Faith Gap – VIP Audio

Hi, this is A. J., welcome to this month’s lesson. This month’s lesson is the Faith Gap.

What is the Faith Gap? What are we talking about? Well, how do you achieve great

long-term results? I know you have some really big long-term goals. For example, I

know you want to master English. That’s a big goal, it takes a long time. And to master

English at a very high level is a very long-term process, it takes years.

You’ve probably already had the experience of the Faith Gap. What is that? What do I

mean? What I’m talking about is that when you decide to go for, try to achieve a

longterm goal, you start working, you’re really excited and maybe you make a big

effort, a big change for a few days, for a week, for two weeks, for a month and you’ll

notice that, usually, you’ll see almost no result. So you’ve got this big goal, you’re

making a big effort and nothing seems to happen.

Now, this gap, this Faith Gap I’m calling it, can vary in length. You might go for weeks

and weeks and weeks without noticing any improvement, without noticing any positive

result at all. Now, with some skills or with some people, this could last a month or many

months and for some very difficult skills you might even need to keep making an effort,

keep working, keep practicing for a year or more before you see or feel any kind of

positive result. So why am I calling this the Faith Gap? I’m calling it the Faith Gap

because to get from that beginning point where you’re noticing no improvement at all to

a point where you finally feel something happening takes time and you need faith to

keep going.

When I was teaching in schools, when I was teaching in universities, the biggest

problem I saw, the simplest reason for failure with English, was that people quit. It

seems obvious, but it’s true. People would just quit. They would lose their faith because

they were making some effort. Again, many of my students I saw that came into my

class already for years had been studying, memorizing grammar and memorizing

vocabulary, doing all of these tough, difficult things for months and years and yet they

were not noticing much change, but eventually they lost their faith.

They lost faith that they could do it. They lost the faith that it was possible for them and

they quit and, of course, if you quit it’s done. You’re not going to improve at all. You’re

finished and, in fact, you’ll start losing what you have already. So we need some kind

of faith, some belief that yes, something will happen, yes, I will achieve my goal, even

though right now I feel like nothing is happening. That’s our big challenge. English is

one example, but there are many examples.

Health is another. For example, if you are in bad shape, you’re not fit right now and you

suddenly decide I will run a marathon. What’s the first thing you do? You’ll go out and

you’ll start jogging and after one week of jogging a few days, probably you’ll notice zero

improvement. In fact, you’ll probably feel worse. Your muscles will be sore, you’ll be

tired. You’ll feel terrible for the first few days. So not only will you not get better, you’ll

get worse.

So how do you keep going? What makes you continue exercising even though you feel

bad, even though nothing is improving, even though nothing seems to be happening?

Faith, you have this faith I know I can I do it. I know if I keep exercising that eventually I

will get better. Eventually, my body will get stronger. Eventually, I’ll be able to run 26

miles or 40 kilometers, whatever it is in kilometers. You have no evidence in your own

life that this is going to happen. It’s all in your mind just believing that it will.

So this is the big challenge, the very tough challenge with any kind of long-term goal

and the bigger the change for you, the harder it is. So to achieve something like that,

whether it’s English, something with your health, maybe it’s financial or in business,

whatever it is, we need something to get us through this period so we can keep going

during this very tough time when nothing seems to be happening.

We need something to carry us through this period. What do we do? How can we keep

going during this tough time in the beginning especially when noting seems to be

happening, when it’s easy to get discouraged, when it’s easy to want to quit? Well,

there are a few things we can focus on, a few things we can do, some psychological

tricks if you want to call them that that will help get us through that Faith Gap until,

finally, we start seeing some kind of results.

For most people when they actually start feeling improvement, when they see that

they’re getting better, well then it’s easy to stay motivated. So how can you keep going

during those other times when you’re not improving, when nothing seems to be

happening? Well, first, you can focus on just enjoying the process. This is a big one.

I’ve had to learn this myself in many different parts of my own life trying to achieve

some big goal.

