When I work with people we are often talking about things that really scare them – selling, telephoning, networking. By arming people with skills and supporting people to practice we help people overcome these fears and often find that when they get started…. there’s no stopping them. This year a chance comment from a client caused me to challenge myself to do something that scares me. And… fates (and one of my colleagues) conspired to put an opportunity in front of me which was both too perfect and too terrifying to ignore. So in February of this year, with no small degree of trepidation I headed down to London to learn all about stand-up comedy.

The course was really enjoyable, but scary at every stage. I surprised myself by which bits I found most tricky, and which things (by comparison) felt more comfortable. And…. in common with what we hear time and time again from clients….. when I took the plunge and survived I was left with a huge sense that if I could do this, no obstacle was insurmountable.

Trying to take my own advice I made the most of the feeling of being invincible and on the way home on the train I set my next challenge, I arranged to do my first stand up comedy performance in front of an audience. As you can imagine, I immediately regretted it, and spent the following weeks quaking in terror, but when the time came, I survived that too. More than survived it, I loved it….. so much so I may even have agreed to do it again. The only problem is that now that performing stand-up comedy is a tiny bit less terrifying than it was at the start of the year, I’m now looking for my next challenge.

So… I’d love your thoughts on what you’ve done that scared you, how it made you feel, what you did next and how you choose your challenges. And… if you have any ideas for my next challenge, let me know!