So last week  - I had a new 'first' in my life!  I walked across the desert from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi.  We were supposed to do 120km but unusual stormy weather across the UAE cancelled 2 days of our journey.  The experience was such a mix bag of emotions. From exciting and nerves at the beginning, too 'I don't want to do this anymore' in the middle, too feeling overwhelmed and teary that we had achieved our objective at the end.

The Women Heritage Walk
The Women’s Heritage Walk (WHW) from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi honors the women of the United Arab Emirates who made this journey twice a year not so long ago.  Forty-four women retraced this historical trek. Expat women accompanied Emirati women walking in the footsteps of their ancestors who helped sculpt this country. This experience was a celebration of the past and an invitation to shape a vibrant future.

My 'Sand sisters' and I took on the dunes of the desert and during the whole walk I was able to assimilate many feelings and thoughts that I could relate back to daily life for women as entrepreneurs!  Women pushing forward, making change and taking action to evolve and grow.  Through this journey I noted words and phrases said by the ladies that reflected life and our work life and how it doesn't matter what you are doing there are key skills that apply everywhere!

Skill 1: One step at a time

I recently interviewed a lady called Leen in Algeria. She is the Founder & Executive Director of Injaz El Djazair - Algeria. A global non-profit organisation aimed at empowering young people & young entrepreneurs to own their own economic success. They run soft skill programmes to help the kids in Algeria get a better start in their career.

We were creating her episode for the show and one of the things she commented on was 'we never live in the' moments of our success, we see our goals and then we are very quickly move on to the next one'.  Its true we are always in a constant rush and on to the next goal or objective in our work aswell as our personal lives.  So while she said this I said, in jest, 'we should take a holiday each time we have a success'.  We laughed and giggled about it.  But then it got me thinking that maybe that would make us stop and live in the moment of that success.

Think of it like this, when we go on holiday. We do sit back, evaluate our goals and objectives, talk about what has being going on and what we would do different BUT we also enjoy our holiday. We snap up every moment and diarise it so we never forget the smells, feelings, thoughts and even the weather.  We absorb everything so we can package it up and hold on to that memory forever.

Why can't we do that we our successes?  Lap it up, pull in the smell, feelings, thoughts and I suppose the weather and package up that success and stamp it firmly into our memory?  Live in the moment of that success, revel in it and learn what we can from it.

So I'm suggesting a new way to measure our successes.  Take a holiday. Take a day to stretch out and live in the glory of that success and suck it up like a sponge so your brain fully stain itself with the success that was.  Then at the end of the year, add up your holidays and then see how much success you have had.  We thrive on positive energy so wouldn't this just be such a massive boost to our confidence, abilities and our overall being!!

.... now where is my suitcase :)