What you don’t know can burn you

I’m not outdoorsy. I’ll freely admit it.

The thought of camping turns my stomach. In fact, the first time I went camping when I was younger I was in hysterics when Mum told me I couldn’t trail the extension cord for the TV out the back of the car window.

Don’t even get me started on what my attitude was like when I discovered that there was no toilet at the campsite.

Strangely though, I’m married to Mr Outdoorsy. He loves to camp and bushwalk, and is slowly but surely enticing me towards the outdoors life. Last month I even developed a tan.

Okay, that’s not exactly true, but I’m slightly less translucent than normal after some limited (albeit sunscreen slathered) face time with the sun while walking through Tasmania’s gorgeous Freycinet.

Knowing that I’m not one for the outdoor life, I was pretty surprised by an incident that happened last weekend… I became super-outdoor-Kirsty in just five seconds.

It all happened in our backyard, testing Mr Outdoorsy’s new fire lighting flint. He hacked away at it for about a minute, sending sparks everywhere, but no fire was lit.

I decided (what with my ample outdoor-pedigree) I’d give it a go myself. Two gentle scrapes of the flint and a blazing fire leapt up from my pile of tinder. It was no fluke either, as I proved I could firelight like a superstar on command, time and time again.

Lessons I learnt from my brief foray into the outdoorsy life (even if it was just in my backyard).
1. I’m capable of doing things I would have never thought I’d have a natural aptitude for.
2. It may even be appropriate that I put in my Survivor application now.
3. Sometimes it’s subtlety not brute force that wins the day (or lights the fire).
4. The best thing to do when you learn a new skill is to teach it to someone else (Mr Outdoorsy is now a master himself!).

Perhaps you too can step outside your comfort zone and discover you’re more adept at things (Business strategies? Marketing? Networking?) than you thought…

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is ‘Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can’) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Currently Kirsty heads up www.reallysold.com the premium online copywriting site for real estate agents and is a co-director of Elephant Property www.elephantproperty.com.au Launceston, Tasmania’s only boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners. Kirsty’s other ventures are outlined at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

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