Speak Up or Let Go?
In today’s episode, I share an issue I’ve been thinking about for a while – finding the balance between speaking up and letting things go.
In other words, when things annoy us or seem unjust, should we speak up and say something? Or should we prioritise our mental health and let it go?
I share some of my own views with this and encourage you to get in touch with yours too. I also share lots of expressions related to this topic.
Useful Vocabulary
🗣️ Speak Up
Meaning: To express your opinion or feelings clearly, especially when it’s difficult.
Example: You need to speak up when something bothers you.
✋ Let Go (of something)
Meaning: To stop holding on to a feeling or thought.
Example: She finally let go of the resentment she’d held for years.
🧸 Pushover
Meaning: A person who is easily influenced or taken advantage of because they don’t stand up for themselves.
Example: He’s such a pushover — he agrees to everything, even when it’s unfair.
🚶 Walk Over Someone
Meaning: To treat someone badly by taking advantage of their kindness or weakness.
Example: She always walks over him, and he never says anything.
⭐️ Transcript & Bonus Lesson
What would you do in these situations?
Comment your thoughts below.
Hahaha 😁😁 I really liked this episode. Maybe because I always listen to you then I am in the gym 👌🏻 Where do you meet all this terrible people ? 😁 I would feel exactly like you, but I try to let things go. It so much negativity energy if you speak up for everything. Thank you for helping me with my English. I work in a pharmacy in Norway, and more and more of our customers speak English. That can be a bit challenging for me. My daughter says I can’t keep blaming my bad English teacher from 35 years ago for my English 🤔😜 and that’s so true.
So thank you for speaking English in a way I can understand. I really enjoy listening to you!
Haha, thanks for your support! It’s an interesting point that speaking up might sometimes encourage the negative energy to grow.
Nice to know the podcast might be helping this pharmacist all the way up in Norway! I appreciate you listening
Hi Michael, thank you for creating new episodes every week. I listen to your podcasts everyday and they really have helped me with connected speech. Thank you so much and keep up the good work!
Hello Michael
I totally agree with Ramona, sometimes we should speak up and let the other person know that he had hearted us. As a matter of fact it is helpful and beneficial for both sides in my opinion, to be clear and not concealing your real intentions or feelings that will of course make a gap especially between both knowing each other.
I’m also a big fan of you, your podcastes are amazing and helping me improve my English, actually I’m preparing for IELTS exam next month.
Please let me know if I’ve made mistakes.
Thank you so much and keep going forward.
Hi Yehya. That’s a great point! Any kind of secret or hiding our feelings with someone can be harmful, so maybe it’s good to speak up in many of these situations. Thanks for listening! And best of luck with your IELTS exam! That’s exciting
Hello Michael
I think this is a very common dilemma. I also always struggle with the similar issues. I think You are definitely right to feel frustrated in the situations you explained, and in such examples somebody needs to speak up. Sometimes it is our direct responsibility to let them know their behavior isn’t acceptable, and sometimes it is better to ask an authority or a supervisor to do it for the benefit of all people affected by the situation. I think in such situations two things worth considering. One that, it is always helpful to listen to our hearts and trust our guts. I think imagining what happens after I speak up would help; meaning that thinking about my feelings after that I that I speak up; would I be feeling better about myself or worse? If the answer is that I will be happier if I speak up, then I should definitely do it! For example, in the case of the annoying toddler, maybe it would be helpful if I first imagined my after-alarming feelings , would I feel any bad feelings? If I wouldn’t, then I should let them know the behavior isn’t acceptable.
Secondly, to make it easier to speak up I imagine the person is a good person doing something wrong not a bad person doing something wrong. I mean, we shouldn’t think the person is a bad person and we should not let ourselves to analyze their personality and relate the bad behavior to a bad personality. This type of thinking motivates us to go forward and talk to the good person and notify them nicely and with a good mood and attitude . It always hugely affects my perception of the situation in a positive way. When I think of them in a positive way, I get calmer and I become more confident to go forward and talk to them.
I hope I could convey my message
Please let me know of my grammatical mistakes
Thank you for your wonderful podcasts
Thanks for responding! I love the idea of listening to our hearts more. The brain has a bad habit of making things seem worse than they really are.
This phrase is honestly amazing! I love that perspective. I think that helps a lot. We like to view these actions as “this person is bad”, but in 99% of cases, I’m sure they’re lovely people and don’t realise it.
And your English was great too! Thanks for sharing your views. It actually helped me