Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time
You say, “I’ll start on Monday.” Then Monday comes, and you say it again. In this episode, Paul and Emily talk about waiting for the right moment, and why a very small start today is better than a perfect start someday.
This page helps you learn with the episode. This episode is for A1 and A2 learners.
Watch the episode: Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time on YouTube
Time: about 29 minutes to listen, and about 20 minutes for the practice.
Before you listen: think of one thing you want to do, but you keep saying “later”. Keep it in your mind. You will use it at the end.
How to use this page: listen once, read the key idea and the useful language, then do the practice. If you want to read while you listen, the full transcript is at the bottom.
What You’ll Learn
- Six easy words about waiting: wait, the right moment, opportunity, hesitate, put off, ready
- Five sentences we tell ourselves to wait, and a simple answer to each one
- How to change a waiting sentence into an action sentence with a real day and time
- A small grammar point: I’ll start, not I’ll will start
- Four short sayings about time
- A quiz, a role-play, and one start sentence of your own
Key Idea
Doing makes you ready.
Many people wait to feel ready before they start. In the episode, the ready feeling often comes after you start, not before. Emily waited three years for the right moment to learn her guitar. Then she took five minutes on a normal Tuesday night, and she started.
Paul’s line for this week is short: Start small. Start today.
Two stories from the episode
| Story | Waiting | The small start | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emily’s guitar | She bought a guitar and said, “I’ll learn when I have more free time.” It stood in the corner for three years. | On a Tuesday night, around nine o’clock, she had five minutes and learned one chord. | Now she can play four simple songs. |
| Paul’s running shoes | He bought blue running shoes and said, “I’ll start when the weather is nicer.” They stayed in the box for two months. | One evening after dinner, he opened the box and walked around his block for five minutes. | The next day he walked ten minutes. After three weeks, he started to run a little. |
Paul’s real first step was not running. It was opening the box. Emily’s first step was one chord.
Pictures that help you remember
- Traffic lights. A man will not leave his house until every traffic light in the city is green. That never happens. He needs to drive to the first light, then the next one. You only need the next one in front of you.
- An hourglass. The sand falls when you work, and it also falls when you sit and wait. In the episode, ten minutes of English every day is more than sixty hours in one year.
- The first pancake. The first pancake is often not good. It is for learning, not for the photo. Your first English sentences can be your first pancakes.
Useful Language from the Episode
| Word or phrase | Meaning | Example from the episode |
|---|---|---|
| wait | stay and not do something until later | I wait for the bus every morning at seven. |
| the right moment | a good time to do something | I’m waiting for the right moment. |
| opportunity | a good chance | This job is a great opportunity. |
| hesitate | stop for a moment because you feel unsure | I hesitate before I speak English with new people. |
| put off | do it later, not now | I put off my homework again last night. |
| procrastinate | a long word with the same meaning as put off | Procrastinate. It’s a really big word for a very small habit. |
| ready | prepared to begin | I’m not ready yet. / I’m ready now. |
| It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. | a kind sentence for your first try | Paul and Emily use it after the pancake story. |
| Good enough to start. | not perfect, but fine for today | Emily says it is short and clear. |
| I’m not ready, but I’m starting anyway. | start even when you do not feel ready | Emily’s new favorite sentence. |
| I don’t want to put this off anymore. | say you want to stop delaying | A sentence Paul gives for the cost of waiting. |
| This is a good opportunity, so let’s do it now. | say now is a good time | The second sentence Paul gives. |
Five Waiting Sentences
Paul reads five sentences that people often say. Emily gives a short answer to each one.
| The waiting sentence | Emily’s answer in the episode |
|---|---|
| I’ll start when I have more money. | Many small starts are free. A walk is free, and an English podcast is free. |
| I’ll start when I have more time. | Free time is hard to find. So I choose a small moment, like the bus ride home. |
| I’ll start when I feel ready. | The ready feeling comes later, so you start first. |
| I’ll start on Monday. | Why is it always Monday? Today is a real day too. |
| I’ll start when life is calm. | Life is almost never calm, so that is a very, very long wait. |
If you want, repeat this sentence after Paul and Emily: Doing makes me ready.
