Done Beats Perfect
I’ve been promising to make a regular vlog for a while, but I haven’t got around to it. It is something I’ve been intending to do, but I haven’t been doing. I let too many obstacles get in the way. And here’s an interesting point…
Do you judge people on what they intend to do or what they actually do?
This might not be the perfect introduction to my new vlog. And it might not be the perfect blog, but it is done.
Regardless of when I started doing this vlog, I’m sure I’ll end up wishing I did it sooner.
Back in 2009, when I was obese and I got breathless doing simple things like walking upstairs, I wish I’d started documenting things then. I was in an early part of the transformation that I’ve gone through with my health, with my life, and I would love to be able to look back and see exactly what I was going through, rather than relying on my memories.
A big part of the reason I didn’t create a video journey at the time was fear. I was afraid of how people would view me, how people would judge me, especially if I started talking about my issues with my mental health.
The Real Neil
My plan with my Real Neil vlog series is just to film myself as I live my life. It’s not to do it as a specific kind of content piece that’s planned. It’s more to capture what’s going on and to capture what my thoughts are in given moments. To share the real me.
I’m passionate about the ripple effect we can all have with our lives. I love to see how the little things we do can then scale out and help lots of other people.
Somebody once said to me that our lives are one of two things: a warning or an example. I used to live my life being a warning of how not to live. For the last eight years, maybe a bit longer, I’ve been trying to live as an example.
A journey of reinvention
If I’m really honest, my journey to kind of finding myself and putting myself back together started 11 years ago in 2006. The part of my story I’ve shared through social media and other blog platforms like Natural Juice Junkie, the physical changes and the stuff that I’ve put out there more, started in 2009. That part’s been an eight-year journey.
But, there were three years before that, that were less public. Those three years were much more about what was going on in my head.
It’s been a long journey, and it’s been a journey of taking myself from basically being a warning to everybody that saw my life (don’t live like him, don’t do what he does, don’t eat like he does) and then turing that around.
I don’t need the Real Neil vlog to be watched by hundreds of people or thousands of people. If I can connect with one person and make a difference, that’s is why I do what I do. It’s about the ripple effect. Everything for me is about that ripple effect. It’s about being able to share what I’ve done in the hope that it might help somebody else.
Episode 1 might not be perfect, but it’s done and done beats perfect.
Done beats perfect every single time
