What Happens When You Give Yourself One More Chance?

Article Level: A1-A2

Explanation: This article shows how giving yourself another chance can help you learn from mistakes, build confidence and move forward. It explains why trying again with more experience can lead to new opportunities and positive change.

Commonly Used Words from the Article

1. Chance /tʃɑːns/ (noun) : An opportunity to do something.

Give yourself another chance to try.

2. Experience /ɪkˈspɪəriəns/ (noun) : Knowledge that you get from doing something.

The experience helped her make a better decision.

3. Mistake /mɪˈsteɪk/ (noun) : Something that you do incorrectly.

Everyone makes a mistake sometimes.

4. Confident /ˈkɒnfɪdənt/ (adjective) : Feeling sure that you can do something.

He feels more confident after practising.

5. Goal /ɡəʊl/ (noun) : Something that you want to achieve.

Her goal is to exercise three times a week.

Phrasal Verb

Pick yourself up /ˌpɪk jɔːˈself ˈʌp/ : To feel better and continue after a difficult experience or failure.

After a disappointing day, she picked herself up and tried again.

Idiom

Give it another shot /ɡɪv ɪt əˈnʌðə ʃɒt/ : To try something again after it did not work the first time.

My first cake was not very good, but I decided to give it another shot.

Audio File of the Article

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Sometimes, things do not go the way we want. You may try something new and make a mistake. You may work towards a goal but not reach it. When this happens, it is easy to feel sad or disappointed. You may even think, “Maybe I cannot do this.”

But what will happen if you give yourself one more chance?

A New Chance, a New Start

Trying again does not mean doing exactly the same thing. You now have something important: experience. You know what happened the first time, and you can learn from it.

Perhaps you tried to cook a new meal, but it did not taste good. Next time, you will use less salt or cook it for less time. Perhaps you started exercising but stopped after two weeks. This time, you will make a simpler plan.

Small changes can make the next experience very different.

Mistakes Can Help You

Nobody enjoys making mistakes, but mistakes can teach us useful lessons. When something goes wrong, ask yourself a simple question: “What can I do differently next time?”

You do not have to become perfect. You only need to learn something from the experience. If you try again, you will know more than you knew before. This can make you feel stronger and more confident.

A difficult experience can make you feel like stopping, but you can pick yourself up and try again. You may discover that the second time feels easier because you already know what to expect.

Give Yourself Time

Sometimes, we expect results too quickly. We start something on Monday and want to be good at it by Friday. Real life usually does not work like that.

Imagine you want to grow a plant. You will not see a flower the day after you put the seed in the soil. You will need to give it water, light and time. Your goals can be similar.

If you continue taking small steps, you will slowly see a difference. You may not notice it every day, but that does not mean nothing is happening.

One More Chance Can Open a Door

Giving yourself another chance does not mean you will certainly succeed. Sometimes, you will try again and things still will not go as planned. That is OK. You may discover a different way or even realise that you want a different goal.

The important thing is not to let one difficult experience decide everything for you. If something did not work the first time, you can give it another shot. Think about what you learned and decide what you will do differently.

One more chance may not change everything overnight, but it can help you take the next step. And sometimes, that next step will lead you somewhere you never expected.

Grammar Notes

Future Tense with “Will”

We use will + base verb to talk about the future.

Structure:

Subject + will + base verb

You will know more than before.
You will need to give the plant time.
You will slowly see a difference.

For negative sentences, use will not (won’t) + base verb:

You will not see a flower immediately.
Things won’t always go as planned.

We can also use will in questions:

What will happen if you try again?
What will you do differently next time?

Remember that the verb after will stays in its base form:

Correct: You will learn from the experience.
Incorrect: You will learned from the experience.

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Five Questions Based on the Article

Why can trying again be different from the first time?
What can mistakes teach us?
Why does the article compare goals to growing a plant?
Does giving yourself another chance always mean you will succeed?
What can you do if something does not work the first time?

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