Waiting Words and Action Words
Emily says a waiting sentence, and Paul changes it into an action sentence. Look at the pattern: an action sentence has a real day or a real time.
| Waiting sentence | Action sentence |
|---|---|
| Someday I’ll learn to swim in the sea. | I’m going to the pool on Saturday morning at nine. |
| Maybe next year I’ll start English. | I started English this morning. I listened to a podcast on the bus. |
| Someday I’ll clean my room and throw away old things. | I’m cleaning my room tonight at seven o’clock. |
| Maybe one day I’ll call my grandma and talk for a while. | I’m calling my grandma on Sunday afternoon after lunch. |
Someday is not on the calendar, but Saturday is on the calendar.
A small grammar point: I’ll and I will
Some learners say, I’ll will start on Monday. That is one will too many. I’ll is the short form of I will. So you can say:
- I’ll start on Monday.
- I will start on Monday.
In the episode, the short sound of I’ll is “short and light.” Paul and Emily say it slowly, and then at normal speed: I’ll. Start. On. Monday.
Three Tiny Steps for Your English
Emily says that many people think, “My English is not good enough to speak yet.” Paul and Emily give three tiny English steps. Each one takes less than five minutes.
- Say one sentence out loud about your breakfast. For example: I had rice and eggs.
- Write three new English words in a small notebook.
- Listen to one English podcast. You are doing this now.
Four Short Sayings About Time
| Saying | What it means in the episode |
|---|---|
| There’s no time like the present. | The present means now. Now is the best time. |
| Better late than never. | It is kind to people who start late. Emily’s guitar lessons were three years late, but better late than never. |
| Tomorrow never comes. | When tomorrow arrives, it is called today. Then you say tomorrow again. |
| Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. | It has the word put off. Do the thing today. |
Practice with the Episode
1. Listen for details
Use the times below. Try to answer before you read the answers.
- 03:36, Emily’s guitar. On which day and at what time did Emily start? How many minutes did she have? What did she learn?
- 04:09, Emily’s guitar. How many songs can she play now?
- 08:32, the cost of waiting. How many hours of English is ten minutes every day in one year?
- 15:41, Paul’s running shoes. How long did the shoes stay in the box? What did Paul do first?
- 21:56, the quiz. Listen to Lan, Tom and Sara. Decide before Paul answers: waiting trap or good start?
Answers
- On a Tuesday night, around nine o’clock. She had five minutes, and she learned one chord.
- Four simple songs.
- More than sixty hours.
- Two months. He opened the box, put on the shoes, and walked around his block for five minutes.
- Lan: waiting trap (her phone is good enough to start). Tom: waiting trap (perfect grammar is not a door you wait in front of). Sara: good start (she chose a real day, Saturday at eight, and a small first step).
2. Say it out loud
Press pause after each line and say it after Paul and Emily:
- Start small. Start today.
- I’m ready now.
- It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
- Good enough to start.
- Doing makes me ready.
- I’m not ready, but I’m starting anyway.
- I’ll start on Saturday.
3. Waiting trap or good start?
Listen at 21:56. After each story, Paul and Emily wait three seconds. Say your answer before they do.
- Lan wants to sell cakes online. She says, “I’ll start when I buy a great camera for my photos.”
- Tom studies English at home. He says, “I’ll speak when my grammar is perfect.”
- Sara wants to learn to swim. She says, “I’m going to the pool this Saturday at eight, and I’ll stay in the shallow part.”
4. Help a friend start
Listen at 24:13. Paul says, “I really want to learn to cook, but I’ll start next month.” Emily helps him. Then, at 25:21, you are Emily. Paul talks, you answer, and then Emily gives an example.
Try your own answer to Paul’s last two sentences before you hear Emily:
- I want to start running, but I’ll start when the weather is better.
- Five minutes is fine, but my shoes are old and ugly.
5. Write your start sentence
This is the small task from the end of the episode:
- Choose one thing you are putting off. Make it very small, under five minutes.
- Say your start sentence out loud: I’m starting today at ___ (a time).
- Or say: I’ll start on ___ (a real day). Not someday.
6. Write in the comments
What is one thing you will start this week, and on which day? Write one sentence in English. For example: I’ll start my guitar lessons on Friday.
Keep Practicing
Want a simple guide you can use without the episode? Read How to Talk About Putting Things Off in English. It shows you how to say you keep putting something off, how to give the real reason, and how to help a friend start, with short dialogues and practice.
Vocabulary in this episode: First, Then, After That, In the End: Signpost Words for Telling Things in Order.
