English Listening - Being Spontaneous
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Summer is finally here! ¿Estás listo para un verano inolvidable? Food tiene los ingredientes perfectos for creating unforgettable summer memories. Fire up the grill and enjoy food sausages. Whip up amazing sandwiches con jamón y queso food. No matter your summer plans, foods, meats and cheeses are the perfect companions for this summer.

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Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 77 of the Listening Time Podcast. I hope you're all doing well today. Remember that you can now become a Listening Time VIP if you want to ask me questions and hear me respond to your questions in video format.

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Alright, so in today's episode we're going to talk about being spontaneous. This is a fun topic because people are very different in this regard. Some people are very spontaneous and some people aren't spontaneous at all in their daily lives.

So we'll talk about being spontaneous in a few different areas of our lives and we'll talk about the advantages and disadvantages of that.

Remember that you have the transcript available for this episode. That's in the episode description below the episode. So click on that if you need it and listen as many times as you need until you can eventually understand everything that I'm saying without using the transcript.

And if you like this podcast, please give it a 5-star rating and share it with anyone you know who's learning English who could benefit from this content. This will help the podcast grow and you'll be helping your friend or family member who's learning English. Alright, let's get started. Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time.

Okay, so let's talk about being spontaneous. So what is spontaneity? Spontaneity refers to being able to think of things, do things, and make decisions in the moment without needing to follow a pre-designed plan.

So that's being spontaneous. So I first want to talk about being spontaneous throughout the week during our weekdays from Monday to Friday when most people are busy and have to work and have a set schedule sometimes.

Let's talk about that. So some people follow a strict plan during the week, during weekdays,

and they follow this plan, and they organize their day the night before, and they try to follow this plan step by step, and they look at their agenda and see everything that they're supposed to be doing that day, and they do those things that they've written down for themselves. And other people...

might not do this. Other people might be more, uh, spontaneous during the week. They might make decisions on what to do, uh, in the moment. So maybe they have a plan or maybe they don't. Uh,

But regardless, they can just decide to do things based on how they're feeling, based on how their day is going, and they can make decisions on what to do in that moment. So I'm a pretty organized person. I like to follow plans and I like to decide what I'm going to do the next day.

the day before. So I like to know what I'm supposed to be doing when I wake up in the morning. I don't like to wake up on weekdays and not know what I need to be doing and

have to decide what to do in the moment. I'm not very comfortable with that and so I'm definitely on the other side of the spectrum. In English, when we use the word spectrum, we're saying that there is a range of

different options. So for example, if you're on the left side of the political spectrum or you're on the right side of the political spectrum, this means you're either on the left or on the right in terms of politics. So a spectrum is just a range of different options when it comes to one topic.

So I'm on the other side of the spontaneity spectrum when it comes to weekdays. I don't like to be super spontaneous. I prefer to follow a plan, but I definitely recognize that there are some advantages of being spontaneous in this context during weekdays. Let's talk about a few of them.

So being spontaneous during weekdays can help you be less bored. I often get bored with just following my schedule and doing the same thing every weekday, for example. And so being spontaneous can help to keep things fresh, as we might say, keep things new.

And so sometimes when I decide to do things different from how I planned them, it becomes more interesting. I'm able to have more fun during that day. So, for example, once in a while, my wife and I might suddenly decide to go to a cafe or

on a weekday, maybe in the evening or something. And this is definitely not something that I normally plan to do.

But once in a while it happens and it really makes our day much better because we get to do something fun and go somewhere unexpected. And it allows us to have a little bit of fun during the week. And so I can definitely see how spontaneous decisions like that can spice up my weekday a little bit.

In English, when we say that you spice something up, this means that you make something more interesting or fun. You spice it up. So this can spice up my weekday a little bit when we decide to do that in a spontaneous way.

And I think that being spontaneous during weekdays can help people be more creative and maybe help them solve problems better. So when you get out of the normal routine and you decide to do something new, this can definitely stimulate your brain in a new way.

For example, I know people that can suddenly decide to go for a run, for example. And when they do this, it allows their brain to start to think of new things, new ideas, and solve problems. And just changing their situation suddenly allows them to be more creative in this way.

So I think that being spontaneous during weekdays definitely has that advantage as well. However, I think that there can be a few disadvantages of being spontaneous during weekdays.

For example, you might not be as productive if you try to be spontaneous all the time because you might not follow your plan that you have set. And this means that you won't finish all the things that you thought you might finish or that you should finish.

And so even though you get some advantages, you might also be sacrificing some work that you should be doing. And so it might lead to less productivity in some instances.

one thing that could happen is you might be a little bit less disciplined it might get you accustomed to not following a schedule and just doing things according to how you feel and so you might stop

being so disciplined and you might not like following a schedule anymore because it might seem boring. So it can maybe have a negative effect on discipline in general. But I'm sure that you can negate these disadvantages in different ways and

In English, when we say that you negate something, this means that you eliminate the effect of something. So in this case, I'm saying that you can eliminate the possibility of these disadvantages in different ways. So I'm sure you can still be disciplined and still be very productive while also being spontaneous during the week.

And how about on weekends? So some people like to plan their Saturdays and their Sundays and they like to know what they're going to be doing before the weekend comes. And other people just wake up on Saturday morning and then they make those decisions in the moment.

I'm the type of person who plans my weekends. That's probably not a surprise for you.

