Baby step, baby step, show up. Baby step, baby step, show up.
This is my mantra for this year and a combination of two lessons I learnt from Nick Williams.
I first came across Nick when I broke a £20 note to get small change. I needed £1 to pay the toll fee for the Dartford Crossing. Mindful of spending money simply to get change from a £20 note, I looked around WHSmith at Thurrock Services, a motorways service station, to find something worthwhile. That’s when I came across the book ‘The Work You Were Born to Do’ by Nick Williams.
How small decisions change your life!
I read through the book, skimmed through the exercises and was very taken with the book and its author. Then Nick started showing up in my life. I would come across another one of his books; I would go to a conference and he’d be there giving a talk; at another event, he’d be a participant, just like me. Eventually I signed up for his mailing list, attend some of his events and every now and again, I would meet someone else who is also a Nick Williams fan.
Nick is a very down to earth person. He talks about his own struggles and he shares ways in which he battles the beast within, overcoming resistance, fear and procrastination. When he speaks, though there may be hundreds of people, he speaks to me – I relate to every word. He talks about how scary it was when he first ditched his job and started out on his own. How he just kept taking baby steps one after another. He just kept doing the next thing and then the next, small, tiny action that imperceptibly moved him forward and helped him overcome the myriad times he wanted to give up. Baby step, by baby step, often facing an overwhelming desire to throw in the towel, he just kept going, one baby step at time.
So this is the first lesson I learnt from Nick: Baby Steps. Keep on keeping on. Baby step after baby step, that’s all you have to do.
The second lesson is Show Up.
Nick tells the story of how he was scheduled to speak at a show, an open air affair. The weather was appalling, more rain was forecast and it was expected that not many people would turn up. So Nick hummed and ha’ed with himself, shall I, shan’t I. Eventually he decided he had made a commitment, he would go, even though it was a long drive to get there and there was a good chance nobody would show up for his talk.
When the time came to give the talk, there was a man, a woman and a dog. He gave the talk anyway and afterwards exchanged a few words with the people.
A few months later Nick was invited to speak at an event in the United States. Turns out those people listening to him on that cold, wet day, enjoyed his talk and asked him to speak at one of their events. Off he went. He became friends with this couple, was introduced to their circle of friends and followers and over time more opportunities opened up for him.
As he says, none of this would have happened if he did not show up for his talk on that cold, rainy day when only two people and a dog turned up to hear him. It taught him the value of showing up. You never know who will be there, what you will learn, who you will meet, what might happen to propel you forward.
Today, Nick is a sought after international speaker, author and broadcaster. How did he do it? By following this very same strategy: baby step, baby step, show up.
So that’s what I am doing. Baby step, baby step, show up; along the lines of Aim for Improvement, Not Perfection.
Baby step, baby step, show up.
