Red lines

Readers,

Regardless of how fantastic or terrible we feel, we all possess certain habits that we will not negotiate on.

Some habits are more obvious than others & some habits are more important to some than it is to others who may well have the same habits.

For example, I am very sure that every single person reading this will not leave their homes without brushing their teeth in the morning no matter how late they woke up or how lazy, ill or generally unmotivated they feel.

Then there are many who will for example also shower every morning.

Of those that shower, there are those who will shower even if they are running late and those who will prioritise trying to be less late.

There may well be people who don't even necessarily shower every morning.

The question worth asking is why is there such a fluctuation between different people who live in similar circumstances?

This has to be worth pondering over for any person who is trying to improve areas of their life that they see others around them having no problems.

The best answer I have found to this conundrum is "red lines".

We all outline our lives with red lines that we will not cross no matter what. The vast majority of decisions we make on a day to day basis are dependent on the red lines that we have drawn out for ourselves.

It starts with the alarm clock going off. Are we the type of person who accepts snoozing or the type of person who gets up.

Then when we get up, there are those who will check their Facebook and whatsapp while others will freshen up and get dressed and it goes on and on.

In this post, I don't want to explore why different people put their red lines in different places.

Rather I wish to encourage everyone to ponder and reflect on a few simple questions with the hope that maybe some of us may be inspired to move our red lines and bring about tremendous life changes.

1) what are your current red line behaviours?

2) why are these behaviours so paramount to you?

3) what 2 things aren't you doing that you wish you were doing every day?

4) why do you wish you were doing these 2 things every day?

The best news is that the red lines that we place on our behaviours are not set in stone.

Each and every one of us has the opportunity to change it all at a moments notice and never be the same again.

I hope that this post sparks something to change in you.

If you have enjoyed reading it and think that there is something that you can share in the comments that may help others, please do so.

God bless

First alarm

Readers,

How do you respond to your alarm clock going off first thing in the morning?

Do you get a sinking feeling that "oh no the day has to start!" or do you feel excited?

No-one feels the same way every day, but how do you feel most days when the alarm goes off?

How you feel when the alarm goes off should indicate to you the quality of your life.

If more often than not, you greet the idea of having to get up with disappointment, it means that sleeping is better than being awake!

If sleeping is better than being awake, then by extension being dead would be better than being alive because that's a lovely deep long sleep.

However, if your alarm clock going off excites you because it's a new day and a new opportunity to go after your goals and fulfil your dreams  - then congratulations, but this post isn't really for you.

For those of us who hate the alarm, we can only hate it for one of 2 reasons.

1) we haven't had enough sleep

2) we do not like what we have to do with our life now that the alarm has gone off

Let's deal with each one individually

1) lack of sleep

This could happen to anyone from time to time for a whole host of reasons. If it's only occasional, it generally doesn't pose too many problems.

However if it is persistent, it is important to resolve the issue because a bad nights sleep often results in an unproductive day and this is not a cycle you want to repeat persistently.

2) not liking our life

This is the crux of this post.
If you don't like your life to the extent that you don't like waking up in the morning, it is time to revolutionise your life.

It can start with some important questions:

1) what do I want to have achieved in my life by the time I die?

2) what can I do today to help me towards my end goal

3) what do I love to do?

4) how can I structure my life to ensure that I spend more time doing what I love?

Life is short. Days are even shorter. They come and go at tremendous speed. Morning alarms by extension also come at tremendous speed. If you hadn't thought about it before, I hope that this post has got you thinking carefully about how you currently feel about your morning alarm, how you would like to feel when the alarm goes off and most importantly about what actions you can start taking to ring the changes you want.

God bless

Fire

Readers,

How would you respond if there was a fire in your house?

By God's grace, I have never been in a house when a fire has broken out. However, recently a fire flared up in the kitchen of my parents house.

Fortunately no-one was harmed and no property was damaged (except the toaster!), but a valuable lesson was learnt by me.

For those interested, the cause of the fire was a croissant getting stuck in the toaster and overcooking to the point where a high flame began to soar from the toaster.

My parents house had a fire blanket which was used to good effect and the fire was safely extinguished before causing any further damage to the house or any of my family inside.

The thing is that when I heard this story, I thought about what would have happened if it was my kitchen.

I didn't own a fire blanket and had never been taught or even thought about how to respond to a fire.

Of course at previous jobs, I knew where the fire alarms, fire extinguishers, fire doors and assembly points were. However for my home, I had never thought about it.

After what happened though, I have purchased a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher and watched a few short YouTube videos guiding on how to use them.

Then I got to thinking..... How many of my friends and family have fire blankets and extinguishers in their homes? How many know how to operate them?

If only one reader of this post is motivated to go out and buy the necessary equipment and learn how to use it, my work is done.

I pray that no-one reading this ever finds them in a situation where they need to know how to put out a fire.
However I also pray that everyone reading is motivated enough to invest a small amount of time and money to learn just in case it does happen.

