hello Challenge is not a very big word
but it belies the power and the emotion
behind it
the United Nations will talk about
global challenges multinational
organizations will talk about corporate
challenges and individuals will talk
about challenges that are very important
to them for me one of the most
heartwarming challenges I've come across
at the moment it is watching my
one-year-old grandson learning to walk
you can see the tenacity you can see the
concentration you can see how much
effort he's putting into trying to get
over that crawl into the walking stage
it's a word we use very often in fact
we've heard it twice here today but who
has actually stood back and thought what
is it about a challenge that makes it so
powerful why is it so emotionally
charged to for us it's something we pick
up as I say from a very early age which
will follow us all the way through our
lives and I was really interested to
find out what it is that makes a
challenge
I'm always driven by challenges I wanted
to see what it was for me that makes the
challenge different from a routine task
or a job just something that is not
above the ordinary so I did a PhD in it
as you do it's one of those areas the
more I started to look at the more I
realized the complexity within it all
from the research I carried out I took a
very complex protest a process of
talking to people find out what it was
that challenge meant to them and and
what they understood from a challenge
and what the compliment parts of a
challenge were or was for them from that
research I found out there was quite a
commonality across all the different
kinds of challenges we take on from that
I created a model with four main parts
the poor part actually have a lot more
underlying elements within them but for
here I'll just talk about the four first
one is time the second one is emotions
the third is achievements and the fourth
is motivation
and from the research I found the four
elements need to be part of that
elements that you're taking on to be
considered a challenge and not just a
task or a role so if you look at the
first one time from the people I spoke
to time was a big important part of the
challenge not just the obvious where you
think it may be the beginning the middle
or the end of a challenge but also the
different challenges that faced and
throughout their lifespan or the
different challenges that would come
across their path as they move through
there they're working role or their
student role or just the private life so
I focused on three areas in particular
on business and education and in sports
and I was quite surprised to find out
although there are these numerous
amounts of challenges that we face on a
daily basis the underpinning way we look
at the processes is trying to deal with
these challenges it's quite similar so
the time one was the first one that I
looked at which had this really strong
elements of where do I fit within this
and it could be something very
straightforward where we set ourselves a
goal and once we've reached that goal
then the challenge is finished and then
we look to reset that goal and reset the
challenge for the next time or it could
be something a lot more personal
something that is a lot more long-term
in our lives
it may be challenged that we're setting
ourselves for the next 20 30 40 years
each of these elements was very much
intertwined we couldn't split I couldn't
split them apart so although they're
separate for sorts of research purposes
they all very much tie in to how we look
at the challenge one of the other big
elements within that the the whole focus
was the that of emotions and a lot of
the people I spoke to talked about the
passion and how much they enjoyed taking
on a challenge I think a lot of that is
that if we do look at challenges it's
about pushing our abilities it's about
pushing our boundaries it's about
learning something new
or maybe honing the skills that we
already have so it's very much looking
at how we tackle those challenges and at
the beginning it may be that would a
little bit anxious because we're taking
ourselves out of our comfort zone that
would they may feel like what we're
doing here but then I think everybody I
spoke to always replied at the end when
they got to the stage of reaching the
the goal or they reached the task that
they felt elated that they felt they got
that taken on that challenge the next
stage was achievement and for me this is
one of the key elements within the model
it's about how do we set ourselves those
goals to achieve that challenge to
achieve what we're aiming for and this
will be quite difficult because I've
just mentioned about pushing ourselves
outside our comfort zone but it's also
important not to push yourself beyond
your comfort zone it's recognizing how
far that you can go to reach that goal
but also then recognizing when you need
help when you need to pause when you
need to find some extra information that
will help you and that could be on a
research basis it could be on a
databases or it could be just some
personal support a friend who's there to
to help you to encourage you to get you
to where you want to be the chief wants
us to say is one of those elements where
the greater the challenge the greater
the feeling of achievement it's when
you've actually got to that stage where
you've done it and you've finished then
yeah I feel absolutely brilliant bring
on the next challenge it's very much
about trying to integrate all these
different sections together so if we
have the time we have the emotions we
have the achievements but for me the
driving force of them all is the
motivation we need to feel motivated to
actually go out and do with this
challenge to meet this challenge we need
to be able to motivate ourselves to get
through the times when things aren't
going quite right to motivate ourselves
to push ourselves to actually get
through those
difficult times so how do you do that a
lot of the time it's trying to set those
goals that we can achieve that we can
set timely timelines for ourselves but
also very much that that we need to
discuss or find out for ourselves who
were actually doing this for are we
motivated to complete this challenge for
ourselves
or are we trying to do it for somebody
else I just wants a lot of people who
specifically were going into a different
task and they were doing it to impress
somebody else they didn't really have a
lot of interest in it that they were
trying to do it for somebody else a lot
of the areas within this challenge can
be complex it's with any any kind of
interaction with other people with any
kind of reflection in ourselves it's
never a straightforward approach on how
to get from one place to another and
although these areas are separate it's
very easy to go forwards and backwards
within the model to try and find out
where you'd fit within that it's a very
complex issue when we start looking at
working with other people one of the
participants I spoke to said that when
we are young our challenges tend to be
very individual they're our own
challenges it's only when we grow a
little bit older when we go in to work
with other people then those challenges
become more complex that we're not just
looking at our own goals our own tasks
we're looking at sharing those with
other people so that's when we then tend
to then have to compromise with some of
the things that we're looking at so if
we go back to what I said before at the
very beginning that we have all these
different levels of complexity within
the challenges whether it's at a global
level whether at a corporate level
whether it's individual level but it's
your personal life whether it's your
sporting life the key thing for me that
came out of all my research is to enjoy
your challenges to go forward to learn
to push your boundaries to expand your
experiences and then use those
challenges in a positive way to then
move forward and then move into the next
challenge our students you have a long
academic life ahead of you and I hope
every time you come to a new assignment
or you come to new piece of work you
find it interesting and it challenges
you to look further to find out more
information and go further on in your
careers for me my life has been one
challenge after another and I wouldn't
have it anyway so thank you very much
for listening to me and I hope all your
challenges you conquer thank you