How To Focus On Your Strengths

Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to an episode of tagalong. I'm your host, Sean and we have here with us, Jeff Mohamad, mad at us at MIT Comm. Are you familiar with Marcus Buckingham?

Marcus used to work for Gallup? And he was a survey. Yeah. The Research Foundation.

Yep, the Gallup poll. And like they do a number of different things even like, even like the Dalai Lama had worked worked for Gallup. Previously, yeah. So they do studies and things like that. He was involved with a study with Don Clifton, on the subject of strengths. How does an individual discover their strengths? And so one of the books that he helped produce was now discover your strengths. And in it, he talks about the idea of how do you as an individual, like, know, your strengths, and go all in on that. And he basically divided up into like, three or four parts. And one thing is, like, really take a step back, look at yourself, what are your genuine talents? What are you naturally

inclined towards doing that? You do? And but but, but it's a raw thing. Okay. Right. Once you have that, it could be one thing could be a number of things. But you have to take that as your foundation. And on top of it, you want to put skills,

like actual skills that that are sharp, and knowledge, like and knowledge, not just schooling, but knowledge as in like mentorship, as in books, as in experience, experience? Well, it's not yet experiences, but like to know to, to gain from the experience of others. Okay, right, I'll take these two things. And then when you have that, then you apply it into an experience, okay? Right. So maybe take a project or something, okay, like a weekend project, a month project, 90 day project or something, or like even a job you get, you get a job to apply that skills and knowledge. And the idea here is over time, over years, over decades, collect sets of experiences, applying those skills

and knowledge with the foundation of that talent. And the application of that, through time, through years through decades will become your strength. And then when you have a particular strength, that's like your superpower, that because your experiences are so unique, and they're founded within a particular talent that you have that that's unique to you. Yeah, and I think this is where we need to perhaps and this is why you know, somebody who's an introvert might have talents that an extrovert would never have had, yeah, the neither one is better or the ideal right personality type.

But that brings me something really interesting. Talking about strings You know, there's also the aspect of what are my weaknesses and and that's also something that that we learned from Moosa is is to identify my points of weakness and own right and be be honest with myself and honest with with my Creator in recognizing comes to mind is like what we talked about it in another conversation where we talked about Moosa being open when he when he talks to a lion expresses his his fears and his his his hesitations right? Is could that be a point of weakness? I mean, can we extract from from that, that

aspect of of Musa and of what he says there? That I should recognize what my points of weakness are, and, and not be ashamed of them, but be open to working on them? Yeah.

What aspect Can I can I improve on you know, the one the one week like, maybe weakness that comes to mind is like the idea that, you know, he had he was afraid of the fact that he had a knot in his tongue. Right? Is that what what it was? was it was it or not, or was it?

Was that because I because I'm calling from the class? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's something we talked about for a bit in the class. What did he mean by untie the knot in my tongue? Okay, what is meant by that? Was it a open my chest right, I'll be shuffling anyways. Yeah, expand, expand my chest.

Only Yes. And you know what, I think that's, that's, that could be the takeaway. Yeah. Understand, this da, bring it out for us.

So Musa comes to this, this place at this appointed time, and Allah speaks to him. And that's where a lot tells him who he is. This is not what is at the at the foot of the scene at the mount. But it's not the burning bush. It's It's where he saw in the distance of fire, okay. And he followed the light of that fire and when he came there, a lot called him okay. And he said his name, okay, heard his name, which is powerful.

And, uh, like, that's another point of dalla. Yeah. To learn the name of the individual you speaking with? Yeah, again, that's back to the interaction having a like a genuine good quality interaction with this person. Okay. So he learned so here's his name, here's his name and a lot tells him who he is in the book. He tells him, I'm here.

Lord, you know, and Allahu la isla de la NFL Boudin, he tells him that I am the only one worthy of worship. So worship Me established Allah

for my remembrance, and he tells him go to fit around, then Allah gives him his mission. Yeah. What he needs to know, go and carry out. And who says responds to receiving that that mission is? He makes it out and he says, I'll be sure he'll use odd. We're certainly Emily

melissani only what does that mean? broken down? So rubbish rally so Robbie, my Lord calls out to his club his Lord. And he asked for him to expand and open his chest. Shortly saw that his nose chest Yes. Okay. Shell literally means to to open something up clearly Toka to flatten it out. It's the word that's used to refer to explaining something. Okay, you do a shot of something. You're explaining it? Oh, essentially, what do you do when you're explaining something? You're laying it all out? Okay, you're opening it all out there, you're removing any you know, it's all hidden parts. So whatever a shot of that text is essentially laying it out explaining opening it up, okay? And

that's why the shutter is longer than the original text. Okay?