Goals are great, but sometimes we get so focused on that goal looking at the future,

looking to the future, that we forget to just enjoy what’s happening now. So focus on just

enjoying the process of learning, just enjoying the process of practicing. It’s very

important because it gets you through the time. Even if you’re not improving, even if

you’re not seeing much improvement, you can still enjoy what you’re doing, for

example, again, with English.

You can just enjoy reading interesting books in English. You can enjoy listening to

interesting audios, interesting audio books, maybe watching some TV shows or movies

in English. You can just enjoy the process, enjoy the content, enjoy the topics and not

worry so much about how many new words you’re learning, about whether or not you’re

speaking has improved this week or this month. If you just relax a little bit and just have

a good time, you actually will get through this Faith Gap faster and you’re more likely to

keep going.

Related to this point is mindfulness within the process; in other words, focusing on this

moment now. Not thinking and worrying about the past and how bad you were or the

mistakes you made in the past. Not obsessing about the future and oh, when will I get

better? When will I finally speak like a native speaker? When will I get the success,

when, when, when? Just focusing on right now, what you’re doing today, on the audio

you’re listening to right now, on the book you’re reading right now, focusing on this

moment only, today, that also will get you through that Faith Gap. It also makes the

process more enjoyable.

Another way to get through this difficult period is to find role models and mentors. So a

role model or a mentor is someone who has already done what you want to do. If you

are not a native speaker of English and you want to speak English like a native speaker,

well then find someone who’s already done that, someone who is not a native speaker

of English, but somehow they’ve taught themselves to speak very well.

You can get online; there are so many people out there who have done this. Read their

blogs. Read their websites. If you can, contact them. Find out what they did. Find out

the struggles they had because I guarantee they also had times when they were

frustrated, when they thought they couldn’t do it, but then they did.

This gives you more faith when you realize other people have done this. Other people

have gone through what I want and they got there. They got what I want. They achieved

the result that I want. They struggled as I’m struggling now, but they kept going. The

more you read these kinds of stories, the more you connect with these people, the more

faith you will have. That will get you through these very tough times when nothing

seems to be working.

Another great way to keep going, to bolster your motivation during these through times

is to think about your past successful experiences. We’ve all had some kind of success

in the past. Maybe it’s not with the same goal, probably not, but with some other goal.

We’ve all done something that seemed difficult at the time and yet we achieve it. We’ve

all had times where we wanted to quit, but then we kept going and we finally

succeeded. Maybe in a relationship, maybe something physical, maybe something with

your job or your family, whatever it is, you’ve got it in your history somewhere.

The secret is instead of focusing on all the struggles you’re having now and the

difficulties, instead is to remember your past successes, to remember that you have

done this before and to remember how you did it. So in the past when you overcame

struggle, when you were frustrated, when you felt like you needed to quit, that you

would never succeeded and then you did, what did you do? How did you do that? Well,

use those same ideas, same strategies, same psychology for your current goal.

See, it’s counterproductive to constantly worry about your short and medium-term goals.

Again, if you have this goal of speaking English like a native speaker, that’s a great

goal, that’s fantastic, but it does not help you every month to be worried whether you’re

one step closer or not to that goal, to be constantly fretting and worrying. Oh, my God,

this month is my pronunciation any better? I didn’t learn enough new words. I hear this

all the time, people constantly worried and upset and they get really emotional about it.

The problem is they kill their motivation because they’re so worried about what’s

happening this week or this month and whether they have made enough progress or

not that they destroy their enjoyment of just learning. When you do this enough over

time, your motivation will go down. You’ll start getting depressed. You’ll start telling

yourself things like I’ll never do it, it will never happen. That’s what causes people to

quit. It will certainly cause you to make slower progress.

Now, related to this is this idea of valuing the goal, focusing on the goal more than the

process. This is another big mistake people make. As I mentioned before, people who

have a big goal, which is good, that’s like a compass directing you towards where you

want to go, but when you focus so much on that that you ignore the day-to-day process

of learning and practicing or when you just hate the process of practicing and learning

you’re never going to achieve the goal. You’re just going to be so stressed about the

future that you never focus on the present and that makes you impatient.

