I penned as post about what, once out and about, gave folks the greatest boost to their confidence. This had me thinking about what preceded those moments. Those tentative first bolder "baby" steps that get talked about so often. So in the same vein here's my 3 things at as someone starting to venture out had me pushing into the muggle world.

1. A drive though. You're there in you're steel safety cell, cocooned from the world. All you have to do is firstly talk into a machine to place your order, drive to a booth to pay and then move forward to collect your meal. I can remember my first time. Sat there trying to talk to the machine in a femme voice like that mattered! Moving to pay I tried to make myself as invisible as I could, desperately trying not to fumble with the cash, to be brave and sort out the correct change, then bottling out and handing over a note(bill). Collecting my order the young attendant barely looked at me and off I went, elated.

2. Self service petrol pumps at the supermarket. Sat there, picking the moment to get out having sorted out the debit card I'd use to pay. Struggling to focus on the instructions and enter my pin correctly. Hose in hole, squeeze the trigger and trying to stand there looking natural and the fuel seemingly flowed at a trickle from pump to car. Put a few pounds worth in, nowhere near full, hose in holster and back into the car making sure my skirt doesn't get caught in the car door, do up the seat belt and drive away carefully feeling, elated.

3. Cash point. So firstly the dilemma. Somewhere quiet with the risk of muggers or being faced with someone who appears out of no-where or go somewhere better frequented, working on there being safety in numbers. Chose the latter. Opted for a supermarket near to closing time. Enough folk around to feel safer, not that many so as to feel I'm not ending up standing in a queue. As with the petrol pump it seems I've chosen the slowest machine in the world. Each press of a key sounds like a trumpet blast. It feels like the machine is printing the money but soon enough it's there, calmly taken, remember to retrieve card before walking away feeling, elated.

All of these are little rites of passage. Confidence builders that lead us towards ever greater things. yes they take that leap of faith, that moment of courage but countless others besides myself have been there and survived.

So, here's the question, what's your little task that helped get you started onto greater things?