Muiz Bukhary – Ignite Your Dreams – The Importance of Goal Setting
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Salam aleikum wa
smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa Sallim wa ala Shafi lambier he will move slowly in ebina. Habib in our karate ioannina Mohammed Ebony Abdullah Allahu Allah Allah He was happy he have a lot of solidarity with Adam with the slim my bad
for the fall along with about a katana fee for analyzes, but I will be letting him in a shaytani r rajim
Bismillah Hoffmann avahi what Dini was a
whirlpool russini
ballad in me in LA for the follow up on Santa Fe. Sangeeta Povey name
is Bella serafini when he landed in
Guam he knows saw a fatty fella whom a Joe no boy aroma
Formica de Vaca Adobe de la sala de Afghan meal Hakimi Kimi in
all praise and thanks to Almighty Allah subhanho wa Taala. We asked him the Lord of all worlds the exalted the almighty to shower his choices of blessings and salutations upon the final messenger, our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam his family members, his companions, and all those who tread upon his path with utmost sincerity until the day of karma.
So how are you all this evening? Good?
Do you know what I'm going to be talking about?
It's pretty obvious, isn't it?
So do you or do you not know what I'm going to be talking about?
Do you know there was once
he could say he was a learned person
who wanted to once address rather he didn't want to address the gathering. There was a community that wanted him to come and address their gathering. So they invited him. And he was a busy person, it was difficult to get him to come. But, you know, with with, they persuaded him somehow they convinced him and he honored their invite. He comes to address the gathering the people had gathered just like you have. And he starts off the talk by asking them, just like how I asked you, what? Do you all know what I'm going to be talking about?
They all replied, just like you did?
Yes. Because perhaps you had put up a slide maybe, you know, ignite your dreams, the importance of goal setting. So they all said yes. To which he said very good. If you all know what I'm going to be talking about, then I don't have to talk. And he left.
Now the people were sad. And they thought, you know what? Let's invite him again. But this time, let's be careful. If he asks us a similar question, we will respond accordingly. So the second time after a lot of difficulty, the convinced him he comes. And now he poses the question again, How are you all? Have you all good? Do you know what I'm going to be talking about? They all very firmly replied, No, we don't know what you're going to be talking about. He said, Yeah. What's the point of talking to an audience that doesn't know what I'm going to be talking about any leaves?
Now the people think to themselves, you know, we need to outwit him. If not, we can't benefit from him.
So what we'll do is 50% of us half of the gathering, let's say we know, half of the gathering, let's say we don't know,
the inviting a third time now with a lot of difficulty. It comes again, how are you? Good, good. We're all good. Do you know what I'm going to be talking about? A very definite yes. From one side and a definite no from the other side.
Very good. The ones who know please tell the ones who don't know and he left.
Now is that going to be the case today?
Is that going to be the case today?
Today inshallah Donna,
I'm going to be talking Yes.
But I'm going to be learning from you.
At the end of the day, I'm just an instrument.
We pray before we start rubbish roughly southern US at the Emory Vida Loca that a melissani for who God we pray to Allah that Allah puts the right words upon our tongues, and that we touch on something that is for matters that are appropriate matters that are beneficial for us as believers in this world, as well as the next wizard recommends.
I would like to start off by reminding ourselves in regards to a powerful idea in the chapter that I read that the at the beginning
sort of too thin, which is the which is Surah number 95. Allah subhanho wa Taala. He says in ayah, number four laqad Harlequin al insana, fi eseni, the Queen that we have certainly created man in the best of statutes.
Now, the scholars of Tafseer, they explain that this ayah tells us that Allah subhanho, wa Taala, our make our Creator he has fashioned us in terms of our outward appearance, as well as our inward, inward appearance in terms of what is hidden what is inside us, in the best of forms. In other words, we human beings have been created for
the accomplishment of great things. We have been fashioned by Allah subhanho wa Taala, for success for achievement. It's just that we need to discover ourselves, we need to discover ourselves. And you might be wondering, well, success. That's a big word, accomplishments, big words. I don't see any of that in my life. How come? And how are you saying this? You know what the I don't think it makes sense. Well, it doesn't make sense at this point. Because maybe you got lost
in the way
you got lost. You need to find yourself, you need to discover yourself. You need to harness your talents. You need direction in your life, you need motivation. And the minute you identify your talents, your abilities, your strengths. The minute you discover yourself, the minute you discover the purpose that you are working towards the minute you set goals, as we are going to be talking about in Sharla. The minute you identify your goals, your ambitions, you are going to definitely be able to achieve great things in this life. And as believers we believe in the life of the next we are going to achieve great things in the life of the next as well. So this is the first reminder
that I want to start off with. In other places. Allah says what is the color of buka nail mela ekati in Asia, I don't fill out the halifa. Remember when your Lord said to the angels, and this was before creating our father, our family salat wa salam, Allah subhanho wa Taala tells the angels in Ninja Elune, fill out the halifa. Indeed, I am going to place on earth halifa. Now halifa is a big term. It's a broad spectrum term. And obviously,
time does not permit for us to go into a lengthy detailed explanation in that regard. But still halifa is representative halifa is translated as a creation that is going to succeed the generation after generation it's a big word. It's a word again, that is a synonym to success, a synonym to achievements a synonym to accomplishments, so we have been created for that purpose. So we have it within each and every one of us. So this is something that we have to constantly keep telling ourselves, you will understand the importance of it as we go on. And as we touch on negative talk, there's a lot of negative talk that we tell ourselves and that's why we have this low self esteem.
We have this lowly image of ourselves. Having said that, let's move on to what is a goal
because time is of the essence and we have good ground to cover inshallah. So what is the goal?
If you look at dictionaries, if you look at Wikipedia, that's the place that everybody goes to Generally, if you Google it, Google gives you the definition of a goal as a desired result. A person or a system and visions, not only envisions plans and commits to achieve a personal or organizational desired result in terms of development.