This is the number one thing, the number one mistake I see with most people, they’re

just so impatient. A big goal requires time. We may do some things to make that time

pass faster. We can achieve that goal somewhat faster if we use good methods, if we’re

very motivated, if we work really hard, but there’s no way to eliminate the time. There’s

no way to completely cut out the time.

You can’t instantly be an excellent English speaker in one or two months, it’s not going

to happen. No one has ever done that to my knowledge and you’re probably not going

to do that, too. It’s going to take months and months and months, even though you’re

already fairly advanced. This is a long process. I have this problem, too. I’m a super

impatient person. I get very impatient all the time. I always want things to happen faster,

so I’m always having to remind myself of this same thing, to just relax.

Let me end with a story, my own story about starting my business. So now I have this

business Effortless English. It’s doing well, fantastic, that’s great. It took many, many

years to get here. But back in the past when I first started, I had a good amount of

failure and I struggled with all these same things that I’ve already mentioned. I was

impatient. I hated my job at that time. I was just frustrated with never having enough

money, never having enough time to live my life, having to work under very difficult

bosses and I was always focused on this goal of oh, I’m going to become financially

free someday. I was focusing on the goal all the time and not on the present.

It took me years and years to finally learn how to start a business and be successful at it

and what finally changed for me is that I stopped obsessing about this goal and I started

focusing just on the process. I just started enjoying it. I started enjoying reading

business books. Whereas before I didn’t really like it, now I like it. I started to find

mentors and role models, people who had started off with nothing and built a successful

business. That give me faith and motivation and, most of all, I developed some patience

and I decided I will do this. It may take time, but I’m just going to enjoy it. I’m going to

enjoy the process. It will take as long as it will take and, eventually, I was successful

and I enjoyed the process much more.

You can do the same with whatever it is you want, certainly with English, with your

finances, with your business or career, with your relationships, health, anything.

Just find ways to keep that faith and have the faith that with the effort, with the work,

eventually, you will succeed and in the meantime enjoy the process.

All right, I will see you next month. Have a great day, bye.

Faith Gap - VIP Mini Story

Hello and welcome to our mini story for this month’s lesson.

* * * * *

For the past several years, Melvin the mountain lion has been clean and sober.

What has he been?

He has been clean and sober.

‘Clean and sober’ means he does not drink alcohol or use drugs. He has avoided doing

that.

So who has been clean and sober?

Melvin. Melvin has been clean and sober.

And what is Melvin?

Melvin is a mountain lion who has been clean and sober.

Has he been drunk or has he been clean and sober?

He has been clean and sober.

For how long has Melvin the mountain lion been clean and sober?

For the past several years.

For the past several years, Melvin the mountain lion has been clean and sober. In fact, he has been on the wagon and hasn’t drunk any alcohol during that time. ‘On the wagon’ has a similar meaning. ‘On the wagon’ means avoiding drinking. Not

drinking alcohol. It’s used for people who have maybe a problem with alcohol, maybe

an alcoholic and then when they stop drinking they say I’m on the wagon. It’s a little bit

of an idiom. He has been on the wagon and hasn’t drunk any alcohol during that time.

So has he been on the wagon or did he fall off the wagon and start drinking?

He has been on the wagon. He has been sober and he hasn’t drunk any alcohol during

that time.

Who has been on the wagon?

Melvin the mountain lion has been on the wagon.

He has been happy because he has been living with his girlfriend in Athens, Georgia.

Where has he been living?

In the Town of Athens in the State of Georgia.

Georgia in the United States not the country. He has been happy because he has been living with his girlfriend in Athens, Georgia. One day, however, his girlfriend says to him “It’s over. I’m bored and I’m leaving you. Have a good life.” What does his girlfriend do?

Leaves him. His girlfriend leaves him.

Whose girlfriend leaves him?

Melvin’s. Melvin’s girlfriend leaves him.

Does he leave his girlfriend or does his girlfriend leave him?

His girlfriend leaves him. She says “It’s over. I’m bored and I’m leaving you. Have a

good life.”

Poor Melvin. Melvin becomes extremely depressed. In fact, he falls off the wagon and begins to drink again. ‘To fall off the wagon’ is slang and it means to start drinking again.

