My Heart is Tweeting

I can't help it. My heart is tweeting so hard I can't stop it. Enayat told me that a leader is a person who has admirers and therefore would follow him or her. I am feeling a huge responsibility. Do you remember anyone mentioning the tweeting?? I certainly do not! No one told us that being a leader would make your heart pounding, your mind racing, and your soul souring. I do remind myself to enjoy it and live every moment of it while it lasts. But still, it's driving me crazy.

Hadeel   

I, too, had a dream

Based on Mr. Swan’s saying “Every leader has a dream” I will tell you a story called: “I, too, had a dream…”

A young and ambitious person I was, when I was 10 years old. I had lots of dreams. Every day someone would ask me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and I’d have a different answer every time. I wanted to become a doctor, a teacher, a writer, a mother, I wanted to have a big family, and I wanted to be famous.

So what happened to all those dreams?

In 1994 I got married.

 I had a dream of becoming a mother, in 1995 I had my first son “Saeed”.

And in 1997 I had my next child a beautiful baby girl “Yasmeen”.

 In 1999 I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. Believe me it wasn’t easy, it was so stressful studying while nursing a baby, taking care of a sick toddler, and attending to a house and a husband.

After graduation I got pregnant with my third child, and then I decided to enter a school with the dream of memorizing the Holy Quran.

 I only memorized a couple of pages but just to stop to have my third child “Layan” another beautiful baby girl.

After having my third baby I realized that there were no Arabic books addressing the relationship between a child and Allah, so I started writing and publishing books for children. I published 6 books and had numerous book signings. There goes my second and third dream, I became a writer and I became famous.

 In March 2001 my Yasmeen got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I turned into a doctor, nurse, and nutritionist in no time. I gave shots, checked blood sugar, and made meal plans. There goes my fourth dream, I became a doctor. I was 24, and honestly, looking back now, I was a baby with a huge amount of responsibilities.

 Any way dreams go on. In 2004 I had my fourth child “Maarya” and in 2007 I had my fifth “Muhammad”. So there goes my fifth dream, now I have a big family.

But that wasn’t enough, my next dream was to become a family counselor so I can control my children. And there I am, taking a diploma in family counseling and becoming a family counselor.

As a family counselor, I was asked to give lectures on parenting and other topics. So here I am becoming a teacher and a lecturer.

Did I stop? No! I still wanted more. I went to a career counselor and after talking to me he said “Hadeel you are a leader, go study leadership” so there I am, spending hours and hours of researching, reading, writing endless applications, participating in discussions, and learning as I’ve never learned before. In August 2011 I graduated with a Master’s degree in Leadership development and coaching. What a relief!

We forgot one dream along the way, memorizing the Quran. Well I was in and out of Quran schools since 1999, but in 2007 I was dedicated to finish the Quran. In 2009 I had accomplished my dream and was so proud of myself.

 I also formed a diabetes support group with three other mothers to help educate and support mothers with a child living with diabetes.

One more dream, I wanted to get away from all of that, just for a while, and Mosaic made that dream come true! Thank you Mosaic and thank you Allah.

With love, 

Hadeel

            

I Love Coaching

On our third day, we learned about various coaching techniques. I am a coach and now I feel more obligated to my profession as I have experienced first hand how special a coachee feels when being coached. Coaching does really make a person more aware of a certain situation and really gives him insight about how to handle it.

We also had a great afternoon in Qatar's cultural village. We saw great shows, ate yummy Egyptian food, and listened to inspiring speakers and great music. 

A Wonderful Time

It is past midnight and I am eager to tell you about my day. I will be very sleepy tomorrow but I have to put what's on my mind down or I'll keep dreaming of it all night.

Today Mr. Binna Kandola and Mr. Stuart Duff have given us the opportunity to explore some of the leadership traits. I was in the "Followers" group where we had to come up with qualities that a follower would want to see in a leader. In addition to that, we would also point out negative aspects. We decided on 5 most positive skills which were: Direction, commitment, motivation, and being pro-active. We also decided on the 4 most unwanted traits: Dictator, corrupt, lack of management, and emotional blackmail. It was a good exercise, and then came the performance. I said "Dear Leader bla bla bla..." and the rest would act out the qualities, and then our friend Mac acted out the negatives so nicely everyone was laughing and I was truly amazed! Good Job Mac. Other groups also performed and they were all great.

Later that day Miss Farah Williamson talked about the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the videos were so heart touching and were so great. After having a political activity-in my opinion- related to that, we had the open forum which was so inspiring it made me cry! Wonderful people.

At almost eight we headed with a wonderful group to Souk Wagif. We walked to the Souk, ate Moroccan food, and drank Moroccan tea. It was amazing and we had a lot of interesting conversations. Someone told me I looked as if I was 22 which was such a huge compliment because I'm not even close to that age. I have been 22 more than 10 years ago! Thank you Hamza for making my day : )

Take Care

Hadeel

 

     

Did He Inspire Me?

