Readers,
It has been proven through many studies that the associations that we keep form a huge part of our personalit . We are all typically the combined average of the 5-10 people who we spend the most time with. This principle applies to every facet of our llives.
If you think about your 5 closest friends and then compare your income, your health, your integrity, your religious beliefs and even your sense of humour with theirs, you will be amazed at how well this principle holds up.
The real question then becomes what to do with this new found information. Clearly, if you want to improve certain aspects of your life, you need to get friends who are better than you in the areas that you want to improve so that their influence can bring you up.
The only challenge with this is that successful people consciously or unconciously are also aware of this fact and so are looking for friendships that will help move them to the next level for their own development.
The key thereforeis to know , develop and hone one's own keysstrengths and use them to leverage friendships with people who are able to pull them up in one area but you are also able to pull them up in a different area. It is mutually beneficial and thus likely to be possible.
The other thing to remember is that we are blessed to live in a world where technologyccan serve us so well. We have access to thousands of videos, books and articles from very successful people in all aspects of life at thetips of our fingers on our smartphones every hour of the day.
How well are we utilising the resources that we have? As much fun as it is bantering on Facebook and WhatsApp, is it how i want to look back at my youthful years when I am old and questioning how well I have exercised the gifts that have been bestowed onto me by my creator for my time on Earth?
It is something to reflect upon.
That is all for today. I shall be back in the next day or two with another post, God willing.
Have a wonderful day.
Monday, 30 March 2015
Saturday, 28 March 2015
The power of personal responsibility
Good morning everyone.
Today I would like to talk about the power of personal responsibility.
The wonderful thing about this power is that it exists in each and every one of us already and the challenge is simply to rediscover the power and secondly use it more regularly.
The power of personal responsibility is our ability to decide to do whatever needs to be done to achieve a goal and keep adjusting and learning until the goal is achieved.
I myself for example had to take my UK car driving test 5 times before being told that I was successful. Each failure was a lesson to keep me moving forward to achieving my goal. One philosopher stated that he has not failed, but rather he has succeeded in finding 1000 ways that don't work.
I am a Muslim and it is therefore my belief that nothing can happen without the permission of God almighty. Therefore if something is not destined for me, I won't get it no matter how much personal responsibility I take.
However having said that, I don't know what is or is not destined for me, but I do know that I am 1000 times more likely to achieve a task by taking personal responsibility rather than relying on fate.
Chapter 13 verse 11 of the holy Quran very beautifully states that "Verily Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition"
A (probably fake but very apt ) story illustrates this point beautifully.
There was a pious man who publicly begged God to make him win the lottery every day for several weeks . Every week, when the balls were drawn people asked him if he had won and he always cried and wailed that he hadn't and continued beseeching God for success.
Then eventually he heard from God in his dream telling him thathe needs to at least buy a ticket!
The moral of the story is clear.
I urge you all and myself to continually remind ourselves of the great power of personal responsibility that we possess and exercise it more and more often and encourage others to do so too.
Have a splendid day and I will be back in the next day or two with a new post, God willing.
Today I would like to talk about the power of personal responsibility.
The wonderful thing about this power is that it exists in each and every one of us already and the challenge is simply to rediscover the power and secondly use it more regularly.
The power of personal responsibility is our ability to decide to do whatever needs to be done to achieve a goal and keep adjusting and learning until the goal is achieved.
I myself for example had to take my UK car driving test 5 times before being told that I was successful. Each failure was a lesson to keep me moving forward to achieving my goal. One philosopher stated that he has not failed, but rather he has succeeded in finding 1000 ways that don't work.
I am a Muslim and it is therefore my belief that nothing can happen without the permission of God almighty. Therefore if something is not destined for me, I won't get it no matter how much personal responsibility I take.
However having said that, I don't know what is or is not destined for me, but I do know that I am 1000 times more likely to achieve a task by taking personal responsibility rather than relying on fate.
Chapter 13 verse 11 of the holy Quran very beautifully states that "Verily Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition"
A (probably fake but very apt ) story illustrates this point beautifully.
