As I’ve mentioned previously I worked in Banking for eight years in a job which for a while I really did enjoy. However, I woke up one day and decided this was not me. This was not how I wanted to spend my life. I was thirty two years old and I needed to do something different, something I was passionate and inspired about.
I left my job in March 2013 and decided to have another gap year and do lots of traveling and take the time to think about what I wanted to do. I knew I was able to support myself financially for a while and had no commitments. I went travelling with friends, partied in Ibiza, visiting my brother in Australia, climbed Kilimanjaro. Life was fantastic after I stopped working, however, this life of Riley could not go on forever. I soon started to ask myself the important questions; what am I going to do? Should I go back into Banking? Should I do charity work? Where shall I live? Do I leave London? Should I move to Singapore? Australia? What should I do next? These were some of the many questions that would pop into my head on a regular basis.
While I was travelling around South America, I had a lot of time on buses to think and evaluate about what was important to me, what success looked like and what I really wanted to do. Although the answers didn’t come to me straight away, ideas started to form and a few key decisions were made. I wanted to have my own company, I wanted to be my own boss, I wanted to give back and inspire people, I wanted to have the ability to do the things I love and be paid for doing them.
I love to travel and explore, I love to try new things, and I’m always willing to give something a go. I like doing things people say can’t be done. I’ve done a lot of charity work previously, working to support and involve big business in UN Women. For me, I wanted to combine all of these things, travel, challenging myself and inspiring women and girls. Tough Girl Challenges was born as a result of this.
I decided to write down what I’d like to happen in the future. I do this for a number of reasons. It gives me something to aim towards and I want to be able to look back in six months or a year’s time and see how far I’ve come from when the idea first took root.
To design and create an incredible website: a living, breathing entity, I can run from anywhere in the world.
For me to complete challenges, share them through the website, by including information about them on my blog and writing and publishing books.
Blog on a regular basis, providing information, advice, tips and knowledge to share with people who care.
To travel and give inspirational and motivational talks around the world, inspiring young girls and women to be more and to do more, to challenge themselves and to believe they can do anything they set their mind too.
To create a community where people can come together to talk about, share their dreams and to be supported when they undertake their own personal challenges.
To be paid for doing what I love! And for it to provide me with income to keep travelling and having adventures.
To take and share stunning photos of the moments that matter.
To load short motivational films on YouTube, maybe even to video blog?
I’d like to get, one hundred followers on all my social media platforms, once, I’ve reached one hundred, I’d like to go for one thousand, then ten thousand and then over a hundred thousand followers on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram etc.
The ultimate goal would be to reach out to over one million people.