Tuesday November 15

Mr. Robert Swan a polar explorer and an environmental leader gave us a speech. It was interesting. He talked about leadership skills, how to inspire, and other stuff on how we should stick to our dream and that we shouldn't wait. Well, the big question is did he inspire me? I have to say that I did learn some important facts about leadership from him but truly he is not a person who I would look up to. He did not inspire me because a number of reasons. First, I don't think that in order to achieve your goals and live your dreams that you have to ignore every responsibility you have in life! I am thinking of his wife, son, parents, and others who he abundant during his long journeys to the north and south pole. I am talking about the mixed feelings that his family had when he was a way, a mixture of fear, sadness, and probably frustration. I also did not see the point of the team back in the nineties or late eighties staying 9 months in a small box bored to death waiting for the sun to come out! Come on people, why not go a month before the sun rises? Sorry but I don't get it.

Just to be fair to Mr. Robert, he did achieve his dream, he is a good environmental leader, and I did learn important stuff from him. I learned that I need to be positive, committed, trust worthy, truthful, celebrate my successes, choose my team members carefully, be proud, engage people, admit mistakes, pull myself together when things go wrong, speak from my heart, look at others' perspectives, find meaning to what I do, it is ok to show my weaknesses, and lastly if someone tells you "No" ask them "Why?"

Looking forward for Today!

Take care     

Finally!

We are finally here! I thought the trip to Qatar would be short but no way it wasn't! Although they were only  2 two hour flights, the whole trip was very tiring. Any way I've met wonderful people on board. On the first plane heading from Jeddah to Abu Dhabi I met Noura who actually offered me a job as a student counselor in a local college! She is amazing. On the second trip I met Taiseer who is so nice and made me laugh with her Egyptian sense of humor : )

We arrived at the Coral Hotel after midnight and until we got our bags it was way past 1! Alhamdulillah I had a good night sleep and woke up to a depressing (sorry) breakfast, I am not complaining but it wasn't really creative. I guess I had high hopes, I was aiming for a hot omelet and maybe a pancake or waffle.
   
We then heard our speakers who I enjoyed best Mr. Stephan. Some of his words were:
"There is lack of trust in all sectors"
"You are were you are, what are you going to do about it?"
"What do you do that really matters?" - Mother Terrisa-
"Waht kind of world do you want to live in"
and others.

We then met with our groups after the coffee break, and every person talked with the person beside him or her and then presented him or her in front of the group. All inspiring mashallah!

blog you soon

Hadeel 

I Packed My Bag!

Hello everyone, I want to happily announce that I have packed my bag today. Well, I didn't do it alone, I had to call my younger sister to help me, how roles reverse!

2 more days to go! I have to say that I have cold feet, but I am trying to ignore this feeling. Although it would be wise to acknowledge and experience it now better than later.

Take Care,

Hadeel 

A little Bit About Me

Assalamu Aleikum

In this blog I would like to talk to you a little about myself. I love writing and reading of course. I wrote and published six children's books. I am willing to write for grown ups someday, although, I wrote a couple of articles. I am a family counselor, mommy and me instructor, and a now a life coach. I attend a Qura'an school twice a week which I feel is a part of heaven "Alhamdulilla".

11 more days to go!

See you soon

Hadeel 

i Lead

Hello again, I've been working on the i lead program and I think it's very useful and informative. Thank you Mosaic for giving us this opportunity.

Count Down

Hello everyone,

I have been reading some of your blogs and I am amazed at Mosaic's ability to find such inspiring individuals.

15 days to go, and a lot to do! I have been on the i lead program and it is very interesting and I have learned a lot already. But still I have a lot of categories to go over. I don't want to start mentioning my suitcase, as it needs a separate blog ; ) I have been trying to adjust my family to the fact that I will be leaving them for 10 days, I think they are ready now for the journeying of everyday life on their own. I will miss them, but I think an experience like this would benefit all of us.

About my family, I have Saeed 16, Yasmeen 14, Layan 11, Maarya 7, and Mahammad 4. My husband is Sami and he owns a steel company. I am from Saudi Arabia, but one of my grandmothers is Turkish and the other one is Egyptian. My grandfather's mother is Syrian and my other grandfather is Saudi but originally from Palestine. So I am a mixture of different nationalities and I love that in me.

Take care, and see you soon.

Hadeel


 

Hello

Hello everyone,

I'm Hadeel from Saudi Arabia. I would like to talk to you about how I got accepted to attend the Mosaic Summit. First, I got an e mail from a friend of mine, it was about the summit. It was a Friday and I just came home with my husband after having lunch at my in-laws house where we left our kids playing with their cousins. My husband was having his afternoon nap and I was on the computer. Any way, I got the e mail, read it, and feverishly decided to apply. What did I have to lose? I was going to turn 35 in August this year so I might as well apply because this would be the only chance that I would have in my entire life. So with my heart pounding I tried to finish the very long application. I say my heart was pounding because of a couple of reasons; I was afraid to change my mind, I didn't want my husband to see me and discourage me, and I wanted to finish before the kids came home-as they can come by foot. Well I guess you know the rest, the e mail which I could not believe I got! Then the interview which I said awful things in that I regret till this day! Seriously I don't know how they chose me!! And lastly, the CONGRATULATIONS! What a journey and it still hasn't begun!

This is the first time I have ever blogged and I seem to like it : )

Take care

Hadeel