Chapters
- 00:00 Why Monday Never Comes
- 00:48 6 Easy Words About Waiting
- 02:51 Emily’s Dusty Guitar
- 04:29 Why We Wait (The Green Lights)
- 06:11 Sentences That Keep Us Waiting
- 07:36 The Hidden Cost of Waiting
- 10:06 Fear and the First Pancake
- 12:28 I’ll or I’ll Will? Pronunciation
- 13:49 Waiting Words vs Action Words
- 15:22 Paul’s Running Shoes + Tiny English Steps
- 18:43 Story Review + 4 Sayings About Time
- 21:45 Quiz: Waiting Trap or Good Start?
- 24:13 Role-Play: Help a Friend Start
- 26:38 Today’s Challenge
Full Transcript
Paul: Have you ever said, “I’ll start on Monday,” and then Monday came and nothing started?
Emily: Oh, that’s me, every single week. My Monday never seems to arrive.
Paul: Welcome to English Practice Daily. I’m Paul, and I’m happy you’re here.
Emily: And I’m Emily. This podcast is for A1 and A2 learners who want simple, real English.
Paul: Today we talk about waiting, and waiting for the right moment to start something.
Emily: And at the end, you will choose one real day and say your own start sentence in English.
Paul: Here is a short line to keep in your pocket today. Start small. Start today.
Emily: Start small. Start today. If you want, you can repeat after us during the episode.
Paul: Before your story, Emily, let’s learn six useful words for this topic.
Emily: Okay, but let’s keep them short and easy for everyone.
Paul: Word one is wait. I wait for the bus every morning at seven.
Emily: I wait for the bus every morning at seven. That one is easy for me.
Paul: Word two is a phrase, the right moment. It means a good time to do something.
Emily: I’m waiting for the right moment. We hear that sentence a lot, I think.
Paul: We really do. Word three is opportunity, and an opportunity is a good chance.
Emily: This job is a great opportunity. Repeat after me. This job is a great opportunity.
Paul: Word four is hesitate. When you hesitate, you stop for a moment because you feel unsure.
Emily: I hesitate before I speak English with new people. That one is very true for me.
Paul: It’s true for many people. Word five is put off, and it means do it later, not now.
Emily: I put off my homework again last night. I know this feeling very well.
Paul: There is also a long word with the same meaning. Pro-cras-ti-nate. Procrastinate.
Emily: Procrastinate. It’s a really big word for a very small habit.
Paul: You can just use put off. It’s easier, and people use it every single day. Word six is ready. You can say I’m not ready yet, or I’m ready now.
Emily: I’m ready now. Say it with us, slowly and clearly. I’m ready now.
Paul: So we have wait, ready, the right moment, opportunity, hesitate, and put off.
Emily: And I have a little story that uses almost all of them.
Paul: Is this your guitar story? Please tell it, I love that one.
Emily: Okay. Three years ago, I bought a nice brown guitar from a small shop near my flat. Very excited. I put it in the corner of my bedroom, and I made a promise. I said to myself, I’ll learn when I have more free time.
Paul: And let me guess. The free time didn’t come.
Emily: No, it never came. First I was busy at work, and then I moved house. Then it was winter, and I felt tired every evening after dinner.
Paul: So the poor guitar just stood there in the corner, all alone.
Emily: It stood there for three years and got very dusty. Every night I looked at it and felt bad.
Paul: So something changed one day. Tell us what happened.
Emily: I remember it clearly. It was a Tuesday night, around nine o’clock, and I had five minutes before bed.
Paul: Only five minutes? That’s not much time at all.
Emily: Only five. I took the guitar, cleaned it with my sleeve, and learned one chord. Just one.
Paul: I want to know how it sounded that first night.
Emily: It sounded terrible, and my fingers hurt a lot. But I felt so happy, because I finally started.
Paul: And now, a few months later, you can actually play something.
Emily: Now I can play four simple songs. They are not perfect songs, but they are real songs.
Paul: I love that. Three years of waiting, and then five minutes of doing.
Emily: Yes. Those five minutes changed more than the three years of waiting.
Paul: So why do we wait so long? I think about this question a lot. I think we want to feel ready first. We want everything to be in the right place.
Emily: Like enough money, enough time, and enough energy at the same time.
Paul: Right. Imagine a man who wants to drive to the other side of his city.
