Redefining your own limits is a step towards transforming your aspirations

Being encouraged to believe in your own abilities can be life-changing, says Rhiannon Walker

Until three years ago I was very shy. Arguably, a common trait for countless teenage girls getting to grips with life as a young adult. At least I was fairly happy at school; an environment in which some of my peers felt simply invisible.

Yet shyness was holding me back. I never put myself forward for tasks and dreaded big presentations. Just turned 17 and entering sixth year in a North Lanarkshire comprehensive, I’d vague aspirations to study and train as a veterinary nurse. Looking back at those teenage years, I completely lacked the selfbelief that I could achieve in life.

So what changed? In 2014, an unassuming man called Craig Mathieson addressed the school assembly. A polar explorer who had recently founded a charity, The Polar Acad- emy, I listened with interest to his vision to ‘inspire youth through exploration.’ Of course, I didn’t believe I could undertake the physically and mentally demanding feats in the Arctic about which he spoke. I was no ‘outdoorsy’ girl.

Yet his words resonated. Deep down, I was drawn by the hidden desire to prove to myself that I could better my own life. I realised that The Polar Academy was throwing out a lifeline to its young audience to accept a challenge like no other; the chance to quash self-doubt and anxiety and to change direction.

Within days I was ‘in the mix’ for selection. Following a tough weekend at Glenmore Lodge in the Scottish highlands, ten of us (six girls and four boys) found ourselves committed to months of a rigorous daily fitness regime designed to pre-