So who falls off the wagon?

Melvin the mountain lion falls off the wagon and begins to drink again.

Why does he fall off the wagon?

He’s depressed because his girlfriend left him.

Does he fall off the wagon or does he remain clean and sober?

He falls off the wagon. Melvin the mountain lion falls off the wagon and begins to drink

again.

Where does he go?

Well, he goes to the Georgia Bar and orders 26 beers and 30 shots of tequila.

He chugs the beer and slams the shots and quickly becomes drunk.

‘To chug’ means to drink very quickly. It means to drink a lot in a short time, to chug. So

he chugs the beer. He drinks a lot of the beer very, very, very fast. ‘To slam a shot’ has

the same idea. A shot is a small amount of alcohol and to slam it means to, again, drink

it very, very fast, very quickly.

So what does he do with the beer?

He chugs the beer.

Does he drink the beer slowly or does he chug it?

He chugs the beer.

Who chugs the beer?

Melvin. Melvin the mountain lion chugs the beer.

What does he do with the shots?

He slams the shots.

Does he slam the shots or does he sip the shots?

He slams the shots. He drinks them very quickly all at one time.

‘To sip’ means to drink very slowly. He does not sip the shots. He slams the shots. He

slams the tequila.

So which one does he chug?

The beer. He chugs the beer.

How many beers does he chug?

Twenty-six. He chugs 26 beers.

And how many shots of tequila does he slam?

Thirty. He slams 30 shots of tequila.

And then what happens?

He quickly becomes drunk.

Now, unfortunately, Melvin is a bad drunk. When he gets drunk he always shoots his mouth off. ‘To shoot your mouth off’ means to say insulting things to people. It means you have no

control over what you say. You say bad things to people.

Who shoots his mouth off?

Melvin. Melvin the mountain lion shoots his mouth off. He says a lot of bad things to

people when he’s drunk. There’s a big black bear at the bar and Melvin shoots his mouth off to the bear.

Who does he shoot his mouth off to?

A black bear who’s sitting at the bar.

He yells at the bear “Hey, you’re ugly.” The bear gets angry and slugs Melvin knocking him out. ‘To slug’ means to hit, to punch.

Does Melvin slug the bear?

No, Melvin does not slug the bear. The bear slugs Melvin.

Why does the bear slug Melvin?

Well, because Melvin insulted him. Melvin shot his mouth off to the bear. The bear got

angry and slugged Melvin knocking him out. The next night Melvin goes to the Globe, another bar. This time he drinks 52 beers in just 20 minutes. He gets hammered and once again shoots his mouth off in the bar. He insults everyone.

‘To get hammered’ means to get drunk. Again, it’s slang. ‘To get hammered’ or ‘to

be hammered’ means to be drunk.

Does the black bear get hammered?

Nope, the black bear doesn’t get hammered, doesn’t get drunk.

Who gets hammered?

Melvin the mountain lion gets hammered again.

After he gets hammered, what does he do again?

Shoots his mouth off. He insults everyone in the bar.

When does he shoot his mouth off?

When he gets hammered. When he gets drunk.

And who gets hammered?

Melvin. Melvin the mountain lion gets hammered; gets drunk once again.

The bouncer hears Melvin harassing everyone. He grabs Melvin and throws him out of the bar. Melvin passes out in the street. ‘To pass out’ means to become unconscious like sleeping. It’s because of alcohol

usually or maybe some other reason, but it’s from drinking too much. You pass out

means you kind of fall asleep. You fall unconscious.

So who passes out in the street?

Melvin passes out in the street.

Where does he pass out?

In the street. He passes out in the street.

Why does Melvin pass out in the street?

Because he’s hammered. Because he’s so drunk.

Why in the street? Why does he pass out in the street, why not in the bar?

Because the bouncer throws him onto the street and then he passes out.

For the next five months Melvin continues to get drunk every night and continues to get in trouble. Finally, he realizes that he must stop drowning his sorrows. ‘To drown your sorrows’ is an idiom. It means to drink to avoid your problems. It means

to drink to feel better. It means when you’re sad, you feel bad, then you drink

something, you drink alcohol and then you feel better. It’s called drowning your sorrows.

