Mirza Yawar Baig – Structure and Systems
AI: Summary ©
The importance of following a structure for success is emphasized, along with the physical and mental fitness of soldiers and the difficulty of winning and losing armies. The speaker emphasizes the need to stay true to oneself and finding a clear intention. The use of pranayama for mental concentration, physical concentration, and flexibility is emphasized, along with the importance of breathing and using structures in one's life. The speaker provides examples of how people can overcome fear and improve their language skills, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and learning feedback in achieving success.
AI: Summary ©
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والحمد لله رب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام علي أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين محمد رسول
الله صلى عليه وعليه وسلم تسليمًا كثيرًا كثيرًا
كما هو ذو؟
Good question, what's the meaning of structure?
Structure meaning there has to be a timetable
of what you will do.
Right?
So if you say exam now, because you've
got next two semesters, I mean next, in
two weeks you will have your finals.
What is your structure for getting, you know,
4.9 or 4.5 GPA?
Right?
What's the structure?
It has to be very specific.
I will wake up at this time.
So say I will wake up at 4
a.m. I will pray Tahajjud, make Dua,
read some Qur'an, pray Salatul Fajr.
Then I start studying.
I study for two hours.
Then I have breakfast.
I study for two hours.
Then I have something.
And this complete structure for the whole day.
And then you must follow that structure.
It's not enough simply to write a timetable
and then, you know, throw it somewhere.
No.
Write the timetable and follow the timetable.
Which will get you to the end result.
If you don't have that structure, then the
intention alone will give you some kind of
good feeling.
Yeah, well, I have good intention.
I am doing so.
I am working very hard.
What is very hard?
There is no such thing as very hard.
There is no such thing as very hard.
You are working effectively or unaffected.
That's it.
Ineffective work or effective work.
Effective work means that there has to be
a structure and you are working according to
the structure.
Right?
Follow the drill.
Follow the drill.
If you take the greatest and the most
successful armies in the world.
All of them have only one thing in
common.
And that is they fought according to structures.
Not because of passion.
Not because of weight.
Structures.
And they overcame the enemy who was equally
brave if not braver.
Equally passionate if not more passionate.
Huge numbers.
Well armed.
Sometimes better armed than these armies.
But they lost.
Because there was no structure.
Take the Roman army for example.
2000 years they ruled the world.
Right?
Almost unbeatable.
Why?
Because of the discipline of the Roman legions.
They were brutal.
I mean their training was absolutely brutal.
But it was solid.
It was solid.
A Roman soldier, a Roman legionary, a regular
Roman soldier.
His armor, his weapons and his utensils on
a march.
What they carried was 50 kilograms.
And with that 50 kilograms they marched, walked
25 miles in a day.
In 6 hours.
And at the end of 25 miles they
built a temporary fort.
Then they camped.
Put their tents.
They ate their food.
They did this every single day.
So what is the level of physical fitness?
What is the level of strength?
No off days.
Today is Sunday.
No, no, no.
No Sunday.
No Monday.
This is what you do.
Any soldier who was lax was beaten.
Literally brutally beaten.
No, no, no escape.
No slackers.
Result?
Nobody could beat the enemy.
Victory is everywhere.
Right?
They fought in their formations.
They did not suddenly, out of passion, suddenly
attack, you know.
They fought in their formations.
And they fought until the last soldier dropped.
If they were losing a battle, they fought
in the same formation until the last soldier
was killed.
They didn't break formation.
They won.
Right?
And so also many, I mean, I can
give you example after example.
You take the Mongols.
You take the British Army, for example.
Right?
One of the almost unbeatable armies.
Conquered the whole of India.
Numbers of people.
When the Marathas were fighting the Indore and
Holkar and Gwalior, when the armies were fighting,
they were almost four, five times the number
of British soldiers.
And British soldiers were, the majority of them
were Indian soldiers.
Fighting under the command of British officers.
But because of formations, because of structure, and
because of discipline, they defeated armies which were
much better equipped, more numbers, everything else.
The same thing applies in life.
People who win are people who are structured.
So ask yourself, what is my structure?
Is my structure something which will take me
to success or not?
