First published 22 July 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel opened this one amazed we were nearly a year into the podcast. He picked up where the last episode finished. When you go massively off course, don't beat yourself up. Work out where you are and take new action. He reckons some blip happens every week or two with his book or with pinning me down for recording dates.
For me it comes down to two things. Being properly honest about where you actually are, then taking responsibility for it. Split that word up and you get response ability, your ability to choose how you respond. I went to the extremes to make the point, like waking up in a police cell, or me reaching down and pointing a shotgun at Nigel (I don't own a shotgun). Nigel wasn't having it. He'd been thinking about an unfinished chapter and I'd taken him to hospitals and prisons.
Then we got onto ice cream. Nigel says a 99 with the sauce and the flake talks to him every time he walks past. He knows it doesn't, and at 56 he owns the choice. These days he orders a scoop off the kids' dessert menu (he called it a blob and got told off). I mentioned the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, which Nigel decided was a classic Neil Martin title. Joe Cross made it after 60 days on vegetable juice. And every time he's in London he walks from his hotel to Harrods for one scoop of chocolate ice cream.
Nigel's raising his fees so he doesn't take every gig. I said there isn't a single day on the calendar called someday, which is why I keep telling people to turn one day into day one. He flies into Heathrow a lot and says on a Friday you'll never land on time. My last flight back from the US landed early, my case came off first and my driver was still 30 minutes away. So I got a coffee at Caffe Nero and stood outside. Me, early. Nigel's still in shock.
What stayed with me
- Be honest about where you actually are. No pretending, and no making it worse than it is.
- If you're going off plan, say out loud it's your choice. Ice cream has never called anyone.
- There's no day on the calendar called someday. Pick one step towards it you can take today.
- Being off course for a bit is normal. A late landing at Heathrow on a Friday is just an acceptable delay.
I promise you ice cream has never called you.
Nigel Risner
There's loads of days on the calendar, but there's not a single day on the calendar called someday, right?
Neil Martin
