Earlier this week it was suggested to me that I co-host a podcast. I’m fairly sure the suggestion was a joke, and it certainly didn’t come with any ideas about what the podcast would be about, and for those reasons, I declared myself out. Yet the suggestion of doing a podcast was one which intrigued me, and if a theme for a podcast excited me enough, it is definitely something I would pursue further.
I should point out that I am fully aware if I wanted to start a podcast, I should have done so about 10 years ago if I wanted it to be a success. Today almost every niche has been filled, every celebrity and established IP has entered the market and the odds of a new podcast gaining even a modest following are extremely slim. So given all of that, what’s with the title of this post? Is it nothing more than click bait?
Well, actually no. Okay, maybe a little as ‘star’ implies a level of public success which I know is unrealistic. Yet public success is not the only form of success, and starting a podcast could still deliver other forms of success. To create regular podcasts, you would need to plan and potentially research your ideas to turn them into content, and then be able to discuss a particular topic in an engaging way. These are skills which would be directly relevant in my current role, for example when designing and delivering a new training session or presentation, and are skills which are extremely useful in almost any role. Skills like editing audio are more specialist and probably unlikely to be useful in my future career, but learning something from scratch is something that doesn’t come around too often as an adult, so would still be an interesting and therefore worthwhile experience, and therefore also a success.
Even if you already have relatively developed skills in these areas, this type of project can still be extremely rewarding even without being a public success. That was certainly the case when I wrote my novel. I always knew that the chances of appearing in a best seller list, or even reaching anybody beyond my friends, family and colleagues were unlikely. Yet it would be a success if I managed to maximise my potential and make it the best novel I was capable of writing. All things considered, I’d say I achieved that, and that gives me more satisfaction than any number of sales would do.
As a runner and cyclist, I know that there are few things that promote perseverance and determination more than the potential reward of a personal best. How close those PB’s are to World Records is irrelevant, because the reward comes from pushing beyond what you have previously been capable of. Those PB’s aren’t a single event either, but a culmination of all of the previous PB’s which have been improved upon to reach your personal apex.
The problem with physical PB’s is that time will eventually catch up to you. Eventually you won’t be able to run faster than you currently can, regardless of how hard or smart you train, and whilst I theoretically haven’t reached that point just yet, I’m glad that I’ve discovered that the adventure element to running and cycling can also be rewarding in its own way, and hopefully should be enough motivation to keep physically active even once I start slowing down.
The desire to challenge my physical limits might be diminishing, but the knowledge of the rewards that can deliver remains. The challenge which can deliver that reward will most likely look different. Maybe it looks like a podcast, maybe it doesn’t. Whatever form it takes and whenever it arrives, I’m ready.
Scorpo Stories 