So who must stop drowning his sorrows?

Melvin. Melvin must stop drowning his sorrows.

Why was he drowning his sorrows?

Because he was depressed when his girlfriend left him.

Was he drinking to be happy or was he drowning his sorrows?

He was drowning his sorrows. He was drowning his bad feelings with alcohol. Melvin decides to leave town, go into the mountains and to quit cold turkey. To quit ‘cold turkey’ means to quit suddenly. Not gradually, totally and suddenly.

Does he quit drinking cold turkey or does he quit drinking very slowly and gradually?

He quits cold turkey, very suddenly.

Who quits cold turkey?

Melvin the mountain lion quits cold turkey.

What does he quit cold turkey?

He quits drinking alcohol cold turkey, very suddenly.

Why does he quit cold turkey?

Well, because he realizes that he must stop drowning his sorrows.

And where does he quit cold turkey?

In the mountains. He goes into the mountains and he quits drinking cold turkey.

The first few days without drinking are miserable. Melvin feels sick, but after one week he feels much better. He enjoys being in the mountains. He enjoys the clean air. Each day Melvin gets happier and stronger. How does he feel each day?

Happier and stronger.

Why does he feel happier and stronger each day?

Because he quits drinking cold turkey.

Finally, he decides to continue living a simple and natural life in the mountains. He remains clean, sober and happy the rest of his life.

How does he remain the rest of his life?

Clean, sober and happy.

* * * * *

And that is the end of our mini story. With the mini story, as always, listen to it each day

one or more times. Pause after each question and shout your answer to the question.

You can just use one or two words when you answer the question. You don’t need to

practice in full sentences. You don’t need to shout full sentence answers. Just a few

little words, one, two words, yes, no Have your shoulders back, smile. Use a lot of

energy when you do this, when possible.

Okay, I’ll see you later. Have a great day. Bye for now.

Faith Gap - VIP POV

Hi this is A.J., welcome to point-of-view stories for this month’s lesson. Let’s start with

the past.

* * * * *

For many years Melvin the mountain lion had been clean and sober. He had been on

the wagon and hadn’t drunk any alcohol during that time. He had been happy because

he had been living with his girlfriend in Athens, Georgia. One day, however, his

girlfriend said to him “It’s over. I’m bored and I’m leaving you. Have a good life.”

Poor Melvin. Melvin became extremely depressed. He fell off the wagon and began to

drink again. First, he went to the Georgia Bar and ordered 26 beers and 30 shots of

tequila. He chugged the beer and slammed the shots and quickly became drunk.

Unfortunately, Melvin was a bad drunk. When he got drunk he always shot his mouth

off. There was a big black bear at the bar and Melvin yelled at him. “Hey, you’re ugly.”

The bear got angry and slugged Melvin knocking him out.

The next day Melvin went to the Globe, another bar. This time he drank 52 beers in just

20 minutes. He got hammered and once again shot his mouth off in the bar. He insulted

everyone. The bouncer heard Melvin harassing everyone. He grabbed Melvin and threw

him out of the bar. Melvin passed out in the street.

For the next five months Melvin continued to get drunk every night and continued to get

in trouble. Finally, he realized that he must stop drowning his sorrows. He decided to

leave town, go into the mountains and quit cold turkey. The first few days without

drinking were miserable. Melvin felt sick, but after one week he felt much better. He

enjoyed being in the mountains. He enjoyed the clean air. Each day Melvin got happier

and stronger. He decided to continue living a simple and natural life in the mountains.

He remained clean and sober and happy the rest of his life.

* * * * *

Okay, now let’s do our second version of the story. Let’s imagine it’s happening in the

future. Maybe we’re having a dream and we know it will happen in the future, so now in

the future.

* * * * *

In the future for several years Melvin the mountain lion will have been clean and sober.

He’ll have been on the wagon for several years and won’t have drunk any alcohol

during that time. During that time he’ll have been happy because he will have been

living with his girlfriend in Athens, Georgia. On day in the future, however, his girlfriend

will say to him “It’s over. I’m bored and I’m leaving you. Have a good life.”

