

let's build some roads

and I want you guys to download the

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more likely that you do that thing in

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next video

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
addiction /əˈdɪkʃən/ B2	noun - the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice
habit /ˈhæbɪt/ A2	noun - a settled or regular tendency or practice
shame /ʃeɪm/ B1	noun - a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior
stop /stɒp/ A1	verb - cease to continue
gym /dʒɪm/ A2	noun - a building or room equipped for indoor sports
successful /səkˈsesfəl/ B1	adjective - accomplishing the desired aim or result
pressure /ˈprɛʃər/ B1	noun - continuous physical force exerted on or against an object by something in contact with it
lazy /ˈleɪzi/ A2	adjective - unwilling to work or use energy
weak /wiːk/ A2	adjective - lacking the power to perform physically demanding tasks
crash /kræʃ/ B1	verb - collide violently or heavily
lament /ləˈment/ C1	verb - express sorrow or regret
binge /bɪndʒ/ B2	verb - indulge in or eat to excess
progress /ˈprəʊɡrɛs/ B1	noun - development towards a better state
fetishize /ˈfɛtɪʃaɪz/ C1	verb - to attribute sexual desire or interest to
gigachad /ˈɡɪɡəˌtʃæd/ C2	noun - An internet slang term for an exceptionally dominant and confident man.
strengthening /ˈstrɛŋθənɪŋ/ B1	verb - make or become stronger
narrative /ˈnærətɪv/ B2	noun - a story or account of events
inaccurate /ɪnˈækjərət/ B2	adjective - not correct or precise