Emily: Okay. So he has a car, and he has a good map on his phone.
Paul: But he says, I will leave when every traffic light in the city is green.
Emily: Every light, at the same time? That never happens in any city.
Paul: Never. So he sits in his car in front of his house all day long. Waiting for everything to be ready is like waiting for every light to be green.
Emily: So in your story, the man needs to do something different.
Paul: He drives to the first light, and then the next one. One light at a time.
Emily: I see. You don’t need all the lights. You only need the next one in front of you.
Paul: Yes. And here is the surprise. The ready feeling often comes after you start, not before.
Emily: After? Can you explain that part a little more?
Paul: Sure. Before you started the guitar, did you feel ready to play?
Emily: No, I felt silly. But after one week of practice, I felt a bit more ready.
Paul: Exactly. Doing it made you ready, and waiting did not make you ready.
Emily: Okay, that makes sense to me now. Doing makes you ready.
Paul: Now let’s look at some sentences we often tell ourselves. You will know them. Here is the first one. I’ll start when I have more money.
Emily: But many small starts are free. A walk is free, and an English podcast is free.
Paul: That’s true. The next one is, I’ll start when I have more time.
Emily: Free time is hard to find. So I choose a small moment, like the bus ride home.
Paul: Next, we have a very popular one. I’ll start when I feel ready.
Emily: We just talked about this. The ready feeling comes later, so you start first.
Paul: The next one is my favorite. I’ll start on Monday.
Emily: Hmm, why is it always Monday? Today is a real day too, you know.
Paul: Good point. And the last one is, I’ll start when life is calm.
Emily: Life is almost never calm, so that is a very, very long wait.
Paul: So these sentences sound smart, but they keep us sitting on the sofa.
Emily: On the sofa, with a dusty guitar in the corner of the room.
Paul: If you want, repeat this sentence with us now. Doing makes me ready.
Emily: Doing makes me ready. One more time, a little louder. Doing makes me ready.
Paul: Now I want to talk about the cost of waiting for the right moment.
Emily: The cost? Do you mean money, like the price of something?
Paul: Not only money. When we start something new, we usually think about the risk. We think, what if I fail, or what if people laugh at me. But we don’t often think about the other side. We forget what we lose when we wait. Imagine an hourglass. You know, the glass with sand inside it.
Emily: Oh yes, the sand falls slowly from the top to the bottom.
Paul: Right. The sand falls when you work, and the sand also falls when you sit and wait.
Emily: So time is like that sand. It goes down anyway, every single minute.
Paul: Yes, it doesn’t stop for us. Let’s do a small math example together.
Emily: Oh, math. Okay, I’m ready, but slowly, please.
Paul: Imagine ten minutes of English every day. Think about how much that is in one year.
Emily: Ten minutes times three hundred sixty-five days. Hmm, let me think about it. That’s more than sixty hours. Wow, more than sixty hours of English in one year.
Paul: More than sixty hours, and it all comes from ten small minutes a day.
Emily: Wow. And if I wait one more year, I lose all of those hours.
Paul: That’s the real cost of waiting. It’s very quiet, so we don’t see it.
Emily: It’s like a small hole in a water bottle. You don’t notice it, but the bottle gets empty.
Paul: Nice picture, I like that one. And it’s the same with our health. If you say, I’ll exercise next month, your body is still the same next month.
Emily: True. My back reminds me about that every morning when I get up.
Paul: And it’s the same with people we love. Is there someone you want to call?
Emily: Yes, there’s an old friend from school. I keep saying I’ll call her soon.
Paul: And how long have you been saying soon?
Emily: Hmm, for about a year now. Okay, I agree, that’s not really soon.
Paul: Here are two sentences you can use. I don’t want to put this off anymore.
Emily: I don’t want to put this off anymore. That’s a strong and useful sentence.
Paul: And the second one is, this is a good opportunity, so let’s do it now.
Emily: This is a good opportunity, so let’s do it now. I like how it sounds.
Paul: Good. Now, there is another big reason why we hesitate, and it’s fear.
Emily: Yes, fear of making mistakes, and fear that people will laugh at us.
Paul: For me, it’s mostly the fear of looking a bit silly in front of others. Here is a small secret. Fear is biggest just before you start.
Emily: So the fear gets smaller after you begin? That’s interesting.
Paul: Much smaller. Usually the real thing is easier than the picture in your head.