Change that structure.
Make it fine-tune it.
And usual problem that people have, I'm tired.
I don't have energy.
I'm not feeling, you know, I'm, within a
quote, depressed, whatever level.
Forget all this.
There's no such thing as tired.
What do you mean you're tired?
You say you're tired.
Right?
And suddenly there's a fire.
Will you run?
You won't run.
You say, well, I'm tired.
Let me die.
Let me burn.
No.
Suddenly your tiredness will vanish.
Forget the fire.
You say you're tired.
And suddenly now you find somebody who you
love very much.
Now what will you do?
I'll go.
I'll come tomorrow.
So where is the tiredness?
So when time for Salat-ul-Fajr, Adhan
-ul-Fajr, how come you're tired?
So question is, who do you love more?
Do you love Allah or you love whatever
else?
So forget all this.
No excuses.
No tired.
No nothing.
I have to do something.
I will do it.
The important thing is make this into a
matter of honor for you.
It is the honor of a Muslim.
His word is his honor.
His word is what binds him.
I tell you I will do something.
The only way that will not happen is
if I have died.
Otherwise, I will do it.
And if there is some reason I cannot
do it, then I will get back to
you before that.
And I say, I'm sorry.
I promise this to you.
I cannot do it for this reason.
I will tell you.
I won't suddenly vanish.
I won't suddenly disappear.
Right?
And you say, oh no, Shaykh Effendi will
do it.
Now where is he?
The job is not done.
No, no, no.
That won't happen.
Inshallah.
I will tell you.
In fact, I'm not saying everything I can
do.
But whatever I can't do, I will tell
you.
And I will not abandon you midway.
You will not have to guess.
If you did not hear from me, and
it is still not done, then pray to
Raghatul Salah and make dua for me.
Because I would have died.
Right?
That's very easy.
This should be the position of every Muslim.
I will do.
My word is my honor.
I have said something.
Khalas.
Doesn't need to have somebody standing behind me.
No.
What is the value of your word?
Otherwise, there is no value.
I said something.
Khalas.
Very, very important.
Structures in life and commitment.
Commitment is to yourself.
Sometimes we say, how committed are you to
the job?
No.
How committed are you to yourself?
That commitment then expresses as commitment to the
job, commitment to the family, friends, work, your
study, whatever.
But the origin of the commitment is to
myself.
Who am I?
I am somebody who does not go back
on his word.
Is that important for you?
That is the thing.
In our culture, we say, I have given
my word.
I have given my tongue.
I have given my word.
Khalas.
Finished.
It's a matter of honor.
The whole issue of being an honorable person
is how reliable is your word.
So structures are very important.
For success, we talked about Niyah.
Important to have the right Niyah.
Important to continue to check the Niyah from
time to time to ensure that it remains
the right Niyah.
And then going forward from that, how will
I accomplish whatever I set out to do?
What is the game plan for that?
And that is the structure.
Take that structure and bring it to a
daily timetable.
There will be an overall structure drilled down
to a daily timetable.
Ideally, write it down.
Write down the timetables.
Stick it on your wall or wherever you
can see them.
This is what I should be doing.
10 a.m. to 10.30 a.m.
There should be something that you have written
there.
It's not guesswork.
If it is, for example, 10 to 10
.30 a.m. is my off time.
I am going to relax.
No problem.
Write it there.
Relax.
10.30 a.m. Get up and do
what you need to do.
The final point is you have the Niyah.
You have the intention.
You put down the structure.
You're following the structure.
But neither you nor I, we are not
highly vulgar.
We don't know what is going to happen
in the future.
We don't know that our structure is the
best way.
Maybe it is.
Maybe it is not.
So also it is important to be able
to have the flexibility, the mental flexibility and
the material and physical flexibility to change course
without changing the goal.
Most important thing is don't bring the standard
down.
But change course.
This is the way to go.
Maybe there is an alternate route.
Instead of this route, I take another route.
No problem.
But the goal is the same.
I'm going to Boston.
Do I go on I-91 or do
I take Mass Pike?
That's a choice.
But both are going to Boston.
I didn't suddenly say, okay, forget it.
Let's just, Worcester is good enough.
