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2009 in Review

[Read Time >>> 4 minutes]

…so I’m curious if you’ve reviewed 2009.

—- 3 L’s for Goals and an Exercise below : 3 Things I’ve learned, 3 Things I’ve accomplished, and 3 Things I will focus on in 2010

Just before that though - Do you even need to review 2009?

If you want to invest the lessons and growth of 2009 into your future, then YES. “You live and you learn” right

Umar ibn Al Khattab (radi ‘Allahu ‘anhu) said, “Take account of yourselves before it is taken of you. Weigh your deeds before they are weighed for you (on Day of Judgement) and beautify yourselves (with good deeds)…”

Here are 3 reasons to do this immediately:

1. If you’re not learning from your mistakes, they WILL re-occur
2. If you’re not excited for your future accomplishments, it’s doubtful you’ll have significant accomplishments to be excited about
3. If the concept of thinking about life is uncomfortable…then there’s a serious need for this

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Exercise:

Although an over-simplified exercise for goal setting, it’s a good start. You can do it in 5 mins or make it even better with 20 mins

1) Write down like 10 Things you’ve Accomplished, Learned, and will Focus on in 2010
2) Just brainstorm and then summarize to 3 or 5 so you can glance back at it later on.

Note: make it specific, time-bound, and slightly unrealistic to make it exciting (Few points from Sh.Muhammad Alshareef)

3) Share it – tell someone else so it has some accountability  OR post it below saying you’re “DONE”

Reason: It’s amazing how the way we think and talk impacts our behavior.

I’ve done #1 and #2 myself, my #3 will be in Part II

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3 L’s for Goals:

Photo from Cannonsnapper

1) Life-en it – (ok this “L” is wack, but I really wanted to make 3 L’s

If you want to reach a goal, you must “see the reaching” in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal – Zig Ziglar

Make it real; KNOW that you can accomplish it, and don’t worry about HOW you’ll do it.

2) Love it – At a DiscoverU certification training with Sh.Muhammad Alshareef, during a coaching session, Noor said to Sh.Navaid Aziz “This goal should make sleep boring to you” - I found that fantastic.

“Sleep should be a necessity, not the objective” – Jim Rohn

Honestly, it doesn’t even need to be Read more…

W2W = Ways to “Waste” Time [series explained here: part I and II]

Check this video from the TED conference; Secrets of Success in 8 Words, 3 minutes…

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Microwave Tips = Quick Tips on Time Management; learn fast and implement immediately.

[Read Time >> 45 seconds]

Email Cleanup

If you’re like most people, then your email inbox is becoming more and more important to you. It’s great for communication, but  it can eat into your time.

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The Tip:

Spend just 3-5 minutes, look how your inbox is set up and simplify it.

Step 1:

• How many emails do you get per day?
• Do you have filters and folders in place?
• Are there junk emails or useless subscriptions?

Step 2:

• Unsubscribe from useless subscriptions (even Islamic stuff, just keep what you read and not what you “plan” to read)

Step 3:

• Create Filters and folders so you can easily categorize emails, instead of clogging up your inbox

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You don’t have to create ALL your filters in one shot. Maybe do this twice a week for 2 weeks and you’re good.

Personal recommendation: Use Gmail (Google is Fantastic!)

Lemme know your thoughts + your ideas on this in the comments section below…

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Ultimate Vision - Toronto

[Read Time >> 5 minutes]

Note: This is my summarized notes from a workshop by Dr. Tawfique Chowdhury with VisionWeavers. Any inaccuracy and lack of depth in explanation is from me, it was a great workshop.

This event was only 2 hrs, more info on the 3 day seminar below.

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Why bother with goals?

It’s absolutely essential to pursue goals consciously and appropriately; because otherwise 2 problems can arise

1 – Romanticizing about goals – You know those da’wah goals that is so ‘nice’ to talk about…but has no substance or real meaning; like “I will bring khilafah back” or “I’m going to study Islam…going to, not yet. But when I do I will…” and of course “”My goal is to change the ummah.”

2 – Life regains the attention – there’s a strong motivation to do something, but then it dies down. Then comes another one – that person is directionless

It’s a terrible thing to see, but have no vision”

Rocking Horse

Even when going after goals and working really hard at it, it may just be the “rocking horse” approach.

Especially in da’wah, sometimes the goal is “lets just do something…something ya’nee”. Of course it’s good and their reward is with Allah, however it is just movement without significant progress.

Why Visions

Clear Focus, knowing it’s this way and not that way. That clear focus on a powerful vision will energizes people.

Example: Shaykh Tawfique’s goal when starting AlKauthar Institute was: launch, then reach 5 continents in 2 years. Alhamdulillah that happened.

What do visions Do?

Vision = the ability to see the invisible

“Vision guides to today towards what you see tomorrow”

The ability to close your eyes and see the world after you’ve passed away, how your Read more…

Time "Well" Wasted - Best Places

[Part I here]

We can’t always be on high gear right?

So recovery and taking breaks are critical to being productive.

This is for good for when you’re in between tasks, just taking your mind off things, or simply learning something interesting.

============= Here are THE BEST PLACES FOR TIME “WELL” WASTED

Videos:

YouTube – Edu-tainment: (Educational and Entertaining)

@GoogleTalks – presentations by various experts; authors, leaders, marketers, politicians etc.