Poor Melvin. At that point Melvin is going to become extremely depressed. (Gonna

means going to) He’ll fall off the wagon and he’ll begin to drink again. He’ll go to the

Georgia Bar and he’ll order 26 beers and 30 shots of tequila. He’s gonna chug the beer

and slam the shots and quickly become drunk. Unfortunately, Melvin will be a bad

drunk. Whenever he gets drunk he’ll always shoot his mouth off and this time there will

be a big black bear at the bar and Melvin will yell at him. “Hey, you’re ugly.” The bear

will get angry and he’ll slug Melvin knocking him out.

Now, the next day Melvin is going to go to the Globe, another bar. This time he’ll drink

52 beers in just 20 minutes. He’ll get hammered and once again he’ll shoot his mouth

off in the bar. He’ll insult everyone. The bouncer will hear Melvin harassing everyone.

He’ll grab Melvin and throw him out of the bar. Melvin will pass out in the street.

For the next five months Melvin will continue to get drunk every night and continue to

get in trouble until, finally, he’ll realize that he must stop drowning his sorrows. At that

point he’s gonna decide to leave town, go into the mountains and quit cold turkey. The

first few days without drinking are gonna be miserable for him. He’ll feel sick, but after

one week he’ll feel much better. He’ll enjoy being in the mountains, he’ll enjoy the clean

air and each day Melvin will get happier and stronger. He’ll decide to continue living a

simple and natural life in the mountains and, therefore, he’s gonna be clean, sober and

happy the rest of his life.

* * * * *

That is the end of our point-of-view stories for this month. As usual, just listen to the mini

story and listen to these point-of-view story versions. You don’t need to think about

grammar rules, just listen and get a better understanding of grammar just through

listening and understanding. Let that feeling for grammar develop over time, it takes

many months. Be patient, enjoy the stories and repeat them many times.

See you next time. Bye for now.

Faith Gap – VIP Commentary

Hi, this is A. J., welcome to the commentary for this month’s lesson. So there I was

practicing a difficult song on my bass. I had the idea that I would become a bass player,

that I would learn the bass, the bass guitar. So I was practicing a difficult song by the

band Rush and in the beginning I enjoyed it quite a bit. I broke it into little, small pieces

and I practiced each little piece just a few notes at a time. I would learn say four or five

notes at one time, practice it again and again and again, then go to another four or five

notes, practice that again and again, then practice putting the two together. As I said, in

the beginning I enjoyed this. I had a feeling of progress, that I was making progress,

that I would continue to improve and, eventually, I would become a master of the bass.

Now, in another area of my life, many years ago just as I was starting Effortless English,

I was looking at our sales and they were very low; in the very beginning, only a few

sales. We only sold a few lessons. We had very few members. I was really sick of my

job because at that time I was also working full time still teaching at a school in San

Francisco. So I would go to work during the day and teach classes and then later I

would come home and I would work on the business, on Effortless English.

But it was quite discouraging, quite tough, because the sales were not quite enough.

The business wasn’t making enough money and I really wanted to quit my job. I was

totally sick of working for other people. I was sick of having to teach in schools where I

was being told how I had to teach. I had to follow all the rules and I had to live on

someone else’s schedule. So it was tough, it was difficult, it was discouraging and I

didn’t know at that time how to improve the business enough so that it would make

enough money and I could quit the job that I was frustrated with.

So what’s interesting about both of these examples from my own life is that in both

cases I had a kind of Faith Gap. Meaning, I had a goal, I had a big dream, a big idea for

each one. One one hand, I had this dream, this big idea of oh, I would be a great bass

player someday and on the other hand I had this dream that I would become financially

independent, that I would grow this company and have freedom and quit my job. In fact,

my big fantasy was thinking about the day I would walk in to my boss into his office and

say I quit, I’m done, and that I would walk away never to return again.

It was a great fantasy. Both of them were quite entertaining and quite enjoyable just to

dream about, but the reality of my life in both cases was very, very different. I was very

far, I thought, I felt, from both of those results. With the bass I was struggling and

struggling day by day. Now, in both cases I took some kind of disciplined action. With

the bass I was practicing each day working on this difficult song and with the business I

would come home and I would work on the business. I would study business books and

try to learn about marketing, work to improve our website and work to improve the

lessons.

