First published 16 November 2020 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel opened this one by admitting he had no idea what he was going to say. Which, to be fair, sort of fitted. His point was that so many of us wait for someone else's approval before we'll feel good enough, when the first line of the day could just be "I am enough". Lockdown had also shown him he quite likes his own company (Alfie the dog and some trashy TV included).
Alfie got a proper mention. He demands a walk every single day, and Nigel noticed that on the days he takes him out first thing, the whole day goes better. On the lazy days his energy's worse, even though in theory he should have more. I said you don't lose weight so you can join the gym. If you want to be the noun, you have to do the verb. You want to be a runner, you run.
I was still finishing Done Beats Perfect when we recorded this, and Nigel gave me a heads-up from someone with five books behind him. About 2% of people will think it's rubbish and about 2% will say it's the best thing they've ever read. Neither lot is right. So I told him about one of my early online course launches. The first comment on the Facebook ad was two words, and the first one began with F. Then I looked in my inbox and the payment confirmations were coming in.
The last bit was about throwaway lines. One of Nigel's first speeches was to a hotel housekeepers' conference at the Royal Lancaster. He'd pictured someone pushing a cleaning trolley. In walked around 300 women in Chanel suits. Somewhere in the middle he said "God doesn't make junk" almost in passing, and 298 of them wrote that it was one of the best lines they'd ever heard. Done Beats Perfect started the same way, an offhand line in a video I made in 2015 that I couldn't shake off. And I owned up to reading Nigel's book The Impact Code twice. Second time round it felt like a different book.
The bits worth keeping
- Start the day with "I am enough" instead of waiting for someone else to say it.
- Do the thing before you feel ready. You don't lose weight so you can join the gym.
- A few people will hate what you put out and a few will love it. Neither gets to decide what it's worth.
- A line you think is nothing might be the one that sticks with somebody.
You can't really call a book Done Beats Perfect and then publish it and go, "It was perfect." It won't be perfect.
Neil Martin
Be very careful when you put yourself down, 'cause God doesn't make junk.
Nigel Risner