Okay, let me simplify it. We all have goals, we all have goals for all of you.
Who made it here, brothers and sisters.
This is one of your goals, or at least it was a goal. The minute you heard about the event, without you knowing, you created a goal for yourself that you know what I'm going to make it to the event. And Alhamdulillah the event materialized by the will of Allah by the permission of Allah. And here you are, all of you have achieved this particular goal. without you even knowing it. It's a goal that you set. It's a goal that you have achieved, you've come here.
So likewise, without you knowing you must have set a number of goals in your life. So it's important to be able to understand these goals, it's important to be able to define these goals. And it's important to be able to set proper and relevant goals. And that's the whole point of this discussion in Sharla.
Why are goals so important? Why are goals? so important? You might be thinking, but why do we have to define it? Why do we have to talk about it? Why do we have to learn about it? Yes, you're right. I did make a goal to come here. And here I am. So why is it so important? Why do I have to, you know, understand goals? Number one, the right kind of goals propel you forward. They propel you forward, they push you forward, they motivate you forward.
You see, a goal is an external representation of your inner desires. It's a constant reminder, telling you what you need to accomplish. By the end of this talk, you will come to realize the types of goals, you will maybe be able to identify certain goals that are existing in your life, and inshallah
tonight, you're not going to go to sleep,
you are not going to go to sleep, unless you think about your goals unless you write down your goals.
And if you don't do that, you're not going to go to sleep. Why? Because the thought of not being able to do it will not let you sleep. Your goals will now want you
to have goals in your life.
Another reason as to why goals are so important. Goals transform.
huge mountains, mountains, like perhaps Mount Everest into scalable ones. Mount Everest is scalable as well, by the way, but it transforms huge mountains of that nature into walkable hills. You know the other day interesting. I was watching a video
in regards to people who scaled Mount Everest, climb Mount Everest, you know, it's not easy. We think, oh, we have heard of so. And so maybe in each of our countries, we have people who have submitted who have climbed Mount Everest, and you see people making a big deal out of it, you see them come back down from the mountain and write books. You see them being interviewed, you see all of this and you're wondering now climbing a mountain, but it's not my cup of tea. But why is it such a big deal?
Well, you know, that video very clearly outlines how daunting and how difficult a task it is, even though it has been commercialized in a big way. today. It's a big source of making money, you actually have companies that will take you to the top of the mountain and back and you have to pay them maybe $10,000 $20,000 $30,000. And in that video, they went on to explain that you have you have packages that go up to about $100,000 depending on the facilities and you know, whatever they give you basically. But anyway, the whole process of it. You and I you can't just climb up the mountain, that particular mountain.
There are very dangerous tricks that have to be crossed. And also right at the top. The oxygen is so thin. It's so thin that our lungs cannot cope with it. And that is why even before they climb, they acclimatize the climbers, gradually you have base, you have a base camp, and you have camps set out throughout the mountain. So initially, maybe even two weeks before you actually attempt the climb, you will go to base camp, which is somewhere at the base of Mount Everest and come back. Base Camp is a place where helicopters can go and come but as you make your way up to camp one cam to cam three, Camp four, and then summit Mount Everest, you maybe from Camp two onwards, you won't even
start getting hot food because of the high winds etc. They find it very difficult to cook warm food their helicopters cannot make it there and if something were to happen in chemistry or chemistry
The only rescue mission is to bring you back on a stretcher.
And this is why they use the help of people known as Sherpas. They're every team that takes people up the mountain, have Sherpas, Sherpas are people from that native area. And due to the fact that they were born there, and they have been in that environment, you know that a lot of research has been done into these type of people, their lungs are bigger than other people. And therefore they are able to handle the the climate they are, they're able to handle the thinning oxygen, they are able to climb greater heights than you and I know my point being even Mount Everest, you can't submit it just overnight. It takes a lot of planning, it takes a lot of dedication, and most
importantly, you need goals, you kind of need to break down that huge trek into like base camp, Camp one camp to camp three. Now when you look at it that way you think to yourself, you know what, it's something that I can do when you look at oil on the top of Mount Everest? No, I don't think that's my cup of tea. But when you look at it this way, then yeah, maybe it seems possible, you can do it. So this is in a way what goals do in terms of helping you achieve great things in your lives.
Number three another reason as to why goals are so important. Goals hold you accountable for failure.
If you don't have concrete goals, and if you don't give yourself a self a timeline, if you don't have deadlines to achieve certain goals, you can't hold yourself accountable.
And we're going to give you examples in terms of goals, let's say for example, you put in a goal to to learn a certain language, okay, a certain language within a given period of time.
Let's say for us believers, we are reading the Koran, okay. And we bring in a goal, you know what, by the end of 2019, I'm going to absorb and learn the fundamentals, the basics of the Arabic language,
you have a deadline, this is the beginning of 2019. And you think to yourself by the end of 2019, I'm going to do this or you put in a financial goal by the end of 2019. I am going to come out completely of credit out of credit card debt
I have two cards three cards.
And because I had the you know the banks are very intelligent.
Oh, you know, just by taking a photo you just take it and go.
Are they marketed in such a way a refrigerator which is like 4000 rupees only 2000 rupees, only 2000 rupees, oh yeah, across 16 months.
And then you think to say about 2000 rupees is not a big deal. And I'm getting this massive refrigerator with a TV screen who's going to watch TV on the on the refrigerator?
Seriously.
But then the way they marketed the way they put out the offers 50% of all I need this got any discount, and then you end up having like 10 cards across 10 banks. And then you think yourself. So this is this is a web of debt that they're trying to drag you into.
So perhaps coming back to goals, let's say for 2019 you're looking at coming out of credit card debt entirely.
Now you will hold yourself accountable by the end of 2019. If you have not done that.