There was a pious man who publicly begged God to make him win the lottery every day for several weeks . Every week, when the balls were drawn people asked him if he had won and he always cried and wailed that he hadn't and continued beseeching God for success.
Then eventually he heard from God in his dream telling him thathe needs to at least buy a ticket!
The moral of the story is clear.
I urge you all and myself to continually remind ourselves of the great power of personal responsibility that we possess and exercise it more and more often and encourage others to do so too.
Have a splendid day and I will be back in the next day or two with a new post, God willing.
Friday, 27 March 2015
The slight edge
Good morning everyone.
Today I want to have a look at a principle called the slight edge and discuss how we can utilise this idea to make quantum leaps in progress in any area of knowledge that we desire.
The principle of the slight edge is that performing a simple and easy to do discipline every single day will result in a compound effect of progress with staggering long term results.
An example of this is a person who goes for a run in the morning. Will this person become fit by going for a 10 minute run once? I am sure that everyone will agree that they will not.
However, if this same person goes for a 10 minute run every day, will he soon be able to run faster and for longer and be regarded as a fit person? I think everyone has to agree that this is the case.
Is running for 10 minutes a day out of the 24 hours (1440 minutes) easy or hard? I think everyone who is fair minded and keen to actually make positive change would have to agree that it is easy.
The key to the slight edge is that it is easy to do AND easy NOT to do.
It has been said that dedicating just one hour a day to studying a subject will result in becoming a worldwide expert on the subject being studied.
Running was merely an example. The principle can be applied to whatever you want to achieve. Remember though, you can apply it to multiple things at the same time.
I hope that this post has been both enjoyable and educational.
Have a blessed day and I will hopefully be back in the next day or two with a new post.
Today I want to have a look at a principle called the slight edge and discuss how we can utilise this idea to make quantum leaps in progress in any area of knowledge that we desire.
The principle of the slight edge is that performing a simple and easy to do discipline every single day will result in a compound effect of progress with staggering long term results.
An example of this is a person who goes for a run in the morning. Will this person become fit by going for a 10 minute run once? I am sure that everyone will agree that they will not.
However, if this same person goes for a 10 minute run every day, will he soon be able to run faster and for longer and be regarded as a fit person? I think everyone has to agree that this is the case.
Is running for 10 minutes a day out of the 24 hours (1440 minutes) easy or hard? I think everyone who is fair minded and keen to actually make positive change would have to agree that it is easy.
The key to the slight edge is that it is easy to do AND easy NOT to do.
It has been said that dedicating just one hour a day to studying a subject will result in becoming a worldwide expert on the subject being studied.
Running was merely an example. The principle can be applied to whatever you want to achieve. Remember though, you can apply it to multiple things at the same time.
I hope that this post has been both enjoyable and educational.
Have a blessed day and I will hopefully be back in the next day or two with a new post.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Making a dream come true
Good morning.
Making a dream come true is a 2 part process.
The first and most important part is actually having a dream to begin with.
The clearer the dream, the greater the potential to achieve it.
The greatest way to make it crystal clear is to write it down and also write why it is your dream so basically what impact realising the dream will have on your life.
Many people believe that it is not necessary to write their hopes, dreams and goals down because they have them in their minds. The problem is that humans have tens of thousands of thoughts each and every day and so relying on the mind to store your dream clearly and in the perfect level of detail is naive at best and ooutright foolish at worst.
I urge you all to take the time to write down your dream goal in as much detail as possible and do it today. Time is of the essence.
The second part is to experience an emotion based on the goal. The important thing to remember is that sometimes the emotion will not be satisfied even if the dream appears to be achieved on the surface level. A quick example to illustrate the point would be if someone has the dream of driving an expensive car. If his relative sells him the car very cheaply because they bought a new one, he will outwardly have achieved the dream, but he will not have made his dream come true as his dream was really to reach the status to be able to buy the car for what the car is worth as buying the car was supposed to be a symbol of his social status rather than a fortunate purchase at mates rates.
Therefore, think very carefully what your dream is and why to ensure that you get the emotional pay off at the end.
