Should you KEEP GOING or GIVE UP? Perseverance - Business English Lesson

Deciding when to quit and when to keep going, when to give up and when to persevere, is a hard topic to discuss, especially if you speak English as a second language. In today's podcast we're talking about how to support and encourage your colleagues when doing difficult tasks, how to talk about quitting strategically, and some natural and native sounding vocabulary, both formal and informal, to do this. We'll also briefly discuss one of the ideas in the book The Dip by Seth Godin. 

Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

Book a session with me: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

Book a session with me: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com

Transcript

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast, where I help you to communicate better at work, in English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I am still a Business English Coach. Thank you so much for listening. And today's topic is perseverance. Or when to stop trying, when to give up, and when... Do continue. I think we all have times when we're trying to achieve something and it just feels like too big of a challenge. Or that it's too challenging for us to succeed. Maybe there are difficulties that seem impossible. Insurmountable.Some insurmountable difficulties. Or maybe we've bitten off more than we can chew. In today's podcast... We're going to talk about making the decision to stop doing something. Or to continue working on something even when it is difficult. We'll hear some natural and native vocabulary that we can use to talk about these situations and both informal and formal ways to discuss this issue. Let's get started today with something positive. And this is encouraging your colleagues. If you're struggling with something, then it's always great to know that you've got people in your life. Honor. Here are some natural and native things that you might say to show your support for a colleague who is struggling with something. Don't throw in the towel just yet, just keep at it and you'll figure it out eventually. Don't throw in the towel just yet. Just keep at it and you'll figure it out eventually. The management team has every confidence in you. The management team has every confidence in you. Your perseverance really is second to none. Your perseverance really is second to none. Okay, so as always we've got some informal English in there and some formal English too. We're going to start our vocabulary conversation today with the informal vocabulary in the first example, and that is don't throw in the towel just yet. Don't throw in the towel. To throw in the towel is an idiom that comes from the sport of boxing. If you picture a boxing match in your head, what do you see?Well, You probably see a boxing ring. With four corners and ropes on the sides. Thank you. And each fighter has a team of supporters or coaches in their corner, helping them out and preparing them for each new round. Traditionally, in a boxing match. If a boxer's coach, their trainer, feels like their fighter cannot continue, then they will literally throw a towel into the ring. They'll take the towel that their fighter is using between rounds, between parts of the fight, and throw it into the ring. This tells the referee: that the match is over. And that this fighter has lost. They give up. And don't want to continue. There are lots of English phrases and idioms that come from the sport of boxing. But this is definitely one of the most common. I mentioned that a boxer usually has a coach and some supporters in their corner. Of the ring. The place that they go between rounds, between parts of the boxing match for help and support. Similarly, You can use this phrase to show that someone supports you and what you're doing. If I tell you that I am in your corner, then You know. That you can rely on me for support. We had the phrase to keep at something. To keep at something. We can, of course, use the word keep, with verbs like Crying. Going or working. Keep trying. Keep going. Keep working. To encourage someone to continue. However, we can use the preposition to do the same thing. If you're trying to solve a problem and it's taking you a long time and a lot of work, then I can perhaps say to you: You're doing great. Keep at it. You're doing great. Keep at it. Okay, let's look now at some more formal vocabulary. In the third example, we heard the phrase "Your perseverance is second to none." Your perseverance is second to none. Perseverance is the idea of not quitting. The concept of continuing to work at something even though it is difficult. If you stand at the finish line of a marathon, a very long running race, a marathon, then you'll see some people finish just after two hours. These people worked really hard to achieve this, yes, but... It's the people who finished the marathon after five or six hours who really had to persevere. They might have stopped several times. They might have thought about quitting. And been really close to giving up at different moments in the race. Maybe they wanted to throw in the towel. However, they kept at it. They didn't throw in the towel. And they persevered until they reached the finish line. Personally, I've completed a half marathon, but I've been injured for the past few months. Since December, actually, I've been unable to run.So I'm definitely hoping to start running again soon. I really want to run a marathon. I feel like a lot of people in their mid-thirties these days have this as a goal though. I don't know if I'm just like a lot of people having a 30s... Crisis, a mid, a midlife crisis. Is it a midlife crisis in your 30s? But...Anyway, I'm a lot more into sports than I was in my 20s. Persevere. Is a regular verb. This means that in the past tense, we can just add the letters "ed" As in... I persevered until I succeeded. I persevered until I succeeded. And the noun form is 'perseverance'. The noun is 'perseverance', as in 'I really admire your perseverance'. I really admire your perseverance. We had the quite nice phrase "second to none". "Second to none". Again, this is a slightly more formal way of speaking. If something is second to none, then it is the best. There is nothing that is first causing this to be second. For instance: I might tell you that when it comes to design, many people believe that Apple products are second to none. Many people believe that Apple products are second to none. I'm saying there that there are no other companies that design better electronic products than Apple. Maybe you disagree with me there, but I'm saying that there is no one else that could take first place on this list and move this company or this thing down to second. There's no one superior. All better. And if you want your English to be second to none, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. If you need English. To do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com, and find out more. Starting from our very first call. We can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills. And the mistakes that you make most often, or the mistakes that cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now you can use the code PODCAST30. That's... P-O-D-C-A-S-T-3-0. At checkout. To get a 30% discount on your first booking of 30 or 45 or 60 minutes.