{"id":1045,"date":"2011-10-21T14:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2011-10-21T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-21T14:06:00","slug":"do-something-that-scares-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/21\/do-something-that-scares-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Something That Scares You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has it really been a month since my last blog post? I seem to be in one of those busy periods at the moment where days and weeks seem to fly past!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had this post written in my head for a while but not actually typed it up yet but since it\u2019s Friday afternoon and I\u2019m wrapping some things up before spending a couple of days with my family I thought I\u2019d knock this off the to-do list. <\/p>\n

The advice \u201cdo something that scares you\u201d and variants of it come up an awful lot and the reasoning behind it is sound. <\/p>\n

By doing something that takes you way out of your comfort zone you\u2019ll learn an awful lot. That may be about yourself, your ability to do something or even that you can overcome a fear by facing it head on. <\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean you need to go and jump out of an airplane every weekend!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m obviously going somewhere with this\u2026.I wanted to share something I did recently that scared me. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a visitor to the Pecha Kucha<\/a> nights in Birmingham<\/a> ever since they launched.<\/p>\n

I heard about the format many years ago and as soon as I found out it was coming to the region I\u2019ve been attending ever since. <\/p>\n

The concept is simple. Someone presents on a topic using only twenty slides. They also only get twenty seconds per slide. That in itself doesn\u2019t really sell it as interesting but it does make for really focussed and passionate presentations and since they can be about anything I\u2019ve learned lots about topics I normally wouldn\u2019t have an interest in. <\/p>\n

You can see videos from previous Birmingham events here.<\/a><\/p>\n

A few months ago I was at a Pecha Kucha night and was having a conversation with Richard Tubb<\/a> about how brave the presenters were for getting up and doing it. We\u2019ve both presented to groups of people in the past but agreed that the strict structure of Pecha Kucha could make it very difficult if you got your timing wrong or lost your train of thought through nerves or whatever. In a regular presentation style you can \u201cfill\u201d or explore a different avenue before coming back to the point you were on previously.<\/p>\n

We both laughed about how we\u2019d never do it and ordered another beer. <\/p>\n

However, the organiser of the event Jo Hardy<\/a> had asked me a couple of times if I\u2019d present .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has it really been a month since my last blog post? I seem to be in one of those busy periods at the moment where days and weeks seem to fly past! I\u2019ve had this post written in my head for a while but not actually typed it up yet but since it\u2019s Friday afternoon<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"\nDo Something That Scares You - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/21\/do-something-that-scares-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do Something That Scares You - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Has it really been a month since my last blog post? 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