First published 14 October 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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I opened this one not quite sure of the date, and Nigel was having none of it. It was definitely 14 October 2019, he said, because Valentine's Day was four months off. And his book should be out that week. Should. It had been due in February, then May, and there'd been trouble with the proofreading and the cover, plus a wait for the foreword from the chief executive of Edinburgh Zoo (which he reckoned suited the book).
My take was to be clear on where you're going and a bit loose about how you get there. I'd driven to Nigel's that day. I tell myself it's a 90-minute drive, and it's two hours. The satnav sent me a different way and straight into traffic round Oxford. Nobody turns the car round over a jam. In life people do it all the time, or they find a nice parking space halfway and decide that'll do.
Nigel's version is high intention, low attachment. Then he got onto Brad Pitt. Someone told him to put his face on Brad Pitt's body and stick it by the fridge. He did. He just kept opening the fridge anyway. So we talked about the law of attraction and the law of action, and how a vision board does nothing if all you do is stare at it. He also owned up that a year ago he'd have blamed Brexit for his book being late.
I told my six-pack story from when I used to speak at health conferences about juicing. I'd walk into the supermarket, see a bloke with a six-pack on the cover of Men's Health and think, I want that. By the time I got to the alcohol aisle I'd got one. Just the wrong kind. Nigel's are Penguins.
And then the slimming pills. Nigel read out the instruction sheet, about two litres of water a day and around 1,200 to 1,300 calories, with exercise on top. Follow all that and you'd lose weight on three Smarties. Or two Mars bars.
My notes from this one
- Be clear on where you're going and relaxed about the route. A detour still gets you there if you keep driving.
- High intention, low attachment.
- A vision board needs you to do something. Staring at it won't make it show up.
- If you fall off, get back on the same day. Nigel's diet starts every day.
- Forward to basics (Peter Thomson's line). Follow the plan you've got and set a target you can actually hit.
You need to have high intention and low attachment.
Nigel Risner
There's the law of attraction, but there's the law of action as well, right?
Neil Martin