Just roughly sorry. Yeah. So he asks for that expansiveness of chest. Okay, you know, when you receive something heavy. When you have a responsibility, you feel the pressure of it on your chest. You literally can feel it. Yeah. And so when he makes that, it's, he's asking a lot to to expand for him, his his chest and ease for him his affairs, so he can carry this mission out. Okay, so he can, you know, do the absolute best that he can to fulfill this, this mission? And he says, Why on earth would attend melissani? UFO holy, he asks a lot to do untie this knot in his tongue. Okay, so that his audience will understand him. Okay. So we speak about that for a little while we spend some time

with that in the course. What did he mean by untie the knot in my tongue? Is he referring to a physical, an actual Lisp or a speech impediment? Okay, or is he talking about? Is the issue here? elegant, a matter of eloquence, okay. Or is it perhaps a language barrier? Okay, or is it you know, some some something affecting his ability to communicate? effectively. Okay. I mean, language, right. We were talking about how he'd been gone for almost over a decade, right? Yeah. Yeah. So he's been away for a long time. And languages evolve and languages change, right. That's something that some of the scholars discuss. So, okay. Well, what's amazing is, what's amazing is that he

recognizes these are the hurdles, these are the issues that he needs to overcome, okay, to carry out what Allah has commanded him to do. Okay, you know, and that's really a beautiful attitude, and mindset to have when approaching

what Allah commanded us with and one of the commandments, because we talked about down right, yeah, Tao is, is it a, is it a, is it an obligation on the individual of a community? Both?

Yeah, both, I think, you know, depending on what perspective you look at it, and it's a responsibility, okay.

And, and it's, it's a responsibility in it. And it's also what that means is that if we don't, if we if we have the opportunity, and we're not fulfilling that obligation, we're at loss isn't something that we would be held accountable for.

The other, there's definitely some some level of account there, you know, of course, this varies from person to person, because people's abilities vary, okay, as well. So it's, it's hard to make a blanket statement, their individual strengths and talents and knowledge and skills. That is definitely okay. But even I mean, even more broad than just Darwin, and I know it's a big part of our conversation here. And kind of where we started off, we learned a lot of important lessons in Darwin from moose and from from this believer, this believing man,

but also just generally speaking, a lot commands you to do something a lot commanded was that is to have a life of their own. Okay, that's, that's a that's a command verb go. Yeah, you know, this is your mission, this is your obligation, but he responds, he responds. And he responds to Allah, putting his trust in Allah seeking help from Allah, okay, seeking assistance. He understands that the only way that I can fully do what Allah commanded me to do is by asking Allah for help, okay? Oh Allah, help me to do what you told me to do. Okay? And approaching the commandments of Allah with that kind of mindset, that kind of attitude. Is is I think, very wise and very, very

appropriate, you know, one thing we talked about like he liked it, I think there's a reality of most is understanding and owning both his weaknesses and his strengths. And so one of the one of the ways of attaining happiness is to

invest in experiences, right? So it's like one could be happy and trying to build that strength because a collection of experiences in the app where you're applying your strengths, where you're applying your skills and knowledge, which is rooted in a talent becomes a strength. Yeah, that's, that's, that's really interesting because Moosa learns so much through different experiences. Yeah. So one could even maybe even say that moves through the challenges they had. Yeah, through the hardship they have. But still was a fulfilling life. Yeah. But But he didn't, you know, he didn't. He didn't look to those experiences with a with a sense of bitterness, or negativity.

And those were, that was a lot preparing him, okay, for something great. All those experiences.

Something always that interests me is

a lot tells us so much about Moosa even before way before he ever becomes a prophet. Yeah, that's true before he ever becomes a messenger. You know, all of those experiences, all those different phases and different chapters of life that he goes through. I think it's burying him for and if you take each one of them all by itself, yeah, it may seem insignificant. I feel this is a really important lesson that allows giving us here that, that we shouldn't belittle these different experiences and opportunities that we have that they're building up to something great and important. In addition to that, I think it's also very humanizing. Yeah. Like, we talked about

humanizing in another video. But the fact that we get to learn about this individual and their life so that when it comes to all these are the things we get to appreciate so much more. And at the same time, it's also a reflection upon us. Yeah. And that's why when we study the CLR, when we study the biography of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, we also study a lot about his life. Yeah. Before revelation before prophet hood. Yeah, that's, that's really important. Woody, would you say? It's, it's a,

a method of raising one's a man

by learning about the individuals who are the messengers.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Without a doubt.