Emily: That’s true for my guitar. I thought it would be very hard, but it was only a little hard.
Paul: When I feel afraid, I ask myself one question. What is the worst thing that can happen?
Emily: And what answer do you usually find when you ask that?
Paul: Usually it’s something small. Maybe someone doesn’t understand me, so I just say it again. Now let’s talk about the word perfect, because it stops many people. Some people wait until they can do something perfectly, and then they never start.
Emily: Oh, that’s me with English. I want every sentence to be perfect before I say it.
Paul: Let me ask you something different. Do you ever make pancakes, Emily?
Emily: Pancakes? Yes, I make them on Sunday mornings. But why do you ask?
Paul: Tell me how the first pancake usually looks when it comes out of the pan.
Emily: Ha, always bad. It’s too thick, a bit burnt, and it has a strange shape.
Paul: And then the second one comes out of the pan.
Emily: The second one is much better. The pan is hot, and I know what to do now.
Paul: So the first pancake is for learning. It’s not for the photo on your phone.
Emily: I like that idea. Every first try is like the first pancake.
Paul: And you can’t get the second pancake without making the first one.
Emily: So my first English sentences are my first pancakes. They can be a bit ugly.
Paul: Yes, and that’s fine. Here is a great sentence for this. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
Emily: It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. I want to write that on my fridge.
Paul: And here is one more short one. Good enough to start.
Emily: Good enough to start. I really like how short and clear it is.
Paul: Now, Emily, I want to tell you about a mistake that I hear quite often. Some learners say, I’ll will start on Monday.
Emily: I’ll will? Hmm, something sounds a little wrong there.
Paul: Right. I’ll already means I will. So I’ll will is really I will will.
Emily: Oh, I see it now. Two wills in one sentence. That’s one too many.
Paul: So we say, I’ll start on Monday. Or we say the long form, I will start on Monday.
Emily: Can we practice the sound of I’ll? It’s very short and fast for learners.
Paul: Sure. Listen carefully. I will. I’ll. The sound is short and light.
Emily: I’ll. I’ll start. I think I can hear the difference now.
Paul: Now let’s say it slowly together. I’ll. Start. On. Monday.
Emily: I’ll start on Monday. And now at normal speed, please.
Paul: I’ll start on Monday. Your turn, listeners. Say it with us.
Emily: I’ll start on Monday. Good job, everyone.
Paul: But Emily, now I have a question for you. Is Monday a waiting word too?
Emily: Ha, good question. Sometimes it really is a waiting word.
Paul: Let’s talk about waiting words and action words for a few minutes.
Emily: Okay. I’ll say a waiting sentence, and then you change it into action. Someday I’ll learn to swim in the sea.
Paul: I’m going to the pool on Saturday morning at nine.
Emily: Nice, you chose a real day and a real time. Here’s the next one. Maybe next year I’ll start English.
Paul: I started English this morning. I listened to a podcast on the bus.
Emily: Ha, that’s true for our listeners too, right now. I see the pattern now. You always use a real day or a real time.
Paul: Yes. Someday is not on the calendar, but Saturday is on the calendar.
Emily: Ooh, I like that line a lot. Someday is not on the calendar.
Paul: Now it’s your turn, listeners. Emily says a waiting sentence, and you change it.
Emily: Here we go. Someday I’ll clean my room and throw away old things.
Paul: One… two… three…
Emily: For example, I’m cleaning my room tonight at seven o’clock. Here is one more. Maybe one day I’ll call my grandma and talk for a while.
Paul: One… two… three…
Emily: For example, I’m calling my grandma on Sunday afternoon after lunch.
Paul: Great work. Real days and real times. Now let’s bring this into real life.
Emily: Paul, you told me last week that you have a story about this too.
Paul: I do. It’s a story about a pair of running shoes.
Emily: Running shoes? Don’t tell me you bought expensive ones.
Paul: Very expensive ones. Last spring, I bought blue shoes for running in the park.
Emily: And then you ran in the park every morning, I guess.
Paul: No, not at all. They stayed in the box, under my bed, for two months.
Emily: Two whole months? Why did you wait so long?
Paul: I said, I’ll start when the weather is nicer. Then summer came, and it was too hot.
Emily: Ha. So the weather was never quite right for you.
Paul: Of course. Then one evening, after dinner, I felt a bit heavy and a bit sad. I opened the box, put on the shoes, and walked around my block. Only five minutes.
