Choose your challenge
Choose your challenge
“What kind of challenge am I actually up for?”
Choosing your challenge can be tricky. Start with what interests you, then shape it into something you can actually do.
Not sure where to start?
If you’re not sure how to start, try these questions. You don’t need to answer all of them – just the ones that are helpful.
- What do you think this challenge award is about?
- What interests you most about the themes of this challenge award?
- What activities have enjoyed in the past related to these challenge awards?
- What are you curious about?
- What would you like to try?
- How could you turn those ideas into a challenge?
Need more help deciding?
Use the routes below to explore ideas based on what you’re interested in.
ADD IN Links to FORMS...
Still not sure?
That’s normal.
Talk to your Explorer Leader or your Unit, they can help you shape an idea into something that works.
Getting the right level of challenge
It can be hard to work out what the right level of challenge is.
Challenge Awards are meant to grow with you. As you move through Platinum, Diamond and then the King’s Scout Award, the level of challenge, responsibility and independence should increase too.
This means that what you do for your first 2 challenge awards will look a lot different to what you do for your last 2 challenge awards. This shows you’ve grown and are capable of more than when you started Explorers!
The awards should help you progress from just taking part to being responsible for organising or running an activity. They might see you move from taking part in activities only in your local area to taking part in National or International events. And people you involve in your projects might grown from your unit, to another section, to multiple sections, your District, County or even further afield.
How can you challenge yourself more?
If you’ve got an idea for a challenge but it maybe doesn’t feel challenging enough, consider:
- What related to this activity is outside your comfort zone?
- How can you try doing it more than once?
- How could you help others learn how to do it?
- Could you do it at a bigger scale?
- Can you spend time reflecting on what changed or challenged you
- Could you try out and compare different methods or techniques?
- How can you share your journey with others?
What to focus on
- Helping Explorers find something they care about
- Supporting ideas that are realistic but still stretch them
- Encouraging ownership of the challenge
What to avoid
- Assigning or heavily steering their challenge
- Pushing them toward “safe” or standardised ideas
- Prioritising ease of evidence over meaningful experience
How you can support
- Use prompts like:
- “What interests you most here?”
- “What would make this feel worth doing?”
- Help shape ideas rather than replace them
- Reassure them that ideas can evolve after they start