Have a wonderful day.
Making a dream come true is a 2 part process.
The first and most important part is actually having a dream to begin with.
The clearer the dream, the greater the potential to achieve it.
The greatest way to make it crystal clear is to write it down and also write why it is your dream so basically what impact realising the dream will have on your life.
Many people believe that it is not necessary to write their hopes, dreams and goals down because they have them in their minds. The problem is that humans have tens of thousands of thoughts each and every day and so relying on the mind to store your dream clearly and in the perfect level of detail is naive at best and ooutright foolish at worst.
I urge you all to take the time to write down your dream goal in as much detail as possible and do it today. Time is of the essence.
The second part is to experience an emotion based on the goal. The important thing to remember is that sometimes the emotion will not be satisfied even if the dream appears to be achieved on the surface level. A quick example to illustrate the point would be if someone has the dream of driving an expensive car. If his relative sells him the car very cheaply because they bought a new one, he will outwardly have achieved the dream, but he will not have made his dream come true as his dream was really to reach the status to be able to buy the car for what the car is worth as buying the car was supposed to be a symbol of his social status rather than a fortunate purchase at mates rates.
Therefore, think very carefully what your dream is and why to ensure that you get the emotional pay off at the end.
Have a wonderful day.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Personal philosophy continued
Good morning everyone.
Yesterday's discussion sought to cultivate an internal dialogue with ourselves about our personal philosophy. This blog is aimed at people who like myself desire to their potential and utilise the gifts that have been bestowed onto us in the best possible way.
One thing that I have found is that whenever I wish to achieve anything, there is an inner voice telling me that it is not possible. It is too difficult or I am not smart enough or I don't have the time or resources etc and I am sure that many of you will have experienced the same anxiety when even thinking about taking on a new task.
The thing to remember is that no matter what your current situation is, the dream that you want to achieve has either already been done by people before you proving that it is possible or is something that has never been achieved by a human being before. Let us examine each one in turn.
If your dream is to achieve something that has been achieved before, then it is definitely possible that you can do it to. Every skill is learnable. Nobody came to the world with a fullyffunctioning skill set. We came as babies and grew up believing what our families believed to be possible for us rather than the reality of our potential being much higher than what our families or even what we ourselves place upon us.
When I was a teenager, I was playing football with my cousin in his estate and I accidentally kicked the ball over the fence into the neighbouring school. I was too scared to climb over the school fence to retrieve the ball until he told me that he had done it before and had no problems. Upon this new information, I had a new belief about the objective of climbing this fence and managed to retrieve the ball with minimum fuss.
When I got back over the fence, my cousin told me that he had lied earlier and had never had to go over the fence I had just climbed. The irony is that apart from telling me that he had done it before, there was probably nothing else he could have said that would have convinced me to do it.
Remember whatever your goals are - people have done it before you so it's possible that you can do it too. Better job? Weigh less? Pass exams? They have all been done by people who are only human just like us.
The second type of goal which has not been achieved before is a little more challenging. The important thing to remember is that if no one can achieve anything unless it's been done before, no one would ever have achieved anything worth emulating to begin with!
Whatever dream that has been put in you has been put there for a reason. Every great venture has started with a step into the unknown with a giant leap of faith.
I hope that this discussion has been educational or at least served as a reminder and I will hopefully be back in the next day or two with a new post.
Have a wonderful day.
Yesterday's discussion sought to cultivate an internal dialogue with ourselves about our personal philosophy. This blog is aimed at people who like myself desire to their potential and utilise the gifts that have been bestowed onto us in the best possible way.
One thing that I have found is that whenever I wish to achieve anything, there is an inner voice telling me that it is not possible. It is too difficult or I am not smart enough or I don't have the time or resources etc and I am sure that many of you will have experienced the same anxiety when even thinking about taking on a new task.
The thing to remember is that no matter what your current situation is, the dream that you want to achieve has either already been done by people before you proving that it is possible or is something that has never been achieved by a human being before. Let us examine each one in turn.
