She is still something of a conundrum.

From a distance, Paula McGuire is a typical thirtysomething: unassuming, petite, pretty. Kinda normal, you'd say.

But this is a woman who spent a full three decades crippled by chronic shyness, hiding behind others, sculpting a miserable life into a shape with a singular aim - to avoid any kind of exposure.

Happily, she's now a long way down the road to happiness, and has an almost evangelical zeal to share her secrets.

She'll be exploring the transition from Old to New in what promises to be a remarkably candid blog series for HeraldScotland, starting later this week.

Up close, Old Paula and New Paula are both on show: she often blinks nervously; but then, on our second meeting, she slips off her shoes and tucks her legs under herself on our office couch, at ease as she prepares for this interview to trace the back story before her Everyday Adventures begin.

Paula Linden was born 34 years ago in Dennistoun, Glasgow, to factory worker Eric and shop worker Rose, who also have an elder daughter, Donna, born three years earlier.

She's always been very close to all three, but her childhood was "desperately unhappy". The quiet, bookish girl was bullied so much at school that she started dying her hair in all kinds of colours.

To rebel? "No, to give the bullies something to aim at...so they could pick on my hair, not me. I was trying to externalise it."

Matters got worse when Donna left school, and Paula was denied the cover of an extrovert, chatty, sociable older sister and her cool friends. So she got the Highers she needed and headed for Strathclyde University at the age of only 16, to study accountancy.

A successful escape? "No, the opposite. I was so young that I was seen as this kid from the East End and for the first two years I couldn't socialise legally in my own union even if I'd wanted to meet people.

"I didn't know anybody, so the problem was consolidated. Everybody called me the shy one, and I thought that was what I was always going to be throughout my life."

Graduating at 20, Paula admits she had no love for accountancy, but ended up working for the then Inland Revenue.

Crucially, though, she also started volunteering with various sensory-impaired charities, which culminated in her current job: as one of fewer than 10 electronic note takers in Scotland, translating speech into text for the hearing-impaired.

She works freelance, travelling to universities and courts across the country, and knows this has helped build confidence. "It's just me, so I have to look out for myself."

But we've missed out a factor which has been even more influential in Paula's recovery: husband Gerry McGuire. They married in 2009, yet what should have been unalloyed bliss for the happy couple was, initially, another manifestation of her problem.

"We got engaged and I said we had to be married in six months. I couldn't face any more pressure. I'd have loved to run away, but we both knew our folks would be disappointed."

Instead, it was a ceremony - in her memorable phrase - that was "Pared back for Paula."

So:

• No hen night

• No special hair and make-up for the bride

• No top table

• No speeches

• No first dance.

In the event, she describes being "chilled" on the day, but the run-up was still pretty extreme. Her husband has since been "very supportive" on the route to New Paula, but she says it's not been easy for him.

"He's always wanted other people to see in me what he saw. He really struggled with it...he wanted me to change, but he didn't want to be the one that changed me. I had to do that for myself."

So, right job, right man...and then probably the biggest breakthrough. Watching TV coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, Paula says the main word she heard was legacy.

"They kept saying there was a sport for everyone, and I said to Gerry - they've never met me. I'm clumsy, uncoordinated, was never chosen for games at school. I'm physically hopeless...and I've got a major phobia about water."

Paula relates how, as a toddler, she accidentally scalded herself with a cup of boiling water which left her with a scar on her front, and terrified by water. Not just swimming, but crossing a bridge or cycling alongside a river.

But she was now determined, as the name of her own blog reveals: www.paulamusttryharder.co.uk  With the 2014 Commonwealth Games on her doorstep, she managed to complete all 17 disciplines, including the triathlon, with a triumphant session in the pool at Bellahouston (using a float but hey, baby steps...)

"From then on, I've known there's nothing I can't try. My blog has been my therapy...although I still don't check how many people are reading it. A bit of Old Paula is still there."

Nonetheless, her personal development prompted the Games team to ask her to speak to young volunteers from Glasgow in the hope that their commitment during the event could be extended after it finished.

"I just told the kids my story and showed a picture Gerry had taken of me in 2011...not face on, but using a mirror, a bit sneaky. After my talk, three teenagers ran over, hugged me and said 'We recognise ourselves in Old Paula and we're not going to be like that anymore.'"

Mostly New Paula plans to continue her journey to full self-development "just to be happier and more engaged with life. I follow the stories of loads of adventurers but I want to show people that you don't have to climb mountains or hike across continents to make a change. Little achievements matter just as much."

So that's us up to date, and we're ready for the Everyday Adventures. Some will be little things, some you'll have tried; many you won't have done, and may never do. Some might surprise, even shock.

But, at the very least, New Paula will make you think about what you can do. Watch this space.