A few weeks ago, I received an email from my manager at the volunteer budget centre.
She asked me if I’d like to give a 10-minute presentation to 40 young adults aged between 17 and 25, as part of the limited service volunteer programme. My first thought was “Arggghhhhhh”
The programme is a free six-week motivational training course run by the New Zealand Defence Force. During this time the participants are based on site at the Trentham Army Camp.
The aim of the course is to increase the number of people entering employment or training, by improving their self-discipline, self-confidence, motivation, and initiative.
Personal finance is just one part of the course.
You can find the link here.
Courses are run in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
It really is a great initiative.
Facing my fears
Typically, I would say no to a request like this one. I love helping people learn about money, but my crippling fear of public speaking would have me running the other way and asking that someone else do the presentation.
For some reason though, the evening I received the email I said “yes”.
I could barely sleep the night before, and the day of the presentation it was all I could think about. Public speaking is not my strength and it is far outside my bubble of comfort.
My talk was about the cost of car ownership and helping them understand all the different related costs of buying a car.
It went down well and I’m sure they all learned something new.
But they weren’t the only ones to learn.
The reward of facing fears
I learned that I do have something important to say and worth listening to. I’m not going to lie, I felt great afterwards.
This is the feeling of overcoming challenges. It provides a great hit of personal accomplishment which is one of the foundations of achieving happiness.
Public speaking may seem like a silly challenge to you, but it is a big thing for me. By overcoming the challenge, I felt like I had grown as a person just a little bit more.
That really is what keeps us all moving forward and motivated. Challenging ourselves.
That is why in retirement it is so important to remain challenged. For most of us, work is where we get our challenges from. Once we lose that, we need to find new challenges to replace work with or our minds and bodies will atrophy.
Life is so much better when you push yourself.
So get out there and do something that makes you uncomfortable every now and then.
Delay that purchase
Take on that project you have been putting off
Learn how to change a tire
Ask that person out you don’t think you have a chance with
Go for that run or walk
Next, I need to face my irrational fear of dogs!
The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here