If you have been following up with my earlier travel blog “Experience, or Not to Experience, that is the question” you know that I’ve been travelling to Malta to work remotely on my projects, both as the Marketing and PR director for the federation of trade and services in Iceland and also within my role as a leadership coach, mentor and international speaker.

Adventures, including my own insights, have followed me like a bear looking for honey. In this travel experience blog post, I want to share with you one beautiful moment that filled my heart with such joy that it’s still singing (hence, it happened three days ago).

A day after I arrived in Malta, I had a meeting in their capital Valletta. I’ve been coming to Malta regularly since 2000, and as always, the feeling of walking into that beautiful capital is so special.

Walking through this unique capital, one can feel its history on every corner of every street. There is the smell of the now, in blend with the history of the knights of Malta, and then on a topping of that, there is the energy of the Catholic Church with all its glory (meaning, lots and lots of gold and sparkling objects kept in vast buildings called ‘Churches’ and Malta got plenty of those).

Walking down The Public Street in Valletta, my mind reflected on my first visit to Malta. It was in the year 2000. At that time, my mum invited me to join her for a week's trip to this tiny island. I was at a vulnerable place in my life at that time. My marriage was ending. I had been avoiding facing the status of the relationship with my husband then, escaping the situation by sinking deeper and deeper into my work as the managing director of my family wholesale business.

In hindsight, I can see that I was getting closer to burnout than I realised at the time.

That trip to Malta in 2000 had a profound impact on me. Not only was it an extraordinary time that I had with my darling mum, but it was also a time of reflection on what was happening in my life and what I needed to do to overcome the challenges I was facing.

The energy, culture, people and way of living in Malta captivated me.

And I visited again,

And I visited again,

And I visited again… ;-) in fact, I can’t count the times I’ve been here. It’s been so many times.

Since 2000, I’ve worked with some Maltese companies and organisations, been a speaker at some of their conferences and grown my network of brilliant people from across the island in all sections of their business world.

On one of my trips ten years ago (2012), I came with my business partner Bjarney Ludviksdottir to do a project we called BRANDit.

It was a weekend-long seminar where participants could reinvigorate their passion and purpose for their personal brands and discover and clarify their long-term and short-term business goals and intentions.

There is something so special about being able to help another person to feel good about themselves.

• To support another human being in discovering their unique X-factor, as I call it, that thing that only they have.

• See another person shine with confidence and joy, ready to overcome some of their biggest challenges.

Priceless feelings for me, living my purpose, sharing my gifts, in helping others find their own gifts.

The cherry on top was an opportunity for them to be a model for a day. Getting filmed and photographed by Bjarney, who is a total master at getting the very, very, very best angle out of everyone.

Changing yourself to changing the world: The impact of living your purpose.

Going down this 10-year-old memory lane reminded me a bit of Facebook reminders of posts you’ve posted back in time.

This time it wasn’t Facebook reminding me of my past adventures in Malta; it was my mind. Reflecting back on moments with the inspiring women entrepreneurs who had taken part in our personal branding program BRANDit.

I could feel gratitude flowing through my veins when I realised how grateful I was for being given space to share with these women what I knew so that they could have powerful tools in their hands to be consistently aligned with their purpose and passion.

Right there, at that moment, my friend Doris, who I’m staying with, says to me: Shall we look and see if Roberta is in her restaurant?

Roberta and her sister Ramona participated in BRANDit in 2012. The two sisters were absolute masters in cooking. Both chefs worked in their family restaurants at the time and built their own careers. I had been following them on social media since 2012 and had some insights into their success, but little did I know how much that BRANDit weekend had had on their lives.

Peeking into Kings Own Band Club restaurant on Republic Street, I see Roberta sitting there talking with her staff.

In my mind, I was wondering if she remembered me at all. Why should she, after it’s been ten years, and she has been rocking the food world in Malta and abroad since then?

I Had No Idea I Was Having Such a Profound Effect.

Roberta did not only remember me! She celebrated my presence in her restaurant.

Beaming with a smile, she embraced me with the biggest warm hug I’d received in a long time. She introduced me to her staff and her son, saying: This is the woman I’ve talked about countless times before; I still have the papers where I worked on my future vision, passions and purpose in life! I look at it regularly, and I can see what I wrote down as my visions ten years ago, ideas and goals that have ALL shown up in my life.

• She and her sister now have their own TV show.

• They have written and published a beautiful cooking book

• They have managed to run their restaurants and made it through COVID!

• They even remembered the pitch they used in the video Bjarney created for them!

I was over the moon! ;-)

This is the BRANDit video where Roberta & Ramona’s are rocking it back in 2012!

As I pitched myself, I made a mental note to remember this particular moment in Malta and use it when I doubted myself, my path, and my life's work.

- and if you think I don’t have doubts - you are wrong!

Even though I’m doing what I’m doing, I’ve helped hundreds of people like Ramona and Roberta Preca in their lives. I will admit there are times when I need inspiration and encouragement to continue doing what I’m doing.

Being given the gift of hearing how much this one weekend in March 2012 had done for those sisters reminded me how important it is for us to provide ourselves with regularly the time and space to reinvigorate ourselves, look back and reflect on the person we’ve been and what person and what sort of a life we want to continue to live.

Reminding ourselves about our unique gifts in life and reminding others about their unique gifts can create such a profound impact on our lives.

Who needs to be embraced and acknowledged in your life? And what are you going to do about it?