No, Worcester is not good enough.
We said Boston for a reason.
You have to get to Boston.
Worcester is not good enough.
But to get to Boston, is this the
best road or that one?
No problem.
I'm there depending on what the situation is.
So being able to course correct.
The thing which happens with a lot of
course correction is we scale down.
First of all, we scale down the goal
itself.
So instead of Boston, it becomes Worcester.
No, never do that.
Second thing is the reasons we change are
according to me not good reasons.
Meaning there are reasons which are strategic or
helping to get you to where you get
your goal faster, easier, in a better state,
more quality.
No.
Those reasons are laziness.
I will change my structure because this timetable
is too tough.
I'm not getting enough sleep.
I want some game time.
I want some time with my friends.
No.
Those are all wrong reasons.
You do not change your structure for those
reasons.
So when the thought comes that I need
to modify my structure, yes, no problem with
that thought.
Ask yourself, first question to ask yourself is
why?
Why do I want to modify my structure?
And as I always say, never lie to
yourself.
Because the only person in the world you
can fool is yourself, nobody else.
People know what you're doing.
In any case, it doesn't matter what people
know or don't know.
It's yourself, your life.
Never fool yourself.
Never lie to yourself.
So face it and say, no, this is
my laziness.
Why don't I want to get up and
go for a walk in the morning because
I'm lazy?
Nothing else.
I don't need the sleep.
I don't need the rest, blah, blah, blah.
I just slept for four hours.
I slept for five hours.
I slept for six hours.
Nobody needs more sleep than that.
Get up and go.
No matter how difficult.
The difficulty is all in the head, believe
me.
As I told you, if the circumstances change,
the same person who believes he cannot even
get out of his shell is running.
So don't wait for that emergency to happen.
Force yourself.
And once you force yourself, you will find
that you will get the energy.
You start enjoying it.
Once you get out of the house, beautiful
weather, clean air, sights and sounds.
Very nice.
You enjoy the walk.
But you have to get out and do
it.
That determination is what separates the winners from
the losers.
It's not circumstances, not how much wealth you
are born into or which family, which line.
It really is nothing.
It's how much of conscious, deliberate effort you
are going to put into the task.
Based on a clean and clear intention.
And based on a good, strong, robust structure.
And the willingness to modify that depending on
the need.
Any questions, thoughts?
It's always difficult to start something.
But once you start it, then it becomes
a day.
You think that it's going to be hard
once you start it.
That's a very good point also.
See, also, never give yourself negative messages.
Right?
Never start off by saying, this will be
hard.
How do you know?
It's an intention.
So, at the point of beginning, you don't
know if it will be hard or easy.
Number two, so what if it is hard?
So what?
Did you start out to say, I want
to achieve this?
Or did you start out to say, I
want to achieve this only if it is
easy?
What was your intention?
So, when people say, oh, this is hard.
So what?
In life, as a rule, generally, Inna mashallah,
of course, Allah swt can help anybody.
And we ask for Allah's help.
As a rule, anything worth doing is hard.
It's not easy.
Nothing good comes easy.
Nothing.
Without exception.
No matter what it is.
Whether it is health, whether it is knowledge,
Whether it is good relationships, Whether it is
material success, Whether it is taaluk with Allah.
Anything, anything, anything.
Without exceptions.
If it is worthwhile, if it is good,
if it is valuable, It comes with a
level of difficulty.
Not everything is equally difficult.
But it comes with a level of difficulty.
It will come only to those who are
seriously interested in it.
I mean, lottery is haram.
But even to win a lottery, you have
to buy a ticket, no?
So don't buy tickets, I say.
But surely, I mean, it's okay.
Suddenly I'm getting a million dollars.
But it happened because the guy bought a
ticket.
He did something.
So everything in this world, Allah swt made
the world like this.
Everything involves effort.
See, how do you know about, like, How
do you know about the thing, the way,
the, I don't know, how to say, like,
The structure you explain, how you learn about
this, how you know about...
Okay.
How did I learn?
Yeah.
Both, I mean, both by reading as well
as my own experience.
It's a very good question.
How did I come to this, that structure
is important?
