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Be a Champion Vocabulary Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the vocabulary lesson for “Be a Champion.”

We’ve already talked about the word champion and, of course, in this article, in this lesson, champion means a person who fights for what is good, a person who fights for what is right, a person who defends what is good. That is a champion, a champion.

Our next word is innovation and Seth Godin says “Champion an innovation.” Here he’s using champion as a verb, as an action. To champion means to fight for something good or to defend something good. So you can use that as a verb, too.

So he’s saying fight for an innovation. Do something great at your job. Do something great. Not good, not so-so, great! Champion an innovation. Fight for an inn-o-va-tion. Innovation means a sudden, big improvement…a new, sudden, big improvement. That’s innovation, innovation.

He says “Fight for innovations at your job. Fight for innovations at your company. Don’t do something boring, do something great! Fight for innovations.” And he says “I dare you!” I dare you to do something great. To dare means to challenge. It means do it. Come on. I’m telling you to do it. I’m challenging you. So he says “I dare you”, I challenge you to do something great. I encourage you to do something great. Dare; to dare.

Our next word…phrase…is “status quo.” He says “Being a champion is about overcoming the status quo.” It’s about fighting against the status quo. Status quo is a very common word…words…and status quo means the traditional system, the traditional situation. It’s the current normal situation, status quo.

So it’s kind of the opposite of new. It’s the old way, the traditional way, the average mediocre way, status quo. So he says “Fight against the status quo.” It means fight against what is normal. Fight against the normal old way. Fight against the traditional way. Status quo means the traditional way, the normal way, the old way, status quo.

So if you’re a champion you have to fight against the status quo. You’re trying to make improvements, you’re trying to do something better. To do something better you have to destroy the old system. To create a new system you must destroy the old one; the status quo, the old way.

He says “You also have to fight against inertia.” Inertia. Fight against inertia. Inertia means resistance to change or resistance to moving. Now it actually has a scientific meaning from physics, which is more specific than that, which is different. But I’m not talking about the scientific meaning. I’m not talking about the physics meaning here. I’m talking about a more general, conversational meaning.

And in general conversation inertia means resistance to change. It means that people are used to doing the same thing again and again and again. So if you want them to change it’s hard, right? They sort of resist it. Or if there’s a big, heavy object…let’s say there’s a big rock. You want to move the rock. Well, in the beginning, you start to push. It’s hard to move it in the beginning, right? It’s very hard. That’s inertia. It’s that initial resistance to movement, the initial resistance to change.

Now, eventually, you start pushing that rock. It starts to move. Then it becomes easier and easier. You get momentum, right? So once it starts moving then you keep going move, move, move and then it moves more easily, but in the very beginning there’s a lot of inertia. It’s kind of stuck, right? It’s hard to move it in the beginning. It resists change, it resists movement.

And people have this same inertia, right? People generally resist change in the beginning. If you try to change them, you try to do something new, in the beginning they will fight against your change. They will resist your change. They have inertia. Now, later, if you can make them change, the change becomes easier, easier, faster, faster, you have momentum. But, in the beginning there’s this strong inertia.

Remember, if you’re talking about science inertia has a somewhat different meaning, a similar meaning, but there’s more. But for our meaning here in this article it means resistance to change.

Okay, finally, we have the word to embrace or embracing. To embrace has two meanings, one is a very direct meaning, which means to hug or hold somebody. It means you put your arms around them. I embraced my friend. It means I hugged my friend. I held my friend. I put my arms around my friend.

But there’s a more general meaning for the word embrace. To embrace means to accept something happily; to accept it and to be happy about accepting it. So, for example, we can embrace ideas. If we embrace an idea then we accept the idea and we accept it very happily. We’re happy to accept it. We like it. We’re saying “Yes, this idea is great! I embrace it.”

So Seth Godin is saying “You must embrace being a champion.” You must embrace that choice. You must embrace that role. Embrace being a champion. Accept it for yourself. Be happy to be a champion. Be happy to be different. Be happy to be great and remarkable. Embrace this idea, embrace this choice. Accept it and be happy about it.

And that is all for our vocabulary for “Be a Champion”, a short, easy vocabulary lesson this time. So, as always, listen to the vocabulary a few times and then go to the mini-story and listen, listen, listen to the mini-story, answer the questions, be strong, be happy, be smiling. See you next time, bye-bye.