Learning how to overcome shyness is achievable. That's the bottom line. I was once VERY shy. I am NOT shy now. Has it been easy? No. Would it have been easier if I had someone to help me? Yes.

I've learnt the hard way (which I find satisfying) but I would love to have been able to fast track the process.

Fast or slow, however you learn how to overcome shyness depends entirely on the effort you are willing to put in. Will you successfully overcome shyness? First let's look briefly at

What is success?

If success is achieving what you set out to do, then I've had moderate success. I didn’t do all that well on the report cards at school. What I did have was a lot of energy and a head full of ideas. I was lucky that I made good in the end, my inexhaustible passion for things propping up my deficiencies in other areas. Along the way I've had some sort of success as a military sniper, mountaineer, author, parent, documentary cameraman and magician. It was the 25 years as a globe trotting cameraman that has given me the greatest insight into how to achieve success.

This job has given me a ringside view of life: up close and personal, seeing all the details you miss from the distance, hearing the private whispers, tasting a bit of the sweat from life's stinging right handers. I have come across so many people, from prince to pauper as they say.

I’ve met prime ministers, movie stars, kangaroo shooters and sporting legends, all who are all successful. I’ve also met politicians, movie stars, roo shooters, sports people who are unsuccessful.

So it’s clear that brains, money, good looks and athletic ability are no guarantee that you will be successful.

The one thing above all that I’ve seen define successful people is this:

Successful people are willing to go the extra mile and do what unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do.

• Success is hard work
• Success is persistence
• Success is making a list at the end of the day of the 5 most important things you have to do tomorrow and doing them
• Success is tiresome

To move forward to have to accept this next line as an immutable law:

If you don’t get out of your comfort zone you’ll never advance.

Improving yourself requires a level of discomfort. That discomfort is short lived though because the benefits, the rewards that come with achievement are like a drug. Once you taste how sweet it is you start to like it and go back for more. But you have to accept that you WILL HAVE TO do things you don't want to. Learning how to overcome shyness isn't hard but it's not a free ride either.

Becoming better at something isn’t meant to be easy. Here’s a tip. If you’re finding it too easy then chances are you’re probably not trying hard enough.

But hang in there, there's ways to smooth out what you think will be a bumpy ride.

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes.

I love adventure. I am quite happy dangling out of helicopters and climbing mountains but dealing with people can still make me nervous. Do you know what really scares me? Talking on the phone. Weird huh.

But I knew I had to do something about it cause it was holding me back.

I had to confront and overcome my fears. I had to deal with those things that made me feel uncomfortable because

The more you avoid confronting those fears, the worse those fears will get.

If you are here because you want to learn how to overcome shyness then I'm sure you have fears too. But everyday you put off dealing with it, the harder it will be for you to conquer it. If you are a parent of a child wanting to learn how to overcome shyness it is of particular urgency to address your child's shyness early on.

So I have an idea I call my safety net. I use it just like a circus acrobat does. You can go out on a limb but if you fall it softens your landing.

So in this case I make up phone scripts. These are just lists of all the key points I need to cover. When I am making important phone calls I always do this as I have a tendency to lose confidence, to start worrying that the person at the other end might reject my idea, and my argument starts to fall apart. With my phone script at hand I can come straight back on track. This is a small example but is has helped me enormously.

All good magicians use the same idea when they are performing. It's called your script. You know your show back to front because you have rehearsed and performed your script. Once this is second nature to you, then you start to try out new lines and routines. If you get no response from the new material you just return to the safety of your script. We'll look at other examples later. It's just one of the many tools you can use to learn how to overcome shyness. I'll also tell you of my greatest fear, how I overcame it and the benefits that have flowed my way because I didn't give up.

Look, I'm nothing special so just remember: If I can do it, you can do it.