First published 30 December 2019 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Last one of 2019, and the last letter of FOCUS. Nigel's S is stick with the plan. You've picked your few main goals, got the people round you on side, talked it through and cleared out what's in the way. Now leave it alone until at least the end of March, however shiny the next new thing looks.
It ties back to what I said FOCUS stood for in the first place, follow one course until successful. Nigel's example is writing a book. If three hours every Monday gets you ten pages, keep doing that, and ignore whoever turns up with a method for twelve. Then he told the story of his very first book. Pizza Hut after chapter one, a proper Italian halfway, Center Parcs at three-quarters and Orlando when it was published. On the plane home the kids asked when he was writing the next one.
I owned up to something too. The One Conversation Away Summit, where I interviewed 28 people about conversations that changed their lives, could have gone out sooner. I had a storyboard in my head and couldn't work out how to hand it over without losing it, so I hung on to it. Once I let go, it came together really quickly. (Nigel had a theory ready about why I'd held on. It wasn't that.)
I also brought back the AIM framework from the health seminars I used to run. Most people chasing better health in January go for movement or intake, the gym or the diet. The A is attitude, and it matters most. Anyone can get to the gym two or three times in January. It's the dark morning when you're still sore from two days ago that tests you.
Nigel's view is you only stick at something if it's a must, and it has to be your must. He even quoted done beats perfect at me while nagging me about finishing my book. Then he wished everyone a happy Christmas. On 30 December.
What stuck
- Stick with the plan until at least the end of March. If it's working, don't swap it for the next shiny thing.
- Celebrate each stage. Nigel's kids were asking about the next book on the way home from Florida.
- Let people in. Hanging on to a project to protect it can slow it right down.
- Sort your attitude before the gym or the diet, or neither will last past the dark mornings.
- Do it for you. Goals that need other people's approval tend to fade.
We're a bit like the fourth emergency service. We know a man who can, or a woman that can.
Nigel Risner
You can't get help if you don't ask for it.
Neil Martin
