Shifting Sands takes the author's fascinating journey across the entire Sahara Desert and uses it as a metaphor for our journeys in life. It reveals how life, especially times of change, is like a crossing a desert: we get lost, we get stuck, we follow mirages. Deserts require a unique approach contrary to the goal-setting, destination-focused belief system widely promoted in our culture. What is the goal of life? What is the mountain peak that says you've finished your job as a parent? How do you know when a divorce is over? The Sahara does not have a clear endpoint like Mount Everest's peak that defines the summit. Shifting Sands exposes the mountain-climbing myth and its goal-setting metaphor as ineffective in the ever-shifting sands that make up the deserts of life. Instead, Shifting Sands offers Six Rules of Desert Travel that allow us to live fully in times of change. Deserts require us to pay attention to our journey rather than the destination. In the deserts of life we follow a compass not a map. We don't always know where we are headed.