*iGNiTe - Spreading the Knowledge of Innovators, 5 minute presentations on many things.  (I ‘discovered’ it recently and it’s fantastic)

*Leechon Films – dawah vids (super-trailers for AlMaghrib Institute, speeches etc.) social media training, other good stuff with ma man Belal Khan

*UmmahFilms – with short reminder videos by “Baba Ali” and interesting projects he’s working on

KhalifaKlothing - Islamic lectures, dawah videos etc.

YouTube – The Fun & The Funny:

*FailBlog - oh man, one of the best channels there

*Happy Tree Friends – short cartoons; looks can be deceiving…

Websites:

*TED - Ideas Worth Spreading – a wealth of knowledge by world renowned experts, high quality and short presentations (One of my favorites)

BetterDaysTV.net – Self Improvement videos Read more…

Wasting Time the Right Way

[Read Time >> 2 minutes]

[Part 2: here]

We all have those few hours or days when you don’t feel like doing anything (anything useful that is). So we tend to lazy around, watch TV, surf the net, or find something to waste time with.

Ey, it happens to all of us.

I’ve been thinking, how can you and I get the best of both worlds? Still be “lazy” and make it useful.

Now it’s getting clearer to me and I’ve just recently started to use these 3 strategies.

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#1 – Edu-tainment

By far my favorite one Read more…

Being on Time

[Read Time >> 2.5 minutes]

OK, I’ve got 2 stories and a 1/2 for you.

Story #1 >> Late = not cool

So 2 weeks ago I made an appointment to call a brother at ____ time the upcoming Friday for important stuff. Everything’s good so far and I’m excited.

…Friday rolls in. I saw that my brother-in-law (Nakib) was taking Sh.Kamal Al Makki for his Jum’ah khutbah before his “Mercy to the Worlds” course with AlKauthar Institute in Toronto, so I tag along.

Had a good time, got home and (dan, dan, dannn) I got an email of disappointment — I missed the call!

[[I could almost hear few people laughing, because I had another mishap recently...but that's confidential ]]

To cut the story short, I felt like crap and fortunately managed another meeting.

This time, I had the reminder on my wall, cellphone, and I knew there was no way I’ll mess this up. I was on campus at the time, and the only good place was outdoors (cold Canada by the way), but the call was made and I’m happy again.

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Lesson - The difference the 2nd time around was that I made all the arrangements to be there on time (early) + gave him his right upon me to show up. ((Also, not keeping to your word lowers your value (in their eyes and probly yours) and it’s plain disrespectful))

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Story #2 >> Plan for Blood…

Nose Bleed

Disclaimer: This is a bit gross, so skip to the lesson if you so wish…but I’ll admit it’s funny too

On Sunday I was getting ready to go for Dhuhr at the masjid. I got ready well in advance and the story was perfect in my mind…but there’s a special surprise waiting for me: Blood.

That’s a bit dramatic, it was actually a nose-bleed (I get them quite often so it’s not a big deal). This was persistent one so there I was for over 10 minutes with bloody tissue, and a bloody nose, and bloody sink (eww, I know, I was there)

BUT the story has a happy ending. Read more…

[Read Time >> 3 mins]

Hand on Stove

If you’ve got your hand stuck on a stove and then you feel it slowly heating up, I would think at that time you’re not very concerned about tonight’s dinner.

Hot-Seat sessions are about getting in and out as fast as possible, minus the complaints. It brings into the mix an immensely powerful motivating emotion: URGENCY

That’s the “gotta finish fast” feeling.

You see, most of the time urgency comes externally, like outside of ourselves. So things like deadlines at work, due date for assignment, exams, mom tells you to etc.

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Hot-Seat sessions are especially good for something YOU want done because you want it done, not because someone told you to do it. For example Read more…

It is said that “it takes 21 days to build a habit” but so many people keep saying they weren’t able to maintain much after Ramadan.

With Ramadan being 30 days that should guarantee fantastic new habits in our lives such as more Quran, longer prayers, less distractions. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

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The problem obviously is not with Ramadan , but our approach to Ramadan…

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In this two-part article, we’ll first focus on understanding the problem and then explore solutions. Full version is exclusively on MuslimMatters.org

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There are 2 areas of Ramadan that are misunderstood or even unknown to many Muslims.

1. Habits (as mentioned earlier)
2. Momentum

Continue on MuslimMatters Read more…

YOU without a blurr

It’s said that airplanes are off their course most of the time, yet they start and reach their intended destinations. It’s a matter of knowing where to go and making adjustments on the way.

Ramadan. This is the ‘realest’ you can get. Shaytan is tied up, the avenues to do good is so common, atmosphere of Muslims is  o-so-good.

It’s all on YOU…

Instead of waiting until after Ramadan to do some self-analysis, take account now and adjust course.

Let’s cover 3 areas for now:

1. Ibadah Threshold
2. The Replacement for Time
3. Watching the Energy Dial

Ibadah Threshold

Considering that the shayateen are tied up and we’re left to ourselves, our quality and quantity ibadah (worship of Allah) reflects our Ibadah Threshold.

It’s like the cap on how much good deeds our mind & body can handle and how far our Iman drive us.

It’s the same month of Ramadan for everyone. Yet we see some Muslims who are fully ON and continue improving, while others are making FaceBook updates about how Read more…