If your dream is to achieve something that has been achieved before, then it is definitely possible that you can do it to. Every skill is learnable. Nobody came to the world with a fullyffunctioning skill set. We came as babies and grew up believing what our families believed to be possible for us rather than the reality of our potential being much higher than what our families or even what we ourselves place upon us.
When I was a teenager, I was playing football with my cousin in his estate and I accidentally kicked the ball over the fence into the neighbouring school. I was too scared to climb over the school fence to retrieve the ball until he told me that he had done it before and had no problems. Upon this new information, I had a new belief about the objective of climbing this fence and managed to retrieve the ball with minimum fuss.
When I got back over the fence, my cousin told me that he had lied earlier and had never had to go over the fence I had just climbed. The irony is that apart from telling me that he had done it before, there was probably nothing else he could have said that would have convinced me to do it.
Remember whatever your goals are - people have done it before you so it's possible that you can do it too. Better job? Weigh less? Pass exams? They have all been done by people who are only human just like us.
The second type of goal which has not been achieved before is a little more challenging. The important thing to remember is that if no one can achieve anything unless it's been done before, no one would ever have achieved anything worth emulating to begin with!
Whatever dream that has been put in you has been put there for a reason. Every great venture has started with a step into the unknown with a giant leap of faith.
I hope that this discussion has been educational or at least served as a reminder and I will hopefully be back in the next day or two with a new post.
Have a wonderful day.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Personal philosophy
Good morning everyone.
Yesterday's introduction began the discussion on personal philosophy and today's post will seek to progress this topic a little more.
In order for us to decide whether we want to live the life of an optimist seeking to fulfil our full potential or just continue to get by, we need to ponder over 4 questions. I heard this from a motivational speaker by the name of Jim Rohn quite some time ago and feel it is a fantastic method of taking stock of your lifestyle choices.
The first question is:
Why bother to fulfil your potential? Why try to maximise your skill set? Why try to become the most educated that you can possibly become? Why earn the most possible money you can earn? Why inspire the most possible people you can?
This is a question that only you can answer for yourselves. One thing that I have heard and resonates deeply with me though is that if the why is strong enough, the how becomes easy!
My personal reasons for wanting to fulfil my potential are two fold.
The first reason is that it is my religious beliefs that everything that I have does not belong to me, but are rather gifts that have been bestowed onto me by my creator for the limited time that I am on this planet and that I will be judged by how I utilised these gifts when I die.
My second reason is that wanting to be the best at everything is a natural human desire (which once again I believe has been implanted in to us by our creator). The proof that it is a natural human desire is that even the person who is illiterate and completely uneducated would loathe to be called ignorant and would love to be called clever even if they know that they are not. Even the miser likes to be called generous even though they know that they are not. It is something for us all to ponder upon.
The second question is why not?
Why not achieve everything that you are capable of? This is also actually a great answer to question one by the way!
We all have to stay here on Earth until we go, so why not do the most while we are here?
The 3rd question is why not you?
Again it is my belief that every single human being is special because God chose to create YOU.
Chapter 17 verse 70 of the holy Quran says:
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things.
This verse doesn't differentiate between men, women, races, ethnicities or classes of people. We have all been honoured so we can all be rest assured that we are worthy of fulfilling our potential.
Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) said :
Your sickness is within you -- but you do not perceive it.
You presume that you are a small entity --
whereas within you is concealed the vast world.
You are indeed that magnificent book --
by whose alphabet the hidden becomes evident.
Therefore you have no needs beyond yourself
Your essence and secrets are in you -- if only you can reflect.
The final question is why not now?
There will always be stuff going on to make you think that you can start working on your goals later, but successful people take action immediately.
This post has been a little longer than I anticipated so thanks for bearing with it and hopefully I will be back in the next day or two.
Have a wonderful day.
Yesterday's introduction began the discussion on personal philosophy and today's post will seek to progress this topic a little more.
In order for us to decide whether we want to live the life of an optimist seeking to fulfil our full potential or just continue to get by, we need to ponder over 4 questions. I heard this from a motivational speaker by the name of Jim Rohn quite some time ago and feel it is a fantastic method of taking stock of your lifestyle choices.