If you have not covered ground in that regard, you're going to hold yourself accountable. If you don't have goals, let's say you don't care, you know what, who gets credit cards, I'm just gonna go swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, you know, think about it, when you have to give out money. Like even when you go pump fuel.
When you have to give out your money.
You go to the fuel station, the petrol shed, and then the guy comes and says, you know, how much do you want me to pump to the gun donate for example. Yeah. And then you take out your wallet, you're gonna be giving out notes, you're gonna be giving out money, you look at the money that you have, you're like, you know what?
2000 rupees.
But when you see that shiny plastic
tank,
God, right. So who cares if it's 8000 or 10,000? I'll sorted out at the end of the month. And that accumulates accumulates and starts giving birth
interest upon interest and then you know, you end up you know, having this massive bill towards Yes, the world is moving towards a
you know, all plastic, no hard cash kind of setting. Yes. But we have to be mindful in terms of our finances. This is another thing you will see the categories of goals and one area is in terms of your finances.
Now also talking about why goals are so important.
Someone once said if you aim
At nothing, you will hit it every time.
If you aim at nothing, you will hit nothing every time.
Think about it goals give you focus. If I were to call one of you, I, you know last week when talking to the class where I teach young children Saturday mornings, I asked a call one of them, I think it was a Babs. And I told him, imagine, I'm giving you a bow and an arrow, and I'm telling you to shoot with all your mind. The first question, you're going to ask me, where am I to shoot? or What am I to shoot at?
Without giving a target? If you were to ask someone to shoot, the question that they're going to ask, obviously, is, what am I to shoot at? So without a target ahead of you without today's youngsters?
Sadly, when you ask some of them, they have no direction. They don't know what they're doing,
why they're studying, or why they are in a certain stream.
They don't have ambitions ahead of them. They don't, they cannot see themselves in the future. If you ask them. How do you see yourself 10 years from now, they're clueless. So it's almost as if they're just bobbing in the middle of the ocean without a compass without any bearings whatsoever. This is very problematic. This is troublesome. As a community, it is important that we have focused individuals, individuals with dedication, individuals who are pursuing their passions, if not, you're going to end up becoming a person who goes to work every single day, but like a zombie, you will be at work with your mind elsewhere, your mind will be for example, with your family.
And when you are with your family, your mind will be at work, or you will be at work and your mind will be at play. And when you are at play.
In recreational activities, your mind will be at work. Now my question to you is Does that make sense? You're neither here, neither there.
You're constantly and then when you sit down with such people, oh, I just don't have time.
I just don't have time.
Yes, it is from the signs of the day of the AMA,
that time will fly.
But that's not an excuse. Some of us fall back onto that as an excuse, you know, our time flies these days. So really, you know, I can't achieve much.
Yet in today's context, you see people achieving a lot. You see people who are climbing the ladder of success. You see it in the corporate world, you see it in the educational world, you see it in its athletes, you see it in the Islamic world, you see it, you see it where people when they have an action plan, a course of action, when they have certain principles in place, they start slaying things, they start achieving their goals, they start, you know, realizing, and you see them achieving great things in life.
They don't give into laziness, they don't give into being lethargic, they don't give into procrastination, they don't give into all these problematic areas. So it's important for us to constantly keep conditioning our minds.
Because if not many brothers and sisters, you can have all the potential in the world. You can have talents, you can have intelligence, you can have abilities. But without this kind of laser focus, without this precision in life, you won't be able to go far.
Think about it. You know that the word the word goal is used in football as well.
The trouble is, someone once said, The trouble with not having a goal is that you will end up spending your entire life running up and down the field and you're never going to score.
On the other hand, if you get your priorities mixed up, just imagine for those of you who are familiar with football, what happens if you hit the goal,
not to the opposite side, but to your own side. What happens you think your team mates are going to applaud and praise you.
Now, so you need to know your goals, you need to define your goals, you need to be able to identify your goals and work accordingly. Let me give you another example of a coffee shop.
You see in certain airports. You go into a restaurant, you go into a cafe, you go into
a coffee shop, you see a queue, you see this long queue
and at times in certain restaurants what happens you have to wait outside to get a table you have to wait outside a data table freezer because the place is so crowded and this is generally the case in airports.
So instead of a restaurant, let's let's look at a coffee shop. Okay, so you are at the queue and gradually you're hungry. you're thirsty, you want to grab a coffee and maybe you want to grab something to eat okay.
You see a lot of people ahead of you. And then gradually as you make your way up the queue, you start seeing people behind you. And that kind of builds pressure now, because the minute you make it to the counter, you already looked at the menu, okay? Which is up there, you have a ton of choices. By the way, when you look at coffee, you go, Oh, so many types of coffee. Yeah, when you look at me, because so many types of meals, and you're kind of like spoiled, just as how when you go into the Uber Eats app, now these days you like, you're hungry, and you end up scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and then you know what, it's midnight, and you haven't ordered anything really just like
YouTube, you've got so many videos to watch, you don't end up watching anything sometimes. Or you just go down a rabbit hole of videos and watching cats and elephants, that happens as well.
So anyway, you make it now to the counter, and you can't now dilly dally there at the counter, you have to place the order quickly. Why? Because there are people behind you to waiting to place the order. So you need to quickly place the order. And then most of the sometimes in certain restaurant in certain cafes you pay there. In other places you might have to pay elsewhere at another account and in certain other places you eat and then you pay when you're leaving, you have different styles.
Now this whole example, this one scenario is somewhat similar to life.
You have a ton of choices, the world out there,
you can become whatever you want to become as long as they are within the guidelines of the deen. But there are a ton of choices, there are a ton of streams that you can go down. But just like in the queue time is limited. And you're in this race, you don't have all the time on Earth, you have to make the decisions quickly and you have to keep moving on.
