Have you challenged yourself outside your comfort zone?

[Twineyey]

I have been walking with my local ramblers for years. Now, I've volunteered to lead myself, given a little push by other leaders, it's something I've been thinking about for a while, so I feel excited/nervous. I think it'll be good for me though.

I'd love to hear stories about people taking on new challenges also, to give me a bit of confidence!

yes. I teach bagmaking. I've sewn for years as a hobby. Started making bags about a decade ago. Just before covid I was asked by the owner of a local haberdashery if I could help out with some of her adult courses (They run a lot of sewing workshops) She would do the teaching and I would be support, like a TA. So I said yes.
Then. Covid.
Afterwards, she asked me again, but said that I would need to run the class myself. I have no teaching experience. I work in IT. -sat at my desk - no client contact. But I said yes. Its been brilliant and I love it. It doesn't pay any bills so I still work my normal job 4 days a week.
I enjoy everything about it. Apart from the pay When I retire, which isn't for a while yet as I'm 50, I'd like to carry on doing it for sure.

That sounds great!

I think in this sort of thing it helps to have a bit of a thick skin.

Even if you put together the greatest walk ever you will probably find someone who will moan about it if you have a large enough group.

The problem is the person that moans then takes on a much larger part in your head of the general appreciation of what you have done. For example if you lead a group of 6 and 1 moans, then it is the one who moans you remember and really defines your experience of organising the task rather than the 5 who thought it was fine.

What you really need to do is net off the goods and bads. So if one person thought it was great and one thought it was horrible then that is a net zero. If you are getting zero or below you need to start thinking about whether what you organised was appropriate. But if you are getting above zero then it is fine.

If you are organising group activities and they are truly horrible then your group will shrink to 1 person pretty quickly.

It is a good idea to always let people know what they are in for beforehand in terms of physcial activitiy. You don't want someone turning up expecting a 2 mile trek along a tarmaced bike track and them actually getting a 10 mile hike through a wet peat bog.

I always reminded members of my group that if they didn't like what I did they were perfectly entitled to get their money back or organise it themselves.

Great advice - thank you!