Because I started operating with structures.
I also read about this.
This is a good, you can, almost anyone
will tell you, Structures are important, structures are
a fast way.
But I have applied structures in my life
throughout.
And I find it works very well.
So I'm sharing that with you.
But as far as you are concerned, you're
hearing it now.
But you will have to apply it in
your life to see how it works.
Right.
Conscious living.
See, I'll tell you something.
In yoga, for example, there is something called
pranayama.
The way of breathing.
So effectively, in short, you shut one nostril
like this, And you breathe through one, and
then you shut this one, And you breathe
out through the other one.
This is the way of doing it.
So you sit down in the lotus position,
shut your eyes, and you do this.
Now, the people who practice yoga, teach yoga,
who teach pranayama, They will tell you pranayama
helps to increase mental concentration, Pranayama will increase
your physical and whatever strength, And all kinds
of things, a whole bunch of things.
It's okay.
So if you ask me, and say, the
person who is doing pranayama, What is he
doing?
He's breathing.
No?
He's breathing.
He's just giving a stretch.
Now, which air is he breathing?
Is it a special cylinder of pure oxygen?
No.
He's sitting in the same place, breathing the
same air, Whether it is good air, bad
air, polluted, not polluted, same thing.
Why are there benefits?
Because of what Iqbal said.
He's giving it a structure.
He's doing that thing according to a system,
and he's doing it consciously.
He's counting his breath.
They say, feel the air going in.
I'll give you another example.
To build strength, muscle strength, what must you
do?
What kind of exercises?
Lift weights, right?
So muscle strength doesn't come from aerobics.
Anaerobic exercises, calisthenics, lifting of weights.
What is the single biggest reason that travelers
end up throwing out their back Or spraining
their back or single biggest reason?
What is it?
Lifting a suitcase from the luggage carousel Or
putting it in the overhead bin and taking
it out.
Single biggest reason.
What is a suitcase?
20 kilos.
If it's on the luggage carousel, if it
is something which is checked in baggage, you
use 20 kilos.
From the overhead bin, it's less than half
of that.
10 kilos, 7 kilos, 8 kilos.
So the person weightlifting in a gym, what
is he doing?
Lifting weights.
A guy picking up a suitcase, what is
he doing?
Lifting weights.
How come this one benefits, that one is
harmed?
Because there is no system.
The guy doing it in the gym is
warming his body up.
He's getting the muscles, you know, start moving.
And then he's lifting weights according to a
system.
His coach will tell him, keep the back
straight, bend the knees slightly, take the weight
on the big thigh muscles, not on the
back, right?
So on, so on.
So he's doing it according to a system.
The guy picking up the thing from the,
you just grab the suitcase, pull it, back
is gone.
Even though the one who is lifting weights
in the gym is lifting a lot more
than 20 kilograms.
That guy with 20 kilograms, with less than
20 kilograms, he sprains his back, he sprains
his, you know, whatever.
But the other guy is lifting maybe double
that, maybe more than that.
He's benefiting from it because of a system.
So anything in life, whether it is speaking
consciously, people ask me, can you tell me
how to speak powerfully?
So I say, speaking powerfully starts from thinking
powerfully and thinking clearly.
When you're speaking, thinking clearly.
What is the level of clarity of thought
in your mind?
Can you structure your thought in your mind,
point number one, point number two, point number
three, and keep that structure and operate according
to that?
No, no, no notes in your mind.
Can you do that?
You can't do that, you can't speak.
You will ramble all over the place.
So it begins with that discipline of structured
thought.
Second thing is, where are you getting the
thought from?
Nobody gets Wahi.
So where do you get it from?
From reading, from reading, not even from watching
videos, believe me, from reading.
So how much do you read?
You want to be a powerful speaker?
How much do you read?
Structured thought, reading, which is a material, then
the ability to convert that into the message,
which means how clear are you about the
message that you want to convey.
So I've got this whole bunch of stuff
in my head, no doubt about that, but
out of this whole bunch of stuff, what
specifically do I want to tell you guys?
Is that clear in my mind?
Then we come to vocabulary.
Do I have the language to convey that?
How do I get the language?