And I like planning my weekends because, as I mentioned, I like knowing what I'm going to do. I like being able to wake up with a plan in mind or a purpose in mind. And this is very important for me. So that's something that I do even on weekends.

And I'm sure for some of you, you don't like how this sounds. You would prefer to be more spontaneous and decide what you want to do based on your mood that day.

And I can definitely understand that. And I think there are a lot of advantages to that. Let me talk about a few of them. I think that being spontaneous on weekends can lead you to do new things and experience new things.

Because when you plan your weekend, you might close yourself off a little bit. You might limit yourself in a way versus if you allow your present mood to dictate what you're going to do, you might decide to do something that you never would have planned.

And that can open you up to having a new experience and to doing something fun. And I think overall, you can do funner things if you don't plan your weekend, if you go and do things based on the mood that you're in.

because you're paying attention to what you're feeling in the moment and maybe you had planned to go to the zoo but in reality you're not really excited about going there and you don't feel like going there

when Saturday arrives and you feel more like going to an amusement park, for example. And so if you change your plans and decide to spontaneously decide where you're going to go,

then you could have more fun because you're more in the mood to do that other thing. So you're following your mood and therefore you're able to have more fun based on what type of mood you're in. So I think that can definitely be another advantage.

However, I think there are a couple disadvantages as well, because I think people who don't plan their weekends might end up doing fewer things on the weekend. They might end up getting off to a late start in the morning.

In English, when we say that you get off to a late start, this just means that you maybe wake up late and you don't get ready very early and by the time you're ready to do something, it's already later in the day. So you might get off to a late start if you don't have a plan and this can cause you to have less time to do fun things.

This often happens when I'm staying with my in-laws or they're staying with me

and we often get off to a late start in the morning and then we're a little more limited in terms of which breakfast restaurant we can go to in the morning because here in my city some of the good breakfast restaurants get very very crowded if you don't go on time, if you go a little bit late.

So this just happened a couple of weeks ago.

We weren't able to go to any of the really good breakfast restaurants that we really like because everyone woke up late and didn't know what they wanted to do. And then when we decided to go to a breakfast restaurant, we had a lot fewer choices because it was already late and the restaurants were really crowded.

And so because we didn't have that plan before and we didn't follow that plan, we missed out on going to one of the breakfast restaurants that we really liked.

So that could be an example of spontaneity being a disadvantage on weekends. However, there are many ways to negate or mitigate these disadvantages and spontaneity can be a very good thing on weekends.

Alright, lastly let's talk about being spontaneous when you travel. I'm a very organized traveler. I plan all of my trips very carefully. I plan almost every place that I want to go, every restaurant that I want to try. I'm very extreme when it comes to this.

Other people are on the opposite end of the spectrum and they hate planning their vacations and they want to be spontaneous and decide what to do in the moment. And I completely understand that side as well. I think that both have their advantages and disadvantages. So some advantages of being spontaneous while traveling.

First of all, it allows you to have new kinds of experiences that you might not have otherwise. Because when you plan your trip, you limit yourself a little bit and you only plan things that you can think of beforehand and that you can find on the internet or in guidebooks or things like that.

And so you might limit yourself and not leave yourself open to doing different kinds of things that you discover when you're actually traveling.

And so that could be an advantage of being spontaneous. When you're at the place, when you're in the city, you might discover that there's an experience that you can have and you just do it, even though you didn't plan on that.

And being spontaneous can also help you meet new people when you travel. You might be open to talking to people that you see when you're traveling. And maybe you can actually do things with those people and go places with those people.

And being spontaneous also allows you to just wander around. In English, when we say the word "wander", we're saying that you go around, you walk around without a destination. You're just walking and enjoying the journey without having an actual destination in mind.

So you can wander around without stressing about needing to be somewhere or do something at a certain time. You can just enjoy everything around you. You don't get trapped by any plans that you made. You can just enjoy the moment, wander around and not feel that stress.

So, that's definitely an advantage of being spontaneous when traveling. However, I do think that there are a few disadvantages.

For example, some people might do less, they might do fewer things because they're very spontaneous and they don't make plans that they follow. And so they might not do as many things because they don't plan a lot of things. They just wake up when they want to wake up, they get going whenever they feel like it, they might get off to a late start, and

And they might have less time to do things or they just might not know what they want to do. And I've had this before where I didn't have a day planned, for example. And when I woke up that day on that trip, I was like, I don't know what to do.

I had no idea what to do that day. And so we had to start looking online and trying to find something for that day. So that can definitely happen if you don't plan ahead.

Another disadvantage might be that you have to pay more for tickets if you don't buy things in advance, if you don't book tours in advance or whatever, if you just spontaneously decide to go to some museum one day.

You might have to pay more or maybe there aren't any tickets available that day. So you can definitely run into situations like that if you're very spontaneous and you just decide what to do in the moment. So there are a couple disadvantages, but I'm sure a lot of you prefer this style of travel.

And I definitely understand that. I wish I could be more spontaneous when traveling. But to be honest, I really like planning my trips. This is very fun for me. So I think I'll continue doing it the way I do it. And then maybe open myself up to being a little more spontaneous during the vacation and allowing for a little bit more spontaneity and

maybe I just won't plan everything I'll just plan most of the trip

All right, why don't we stop there for today? I hope this episode was interesting for you. Remember that you can become a Listening Time VIP now if you want to ask me your questions and have me respond to your questions in video format. You can sign up to become a Listening Time VIP and you'll get a weekly Q&A session every single week online

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Alright, thank you for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.

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