First published 13 June 2022 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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We had another scheduling clash that week. So I did with the show what I'd been telling clients to do with their content, which is take something you've already put out and put it out again in a new way. This one is ten clips from our first ten episodes, stuck together like a mixtape.
It opens with Nigel's tip for your best year. To create your future, you've got to complete your past. You wouldn't take last week's shopping to the supermarket and pile more on top (his word for the shopping was a bit ruder than that). Then it's my customer types. A is the avatar, the client you'd copy loads of times if you could. B is beware. And C, which Nigel was nervous to ask about, just means see ya.
Nigel's helicopter pilot Dave gets a mention, with his rule that if the weather looks bad they land somewhere safe. Time is valuable, safety is priceless. There's my bit about choosing emotions the way you choose your clothes (Nigel said he might be nicking that one). And his line that the only person who ever died on stage was Tommy Cooper, and he died laughing.
Then goals. Nigel picks our first fight of 2019 over having one big goal, because the minute you hit it the next two words are "what's next". He set me homework to write a personal mission statement and I told him I could give it to him now. Mine is about getting people in power, spelt I-N, so they get to be themselves and play to their strengths. I also talk about the gratitude list I write every night in the same notebook with the same pen. On a bad day I spend longer on it.
It finishes in Nigel's zoo. He was at Whipsnade doing a talk and spotted 14 buckets, each with a different animal on it, because the keeper doesn't feed them all the same food. That's his reason why we sometimes go off into laughter and never finish the story.
What stayed with me
- If you want more in your life, clear some of the old stuff out first.
- Sort clients into A, B and see ya. Some Bs can be trained into As with the right ground rules.
- If you know who you're seeing tomorrow, pick how you want to feel about it before you go.
- On a bad day, give the gratitude list more time before bed.
- Tell people your goals. Nigel reckons 90% of people never do and then wonder why nobody helps.
In order to create your future, you've got to complete your past.
Nigel Risner
C just stands for see ya, as in like see you later, as in I do not wanna deal with you.
Neil Martin