Back to reading, back to conversation.
Like today, most people, they talk, I was
like, I was like, I was like.
I mean, isn't there the whole English language
is only one word called like?
I was like.
I was like means what?
I was a state of being.
I was like.
Like, what do you mean?
I was speaking, I was doing, I was
running, I was dancing, I was dying, I
was living.
I mean, I was like, I was like,
what the * does I was like mean?
So vocabulary is important.
You need the number of words.
How do you get vocabulary?
From reading, from talking to people, consciously listening
and saying, how does this person convey the
same thought, but he or she conveys it
in a way which is so inspiring and
so beautiful and so graphic and so descriptive?
How do they do that?
Words.
It's all words.
We haven't come to the speaking.
All of this is preparation for the speaking.
So how do I become a powerful speaker?
By doing all of this.
If any of this is missing, you can
talk till the cows come home.
Nothing will happen.
Only the cows will come home.
So structure and consciously, same action.
I'll give you two examples.
I can give you any number of examples.
Same actions, when they are done consciously, deliberately,
according to a structure, will give you value
added benefits.
Right?
Can I ask a question?
Yeah, you can ask them.
Let's say we have all the things you
said, the vocabulary, the knowledge, how to be
able to overcome the fear of speaking in
front of big crowds?
By speaking.
By speaking.
Very good question.
I have everything that I mentioned, vocabulary, thoughts,
structures.
How can I overcome this fear of speaking
before a crowd?
Right?
Big crowd, small crowd, crowd.
To give you a little trivia, somebody did
a survey of the fears that people have.
So fear of falling.
Right?
Fear of heights.
Typical fears.
Fear of drowning.
Fear of dogs.
Right?
Fear of lizards, insects.
Of being injured.
All of this.
Right?
Fear of death.
And they found that the fear of public
speaking is even more than the fear of
death.
So the guy put a little funny note
at that.
He said, that means that the guy who
is delivering the eulogy, you know in Christian
funerals, before the funeral, somebody stands there and
makes a speech.
He said the guy who is delivering the
eulogy would rather be in the box.
So first and foremost, fear of public speaking,
the most common fear in the whole world,
everyone and his wife has it, don't worry
about it.
How do you overcome it?
You overcome it in the way you overcome
every other fear by doing it.
The biggest issue with public speaking, the fear
is what you said, being judged.
So you're standing there thinking, how will I
look to the people?
Forget that.
It doesn't matter how you look to the
people.
It doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter.
It's okay.
If you look bad, no problem.
Look good, alhamdulillah.
Do it.
Then do it consciously.
Do it again and again.
Take feedback.
One way to take feedback is, today it's
become very easy.
There was a day when you hire somebody
with a video camera, blah, blah, blah.
Nothing.
Today your phone is there.
Set up the phone.
Take your own video.
Watch it.
And see, this is what I did.
Or if there's no time to do all
that, tell some of your friends.
Look, I'm giving this speech.
I want you guys, three of you, four
of you, give me feedback.
When you get the feedback, make sure it
is useful feedback.
What is useful feedback?
Useful feedback is feedback that comes with data.
Beautiful speech.
Okay, alhamdulillah, jazakallah, thank you so much.
Why was it beautiful?
What did you like?
Specific.
Lousy speech.
Alhamdulillah, jazakallah, thanks for the feedback.
What made it lousy?
What specifically did you not like?
Don't justify.
How can you say, no, no, no.
This is your, if you look in the
mirror, you want to see your reflection, right?
So if you don't like the reflection, what
do you do?
Bury the mirror?
No.
You change yourself, whatever.
Okay, my haircut looks bad.
You get a different haircut.
Useful feedback is feedback that is backed by
data.
Not just like and dislike.
With reason.
Reason.
What is the reason?
Like is alhamdulillah good.
I mean, you want to be liked and
nothing wrong with that.
But what is the reason?
The reason you ask for a reason is
so that you can repeat the good stuff.
Reinforcement of that.
This is what worked.
So I'm going to repeat what worked.
What did not work?
I'm going to see how can I either
stop doing it or do it in a
different way where the negative aspect of it
is gone.
That's the only thing.