New year resolutions

Dear readers

A new year beckons and so does a new opportunity arise to become a "new you".

Many people fail to realise that every day represents a new life in the mind of the wise.

In any case, a lot of people will be making resolutions and so I thought that I would share some thoughts on how to make the most of the good feeling that envelopes this time of year.

1) make a resolution if you are in two minds. You have an infinitely better chance of fulfilling your resolutions if you are able to articulate them and motivated to actually write them down.

2) make a maximum of 3. The more you make, the harder it will be to maintain them all and the moment one fails, the house comes crashing down.

3) write your reasons for wanting to achieve the resolutions and the consequences of failure to do so. This will give your aspirations the legs and heart to grow to fruition.

I wish you all a prosperous 2016 and would love to hear any thoughts or new year resolutions that you would like to share that you feel could help inspire anyone readings.

God bless.

Reflections on attending my first ever funeral

Readers,

At the ripe old age of 32, I experienced my first ever funeral yesterday and would like to share some of my thoughts and feelings with you all.

The first point that I would like to make is that witnessing a lifeless body placed in a box, lowered deep in to the ground and then covered up with mud and stones is probably the most humbling experience I have experienced in my life and would recommend everyone to go and witness a burial as soon as possible if you have not already done so. It certainly helps to put life and it's temporal problems into context.

The second point I would like to share is that knowing someone has died and watching them be buried are two very different things. I acknowledge my mortality daily when I pray 5 times, but the emotional response to watching a burial was something that I was not prepared for and my own emotional response took me by surprise.

The third point I would like to share is one of change. The witnessing of a burial has challenged me to question my own productivity. I have always known that I should be sowing more productive seeds with my limited time on Earth, but my goodness if ever a reminder of how short life is was needed, the message was received.

Finally, I was lucky that the first funeral service I attended was for a comparatively distant relative. Though it was my father's blood brother, he lived quite far away and so I rarely met him. I am determined to forge a closer relationship with the cemetery by trying to visit at least once a month. This will hopefully build up my character to be able to cope with human mortality in the future.

Thanks for reading and I hope that this post hasbeen of some benefit to you.

If today was your last day on Earth, what would you do?

Readers,

I have heard of so many deaths in the last few days ranging from babies to elderly men who have arguably had "a good innings".

The reality is though that death is never greeted with anything but shock and disappointment from friends and family.

We live in a world where death is guaranteed and yet we wilfully neglect to acknowledge that each day we wake up in the morning may well be our last.

How would you classify a successful day?

Does it include telling your loved ones that you love them?

Does it include savouring the taste of the food you eat?

Does it include reading something to enhance your education and spiritual growth?

Who do you want to be when you die?

The question worth asking every night is "am I closer or further away from the person I wish to be on my last day on Earth?"T

How often do we engage in contemplating about our own death and in effect the quality of our own lives?

I would like to end this post with a quote from the Prophet Muhammad  (peace be upon him and his family)

"The most intelligent person is the one who remembers death often".

The importance of asking "why"

Readers,

How often do we question the reasons behind the things that we do?

When we are young, we are naturally curious to want to know the reasons for everything. As we get older, we become more content accepting many things on face value.

My manager shared a beautiful story with me a week or so ago that I would like to share with you all that illustrates this point very well.

There was a young girl who observed her mother preparing a lamb stew every couple of weeks. Before her mother would put it in the oven, she would cut off a bit from the corner and throw it away. This was done every single time her mother prepared this dish. Then one day, this young girl asked the mother why she would always cut off the end piece and throw it away. The mother was taken aback. She had to admit that she didn't know. The reason that she did this was that she saw her mother doing it and was merely copying her. She told her young daughter to ask the grandma the reason.

When the young child next met the grandmother, she asked her the same question about why the end of the lamb was always cut.

The grandmother replied that when she was younger and preparing the dinner, the oven she owned was not big enough to fit the whole lamb inside, so she had to cut a bit to make it fit.

I found it a beautiful and inciteful anecdote which I considered worth sharing.

"Why" and "because" are two of the most important words in our vocabulary so let us never forget that and strive to use them as regularly as possible, because if we don't, our actions will not have a solid foundation built on knowledge.

The power of questions

Morning everyone

Have you ever stopped to consider how awesome the power to ask questions is?

One of the main ways that we learn anything is from attaining answers to questions that we ourselves have posed.

As children, we are blessed with an unlimited supply of curiosity that drives us to constantly ask questions. "But why?" is the favourite choice of words from so many young children who are beginning to find their way in life.

The sad thing is that as we get older , our will to ask questions seems to diminish for so many of us as we get busy surviving day to day.

I would like us all to reflect on a few questions about our power to ask questions.

1) How many questions do we ask daily?
2) who do we ask these questions to?
3) What benefit do we get from the answers?
4) What information are we lacking because of the failure to ask questions?
5) who can answer these questions?
6) when is the best time to ask?
7) What has stopped us asking until now?
8) who is to blame for my ignorance?

I would like to end this post with a couple of quotes and a short reflection of my own on the quotes.

1) knowledge is power.

2) knowledge is a lock and it's key is the question.

Power is one of the most sought after and admired things in the world and yet the key to its lock is available to each and every one of us, but we don't care to utilise it.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this and it has inspired you to ask more and better questions.

I will hopefully be back in the next week or so with a new entry.

The power to chart your daily activities

Morning everyone.

Have you ever planned to start a simple new habit like eating a piece of fruit every day, but found yourself failing to keep it going for longer than a few days?

This has happened to me countless times. I have always ended up frustrated and disappointed with myself. This is because most habits I have sought to make a part of my life are easy to do, but also easy to skip as well.

Just over a week ago, I purchased a white board and white board markers. I used a permanent marker to create a 10 by 7 grid and on the left hand side of the grid I put the days of the week. Across the top, I put in the 10 habits that I want to be measuring myself on daily.

Each day, if I do the task, I put a green tick in the grid. If I fail, I put a red x. What I have found over the last week that I have been using this chart is a lot of green ticks.

It has led to both increased productivity as well as greater happiness.

I hope that I have the discipline to maintain the using of the chart.

It is a system that I would recommend to everyone. It takes very little time to set up and maintain and could help focus your day to day activities beautifully.

I hope that you have found this post useful. I will hopefully be back in the next week or so with another post.

The power to reflect

Readers,

How often do we utilise our power to reflect?

Too many of us are too busy surviving day to day without ever taking time out to actually ponder
upon life's most important questions.

Where did we come from?
What happens to us after we die?
Are we going to be held accountable for our actions?
How are we supposed to know how to live our lives?
How are we supposed to know if we are living successful lives?
What is the barometer for success and failure?
How do I even know that my barometer for success and failure is correct?
Is everyone free to make their own barometer for success and failure?
What if I have thought about these things and come up with the "wrong " answers?
What about if I haven't even bothered to think about them and the whole point of my existence
was to reflect on them?

Life is very short and very important. We only get to live once so it's imperative to do it right! If we get it wrong, we have to live with the consequences forever thereafter.

Be thankful for the opportunity to reflect and utilise this most important gift that has been
bestowed upon us.

Remember that there are multiple
religions with multiple sects within each religion. It may not be
possible to study them all. However it ought to be the goal of every seeker of truth to explore the
world religions with as an open mind as possible in the hope of finding a way of life that
brings about peace, hope, tranquility and the confidence to be able to defend your beliefs if and when
we are questioned and/or challenged about them by the creator who bestowed upon us the
power to reflect.