Weekend Phrase Fix - Going Through the Motions

🎙️ E389 of The English Like A Native Podcast.

🔴 This episode is part of the Weekend Phrase Fix series, where we dive deep into essential phrases that should be in your vocabulary toolkit. In today's episode, we focus on the phrase "going through the motions."

⏯️ Listen and read along on The English Like a Native Podcast YouTube channel.

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Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast, the listening resource for intermediate to advanced-level English learners. My name is Anna and this is your Weekend Phrase Fix. Phrase Fix episodes focus on one particular phrase that you really ought to have in your vocabulary bank. And today we are fixated on the phrase going through the motions, going through the motions. Let me spell that out for you. Going, G O I N G. Through, T H R O U G H. The, T H E. Motions, M O T I O N S. Going through the motions is generally quite a negative phrase. Let me give you some examples of how it might be used and see if you can work out what it means."My partner and I need to have some quality time because we've just been going through the motions for so long. We've really disconnected.""I think I need to let Sabrina go. I can tell she's not invested. She turns up to work and just goes through the motions, but she really doesn't bring her A game." What do you think? What does going through the motions mean? In that first example, I used a relationship and talked about how two people were going through the motions in their relationship. In the second example, I suggested that I would have to let somebody go. Sabrina, in this particular example. To let someone go from a job or a role is basically to fire them, to tell them they're not working for you anymore, usually because they've disappointed you in some way. So I said,"I would have to let Sabrina go." Because I could see she was just going through the motions. She wasn't invested in the work. So have you figured it out yet? To go through the motions means that you perform actions or tasks without energy, without enthusiasm or without genuine effort. And it's often because those actions, those tasks have become routine. You're so used to doing them that you're pretty bored by this point. And so you just do what you are required to do, but you're not fully invested. You're not fully engaged in that task. Now, all of us, If we think hard, all of us go through the motions with some task or other in our daily life. A good phrase that you could use in place of going through the motions is to be on autopilot or to do something in autopilot. The scariest thing for me is when I get in my car, and I drive and then I arrive at my destination and realise I haven't been present as the driver throughout that journey. I suddenly become aware of the fact that I've just arrived, and I don't remember driving because my mind was wandering. I was thinking about something else because I'm quite used to driving. It's something I do on a regular basis. And if it's a journey I've done before, then sometimes I get in my car and I just go through the motions. I'm not fully present. I'm just on autopilot. As I said, this phrase is usually used in a negative context because it implies that a person is disengaged or uninterested in what they're doing. And it can happen within a relationship that people end up going through the motions because they have a very fixed routine. If two people have been together for many, many years, and they do the same thing every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, over time, they can forget to pay attention to one another. There's another phrase that comes to mind that we've previously covered, which is to take someone for granted. So if you go through the motions too often in a relationship, you take the other person for granted. You don't appreciate them or deeply engage with them, then that can be detrimental for your relationship. For example, you might say to your partner,"Hey, can we have a date night? Can we do something special? Just the two of us, because I miss you." And the partner might say,"Meh? But I see you literally every single day. How can you miss me?""Well, because we never make eye contact. Because we barely look at each other, we barely talk to each other, we just sit in the same room and do the things that we always do. We never fully engage." Does any of this sound familiar? Have you ever been in this position? And it's not just relationships. You can go through the motions with many things. So this could be used, as I previously mentioned, in the workplace. If you really don't feel invested in your job, if you're not excited by it, you don't feel encouraged by the work that you do. But you need the work because you just have to pay the bills. So you turn up and you do the job and you leave at the end of the day and you don't think about it. You do what needs to be done but you're not doing it with any passion. In many forms of work this is acceptable, but if you want to succeed and excel within the workplace, if you want promotions, if you want to be noticed and to move up the ladder, then you're probably going to have to rethink how you turn up to work. You're going to have to bring your A game. You're going to have to be all in. These are two phrases that are the exact opposite of going through the motions. To bring your A game