If the fire in my parents house and this post about it motivates even a handful of people to take fire safety more seriously, then that toaster was a very cheap sacrifice.

You could learn about fire safety and never need to utilise the knowledge or you could neglect to learn and I will leave the rest to your imagination.

God bless

Implementation

Readers

As I reach the ripe old age of 35, I find myself asking the important question...

"How can I make this year the best year of my life?"

There are going to be many things that are out of my control that could make the year to come good or bad.

However my response to what will happen will always be my choice.

In my 35 years, I have learnt many useful things and unfortunately some not so useful things.

However, the most important thing that I have learnt is the unique distinct critical importance of implementation over and above everything else.

To know and not to do is just as bad as not knowing.

For a long time, I believed that knowing was the most important thing. I have changed my mind.

Why?

I have come to believe that the majority of people don't do what they know they should do.

Have most people heard the old proverb "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"? The answer has to be a resounding yes. Yet do most people eat an apple a day? Do most people eat an apple a week?!

Do most people know that you are supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day to stay hydrated? I would think that it's fairly common knowledge.

Of those that know, how many glasses of water do you see these people drinking? Compare it to how many hot beverages and fizzy drinks we consume.

These are but two simple examples. The list is potentially endless.

The point is clear  - people unfortunately often fail to do what they know they should do!

So what is the point of this post?

My desire for my 36th year on planet Earth is to live a life of implementation.

I will act on what i already know and use this as my ladder to become the person I want to be when I finally depart from this world.

I would like to end this post by urging you all to think of 3 things that you know you should do, but don't.

Whether you start doing any or all of those 3 things doesn't matter. 

Some will and some won't. 

Many won't even bother taking a minute to think of 3 things. Is it that they don't know that they ought to reflect on their implementation behaviours?

I will let you be the judge.

God bless. 

The need to fully utilise resources

Dear readers,

Have you ever stopped to consider how many resources we have available to us and how careless we are in maximising the employment of these resources?

I was sharing a banana with my 1 year old daughter today and I was breaking off small pieces to give to her. As the banana was coming to an end, she started picking the bits of the banana that got stuck on her hand with the other hand so she could eat it.

I stopped to think what I would have done and concluded that I would probably have just washed my hands.

Here in lies the problem. As children, we maximise every resource we are given. When we first learn to roll, we spend every spare moment rolling into every corner of the room. Then when we can talk, we ask our parents questions about everything until they are fed up of answering.

Yet at some stage, we begin to take the ability to walk, talk, think etc for granted as well as all the other resources that we have.

Does it have to be that way? The beauty of this life is that every single moment represents the opportunity to completely change everything about our lives - hopefully starting with how we employ the many wonderful resources that we have access to 24/7.

The power of service

Hello everyone.

Having worked my last day at Carphone warehouse yesterday before entering into a break to launch my new career as a driving instructor, it dawned on me that the thing that I enjoyed the most was my power to be of service to the public.

Everyone is given gifts in the shape of talents and it is up to each person to decide whether to hone these talents or neglect them.

Those who hone the talents then have to decide whether to use it to be of service to the world or just to keep it to oneself.

It is an awful shame that the majority neglect their talents and even worse are those who hone them and then hide them.

I once read that the easiest way to overcome your own sadness is to go and cheer up someone else who may be sad.

I also read that you can get as much as you want in this world as long as you can give enough other people what they want.

With this in mind, I would like everyone to ponder a few questions with the hope that it may bring about positive change within us.

1) How could I be of greater service to my employer/ customers/ family etc than I already am?

2) How can I become a source of service to a larger quantity of people?

3) How would I like to be known or remembered in terms of my service to humanity and what steps can I take to start reaching this level?

I will end this post with a beautiful quote from Martin Luther King Junior.

"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve".

Coping with bereavement

How do you console someone when you are yourself in grief?

What words do you use when all the words sound empty and hollow when played in your mind?

Is silence better? How can it be when it can be misinterpreted for a lack of compassion - the furthest thing from the truth?

Some people are naturally great comforters. Most of us are so emotionally uneducated that we choose silence lest we say the wrong thing.

I haven't wept for a bereavement in my family in my 30+ years of life. Yet I have wept on the bereavement of the family of my prophet (pbuhaf) over and over again. While I have a new appreciation to God for the blessing of feeling grief for the injustice done to his prophets family, I am ill prepared on how to deal with the bereavement in my family.

Tears flow day and night and yet I have to say alhamdulillah. Our own bodies and souls are gifts to us which are both temporary and undeserved. How then about our children? From God both we and our children came and to God must we return.

I will end with a quote from God almighty Himself when He said in the Quran which was sent as a mercy and guidance for us till the end of time:

2:155 - 157

155. And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.).

156. Who, when afflicted with calamity, say: "Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return."

157. They are those on whom are the Salawat (i.e. blessings, etc.) (i.e. who are blessed and will be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they are those who) receive His Mercy, and it is they who are the guided-ones.