{"id":29815,"date":"2025-03-06T05:22:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?p=29815"},"modified":"2025-03-06T05:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:23:14","slug":"the-five-balls-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Balls of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

B2 – Upper Intermediate<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Dyson, former Coca-Cola CEO, made some speeches in his lifetime that had left a mark on everyone and several of them have gone viral since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them is the one about what he calls, \u201cThe Five Balls of Life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find out what \u201cthe five balls of life\u201d is about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be ready to answer the questions that follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/shinecoachingbarcelona.com\/5-balls-of-life-brian-dyson-speech<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vocabulary Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. What does \u201cirrevocably<\/strong>\u201d mean? \u201cYou will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls \u2013 family, health, friends and spirit \u2013 are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be <\/em>irrevocably<\/em><\/strong> scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.<\/em>\u201d Give two (2) synonyms or similar expressions and use ‘irrevocably<\/em><\/strong>‘ in your own sentence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. What does \u201cpillar<\/strong>\u201d mean here, \u201cConnecting with these <\/em>pillars<\/em><\/strong> of who you are is a great way to grow energy, confidence and clarity.<\/em>\u201d? Use this word in a sentence in the same context.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. What does \u201cto be at a crossroads<\/strong>\u201d mean? \u201cIf you find yourself <\/em>at a <\/em><\/strong>similar<\/em> crossroads<\/em><\/strong> in your career and life, take some real time to reflect on yourself.<\/em>\u201d Use this phrase in a sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Discussion Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. In your own words, explain the five balls of life. Share your takeaway from this metaphor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Share your opinion on this, \u201cYou will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Is it really possible to juggle the five balls of life? How do you keep all of them in the air?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. How would you answer Dyson\u2019s question, \u201cWhat is education for? Is it for the pursuit of knowledge or for the pursuit of significance?<\/em>\u201c? Expand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. Do many of us tend to use education for life or just as a living? Share your point of view.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. What is your own personal mantra when it comes to balancing work and life?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      B2 – Upper Intermediate  Brian Dyson, former Coca-Cola CEO, made some speeches in his lifetime that had left a mark on everyone and several of them have gone viral since. One of them is the one about what he calls, \u201cThe Five Balls of Life\u201d. Find out what \u201cthe five balls of life\u201d is about.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[291,292,496,289,293],"class_list":["post-29815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homework","tag-b2-upper-intermediate","tag-first-certificate-fce","tag-people-and-human-interest","tag-reading","tag-text"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Five Balls of Life | phone english blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Five Balls of Life | phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"B2 – Upper Intermediate  Brian Dyson, former Coca-Cola CEO, made some speeches in his lifetime that had left a mark on everyone and several of them have gone viral since. One of them is the one about what he calls, \u201cThe Five Balls of Life\u201d. Find out what \u201cthe five balls of life\u201d is about.  […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/phoneenglish.es\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T04:22:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T04:23:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@phoneenglishes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@phoneenglishes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"PHONE ENGLISH\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/phoneenglish.es\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/phoneenglish\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/phoneenglishes\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/phone-english1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/phone-english1.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":124,\"caption\":\"PHONE ENGLISH\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"phone english blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/\",\"name\":\"The Five Balls of Life | phone english blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-06T04:22:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-06T04:23:14+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Blog\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#webpage\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74786b784a3d32102e60c20d61b651c3\"},\"headline\":\"The Five Balls of Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-06T04:22:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-06T04:23:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#webpage\"},\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"B2 - Upper intermediate\",\"First Certificate FCE\",\"People and Human Interest\",\"Reading\",\"Text\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Homework\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2025\/03\/the-five-balls-of-life\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74786b784a3d32102e60c20d61b651c3\",\"name\":\"katie\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29815"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29817,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29815\/revisions\/29817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}