Are you a driver in business?
In today’s episode, Lindsay and Aubrey share four idioms that are connected to driving in a car and can also be used in business motivation and conversations with your colleagues.
Listen in to learn how to inject energy into your conversations in English today.
Idioms and Driving
Aubrey shares that in today’s episode, they will be letting us know four idioms that are related to driving.
This is an opportune moment for us to jumpstart our business, deals, personal relationships, and many more.
We don’t want to wait for opportunities to come for us we want to seek them out.
There are a lot of idioms out there that are related to driving that show improvement in performance and motivation.
Lindsay asks Aubrey if she considers herself a driver in business, life, or in bringing new ideas?
Aubrey doesn’t think she is.
She mentions she knows Lindsay is because she has been an amazing driver for the All Ears English team.
Aubrey shares she is mostly in the backseat and just follows what she is told to do.
She definitely provides great support rather than leading.
She thinks it’s probably because she has four kids and she is mostly tied up with being the driver of her kids’ schedules and life in general.
She doesn’t have additional bandwidth to drive anything else other than things for her kids.
Driving Idioms
You can be a driver in your work or in your personal life.
Lindsay and Aubrey share four native English idioms that will help you express that you’re improving your business performance.
Here they are:
- To Kick It Into High Gear
Aubrey says that with this idiom, you can think about driving and you are shifting to a higher gear so that you can go faster. Idiomatically this means you are improving your performance. Lindsay shares that driving a standard transmission car on a windy road in the countryside and shifting your card into fifth gear is the best feeling; there’s nothing like it.
Example:
I’ve been slacking lately, I need to kick it into high gear.
My sales numbers are low. I need to kick it into high gear.
- Put the Pedal to the Metal
This idiom describes someone pressing their feet down on the accelerator pedal of a car to go faster. They use the word metal because the floorboard of most cars is metal and if you press the car pedal further down to the floor, it will hit the metal floorboard. Lindsay says this can be used both literally and figuratively. This can encourage a driver to go faster and put their foot on the pedal. Figuratively it can tell someone to do something faster or better.
Example:
I’ve been dragging today, I need to put the pedal to the metal.
I have so much to get done before today’s meeting, time to put the pedal to the metal.
- Jumpstart
Jumpstart is a phrasal verb. This is like when you jumpstart the dead battery of a car. This can be used in both business and our personal lives. This means you are giving a boost of energy to someone or something. You can also use this as a noun.
Example:
I need to jumpstart my team. They are lacking motivation.
Oh man! I need a jumpstart. I need a cup of coffee.
- Ramp Up
Imagine a car trying to drive up a ramp for more clearance so it can get inspected and fixed. This is a phrasal verb that can literally mean bringing up a car or figuratively where you want something to increase or improve.
Example:
We need to ramp up our sales numbers. Does anyone have any ideas?
It’s vital that we ramp up efforts if we’re going to finish in time.
Roleplay
Lindsay and Aubrey have shared with you four idioms that are related to driving and for you to better understand how to use them, here is a quick roleplay.
In this scenario, Lindsay and Aubrey are business partners.
They have started a dog-walking business.
They are discussing how they can improve performance this fall.
Lindsay: We definitely have time to add a few customers. How can we ramp up?
Aubrey: Yeah, I agree. We need to get the word out. Maybe we could put up flyers. That would jumpstart us.
Lindsay: Good idea! And we can put the pedal to the metal on social media too. Maybe post on neighbourhood groups on Facebook.
Aubrey: Okay, let’s do it! If we kick it into high gear, we can have several new customers by next week.
Lindsay is amused at how the roleplay makes it sound so easy to increase the reach of your business.
Aubrey shares that her kids started a business where they clean up the yards of neighbors with dogs.
Lindsay thinks that’s awesome to encourage kids at such a young age to identify a problem, provide a solution, and help their neighbors.
It’s a bonus that they can earn money from that.
Takeaway
You guys might be feeling a need for motivation or improvement in performance.
These idioms are all about increasing output jumpstarting your efforts.
Lindsay also adds that this also encourages you to self-reflect on what part of your life would you consider yourself to be a driver.
It’s good to know who and what is driving different aspects of your life.
You also want to know what areas of your life you want to improve on and take charge to drive it to somewhere that makes you happy and fulfilled.
What idioms or phrasal verbs are you most likely to use in your conversations?
Share it in the comments below.