Emily: Wait, you walked? You didn’t run in your new running shoes?
Paul: I just walked. Running felt too big for me, but walking felt easy.
Emily: That’s really smart. You made the first step very, very small.
Paul: Very small. The next day I walked ten minutes. After three weeks, I started to run a little.
Emily: So your real first step was not running. It was opening the box.
Paul: Ha, yes. Opening that box was the hardest part of the whole story. So tell me, what’s your box with your old school friend?
Emily: Hmm, I think it’s the first message. I don’t know what to write to her.
Paul: Keep it simple. Hi, I was thinking about you today. How are you?
Emily: Hi, I was thinking about you today. How are you? Oh, that’s easy to write.
Paul: You don’t need the perfect words. You only need the first few words.
Emily: Okay. I’ll send it tonight, I promise. Really, this time.
Paul: And now let’s talk about English, because this is the big one for our listeners.
Emily: Yes. Many people say, my English is not good enough to speak yet.
Paul: But your grammar gets better when you speak. It’s the same circle, again and again.
Emily: It’s like my guitar. My fingers got better because I played, not because I waited.
Paul: Right. So here are three tiny English steps. Each one takes less than five minutes. First, say one sentence out loud about your breakfast. For example, I had rice and eggs.
Emily: I had toast and coffee this morning. Done. That was very easy.
Paul: Second, write three new English words in a small notebook. Only three words.
Emily: Three words is nothing. I can do that on the bus. And the third step?
Paul: Third, listen to one English podcast. And you are doing it right now.
Emily: So our listeners already started today. That’s a really nice feeling.
Paul: It is. You are not waiting anymore. You are doing it right now.
Emily: Start small. Start today. That line really works for English too.
Paul: Okay, now let’s review our words with our stories. You can repeat after us. Emily’s guitar waited in the corner for three years. Wait.
Emily: Wait. The dusty guitar waited for Emily for a long time.
Paul: Emily was waiting for the right moment. The right moment.
Emily: The right moment. But the right moment was just a normal Tuesday night.
Paul: My new blue shoes were a great opportunity. Opportunity.
Emily: Opportunity. It was a good chance to move and to feel better.
Paul: Emily hesitates before she sends a message to her friend. Hesitate.
Emily: Hesitate. But tonight I won’t hesitate, because I made a promise.
Paul: Don’t put off the first pancake until next week. Put off.
Emily: Put off. I put off my phone call to my friend for a whole year.
Paul: And our last word is ready. I’m not ready, but I’m starting anyway.
Emily: I’m not ready, but I’m starting anyway. That’s my new favorite sentence.
Paul: Now, English has some short sayings about time. Let’s learn four of them today. The first saying is, there’s no time like the present.
Emily: There’s no time like the present. Here, does the present mean now?
Paul: Yes, the present means now. So the saying tells you that now is the best time.
Emily: Okay. So for my old school friend, there’s no time like the present.
Paul: Exactly right. The second saying is, better late than never.
Emily: Better late than never. I like this one, because it’s kind to people who start late.
Paul: Yes. Your guitar lessons were three years late, but better late than never.
Emily: Thank you, that makes me feel a lot better. Now the third saying, please.
Paul: The third saying is very short. Tomorrow never comes.
Emily: Tomorrow never comes. Hmm, I don’t understand this one yet.
Paul: When tomorrow arrives, it’s called today. And then you say tomorrow again. And the last saying is, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Emily: That one’s longer. Can you say it slowly for us, in small pieces?
Paul: Don’t put off. Until tomorrow. What you can do. Today.
Emily: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. It even has our word, put off.
Paul: Yes, it does. Now let’s say all four sayings together.
Emily: There’s no time like the present.
Paul: Better late than never.
Emily: Tomorrow never comes.
Paul: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Emily: Great. Paul, I think it’s time for a little game now.
Paul: Yes, let’s do a short quiz. I tell you about a person, and you decide.
Emily: Is the person in the waiting trap, or is it a good start?
Paul: Listeners, you decide too. After each story, we wait for three seconds. Person one is Lan. She wants to sell cakes online, and she bakes very good cakes. But she says, I’ll start when I buy a great camera for my photos.
Emily: Hmm, I’m sure she already has a phone with a camera.
Paul: She has a phone with a good camera, but she is still waiting. Waiting trap or good start?