The first question is:
Why bother to fulfil your potential? Why try to maximise your skill set? Why try to become the most educated that you can possibly become? Why earn the most possible money you can earn? Why inspire the most possible people you can?
This is a question that only you can answer for yourselves. One thing that I have heard and resonates deeply with me though is that if the why is strong enough, the how becomes easy!
My personal reasons for wanting to fulfil my potential are two fold.
The first reason is that it is my religious beliefs that everything that I have does not belong to me, but are rather gifts that have been bestowed onto me by my creator for the limited time that I am on this planet and that I will be judged by how I utilised these gifts when I die.
My second reason is that wanting to be the best at everything is a natural human desire (which once again I believe has been implanted in to us by our creator). The proof that it is a natural human desire is that even the person who is illiterate and completely uneducated would loathe to be called ignorant and would love to be called clever even if they know that they are not. Even the miser likes to be called generous even though they know that they are not. It is something for us all to ponder upon.
The second question is why not?
Why not achieve everything that you are capable of? This is also actually a great answer to question one by the way!
We all have to stay here on Earth until we go, so why not do the most while we are here?
The 3rd question is why not you?
Again it is my belief that every single human being is special because God chose to create YOU.
Chapter 17 verse 70 of the holy Quran says:
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things.
This verse doesn't differentiate between men, women, races, ethnicities or classes of people. We have all been honoured so we can all be rest assured that we are worthy of fulfilling our potential.
Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) said :
Your sickness is within you -- but you do not perceive it.
You presume that you are a small entity --
whereas within you is concealed the vast world.
You are indeed that magnificent book --
by whose alphabet the hidden becomes evident.
Therefore you have no needs beyond yourself
Your essence and secrets are in you -- if only you can reflect.
The final question is why not now?
There will always be stuff going on to make you think that you can start working on your goals later, but successful people take action immediately.
This post has been a little longer than I anticipated so thanks for bearing with it and hopefully I will be back in the next day or two.
Have a wonderful day.
Monday, 23 March 2015
Introduction
Hello everyone.
Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope that you are able to derive some benefit out of it.
The reason for starting this blog is that I have found in my 3 decades of experience in this world that the vast majority of people who I interact with are going about their lives without knowing what they would even like to achieve with their time on Earth, let alone how they would go about achieving the things that the great people of our world have done.
This blog aims to serve as an educator and a reminder to myself and others that each and every one of us has great potential to wonderfully impact on the world that we live in to leave a lasting legacy for the people who come after us, but it is up to us to decide how we are going to use the opportunity of the time that we have been given.
The introduction today is for ourselves to look at ourselves and establish what our personal philosophy is.
It can either be a positive, energetic, determined and focused philosophy with a mindset to fulfil our maximum potential in our time here or it can be a lazy and lethargic philosophy of simply surviving one day at a time and doing just enough to get by.
The wonderful thing about us humans is that regardless of who we were yesterday or what we did, we have the power to decide to change everything at a moments notice.
I will leave it here for today, but will hopefully be back in the next day or two with another post.
Peace.
Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope that you are able to derive some benefit out of it.
The reason for starting this blog is that I have found in my 3 decades of experience in this world that the vast majority of people who I interact with are going about their lives without knowing what they would even like to achieve with their time on Earth, let alone how they would go about achieving the things that the great people of our world have done.
This blog aims to serve as an educator and a reminder to myself and others that each and every one of us has great potential to wonderfully impact on the world that we live in to leave a lasting legacy for the people who come after us, but it is up to us to decide how we are going to use the opportunity of the time that we have been given.
The introduction today is for ourselves to look at ourselves and establish what our personal philosophy is.
It can either be a positive, energetic, determined and focused philosophy with a mindset to fulfil our maximum potential in our time here or it can be a lazy and lethargic philosophy of simply surviving one day at a time and doing just enough to get by.
The wonderful thing about us humans is that regardless of who we were yesterday or what we did, we have the power to decide to change everything at a moments notice.
I will leave it here for today, but will hopefully be back in the next day or two with another post.
Peace.
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