is to be the best version of yourself. And to be all in means that you are fully invested. Not just a little bit, not halfway, but you are all in. Every ounce of you wants to succeed, and so you give your complete attention, your energy, and your drive to your work. You are all in. You can also use this phrase going through the motions when talking about your daily routine. So if there's something that you do on a regular basis that you just feel like you're not present when you do it, I mentioned driving, but it might be, you know, you wake up in the morning and you make breakfast and then you clean up the kitchen, then you hoover the house and you take the dog for a walk and the whole time you're doing these tasks that you do on a daily basis, your head is somewhere else. You're thinking about being in a different place. You're thinking about some point in the future when maybe you don't have to do these daily tasks. Then you could say,"In life, I'm a little dissatisfied. I feel I wake up every day and just go through the motions. I be where I'm supposed to be, I do what I'm supposed to do, but my mind is somewhere else. I'm just going through the motions." This would suggest that you're dissatisfied, or you're emotionally detached. It's like you're there physically, but you're not there in spirit. You're not there emotionally. You're numb. Another phrase you might use is that you're just doing the bare minimum. You're doing the bare minimum. Like, sometimes when I'm feeling energised and I see the house needs clearing up, which is quite often, because as you know, I have two young children and a cat, and the house is often chaotic. There's a lot of mess that needs clearing up. And if I am feeling energetic and in a good mood, then sometimes I have an absolute monster cleaning session. I'll have the music playing, I'll be singing and dancing around while putting plates away and polishing the sides and just having a great time. I'm fully present. But other days, when we have rain and grey skies and it's cold, and I didn't get a good night's sleep so I'm not feeling my best, I still have to wash the dishes and I still have to put things away, so we don't trip over the items that have been left on the floor. And so, I'll do those things, but I'm not doing it with a song nor a dance. And in those circumstances, I'm just doing the bare minimum. I'm not going to town and dusting all the sideboards. I'm not going to polish the skirting boards on this occasion. I'm not going to clean the mirrors. I just do what absolutely has to be done the bare minimum. So now I want you to think about how this phrase relates to you. Is there a time when you feel that you are going through the motions? Was there a time in the past in a relationship or in a job or in life where you were going through the motions? Or perhaps you know, someone who is scared to admit that they're unhappy, but you can see quite clearly that they are just going through the motions. Now to make this podcast episode truly valuable and worthwhile, I highly recommend that you go and write down a few sentences about your life. And how this phrase fits in to your experience, going through the motions. Don't make the mistake of writing emotions because this is about being detached from your emotions. It's about motion, which is like action or acting. You're going through the motions, you're doing the actions, but you're not there emotionally. And let me just wrap this episode up by saying, although going through the motions is deemed as a negative phrase because of that detachment, sometimes just going through the motions is necessary and can be, to a certain extent, useful. For example, you know I love squash. Some days I don't really feel like playing. But maybe I have a match booked and I feel obliged to go. I don't want to go. My body hurts. I'm tired. My mind is elsewhere, but I go, I do my duty. I get on court, and I play. Now, in those circumstances, actually going through the motions when I'm not fully feeling it ends up being a positive experience for me because my brain continues to think about the things I need to think of when I'm on court and because actually just going through the motions sometimes helps me to escape whatever it is that's distracting me in life and often in those circumstances I come home feeling so much better than when I left. That might be an element of physical activity, which also lifts the mood. But my point is, if you're having a period in your life where you're feeling generally like you're going through the motions, don't neglect your study. Maybe just pull back and do something simpler, like listening to a podcast, reading your favourite book, or just turning up to a conversation class and having a general chitchat with other learners. Make going through the motions a positive and enjoyable experience. Now, if you're watching on YouTube, I would love it if you share some of your personal sentences with me using the phrase going through the motions. And if you're not watching on YouTube, we have a YouTube channel. So come on over, subscribe and check out a new way of absorbing a podcast. You can look at the words on screen, which helps you with your reading while you're listening as well. So just click on the link that's in the show notes and I hope to see you there and read your example sentences in the comments. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.