Definitely. And it's logical, though, right? Because I'm thinking about it, right? Like if Yeah, if you're okay, you have this message. No one nothing inspiring. It's like, nobody's worthy of worship except Allah. Okay, great. Okay, fine. I understand that. But who said Who? Who's mentioning that? Right? As I was brought from Hassan was mentioning, he's a messenger of Allah. Right? So I was like, Okay, what makes him the Messenger of Allah? Why should I trust him? Yeah. Like, it's a logical question, right? Somebody's coming to you with a message. What's the credibility of the of that messenger. And if you learn about their life, you can appreciate so much more. And I think there's

also a level of doubt, principle of doubt. Again, I think there's so many lessons that we can come out so many, it's like, if you're communicating with someone, can you communicate your own credibility? And can you establish rapport? Do you understand the nuances or you? Well, the messengers didn't have to do that.

compensate him, you know, word for word at the time of delivering their message. Yeah. their, their lives and their behavior had already established. And, and there, yeah, the different experiences establish that credibility. Yeah, you know,

which is amazing. You know, one of the things that we that we spend a lot of time with is the story of Musa getting married and getting a job. And, and that, that, that that lady that he ends up marrying, you know, after a very short encounter with him, yeah, she goes to her father, and she recognizes some very important characteristics, characteristics of Musa that he has strength and he's trustworthy. Yeah. And the fact that she was now strength can be something a bit more obvious physical strength that she saw him, you know, accomplish certain things that would require physical strength, but how did she discern that he's trustworthy? You know, it's, it's through seeing how

he's behaving. And and once that was established, her father was like, Alright, let's get you married. Right, you know, and it was a, it was a beautiful process. And there was so much beauty in the simplicity of it. And in the genuineness of it, even though if you think about it, most is coming

from a place and from an experience and his his state of being is probably not one of wealth and of prosperity and of you know, Allah knows, you know, what kind of he was landless at the time. He escaped Yeah. fled. He was Oh, yeah. How would you look if you just fugitive, you know, it's incredible, but you

Get those character traits that he had, must have been so

apparent. And so

you know, prevalent in his in how he carried himself that that they recognize this is a good guy to be married to and this is a good guy to have, you know, as an employee, you know, oh man, there's so much there's so many lessons like I can just pull the nose keep going all night. I know, right. It's just like the idea that because what what is he fleeing from? He accidentally killed somebody? Right? Yeah. And if you think about it, there's so many people that are in prison, right, who committed a crime? And imagine them being told Look, you're a good person. Hmm. I would imagine that would be something that's empowering and and, and uplifting for somebody who is in that situation.

And I guess even for him to be told, like, Look, this guy is strong interest with the

view that that must have been uplifting.

Right? Yeah, absolutely.

I think I think just just to come to a close. Let's get two takeaways, right? Yeah, I think a couple if we were to bring it down, right. I think there's a couple of dials that we can put into practice. Right. Amongst them is

what we did. Yes, rubbish rally. sunraysia. Siddeley Omri. Well, awkward. uttam Melissa neofolk. Ali. Right. And we're talking about people they say this before they gotta make a presentation. Yeah. How big phobia? Big Big phobia is is people would rather die than speaking then. Yeah, talk publicly Yeah. So that's that's one and I think another one is assuming assuming we covered the topic beforehand, but the DA after we get Yeah. After we finished a lot our beloved messenger taught us in Niala de Chirico or shook Rico, his new editor, so Allahumma inni, islandica, or shoukry, aka Hosni I bought it and we're asking Allah asking Allah to help us Allah for remember him. Vika I

think they can remember him and to be grateful to him and to show the most beautiful Hosni I bought it, right. Yeah. So just like how Moosa was asking a lot for help in delivering this message. Cool. Guys, hope you benefited found value in this show. I do. Think of one person that would find value in this just as you have, and send them this and, and put what you've learned into practice. I know we discuss a lot of things, but it's not so much about covering everything. And even actually from from the class that you teach.

What would you consider a win for an attendee who goes into once upon a now The Epic of Moses, and when they come out of it,

success for me would be a person coming out of the course feeling

empowered and motivated and feeling that they have the ability to open the poll and read it. And at least you know, if they feel intimidated by certain sections, yeah, you know, not to feel intimidated by the stories in the colon. Okay, at least start there. So without anybody you springboard from read these stories, spend time with them? Yeah, it's okay to read really slow, okay. It's okay to pause for a long period of time after one word or one verse. It's okay to reread a section no matter how small dozens of times that's what we should be doing, you know, and relating that back to our lives and extrapolating profound lessons. That would be when you know, never mind

all the dozens of lessons that we can learn from the actual content of life of Musa

Allahu Allah. Alright guys. It's not like