And unlike certain restaurants, where you eat and you pay in life, you have to pay you have to pay with your resources, you have to pay with your money, you have to pay with your life, you have to pay with your time.
Say for example, you choose to become a doctor. You spend however many years becoming a doctor. And then after becoming a doctor, you realize that you know what medicine is not my cup of tea.
You wasted that period of time. Why? Because you didn't identify your passions, you didn't identify what you wanted to become initially.
Because if you had, then that passion of yours would be a joy to pursue.
Some people are studying very, very technical things with hatred. That's not what they want to pursue. That's not their passion, they're being forced to do it.
So it's important that we identify what we want to do in our lives, because we don't have time to waste. No.
As believers we cannot be, like I said, bobbing in the water. You see you have motivational coaches saying this. Be a meaningful, specific and not a wandering generality.
You can't be a general thing that's just wandering. You need to be specific. And you need to be specific in a sense where you do meaningful things you leave behind a meaningful legacy.
And all of our I've just said can be benchmarked to the teachings of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, to the golden pages of Islamic history. Look at every single legend, the past by from the great warriors, to the great conquerors to the great rulers, to the great scholars, look at their legacies, just one example.
I'm not even going all the way to the time of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam if I go there, we will need we'll be here and literally you won't sleep we'll be here the entire night discussing. But let me mention one individual
goes by there's not a single talk that goes by Islamic talk I would say without his name being mentioned yes or no.
Not a single Juma hotbar that goes by without his name being mentioned. Not a single Islamic talk Islamic gathering that goes by without mentioning his name because eventually a hadith and narration will be reported and you will say that this has been recorded in the book of Imam Bukhari and Muslim Rama Houma LA. So look at the profound legacy that that individual left behind.
He was not a wandering generality, he was a meaningful specific and until the day of the AMA, he his name will resonate, will echo so think about how many rewards he is accruing.
If you are a follower of Imam Shafi Rahim Allah for example, you're following the teachings of Rama Shafi.
Each Salah you pray, as per his teachings, he is going to be rewarded. If you follow the teachings of Imam Abu hanifa Rahim Allah a great Imam.
He's going to be rewarded if you are benefiting from the teachings of Mr. Medina.
I am chef Tamia, Mr Maliki Mama Mama humble all of these scholars of the past because of the knowledge that they disseminated, they are going to be rewarded Subhan Allah so look, look, what a great legacy and you have to you have to identify because not everybody and I'm not saying that all of you have to become a Manuel Buhari now Mashallah. It's good if you do, but you have to identify where your passions lie. If it's in knowledge, then so be it.
If you look at the researchers of the past, if you look at certain profound leaps and bounds that were done in the world of medicine, there were Muslims involved in in the world of education Muslims involved.
So identify your talents and work towards bringing about something meaningful through it. That's the whole point at least this is a stepping stone to get to that inshallah.
Now, a few reasons as to why people do not set goals, a few reasons as to why people do not set goals.
Number one,
fear
number one, fear.
And I typed out fear like this, because each letter stands for something. Fear as in false evidence appearing real.
false evidence appearing real.
We have this fear of failure. We have this fear of tomorrow. We have all these false fears. Do you know what tomorrow holds? Do you know that tomorrow is going to be a bad day? Do you know about it? Are you are you are you 100% sure of it. Do you know what it holds for you tomorrow? Then why are you letting that fear? eat away at your today? It's a fear of the unknown. That's driving you insane. The profits that are long, wildly valuable, sell them you have bull.
He used to love optimism. He was an optimistic individual who didn't believe in bad omens who didn't believe in bad omens. He was not a superstitious individual.
Today when a door handle breaks, or you know what i'm not going out today,
a black cat crosses by I'm not moving. I'm not budging an edge. What is the black cat got to do with anything? It's a black cat law, our La quwata illa Billah? There's no God. no power, no mind except from Allah.
Hmm.
On Friday the 13th or I'm not going to go Subhana Allah, this person's house number 13. On the 13th floor house number 13. I'm not going there.
You go to where they get their vehicles registered. I'm not taking number 1330 No way.
What has numbers got to do with your destiny or your outcome?
Now how Allah Allah has no power, no might accept from Allah.
He was not a superstitious individual. He was a positive individual. But we on the other hand, we have been conditioned, you see, there was a study
where it was said that the average 18 year old is told approximately 180,000 times, No, you cannot do it.
No, you cannot do it. And three quarter of our self talk, you know, self talk. Do you agree with me self talk? No, you're not mad.
You're not mad if you talk to yourself. We all do it. I talk to myself as well. We all talk to ourselves. It's just that some people go overboard with it. And then you see them literally talking to themselves was driving etc. But generally speaking, we talk to us and that is voice in our head that we debate with, you know, this and that we talk to ourselves, three quarter of our self talk these days is negative.
Negative affirmations, low self esteem, and that's why we look down upon ourselves. Because of constantly hearing negative talk. You see, let me ask you a question. Your houses, your houses, beautiful houses, Mashallah. Would you allow an outsider to come into your house and dump garbage in the middle of your house? Would you love that?
Would you allow someone to just come in? Would you allow your neighbor to bring in his or her garbage and come and dump it in the middle of your house? Would you let the person just walk out? Would you offer that person a cup of tea? And would you say yeah, jack ma said, thank you very much for dropping your garbage over here. Or would you call the police would you have the person you know, kicked out of your house? If that is the case, then why? Why do we allow people to come and dump garbage in our minds
by giving a year
Did that negative talk you don't know how much negative talk conditions our minds, even in a subconscious way it, it conditions our minds. And that's why it's so important that we hear content of this nature that motivates us forward, you might be thinking, Oh, it's going to be another talk that's gonna be telling me about success and achievements and all that stuff, you need to hear it. You need to hear podcasts of this nature, you need to hear talks of this nature, you need to read books of this nature to keep motivating you forward. You need to be reading about the legends of the past. young young minds need to be nurtured with the great accomplishments and achievements of the
legends of the past, so that they aspire to become like that. As they say, shoot for the moon. At least even if you don't reach the moon, you land them it's the stars why high aspirations or who will him in the Arabic language is a big part of the deen.