Emily: One… two… three…
Paul: It’s the waiting trap. Her phone is good enough to start right now.
Emily: So now we need to find her first small step.
Paul: She can bake one cake, take one photo with her phone, and show it to one friend.
Emily: The photo takes less than five minutes. Well, the baking takes longer.
Paul: Ha, true. Here is person number two. Person two is Tom. Tom studies English at home, and he reads a lot of books. But he never speaks. He says, I’ll speak when my grammar is perfect.
Emily: One… two… three…
Paul: Waiting trap again. Perfect grammar is not a door that you wait in front of.
Emily: Right. I think Tom needs to make his first pancake.
Paul: Yes. His first step can be one sentence to a friend. Hello, how was your day? And the last one. Person three is Sara.
Emily: I’m curious about Sara. Tell me what she wants.
Paul: She wants to learn to swim, but she’s a bit afraid of deep water. She says, I’m going to the pool this Saturday at eight, and I’ll stay in the shallow part.
Emily: One… two… three…
Paul: It’s a good start! She chose a real day and a very small first step.
Emily: And she is afraid, but she is going to the pool anyway.
Paul: Yes. She didn’t wait for the fear to leave before she started. Now let’s practice a real conversation with a small role play.
Emily: Okay, I’m ready. Tell me who I am in this role play.
Paul: I’m your friend, and I always put things off. You help me to start.
Emily: Sounds fun. Let’s do one round first, so people can hear a model.
Paul: Hey Emily. I really want to learn to cook, but I’ll start next month.
Emily: Why next month? What’s wrong with this month?
Paul: My kitchen is very small. I want to find a bigger one first.
Emily: Your kitchen is good enough to start. Why not cook one simple meal tonight?
Paul: Tonight? Hmm. I have no idea what I could cook tonight.
Emily: Something like eggs and rice. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
Paul: Hmm. Okay, fine. I’ll cook eggs and rice tonight at seven.
Emily: Great. Send me a photo of your first pancake. I mean, your first eggs.
Paul: Ha, okay. I’ll send you a photo of my first eggs tonight. This time, you are Emily. I talk, and you answer me. Then Emily gives an example.
Emily: Listen carefully, and answer out loud if you can.
Paul: Hi. I want to start running, but I’ll start when the weather is better.
Emily: One… two… three…
Emily: For example, the weather is okay today. Why not walk for five minutes after dinner?
Paul: Five minutes is fine, but my shoes are old and ugly.
Emily: One… two… three…
Emily: For example, your shoes are good enough to start. Start small. Start today.
Paul: Okay, okay, you win. I’ll walk tonight, right after dinner.
Emily: One… two… three…
Emily: For example, that’s great. Tell me tomorrow how it went.
Paul: Well done, listeners. You just helped a friend stop waiting and start.
Emily: And you used our sentences. Good enough to start. Start small. Start today.
Paul: Okay, let’s finish today’s episode. Let’s remember three simple ideas.
Emily: Idea one. Doing makes you ready, so you don’t need to feel ready first.
Paul: Idea two. The first pancake is for learning. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
Emily: Idea three. Use a real day, because someday is not on the calendar.
Paul: Now, here is one small thing you can do today, after this episode.
Emily: Today, choose one thing you are putting off. Make it very small, under five minutes.
Paul: Then say your start sentence out loud. I’m starting today at, and then say a time.
Emily: For example, I’m starting today at eight. I’m reading one page in English.
Paul: Or you can say, I’ll start on Saturday. But only with a real day, not someday.
Emily: And remember: start small, start today.
Paul: Start small. Start today. That’s our special line for this week.
Emily: And now we have a question for you. Please answer it in the comments below.
Paul: What is one thing you will start this week, and on which day will you start it?
Emily: Write your sentence in English. For example, I’ll start my guitar lessons on Friday. Oh, and I have some news for you. Tonight I will send that message to my school friend.
Paul: Really? Tonight, and not someday in the future?
Emily: Not someday. Tonight at nine o’clock. It’s on my calendar now.
Paul: I’m proud of you. That’s the whole lesson in one small sentence.
Emily: If this episode helped you, please subscribe to English Practice Daily.
Paul: In the next episode, we practice simple English for making plans with friends.
Emily: Thank you for listening and for starting with us today. See you next time.
Paul: Bye for now. And go open your box today.