In both cases I had goals, big dreams as I just mentioned, but also I had specific

measurable goals. With the base my measurable goal for the medium term was to play

that song and to play it at the same speed as the recording and with the business my

goal also was very measurable, which was to make enough money to replace my salary

at my job and, therefore, quit my job.

I started with strong motivation with both of these. I was very excited and had a great

deal of passion for music, learning the base and also for becoming financially

independent, for teaching the way I wanted to, for establishing my business, then I had

a moment of truth for each one of these goals. This is that thing we discussed in the

main lesson, that Faith Gap. That’s where there is such a big gap between where you

are now and where you want to be and even though you’re putting in all this effort and

energy and maybe you’re being quite disciplined, nothing much seems to be happening.

With the bass I was practicing and practicing and practicing every day. There were

little improvements, but I really wasn’t getting very close to my goal of playing that

song at full speed or certainly of becoming a great bass player and with the business

the same thing. I was putting in all this work and effort trying all these new things,

every day for hours and hours working and working and yet I would look at the sales

and nothing much changed, basically, the same.

That’s where you hit that moment of truth for anything in your life. I’m talking about my

life, but we all have this experience with any large change that we want to make. With

any important big goal that seems far away, you always will hit this gap, this wall, where

you feel like you’re working very hard, you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, but

you’re not seeing results. You feel like you’re not getting any closer to that goal and

that’s where, as we discussed in the main lesson, you have to somehow step in and

find that faith, that belief in yourself that it will eventually happen, that you just need to

keep on going and that, eventually, you’ll start to see the results.

The hard thing about this is that it’s an unknown. I think that’s the toughest part. You

don’t know how long it will take because for each skill it can be a different amount of

time. So if you’re learning a musical instrument then that might take longer or shorter to

see results than with a business, as in my case. Also, each of us has our own strengths

and weaknesses. So some things in life will seem to come more easily and more

quickly, we’ll see the results happening faster and other things in life will seem to take a

much longer time where you really need that faith to keep going because you’re working

and working and working and you don’t see anything happening.

Now, a common area of life where we see this happen again and again is with health,

especially weight loss, people who’ve let themselves get too heavy and then they

decide ah, I’m going to lose weight, I’m going to lose fat and then they start doing the

right things. They start to eat better. They start to do some kind of exercise. Maybe they

lose some pounds, some kilos in the first few weeks, but then they hit a point where

even though they’re still eating well, even though they’re still working hard and doing

some exercise, the weight loss sort of slows down or even stops.

They get on the scale, they look down and the number is basically the same. That’s

where, again, they hit that Faith Gap, that gap where they’re doing the right things, but

not seeing the results immediately, not seeing the results now. That’s usually when

people quit. They give up. After one week, two weeks, a month or a couple months of

nothing happening, no changes, people get discouraged.

Perhaps you’ve done this. I’ve certainly encountered this in different parts of my life.

Then, of course, when you quit, when you give up, you go back to the old habits and

then you never achieve that result. What happens with people with weight loss is they

get discouraged and then they start eating junk food more and more again, they

exercise less and less and less and then the pounds, the weight, the fat starts coming

back on again.

So this is tough. There’s no way around this. It’s a very tough thing to develop that

ability to have faith when things are not working, not happening. That’s a very important

skill in life and it’s something that takes constant effort, focus and determination.

In my own life with these two examples I got two different results. With the base I did not

have that faith. I gave up because day by day I became more and more frustrated. I

made a lot of mistakes. I was comparing myself to high-level professional bass players

and, of course, compared to them I was terrible and I just lost faith. I started thinking I’ll

never do this. This is impossible. I’m not good at this. I began to feel hopeless about the

situation, a feeling of hopelessness started setting in. I improved only a tiny bit, but it

just seemed like it would take forever. I lost faith in my ability to improve, in my ability to

achieve the goal, the dreams, the image that I had, so step by step my practice time

each day got shorter and shorter and shorter, less and less and less until, eventually, I

stopped and quit and, as a result, I don’t play the bass now.