A believer should always have high aspirations, even when it comes to gender. Don't just settle for level one in
level one, you know, you have 100 levels in gender. And the only sadness that you're going to have in China, you're not gonna have any Oh, that sister is you know, she's got this makeup, she's got this jewelry, or that brother is driving around in a Ferrari. If you're not gonna have all these sadnesses, the only sadness that we will have in Jenna, is that oh,
I could have made it to level two.
I could have said one more panel and I would have another tree in my garden.
One more Alhamdulillah perhaps I would have another palace. Because there is no way for you to build once you go into Jenna here is where you build for your agenda. So you've got 100 levels in Jana. So don't settle for level one. Don't settle for level two, level three, level four, keep asking for genda tool for those that is the highest gender asked for it and work for it.
high aspirations
another reason as to why people do not set goals, low self esteem. In other words, you have this you have this excuse you know you have this spectrum superiority complex inferiority complex, there are some people who are so full of themselves
that their heads are about to burst out of pride
that is a quality of the devil. And there are other people who are on the other end of the of the spectrum other extreme where they think zero of themselves
zero as in they feel like you know what they can't picture themselves achieving, they can't picture themselves reaching heights.
You should understand that you cannot perform at all in accordance with the picture why we cannot perform is because of the picture that we have painted of ourselves in our heads and our minds.
That's why I started off by reminding you of the Holocaust in Santa Fe sanita COVID that's the picture you have been painted you have been created in the best of statues don't go down to somewhere other than a who has philosophically you need to rise in the Latina ama know the ones who believe the ones who do righteous deeds The one who would one would be the ones who do good deeds they keep rising they keep rising.
So low self esteem.
Before I move on to this, more ask you
how many of you all have tasted failure in life? When I say failure, I don't necessarily mean rock bottom. There are some people who have hit rock bottom
I mean failure in any way it could be what
it could be failing at an examination.
It could be losing a game
it could be losing out on a business transaction.
Failure at any point how many of us have have have faced failure? Hands up.
Sisters favorite Mashallah. All the sisters are winners. The brothers are failures. This
first one here? I have definitely. So we don't have
can some of you tell me tell me why
have you have you ever ever thought about it?
You just raised your hand right so you recalled a point of failure in your life. Tell me why why did you test that failure?
Anyone?
Sorry.
Not enough effort. Okay.
Lock a lack of preparation.
time constraint, okay.
lack of knowledge.
Destiny, sisters, reasons as to why you tasted failure.
When you raise your hand, you recall the point of failure in your life. So I don't need the details of the story. Yeah. Just lack of support very good.
Not enough practice a lack of practice, lack of training.
A close, close person, or the closest person being so that would be betrayal or lack of lack of loyalty. Let's go with that. So we are going with lack lack here. Anything else?
Okay, now working. So lack of effort. Okay. All right. Now, let me let me show you common ground here. Right? You said you saw the lack of all of these things. One, one umbrella term that encompasses all of that is that we can say it's a lack of resources, time, effort, knowledge, training, you understand? A lack of resources? Brother said destiny? That's a deep answer. We'll leave it for another day inshallah. But apart from that,
but apart from that, what was it you said, Abdullah, preparation, see resources.
Now,
I have something to tell you, you have resources, versus being resourceful.
To be resourceful is to have the ability to find ways to overcome those difficulties. Let me give you an example.
Money is a big resource. Okay, a big resource. You could even call it the king of resources. Okay.
There are people who say money cannot buy you happiness. And then they go on to say, but it feels better to cry in a Lamborghini.
But it feels better to cry inside a Lamborghini. Anyway. So they say that cash is king. Money is the king of all resources. But let me tell you, let me let me highlight if you don't have resourcefulness, let's say you run a company. And you are having problems left, right and center. Okay, you're having problems. As does any company, you're having problems left, right and center.
You are a CEO who does not have resourcefulness. But you have a lot of money, tons of cash, you have bags and bags of money. So what are you doing? You're throwing the money that you have at the problems trying to solve the solve the problems? Do you think that will solve the problems?
That alone will not solve the problems? Yes, by throwing money, you can solve a certain extent of the problems. But by being resourceful,
you'll be able to solve those problems better.
Even without money, you will be able to solve your problems if you have this attitude of being resourceful. And you should always understand that the greatest of resources are the emotions that we have with us. The love, the kindness, the care, the empathy, sympathy, the fact that we can reach out to others this is what we have been created with you are not born with money. But you came with these emotions, you came with these emotional states. And these are powerful resources to be able to bring about a change. So this is something that we have to always bear in mind.
Moving on.
Another reason as to why people do not set goals is because the idea of goals have not been reached across to them.
For some of us, the word legacy seems like some kind of an application or some kind of a website. Why? Because we have not ever heard, or nobody has spoken to us about the concept of leaving behind a legacy. Likewise, goals, some of us have never, ever sat down and thought about our goals. We have never really taken a notepad taken our notetaking application and listed down our goals. I've never done that we've never read on goals. We never heard about goals. So that's why they have not set goals. So that's a that's a pretty simple reason. And today, none of you can fall back onto that reason, because Alhamdulillah we have, we have tried our level best to touch on goals somewhat.
Another reason as to why people do not set goals is lack of definition. And this is what I said at the beginning. Lack of definition equals lack of direction. They don't have.
Either they don't have a specific direction or they think of goals as
being something that should be extremely important.
Like for example, some people have this one goal, I want to change the world.
That's a good goal brother, but
it is an earth shattering goal.
It's a huge goal, and how are you going to work
towards achieving that. Now, that's what I mean, lack of definition, you need to define that goal. Okay? You want to change the world? How? In what way? No, I want to change the world and
how are you going to do it? You see lack of definition.
