A few weeks ago I received an email from Rika. Something in what she’d said got me all fired up so I asked for her permission to publish her words in full. And this is what she writes:
“Hi Hadar, I’m not young anymore (78 years old) I’m from South Africa.It’s my fourth year in the States. I’m glad that I discovered you.To be honest I feel excited. Hope I will be as successful as you are on this new journey. My problem is that I am very shy and if I can not do something perfect it feels like a failure. Rika”
I was very touched by her words, but I couldn’t get that last sentence out of my head. “if I can not do something perfect it feels like a failure.”
I knew that unless she throws this perception out of the window,
it will be impossible for her to achieve her dreams.
“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” Sumner Redstone
You see, I’ve been teaching students for almost 10 years now, and have seen so many bright, brilliant, funny and super successful individuals, who would not able to construct a full sentence without stopping, apologizing, feeling embarrassed or getting stuck.
And even though they had oceans and forests and mountains of words in them, they wouldn’t use them because:
The word is not good enough
The argument is not sharp enough
The pronunciation is not clear enough
They weren’t sure if the tense is accurate (enough)
Now, I know, I know you’re probably thinking: “Well, Hadar, ALL you do is teach ACCURATE pronunciation”
Yes. It’s true.
But I am a terrible promoter of perfection.
In fact, I root for imperfection, mistakes and awkward moments.
Because I know, from my own personal experience that these are the moments I’ve learned the most from.
In this video, I’m going to explain to you why perfection is overrated
And why the fear of failure is the first thing that will set you up for..failure.
So if you are also afraid of getting it wrong, being mocked or judged, please don’t miss out on this week’s episode:
After watching the video, join us for the Instagram challenge and let us know in a post when you say YES to speaking and NO to perfection. Hashtag it #communicationoverperfection and tag me as well @hadar.accentsway.
See you there!
Have a beautiful week, full of mistakes.
Hadar
3 Responses
Hi,I’m from China.It the first time that I have listened to your classes,and umh I find that I fall in love with you.It sounds crazy but it’s true,I know you wanna believe me.I wanna to join your FB group but I don’t know how to open a Facebook account,I very very wanna improve my oral English,could you help me?
Hi Hadar !
Thank you for sending me your video. It’s so valuable for all of your students. I would like to congratulate !
I’m still rather sick- Have a nice time ! Laszlo
Hi Hadar,
First off, let me take this opportunity to thank you for all the lessons that you have been given.
It’s been a tremendous help for me as English is not my mother-tongue.
I have problems speaking with words that end in S and the next word starts with a S or SH or vice versa (e.g. she takes something, he takes shower, finish school, etc.) . Do I have to pronounce all the s and sh
(and I find it very hard to do so if speaking normally not slowing down)? Or I should skip one and not try to pronounce them all? If so, is there a rule to which one to skip?
Please help me when you can.
Thank you very much and wishing you all the best.
HN