First published 4 November 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Fifty episodes. I opened with "the big 5-0" and Nigel thought I meant my age. Then I spent a couple of minutes promising to finally tell the story I'd been building up to since the last episode, and Nigel told me to just tell the joke.
No joke. In 2015 I ran my first ultramarathon. 107 miles over four days, around 13 and a half thousand feet of climbing, off-road, on the weekend a hurricane hit. Day four was 36 miles on its own. The bit I don't tell very often is that the day after, I ended up in hospital (a bit dehydrated, and feet that were blisters on blisters from running in wet shoes).
The doctors were worried my heart rate was too low. Then a consultant turned up with a clipboard and said, "Mr. Martin, I think we owe you an apology." Someone who can run over 100 miles in a few days has the resting pulse of an athlete, he said. Lying on that bed, that word meant more to me than the medal. Nigel's version of the whole story was that I got dehydrated and a doctor called me an athlete. Fair enough.
But he turned it round on me. If being validated by someone else meant that much, who had I validated in the last 21 days? He also reckons if 50 people call you a horse, it's time to get a saddle. I pointed out there's no horse in any of his books.
That took us somewhere I wasn't expecting. My mastermind group, Rogue Team Alpha, had recently helped me put a name to what I do, which is conversational storytelling. Taking something hard to follow, like the dry software stuff from my years in IT, and making it easy through a story. Nigel said anyone new to the show would struggle to believe that after the last ten minutes. And someone had told me Done Beats Perfect should really be called Get Shift Done.
What stuck
- If someone else's recognition meant that much to you, give some out yourself.
- Who have you validated in the last 21 days?
- Know your own numbers. If they'd told me my pulse was the worry, I could've said 45 was normal for me.
- When lots of people keep telling you you're good at something, maybe start believing them.
- Tell the joke. Don't keep people waiting for it.
The things that we want the most, we should be giving out to other people.
Nigel Risner
One of my big things is actually being able to take complicated things and make them appear easy through story.
Neil Martin
