STUDY WITH ME
Be my Homie: Join this channel to get access to perks
Daily English Vocabulary Email: Take your vocabulary to the next level with these daily vocabulary lessons in your email inbox
English With Tiffani App: Improve your English with my English App
Free English Newsletter: Receive English tips via email
Daily English Lessons Membership: Stop being stuck and finally go from the intermediate to the advanced English level with these daily English lessons
Speak English Like A Native Membership: Join this community and start speaking English more naturally
English Books & Resources: These resources will help you improve your vocabulary, sentence structures, interview skills, and much more.
7 Parts
PART 1: The Question
“What do you believe makes a person truly successful?”
PART 2: Two Responses
A. Learner Response
“I think success is a good job and a lot of money. Also, a big house and a happy family. Successful people work hard. My parents told me this. It is very important. That is my opinion.”
B. Fluent Speaker Response
“Hmm, that’s a big question! Honestly, I believe real success means becoming the best version of yourself, not being better than everyone else.
I think I first started believing that when I was about ten. I came home from a school math competition with second place, and I was so upset because my best friend won first. My grandmother, who basically raised me, asked me just one thing: ‘Did you do your best?’ I said yes, and she smiled and said, ‘Then you already won.’ She really instilled that idea in me, and it stuck.
And I still believe it for three reasons. First, comparing yourself to other people never ends. There’s always someone richer or smarter, so trying to keep up with the Joneses is a race you can never win. Second, you can’t always control results, but you can always control your effort. And third, it gives you peace. When you know you gave everything, you can sleep at night, no matter what happens.
It really shapes my choices, too. A couple of years ago, I turned down a job with a bigger title because the other role would help me grow more. And now that I lead a team of eight engineers, I try to lead by example. I don’t compare people to each other. I just ask, ‘Did you give it your best?’ I do the same with my kids. I hope it helps the people around me feel less pressure and more confident. So yeah, that’s what success means to me.”
PART 3: Why They’re Different
1. A Shopping List vs. a Belief
The learner lists things successful people have: a job, money, a house. The fluent answer states one clear belief about what success is.
2. Borrowed vs. Owned
“My parents told me this” sounds like a belief she was handed. The fluent answer has roots: a real moment, a real person, a real age. You can tell he owns this belief.
3. It Lives Outside Your Head
The learner’s belief stays in the air. The fluent answer shows the belief in action: a job he turned down, a team he leads, kids he’s raising. A belief becomes real when it changes what you do.
PARTS 4 & 5: The Method Overview + Method Deep Dive
Intro
When someone asks what you believe, most learners give an opinion and stop. Fluent speakers do something different. They use a four-step shape I call the Personal Beliefs Method. Think of it like a tree. First you show the trunk, the belief itself. Then you dig down to the roots, where it came from. Then you show the branches, the reasons holding it up. And finally, you show the shade it gives, how it affects you and the people around you.
Step 1: The Belief
State your belief in one clear sentence. Not a list. Not a paragraph. One sentence the listener can repeat back to you.
“Honestly, I believe real success means becoming the best version of yourself, not being better than everyone else.”
- The question: What makes a person truly successful?
- His belief: Success is becoming your best self, not beating other people
Step 2: The Source
Share where the belief came from and the first time you remember believing it. You don’t need the exact date. A good estimate is perfect.
“I think I first started believing that when I was about ten. I came home from a school math competition with second place, and I was so upset because my best friend won first. My grandmother, who basically raised me, asked me just one thing: ‘Did you do your best?’ I said yes, and she smiled and said, ‘Then you already won.’ She really instilled that idea in me, and it stuck.”
- When: About age ten
- Where it came from: His grandmother
- The moment: Second place at a math competition
Advanced Vocabulary: instill (verb)
Definition: To slowly put a feeling, idea, or value into someone’s mind so it stays with them
Example: “My father instilled a love of reading in me when I was very young.”
Step 3: Three Reasons
Give three reasons you hold the belief. Not three examples. Reasons answer the question “Why do you believe this?”
“And I still believe it for three reasons. First, comparing yourself to other people never ends. There’s always someone richer or smarter, so trying to keep up with the Joneses is a race you can never win. Second, you can’t always control results, but you can always control your effort. And third, it gives you peace. When you know you gave everything, you can sleep at night, no matter what happens.”
- Reason 1: Comparison never ends
- Reason 2: You can control your effort, even when you can’t control results
- Reason 3: It gives you peace
English Idiom: keep up with the Joneses
Definition: To try to have the same things or achieve the same status as the people around you, often to avoid looking less successful
Example: “They bought a new car they couldn’t afford just to keep up with the Joneses.”