They do have goals is just that they lack definition.
Okay, now quickly, let's talk about types of goals.
You have long term goals versus short term goals. And I'm going to be spending a lot of time here, because I'll be touching on this again,
on another slide in a few minutes, finite goals versus infinite goals. But here, just one reminder, most people overestimate what they can do with short term goals, and underestimate what they can do with long term goals. It's important that we identify our short term goals. You see, you have goals that are spread across time, short term goals, and long term goals. Like for example, what I said earlier, I want to change the world. It's a long term goal. Now to achieve that long term goal, you need short term goals. In what way? Are you going to look at changing the world? Let's say I want to make the world greener.
Okay, how are you going to do that?
I'm going to maybe create an awareness in regards to using solar energy, for example, you see, now you're breaking down that big long term goal into short term goals, I'm going to start creating an awareness. Maybe my country is a third world country. Solar energy is not something that is being implemented here. So I'm going to try and you know, bring that in. As a youngster, this is something that you can do, for example, in terms of it's a move to change the world towards becoming a greener place to live, it's a move towards
safeguarding the atmosphere around us, the environment around us for the generations, the upcoming generations, it's a big move, of course, but then you break it down into short term goals that are more that are palatable and easier to digest, to achieve that big long term goal.
And something that is of more importance that I hope to spend a few more minutes on is that we have different types of goals.
from a different perspective earlier, what I said was in terms of time, here in terms of categorization, there are experts who say that we have seven, at least at the very least seven types of goals, seven types of goals. So you have right up there spiritual goals. You have goals related to your career, your personal development goals, you have financial goals, you have health and physical, physical and health related goals. You have family goals, mind slash intellect goals. To be a well rounded individual, you will want to it's not like, you know, this assorted box of cookies, where you take one different cookie from each area, not really, you need to mix all of
these and work towards goals in each area to be well rounded. Let's start off with spiritual to give you a few examples in terms of spiritual goals.
What do we mean when we say spiritual goals? For us believers? This is of utmost importance, spiritual goals, think about it.
With every single day, do you want to ask yourself tonight before you go to sleep, ask yourselves, do you want to remain stagnant? Or do you want to improve in terms of your spirituality? So you need to bring in goals? evaluate 2018 for example, how many chapters of the Quran did I read?
Simple.
And then bring in goals for 2019. I'm going to read this many. And again,
I'll address that towards the end of the talk when we talk about how you're supposed to set goals. But remember, your goals need to be specific. Don't be like You know what, I'm gonna read the plan.
It's vague, it needs to be specific, how many chapters and maybe you will write it down, put in a time line so that you adhere to it. That's one example. Another example, evaluate 2019 and see okay, you realize I have prayed my five for prayers on a regular basis for 2019 I'm going to start praying my sooner prayers, the before and after sooner prayers for the entire year spiritual goals. You see, and also read about the people of the past you take the scholars of the past like Mr. Medina, Hamburg and the great people of the past. They used to pray so many units of prayer in a given day. There are some scholars used to pray 100 units of prayer every single day 200 of optional extra
prayer.
Okay, so that's that's a big goal.
The right now you can start off by implementing the sooner prayers you can start off by making sure that you will read through through every single Friday, evaluate 2018 and ask yourself how much did I actually give out in charity?
is a car whether you like it or not, you have to give it
Okay, you have to give out your second optional charity or sidecar. Okay, I gave out 1000 rupees, I gave out 5000 rupees, I gave out 10,000 rupees this year, as a goal just as how in financial goals, you're looking at making more money, you're looking at saving money here in your spiritual goals, you need to have a goal. You know, this year, I'm going to give out this much more in charity.
This much more in charity. Last year, I focused on this charity project. This year, maybe I'm going to focus on this charity project spiritual goals.
Spiritual goals, I have studied
the Tafseer of this surah I'm going to cover the Tafseer of these tours during this particular year, and where to study about solar during this particular year, I'm going to study about Zika during this particular year, I'm going to go on camera. This particular year, I have not gone on Hajj, 2019 I'm going to go on Hajj or 2020 I'm going to go on Hajj and to go on holiday to work towards that you need to save money you need to apply for the documentation, the visa whatever it is, it's a goal. If you have a deadline, okay 2020 I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with my family then as you work towards it, inshallah. Spiritual goals.
I'm going to work with the team, I'm going to work with msgid I'm going to freak you can have so many spiritual goals in terms of improving your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala.
Each of these goals, they're going to help you improve your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. So don't you think they're powerful?
And don't you think you need goals in this area? You definitely need goals in this area to improve your relationship with Allah. Likewise, in terms of your career, where are you at now in your career?
Bring in goals to climb the ladder to progress in your career. To be successful in your career.
You need to bring in goals for example,
work towards getting a promotion
worked with towards creating more job focus. Or if you're planning a career change, you need to plan it properly, where you don't waste time. Or if you're planning to retire, for example, you need to plan that out properly. These are all career related goals. Don't always rely on one source of income.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
what's what's going to happen if you lose your job?
And then there's no point in blaming Allah.
There is no point in saying why is life so unfair.
There is no point in blaming your own destiny because you have the potential within you. Or you had the potential to be able to establish another source of income.
So make that as a goal. Aside income
may be something for a rainy day.
These are goals in terms of your career, as well as your financial side of things. Like I said earlier, maybe you're in credit card debt come out of it, maybe you owe someone money come out of it. Maybe you got some money to start your business off. Make it a goal where you're going to you know, settle that off.
Or you're having your own business, maybe you want to grow maybe you want to open up another branch. Bring these in as goals.
Your personal development area. So panela this is an area that at times gets neglected. condition your mind, learn new languages, goals.
Language is a powerful
read books. You see when you look at successful people, there's one one common thing that they all share, they all read.