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time on my schedule that works for you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders all over the world, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's move on. There is a book called The Dip. Written by a marketing expert called Seth Godin. I often find myself discussing the ideas in this book with people I work with. I work with a lot of people in marketing and business leaders in many areas and fields, and we often have interesting conversations about perseverance and quitting strategically. That idea. Quitting strategically is something I want to discuss with you now. One of the key ideas in the book is that being successful is not about persevering all the time. But instead... Being very specific, and selective. About what you persevere with and what you choose to quit. I know that with my business, there are certain things that I was doing that were taking up a lot of time. I think I could have been successful with these things if I had persevered. However, I knew that the amount of effort and time that these things would take was quite a lot. Instead, I decided that my time was better spent working on other areas of the business. You might think about this as an ROI calculation, a return on investment calculation. The book suggests that the rewards for being the best in the world at something are really high.And then these rewards drop off quite quickly as you go down the quality and the level of someone's work. Whether you're the best athlete... Best marketer. Best recruiter, best software developer or indeed best English coach. Therefore, If we decide very strategically how we're going to spend our time, then we can get closer to achieving these things. Very few people find massive success by being quite good at a lot of things. Instead, it can be a great idea Focus on... A very small group of things, or maybe even just one thing, and become really great at it. The Dip by Seth Godin is a fantastic book for anyone who has things that they want to achieve and I highly recommend it. Equally, feel free to book a call with me at my website, breakoutbusinessenglish.com, and we can discuss these ideas together. Let's take a look now. At some vocabulary both formal and informal, that we can use to talk about quitting strategically. I think it's time to call it a day. I'm surprised I was able to tough it out this long, to be honest. I think it's time to call it a day. I'm surprised I was able to tough it out this long, to be honest. I've decided to step away from this project to focus on other things. I've decided to step away from this project to focus on other things. I think that my time is better spent elsewhere, so I've decided to cease working on this project. I think that my time is better spent elsewhere So I've decided to cease working on this project. Let's jump straight into the formal vocabulary in that last example then. And from this, I really like the word cease. Peace. This is definitely a formal word, perhaps one that you might find written down a little more than you'll hear it spoken. However, If you want to be very clear and formal about what you're saying, then cease. Might be a great word to choose. We sometimes hear on the news, if fighting has stopped in a particular conflict or war, then a newsreader might refer to this as a cessation of hostilities. A cessation of hostilities. That's the noun form cessation. I should mention that the word cease is spelled with a C at the beginning.So this is C. E. Amen. SE. C E A S E.So that's a C sound as in city center that you're hearing at the beginning. I can imagine a lawyer saying this when representing their client. For instance, my client ceased working on this project in 2014. My client ceased working on this project in 2014. We heard in the first example, the phrase "to tough it to tough something out.Well, if you are tough, what does this mean? T-O-U-G-H. A tough person is resilient, they are strong, they are able to last a long time and deal with difficult things.So. If a tough person can deal with difficult things and difficult situations, then to tough something out is to remain strong, to remain resilient and to deal with a difficult thing over a lot of time. If you're thinking about quitting what you're doing, Maybe you could Puff it out for a couple more weeks or a couple more months. I've definitely been asked by a boss in a previous job to tough something out for a little bit longer until they can send another member of staff to replace me. Can you just tough it out until lunchtime and then I'll send someone over to help. If you can tough it out until lunchtime. In the second example, we heard the phrase "to step away from". To step away from. As in... I've decided to step away from this project. I've decided to step away from this project. To step away from. Is a really polite perhaps even diplomatic. Way to say that you'll be spending less time on something. Now, you'll hear people using this when they want to be a little unclear or vague about whether they're quitting something completely or just reducing the amount of time that they'll be spending on it. If a business leader, tells us that they want to step away from the marketing side of the business for a while. We don't really know if they want to leave this to other people completely. Just reduce the amount of their time that they devote to it. It's a nice phrase to use if you want to keep your plans a little more secret. We sometimes hear people say that they're going to take some time away from something. I'm going to take some time away from this. And this really has the same meaning. In the first example, We had a phrase which is a lot more clear, a lot more direct, and that is to call it a day. This is an idiom.So it's generally considered informal. If you... Call it a day. Then you're saying that, well, it's the end of the workday. If you're working late into the evening, then you might use the phrase call it a day to say that you're finishing your tasks and going home. However, in that context, you'll be back tomorrow. But depending on the context, We often use "call it a day" to say that we're quitting something entirely. If a band or a musician releases a statement saying that they're grateful to their fans, but it's time to call it a day, then we understand that they've decided to stop working completely on that project altogether. Or task. I don't know if you've heard of the band Aerosmith. Does anyone know the band Aerosmith? Quite a big rock band. I always wanted to see this band live and then the lead singer Steven Tyler, we discovered or we found out that there was something wrong with his voice and before their farewell tour, They said that Stephen was calling it a day. They weren't going to be performing live anymore. And I remember being really upset because I realized I would never get to see this band live. But there we go.Sometimes musicians, eventually, they all call it a day. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and especially YouTube. I'm most active on YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos and I look forward to hearing from you. Don't forget that you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills at www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com, or clicking the link in the show notes. And use the code Podcast 30, that's P-O-D-C-E-N. See you next time. One more time, that's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-3-0. Use that code at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. It's far easier to type that code in than it is to actually say it. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals. And I guarantee you, they can all say the word podcast. And I look forward to hearing from you. Finally, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and grow the show. If you found this podcast useful and you think that there are valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words and I thank you in advance. That's a great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you, as always, so very much for listening and for your time. I really do appreciate it. And I will talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English podcast.