On the other hand, with the business, as you can probably guess, I refocused myself on

the moment. I stayed focused in the moment and I had faith that no matter how tough it

got that I could do this, that I could achieve it. I focused on what was working, the fact

that hey, maybe I’m not getting a lot of money, maybe not many sales, but I am getting

some sales and that’s a great encouraging sign. So I motivated myself with those small

results.

I also reduced my goals. I decided I don’t need to be totally financially independent. I

don’t need to make a lot of money. I don’t even need to totally replace my salary. I

decided that if we lived really cheaply and cut our expenses that I could make maybe

even half as much and still be able to quit my job and so I took that leap of faith that we

talked about in the main less where I decided even though I’m not seeing the results I

want, even though nothing seems to be happening, I’m going to have faith, I’m going to

have determination and just keep going and just believe that it will happen in time.

As I did this, I decided to notice just even the tiniest improvements. So I kept working

and kept working and, in fact, I was much closer to my goal than I imagined. That point

where I was getting frustrated, it felt like it would be forever until I would achieve that

goal, but in fact it only took six more months. It only took six months from the point I

started the business to quit my job, so it was much closer and this often happens in life,

too.

You know there’s this saying in English that often when you’re feeling that the goal is

really far, that in fact you’re closest to it. We have this idea that it’s always darkest

before the dawn. That’s the saying, it’s darkest before the dawn. The literal meaning is

before the sun comes up that’s when it’s most dark outside. I don’t know if that’s really

true, but that’s what we say. What it means figuratively, what it means as a metaphor

is that your situation in life often feels the darkest, it feels the worst, it feels the most

terrible, just before you achieve that big success, the light. Often when you’re really

close to achieving something big, you feel the most hopeless. You feel like it never is

going to happen.

It’s a good metaphor. It’s a good thing to think about because I have found that it’s true

in my own life and I’ve seen it happen with many other people where you’re trying,

you’re trying, you’re working, you’re working, ha, getting really frustrated. Nothing

seems to be happening. Nothing seems to be happening. Right as you’re ready to give

up you just make yourself keep going a little more and then boom, everything changes.

That’s what happened with my business, I kept going through that gap. I kept that faith.

I took that leap of faith, kept pushing forward and the success came quite quickly after

that.

It’s almost like we’re being tested. Some people who are more spiritual have this idea.

They teach this idea that life tests you, the Universe tests you, God or whatever you

want to call it. You will be tested and your faith will be tested so that you will feel the

most helpless and hopeless before you are given that great opportunity for success. I

don’t know if that’s true or not, but psychologically it certainly seems to happen that way

many times.

So what should you do? Your assignment this month, first, to identify a goal in your life

where you lost faith, an important goal in your life that you lost faith or that you feel very,

very frustrated about. Now, that might be your ability to speak English or it might be

something else, so identify that. Then, second, decide that you’re going to somehow

take that leap of faith to keep going, even though you’re not seeing the results that you

want to see.

As you do that, as you decide to make that leap of faith and keep going, focus more on

the moment now and try to focus on finding even the tiniest of improvements. Don’t

think too much about that big goal because it can discourage you if you’re far away from

it. Rather, focus just on the tiny, little improvements. What did you improve maybe even

just a tiny bit this week and get excited about that.

Work as hard as you can to build up your excitement for the short term, for this moment.

Sort of brainwash yourself really, convince yourself to develop that faith and that, in fact, your success is much closer than you think. Have this belief that it’s almost there and that if you just have enough faith, if you just have enough determination that, in fact, it will come quite quickly and that when you feel the worst, when you feel it’s farthest away, that’s when it’s actually closest. That’s your assignment.

What I would like you to do also is go onto our social site and tell us. Tell us what this

thing is for you. Tell us this area in your life where you have that Faith Gap that you

have to get through and let the other members encourage you to keep going. I look

forward to reading about that on our social site.

That’s your assignment this month. Enjoy it. Good luck to you. See you next time. Bye

for now.