They all read. They read they read Subhanallah there are some who read even seven books during a week that literally amounts to a book a day. Ask yourself tonight before you go to sleep, and that's why I said you won't sleep. How many books have I read?
I'm not talking about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings. It's okay.
something better than nothing. But read books. Like I said don't don't put garbage in the middle of your house.
Read books that are worth it will help you.
And regardless, reading helps you as long as you read the right content, it helps you it empowers you in terms of your vocabulary in terms of the knowledge in terms of your speaking skills in terms of enhancing what you know, the first
I, uh that came down was read,
read. We are a nation that needs to be leading that in terms of reading, but sadly, this generation especially become very visual videos, videos, videos, and the videos are becoming shorter and shorter and shorter. Now people don't want to listen to one hour lecture. No, I want
a 15 second Instagram story that's enough for my taqwa. That's all the reminder that I want. That's all see our attention spans basically reducing, reducing, reducing, we can't be done with the story and we keep swiping, we're not able to retain attention, focus. So personal development, you need to work on developing yourself. Your skills. You see, at the end of the day, we all have something to learn from another person. Perhaps you don't know how to change a tire, learn how to change a tire. You are. It's a skill that you're learning. It's a talent.
Try to be a student, be a constant student. Never give up on becoming as never give up on being a student. Don't ever think you know what I know everything. I don't have to learn anymore. No. You have to constantly be a student learn from every experience in life. Learn from every single person you encounter in life. There's so much to learn so much to the
health.
Goals, you need goals, health.
This year, what I'm going to opt for a healthier diet.
This year, I'm going to bring in an activity I'm going to walk 20 minutes every single day. I'm going to go work out thrice a week. Don't just have this vague goal I'm going to work out
no Be specific even Don't. Don't even leave it as vague as I'm going to work out tries to ignore even specify the days you know what I'm going to work out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or I'm going to walk 20 minutes every single day from this time to this time.
Maybe I'm going to swim once a week.
I'm going to try and eliminate unnecessary carbs from my diet as possible. I'm going to opt for green vegetables more to eliminate carbonated drinks from my diet entirely for 2019. Cool. You don't know how much of dad those fizzy drinks are doing to you with the high percentage of sugar and whatnot in those drinks. And some of us are addicted to it. Some of us there are some I know of some brothers who have Red Bull for breakfast.
Obsessed much. Yes. addicted much Red Bull for breakfast. And by the way, it's not in place of orange juice. Their breakfast is Red Bull.
Allah
it's not like a side thing with the eggs and whatnot. No, it's their breakfast.
We need to
the people of the past.
You You see they were they were individuals who were strong. They were individuals who were focused in terms of their health. They worked on their Harley devanahalli there are a lot one could get on a horse that was galloping.
He could get onto it.
And the other day when telling this to the youngsters you know what I did? I actually pulled up a picture of a horse because whenever you say a horse in Sri Lanka people think of the the pony golf is
ponies small. ponies your height, the horse. Arabian horses are bigger than a Range Rover.
Think about jumping on top of the roof of Ranger Orion is moving. When it's galloping. For his movie, can you do it?
When I asked the young kids, they were like I'll put one leg into the stirrup and then I'll get onto the saddle and put my other leg into the other syrup. Cardinal really * no saddle just onto the horse.
Amaro the last one, we're wessler
you think it's easy to be a wrestler,
of individuals who focused on their health, and that's why they were individuals who achieved that much. When you don't focus on your health, you're going to become lethargic, you're going to be lazy, you're going to be sleepy, you're constantly going to be sleeping the whole time. You're making the wrong choices in terms of your food. And then you start developing sicknesses at a very young age. At a very young age.
Think about it sickness after sickness you have to deal with it.
And so can Allah these bodies that have been given to us gifts, we need to look after the bodies that have been given to us by Allah subhanho wa Taala
we don't have rights to eat the wrong things and you know, destroy our bodies.
I mean, look after our body. So we need goals in that area, family, you need goals, they are to be able to increase the quality time that you spend with your family, with your children, with your wife, with your parents, with your relatives, you need goals there
in the in terms of your the upbringing of your children,
because once the children grow up and leave you, and now you're yearning for their time and their attention, and now they don't have the time for you. So think about it, you need goals in that area.
And the area we have highlight was mind slash intellect. It's connected to personal development, again, in terms of conditioning your mind, listening to the right content, reading the right content, viewing the right content, having the right company, your friends, have a huge impact on you on the way you think on what you do.
That's why even the teachings of Islam highlight the importance of a good friend of good company, in terms of your children in terms of your siblings, in terms of yourself, make sure you hang out with the right type of people. If you are hanging out with negative people.
They're going to be like crabs dragging you down. Have you heard of the example of crabs? Take a bucket, put in 10 crabs, you don't have to cover the bucket.
You don't have to cover the bucket, you can rest assured that not one crab will escape. Why? Each time one crab tries to get out all the other Crabs pull it back in.
Put it back.
So do you want to be in the company of clubs, where each time you try to rise? They pull you back down? No, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do it. You can't you're going to fail, you're going to fail, you're going to fail, you're going to lose, you're going to do Oh, it's so dangerous. It's risky. It's risky. Oh, who needs your services in this area? Why don't you focus on this? Why don't you focus on that they keep pulling you down? They keep diverting you.
And shavonne plays a big role in that as well.
How do I set these goals?