Step 4: The Impact
Show how the belief shapes your own choices and how it could affect the people around you.
“It really shapes my choices, too. A couple of years ago, I turned down a job with a bigger title because the other role would help me grow more. And now that I lead a team of eight engineers, I try to lead by example. I don’t compare people to each other. I just ask, ‘Did you give it your best?’ I do the same with my kids. I hope it helps the people around me feel less pressure and more confident.”
- Effect on him: He chose growth over a bigger title
- Effect on others: His team and his kids feel less pressure and more confidence
English Expression: lead by example
Definition: To show people how to behave by doing it yourself, not just by telling them
Example: “Our manager always stays calm under pressure. She really leads by example.”
Wrap
Belief. Source. Three reasons. Impact. Trunk, roots, branches, shade. And notice how he finishes: “So yeah, that’s what success means to me.” He brings it right back to the belief. That’s the shape.
PART 6: Call to Action
The Personal Beliefs Method is just one of six fluency methods I use to help you speak English with confidence. If you want to learn the other five and master every one of them, grab my Fluency Handbook. The link is right here on the screen and in the description below. Go get it, and let’s keep building your fluency together.
PART 7: Bonus Story Time
“The Farm Boy Who Redefined Winning”
What if I told you that the most successful coach in the history of college basketball…
didn’t believe winning was the point?
This is a true story.
But I’m not going to tell you his name. Not yet.
He was born in 1910, in a tiny town in Indiana. His family lived on a farm.
No electricity. No running water.
But every night, his father read to the boys. Poetry. Scripture.
And their very first basketball hoop? His father nailed up an old tomato basket. His mother stuffed a cotton sock with rags and made it as round as she could.
That was the ball.
Now, his father didn’t have much money. But he had something more valuable. He had ideas. And he worked hard to instill them in his sons.
One idea was simple.
Never try to be better than someone else.
But always try to be the best you can be.
When the boy finished eighth grade at a little country school, his father handed him a small card. It was titled “Seven Things to Do.”
One line on that card said this: Make each day your masterpiece.
The boy kept that card.
Not for a year. Not for ten years.
He carried it in his wallet for the rest of his life.
He grew up to be a basketball star. In college, at Purdue, he was an All-American, and his team won the national championship his senior year.
But after college, he chose a quieter job.
He became a high school English teacher.
And that’s where his father’s idea was tested.
In 1934, he was teaching English in South Bend, Indiana. And he noticed something that bothered him.
Parents wanted their children to get A’s and B’s. A “C”? That was fine for the neighbors’ kids. But not their kids.
They were trying to keep up with the Joneses… with their children’s grades.
And the young teacher thought: That’s not right.
Not every student has the same gifts. For one student, a C might mean incredible effort. For another, an A might mean almost none.
So he sat down and wrote his own definition of success.
Not money. Not trophies. Not grades.
Peace of mind. The peace that comes from knowing you made the effort to do the best you were capable of.
Sound familiar? That was his father’s idea. Now it was his belief.
Years later, he moved to California to coach basketball at a university called UCLA.
And what happened next is almost impossible to believe.
His teams won ten national championships in twelve years. Seven of them in a row.
At one point, his team won 88 games straight. No college team has ever matched it.
But here’s the part I love most.
One of his greatest players, Bill Walton, said his coach never talked about winning and losing.
He talked about the effort to win.
And he didn’t just teach it. He led by example. He didn’t drink. He didn’t swear. He called himself a teacher, not a genius. Another of his famous players, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, said he was more like a parent than a coach.
The boy from the farm with the tomato-basket hoop…
became the greatest college basketball coach who ever lived.
His name…
was John Wooden.
He passed away in 2010, at 99 years old. And to this day, people all over the world still repeat his father’s words: Make each day your masterpiece.
So what does this mean for you?
Maybe you’ve been measuring your English against someone else’s. The coworker who speaks so smoothly. The classmate who never seems nervous. The native speaker who never searches for a word.
Stop.
That’s a race you can never win… because it was never your race.
John Wooden’s father instilled one belief in him, and it changed thousands of lives. You have beliefs, too. Beliefs that came from somewhere. Beliefs that shape your choices. Beliefs that affect the people you love.
And now you have a way to share them.
So the next time someone asks you what you believe, don’t give them a list.
Give them the trunk, the roots, the branches, and the shade.
Your English doesn’t have to be better than anyone else’s.
It just has to be the best you can make it today.
Make each day your masterpiece.