First published 24 June 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel opened episode 31 by telling me I was late again. We'd said 10-ish. How you can be late for ish, I still don't know. He agreed to let it go anyway. Sort of.
It had been about nine weeks since we'd been in a room together and I could see the difference in him as he walked through the door. He's on target with the weight he set out to lose back in January. It's taken longer than he planned, so he's given himself an extra couple of months and a date to aim at. That led to the big question for the halfway point. Did you really commit to your goals? A lot of us set them to prove something to other people, and Nigel admitted he wasn't sure he'd owned his enough.
My bit of good news. Two episodes back I'd scored myself on the health questions and made some promises. I kept most of them. I'm not claiming a gold star. And I'd just got back from the US lighter than when I left, which has never happened before.
Nigel can't stand the phrase lose weight. He talks about releasing it. I went with divorcing it, because if you lose something you go looking for it again, and hardly anyone divorces something and then wants it back. He also told me about a Christmas game he used to run with six people he coached. Lose two pounds between 20 December and 3 January, or pay £5,000 for every pound you put on. Only one person failed. He paid up.
Then, right near the end, Nigel announced we'd run a live day before the year was out. Your Best Year Starts Here Live, about 40 people in a room. I found out at the same moment the listeners did. His line was that you know what you want and the how will show up, which was handy, because I had no idea how either.
What stayed with me
- Halfway through the year, ask yourself if you really own the goals you set. Plenty of us set them to prove something to other people.
- Give a goal a date with some slack in it, or say "by 31 December or sooner".
- Lose a small amount steadily. A crash week is mostly water.
- Focus on what you don't want and you get more of it. Type "don't show me pictures of" into Google and see what comes back.
- Some people have a vested interest in your life not working.
How can you be late for ish?
Neil Martin
We know what we want to achieve. The how will show up.
Nigel Risner