I'm going to be talking about this as the final area of the content in sha Allah Allah, there is a smart way to set goals smart, really smart way s m a, r t,
your goals need to be number one s specific. Like I said at the beginning don't have big goals. For example, in 2019, I want to be healthy, that's too vague. You need to specify it, for example, make healthier diet options. Like I said, train twice a week, walk for 20 minutes every single day, make it as specific as possible with the days and the timing. So S stands for making your goals specific. m make your goals measurable, your goals need to be measurable. Don't just say you know what, for 2019, I want to lose weight. Again, you're being vague, make those goals measurable, I want to lose 10 kilograms. And if you feel like 10 kgs a lot, then break it down to two kg maybe every month, I
want to lose two kilograms every month, and then I'll reach my goal of losing 10 kilograms within maybe six months or a year. So your goals need to be measurable in terms of quantity in some way quantifiable. And then your goals need to be a achievable slash attainable. Yes, like I said earlier, shoot for the moon and you will land amidst the stars. But try to bring in goals that are realistic, that are achievable. Don't forget to go you know what I'm going to make a million dollars in 2019. When you know
that is almost impossible when you're in the hands of a lot of things impossible but within your means when you know that okay, a million dollars
too much. So rather bring in a realistic goal where you know what I'm going to make $100 more say for the first quarter or for the first six months or for the first year
I make $200 more, maybe I make 20,000 rupees more 30,000 rupees more or 10,000 rupees more, make sure your goals are attainable so that you'll be able to attain those goals are Make sure your goals are relevant. But as I say earlier learning languages beautiful goal.
But let's say you're trying to learn French, when you have no need towards French whatsoever. So that goal is not relevant.
That whilst you have a strong need towards Arabic, now let's say you're looking at going and working in France or you have some job related to French or whatever it is then learning French is a completely different story. But just because you got the chance to learn French.
You're supposed to make the goals relevant. Because you're gonna be spending time learning that language was that time could be spent in learning something that is more important to you something that is more relevant to you every form of knowledge is important but you need to be able to prioritize
ties appropriately. So make sure your goals are relevant to you. And don't waste time on irrelevant goals. Not all goals are of the same importance. Finally, make sure that your goals are time bound, your goals need to have a deadline. If you don't have a deadline, you're not going to understand the value of time. And without a deadline, you are going to give in or fall prey to the trap of procrastination. How many students
I've got an assignment in a month, I have 30 days.
29 days
or two weeks, more or less, okay, one week more. Seven days about seven days more
543 Yala assignment is tomorrow. And then he doesn't sleep that night. cramps in has like three coffees or a whole flask of coffee.
And then goes and submits the assignment
and hopes that you know what, he's going to pass with flying colors only to hear that his assignment was a horrible mess. When you had like 30 days to do it. You've got this final thesis that you need to submit by the end of the year. Oh 365 days Masha Allah so much of time, but that 365 days will go like this. And then the deadline will be tomorrow. That's what she does. And that's what he will do with your entire life. What does he say? Oh, this time this time, don't go home run out. Don't go on Hajj now. Do all the sins. And let's keep the hatch for the end because then you come back like a newborn baby. So that's good. So keep the hatch to the end, like when you're gonna retire, then opt
for Hajj. They can wash away all your sins. But what if you die before that?
What if you die before making Toba? What if you die before, you know praying, strengthening a relationship with Allah. So don't get into the trap of procrastination, have deadlines and try to achieve those goals within those deadlines.
The final point many brothers and sisters is finite goals versus infinite goals. There is a lengthy discussion in this regard. But to summarize, you have two types of goals finite versus infinite.
You see, for us believers, we have these two powerful, specific infinite goals that I will conclude with, but in terms of finite goals that understand that there has been research done on this, for example, we have
people who kind of encourage you to focus Yes, on finite goals as components towards infinite goals and not to restrict yourself to finite goals. Because if you do so, you are in a way asking for trouble. For example, we have athletes of the past whose whose only goal was to become the greatest athlete of the world. For example, if you were to take someone like Andre Agassi, or Michael Phelps, they are finite goals or other their goals were to become the greatest athletes in the world. And they achieved it. They achieved it for them. Basically, they looked at everything, and everyone as a means to achieving that. That's how they look at every single encounter every single person, every
single thing that they came into contact with, how is this going to help me reach that goal? How is this person going to help me reach their goal? They have this mindset, this Gladiator mentality, you see the gladiator each time the gladiator goes into the arena, what does he go with? He could die, but they keep going back in. So each time you go face the world, you could die, but you're going in there with that mentality to win. So they went with that mentality, but Subhanallah the minute they achieved the goal, kaboom depression
because what's after that?
Okay, now I'm the world's greatest athlete. Now what depression.
Let's say for example, your goal was, I want to buy a mansion in a highly residential location.
That was your goal.
Okay, and you look left, right and center really hard for it.
And then the day comes when you buy the place an hour
I want to buy another highly mesh big house in you know, a residential location Are you gonna have the same goal again, you won't have the same drive you won't have the same passion.
So that's why your goals need to be infinite, but can
can a goal be infinite.
There's infinity exist in this world.
It doesn't. Everything is finite in this world.
And that's where we believe will stand out. Because we have two infinite goals.
Number one, the pleasure of Allah which is infinite. And the life of the hereafter which is infinite Holly Dean. You're going to live in there forever and ever. Those
two goals are our infinite goals. Everything else is a finite goal there is a component towards achieving that goal.
Yes, we need a good life in this world. But more important than that is to secure a good life in the hereafter. Yes, we need to be happy. But what's more important is Allah needs to be happy. You see, so yes, we need to live comfortable lives which is loved. But Allah is pleasure. Allah Riba takes precedence, the life of the hereafter always takes precedence. We are not going to
strive for a good life in this world by indulging in haram there are people who would do it, you know, anyway, just to get a comfortable life but we will not do it we will not indulge in haram because the pleasure of Allah takes precedence. The life of the hereafter takes precedence. We want to live in Jenna forever and ever. So those two goals for us believers need to be our infinite goals, and everything else is a finite goal that will help us to reach those two infinite goals.
With that, we conclude we were hoping to have some time for q&a. But as you can see, we have already ran out of time, so inshallah loudhailer. In the next session, we'll try to incorporate some time for questions.