“I’m gonna punch you in the face…”

I am in Cuba for the next 8 days…

Sophie and I flew from Dubai to Paris, enjoyed Paris for 36 hours and then took an 11 hour flight from Paris to Havana.

On long flights, I often kill time by reflecting and reviewing things in my life…
Nic and Jenny are meeting Sophie and I in Havana, so I thought about Nic.

A few weeks ago, I silently walked in on a phone call between Nic and one of his friends in the UK…it was on speaker phone in Nic’s office.

I guess his friend was excitedly, talking about what he was going to do.

“I’m going to do this…..”
“I am going to do that…”
“Once we do this then I will do that…”

(for the sake of clarity, I have simplified the above conversation)

Nic stopped the guy and asked, “have you ever been in a fight?”

The guy replied what I was also thinking:  “huh????? What???”

So Nic furthered his question:  “when you were a kid, did you ever get into a fist fight….?”

His friend replied,  “yes, a long time ago…”

Even though he knew I was looking right at him — Nic asked in complete seriousness, not even with a smile on his face, “Did you tell the guy you fought, “I am going to punch you in the face?”

or

did you just punch him in the face…?”

Then Nic followed with “Don’t talk about what you are going to do …. Just do it.”

There was a silence on the phone….and then a firm “I understand” was heard on the other end.

Nic is British and a 4^th degree black belt in taekwondo …

he was probably refering to his training days…
I dont know, but I like the point he made:  don’t tell me all the great things you are going to do, just do them.

I have been close friends with Nic for 9 years – and sitting in my seat, on the long flight …. as I reflected back to the above story, I thought about his consistency.

Nic Watson  never talks about what he is gonna do.

He and I are getting our pilots licenses together.

To be honest, I have talked about getting my pilots license for a couple of years, “I’m gonna…”
but several months ago, Nic came up to me and said “you and I are going to get our pilots license….”

No day dreaming; no talk of big adventure, just words put into action.

Try this….

Try NOT to tell anyone (even your wife or best friend) something you are “gonna do.”

Let your actions speak for you.

It’s much easier said than done, but try it for one month.