Youtube Exercise » English Grammar Homework

A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

TED

457K views 8 months ago

Warm-up Questions

When you hear the title “A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life,” what advice do you expect to hear?
What does “taking control of your life” mean to you in daily routines and big decisions?
Do you think a “practical guide” should focus more on mindset or on specific actions? Why?

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A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

From feeling trapped to a new life (00:00 – 02:37)

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1. What was the speaker’s daily life like during the worst period she describes?

She bought drugs and spent the day using them until she passed out.
She traveled often and met friends for lunch.
She exercised daily to recover her health.
She worked long hours and studied at night.

2. What main change does the speaker say helped her go from “point A to point B”?

Trying harder than everyone else
Finding a perfect mentor
Becoming smarter
Developing a sense of personal agency

3. Why does the speaker say agency is becoming even more important now?

Because schools no longer teach intelligence
Because people are working fewer hours than before
Because success depends mainly on luck
Because intelligence and hard work are increasingly outsourced to machines

A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

Desperation, rebuilding, and learning agency (02:37 – 05:51)

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1. According to the speaker, one “mother” of agency is:

Competition
Desperation
Comfort
Talent

2. After leaving rehab, what approach did the speaker take to opportunities and connections?

She said yes to everything and focused on volume.
She avoided meeting new people until she felt confident.
She focused only on formal education first.
She only accepted opportunities that clearly benefited her.

3. What does the speaker say is one way many people learn agency (if not through desperation)?

By waiting until they feel ready
By avoiding risk completely
By reading motivational quotes only
By seeing somebody highly agentic operating up close

A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

Tactics: learnability, rejection, feedback, and freedom (05:51 – 08:40)

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1. What is the speaker’s first tactic for becoming more agentic?

Assume everything is learnable
Focus only on intelligence tests
Copy highly successful people exactly
Avoid failure at all costs

2. What does the speaker mean by “court rejection”?

Try to make sure nobody criticizes you
Aim only for easy goals you are sure to get
Reject other people before they reject you
Deliberately aim for things you might not get, to test your limits

3. What does the speaker say is the single best way to discover what you’re “blind to”?

Stop listening to other people’s opinions
Keep a private journal and never share it
Ask people to tell you anonymously
Move to a new city

A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

Transcript will load here…

1. In this talk, “personal agency” is best described as:

The capacity to see and act on the degrees of freedom you have
A feeling of confidence that appears after success
A natural talent you either have or don’t have
The ability to control other people’s decisions

2. Which statement matches the speaker’s argument about traits like optimism or curiosity?

They only improve through medication.
They are mostly fixed and cannot be trained.
They only develop during childhood.
They can become learnable if you believe they are and practice them with effort.

3. Why does the speaker value anonymous feedback?

It reduces the need to talk to people directly.
It helps reveal what is holding her back that she can’t see herself.
It lets her collect compliments more efficiently.
It helps her hide mistakes from others.

Discussion Questions

Discuss the ideas from this video

A Practical Guide to Taking Control of Your Life | Cate Hall | TED

The speaker says agency is more important than intelligence and hard work if they are “misapplied.” What does “misapplied” look like in real life?
Do you agree that some form of “desperation” can help people change? What are healthier kinds of desperation than crisis?
Which tactic seems most useful for you right now: assuming learnability, courting rejection, or seeking real feedback? Why?
What could be a “hidden door in the walls of life” for someone who feels stuck at work, in relationships, or in learning?