Hello...
Paula Reid.
Adventurer and The Adventure Psychologist.
I help leaders and businesses cope, survive and thrive in difficult times. I do it through my unique combination of extensive business intelligence, extreme expedition experience and a Masters Degree in Applied Positive Psychology. When blended together my expertise is unparalleled in being able to equip today's leaders with the tools to thrive in challenging and uncertain conditions.
I call it Adventure Psychology, and it helps businesses the world over Go Knowingly into the Unknown™.
My adventuring started while I was growing up - I used to explore and adventure locally. Playing on a disused lorry, making camps in the woods, exploring derelict houses, climbing trees and being chased by cows! I used to be a goody-two-shoes at school until I rebelled at 13 and swapped my polished brown Clarke's sensible shoes for scuffed red stilettos. Stepping away from conformity and expected obedience, I started to enjoy the road less travelled. Rebel, party girl, adventurer, I got into trouble at school but I scraped through my exams and developed character and a street-savviness.
At 17, I travelled to India for a month. India opened my eyes to the exotic far east – such culture, colours, smells and people! It was a tough trip in many ways, culturally challenging and pretty grim at times, but it was an intense life experience that toughened me. I survived the tough stuff; I excelled at coping; I thrived in the difficult climate. I felt fully alive.
From this early point in life I determined to Live Life to the Full. To enrich it with experiences – joyful, challenging, micro, tough, awesome, fearful experiences. These varied, stimulating and rich experiences help me to fully live. To both seize the day and savour the moment. But life is not just about doing, but being and becoming, for what grows inside us is greater than our activities and our belongings. We collect events and memories, and from them we build resilience and wisdom.
Life is an adventure, a bracing, ambiguous journey; fickle, chancy and uncertain; a journey to explore and discover; to grow.
