First published 24 February 2020 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Nigel dared me to rap at the end of the last episode, so this one opens with me rapping. I'll let you be the judge. He had a go too, and his attempt went up on Instagram (he reckons mine was better, which I'm taking).
His point was that commitments forced on us rarely get followed through, so you have to commit to your commitment. If your January resolutions have already gone, tear them up and write new ones for the rest of 2020. Otherwise they just sit there as what Nigel calls distraction units. He'd crossed about four things off his own list, including the follow-up to his book The Impact Code. And he's right about the gyms. Packed on 3 January, three or four people in by February.
Then he asked me for one big public commitment. Mine came from sitting in the audience at Funnel Hacking Live, the ClickFunnels event, where most speakers sign a contract saying they won't swear on stage. It hit me that nobody's ever been offended by someone not swearing. So I want to clean up my language. I'm not promising I'll never swear again (I'd fail), but if I do, it'll be on purpose. Some songs I've loved for 25 or 30 years don't sit right with me now either. Nigel's version is thinking harder about his words for each audience, because he reckons he'd break a no-swearing promise in about 11 minutes.
That got us onto public commitment and the story of my first race. My dad ran a half-marathon in 1987 when I was 12, and I'd always wanted to do one. In 2012 I met someone training for an Ironman who looked normal, went home and signed up for a 10-mile race with sponsorship before I'd done a single run. Within a week I could barely walk. But I'd told everyone. So I found a training plan on a website called No Meat Athlete, which Nigel heard as meet, M-E-E-T. Race day turned out easy.
What I'd pass on
- If your New Year goals have stalled, tear them up and write the ones you'll actually do for the rest of the year.
- Goals you're never going to do just sit on the list as distraction units.
- Swearing is often just the lazy option. Use it on purpose or leave it.
- Tell people what you've committed to. I'd never have got to race day otherwise.
Nobody's ever been offended by somebody not swearing.
Neil Martin
I don't coach people anymore on their non-committed commitments.
Nigel Risner
