Last year I said ‘yes!’ to an advert in a digital newsletter wanting co-pilots to drive a solar-powered tuk-tuk around the world! A week later I was flying out to Chennai, India to meet Talia, a total stranger and my co-driver for a 2-week adventure across India, which to cut a very long story short, eventually turned into a month.
In some ways, saying ‘yes’ to this adventure was the bravest and hardest part of the tale and one which had taken me 10 years to finally accept as a challenge. In work and life, opportunities will often come your way. Looking back now, it’s easy to see some clear ways that saying yes to adventure and life opportunities, can also help you in getting ahead and getting what you want in your business career.
Here are some of my tips to hopefully help you do just that too!
Write a time-specific to-do list
For almost a decade I’d wanted to drive a tuk-tuk across India, ever since I’d worked there for BT - but I had never quite gotten round to it. Start of 2019 and for the first time ever, I wrote a list of things I wanted to do within 12 months including of course the tuk-tuk. And bingo, when said advert appeared wanting co-pilots to drive a solar-powered tuk-tuk across around the world...the rest is history!
Writing an action plan down with a specific end date helps you to focus the mind and helps you to achieve. Set yourself work and life goals that are hard work, but achievable and also give yourself an end date for when you need to hit that target.
Say Yes to opportunities even when you don’t know how to do it
I had replied to a very brief advert with no idea of the details of when, how long or how you even drive a tuk-tuk! Yet I still booked my flight and went ahead, as the opportunity was just too great to miss.
If you’re given a chance to reach an achievable goal say yes and then figure out the details and how to do it. The time you spend dilly-dallying about in a period of indecision could mean the opportunity comes and goes and sadly you miss out.
Listen to people's opinions but don’t let it stop you, there will always be someone who tells you it won’t work
There are always going to be the naysayers! My excitement of saying yes was severely dampened by the negative reactions I had to the possibility of achieving one of my life goals and dreams.
‘It’ll be too hot’, ‘it’s too dangerous for women’, ‘you don’t know how to drive a tuk-tuk’, ‘you’ll get bored of curry’...and so on.
If I had not already made the decision to go, these comments could have potentially tipped the balance. It was the rainy season, it was too hot, and I didn’t know how to drive a tuk-tuk...but I do love curry and I had an incredible time.
Whether out of concern or because of their own internal fears, people will always find a reason why you shouldn't do something. Of course, listen to and reflect on the balanced, genuine concern, but always then consider if those fears are only holding you back from achieving what still is a realistic goal!
Surround yourself with like-minded people
I couldn’t find anyone in my network including my younger brother (seems nagging him doesn’t work when he’s 30 as easily as it was when he was 6) who wanted to go.
But going and then finding not just one but a whole global group of people who wanted to drive a tuk-tuk was just epic. It was great to belong, and not feel isolated from others - it was super motivating and energising.
The key lesson here is to try to surround yourself in work (and life) with the right people and at the right times. Each group of connections you make will be great for an aspect of your career and life. If you have a moment of self-doubt about your ability, then the people around you can either confirm and accelerate it, or lift you up and out of that moment of fear.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone, whether that’s to change jobs, start your own company or go off on that tuk-tuk adventure, is so much easier to achieve if you’re surrounded by people who have already done or are wanting to do it - and then the self-doubt melts away!
Have honest conversations before you start a new project
This was my dream trip, something I had wanted to do for years, but I was dreading asking my tuk-tuk co-driver Talia what kind of trip she wanted too.
My nightmare would have been stopping at every museum, church and temple along the 1500km journey. Fortunately, she had the courage to ask before me, and it turned out she had similar journey goals - so also wanted to see landscapes, chat to people and eat food.
Establishing and agreeing on goals at the outset of any new project is vital! Having those awkward conversations at the start pays dividends later on and this can really be applied to any adventure or work project you set out on too.
Don’t waste energy on things you can’t change
Plans don’t always happen as you expect.
We arrived on a Tuesday and were due to start driving on Thursday, yet 2 weeks later we were still there trying to get the tuk-tuk out of customs.
After considering bribery (joke), the only option was to ask Julian (who owned said tuk-tuk) to fly out from Australia to ensure the tuk-tuk got out of customs. Talia and I both found it difficult to lose two weeks of our time in an industrial city and felt frustrated with the admin oversight. Nonetheless, we spoke about our options of going home without achieving anything, and eventually Julian said he was coming to save the day. Phew.
Learn to accept that things just can’t always go to plan. Sometimes there’s simply nothing you can do about it. Getting angry or being miserable would have been a waste of energy, so we turned our extra two weeks into a biryani-eating and chai-drinking extravaganza, whilst working from local coffee shops and even appearing in a local Tamil film!
Accepting less control over every aspect of a work project is also a very good thing. Asking others to help and delegating to others, means the Juliens of this world can step forward too and become the heroes of the day too.
It’s ok to figure things out along the way
Talia and I had the shared responsibilities of keeping each other alive and the tuk-tuk in one piece, but how to actually do that at the start was all just a bit of a mystery! You need eyes on the road in front, to the side, out the back and on google maps.
Driving and navigating a tuk-tuk is a team task, but without prior instruction of what to do we kind of had to just figure it out together - whilst not really knowing each other of course.
In adventure, as much as in your work life, there may not always be a blueprint of how to achieve that all-important end goal. Have a good sense of humour and don't let the fear of the unknown get in your way. Be prepared to not get it right and that’s all good, you’ll figure it out in the long run if you keep going.
Know your weaknesses and don’t be afraid to ask for feedback on them
I’m a terrible tuk-tuk driver, I have a very short attention span and am easily sidetracked by anything new and sparkly… and on the road in India, everything is new and sparkly. And the bumps in the road, I LOVED going faster over the bumps!
Assuming you are doing great is often the big mistake.
Thinking I’d been doing well (as I was really focused on ensuring I kept Talia alive) I decided to ask Talia, secretly hoping for a ‘Great Claire!’ response. It wasn’t until I asked, however, that she subtly coached me on the process of slowing down when heading towards a bump rather than accelerating and her having to grab onto all the luggage and ensure she didn’t fall out!
I was quite surprised, as I had found driving over bumps fun, not even realising the impact it might have. I learnt to slow down and shout ‘bump’ to give fair warning.
We all have our blind spots, as well as sometimes knowing our weaknesses, so don’t be afraid to ask on an adventure or work project how you’re doing. You never know, you may well learn something new, as well as be able to stop inadvertently annoying your co-driver / co-team members.
Don’t leave a dream too long
If there is something that you have always wanted to do, don’t leave it too long. I’d waited nearly ten years to do the tuk-tuk challenge and imagine if I’d put it off until now, especially with no end to the COVID pandemic in sight. There would be no way I could have gone this year and maybe even next year.
So, if your own work or life goal is realistic, don’t miss out because you let different excuses get in the way or miss out because you’ve waited too long and it’s no longer realistically possible.
Say Yes more… it invigorates and inspires you
Completing something I have always wanted to do was epic. It filled me with joy, excitement and a new sense of possibility. Turn dreams into actions, they lift you and propel you forward towards a whole new world...
Come on, sing it with me “A whole new business world…”
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About Claire
Claire Jenkins is the co-founder of TableCrowd Talent and also a co-author of The Biggest Book of Yes, 49 short stories from everyday people who said yes to a new challenge. You can buy a book here and all proceeds go to charity, https://www.teddingtontrust.com/
