The Productive Muslim Podcast – Season 2 Ep 12

			You're listening to the productive milsim podcast season two episode 12
		

			Assalamu alaikum productive Muslims. Welcome to the show. I'm your host me from Arif and I'm here
with day 12 of the pre Ramadan boot camp. In today's episode, what I'm going to speak to you about
is finding the what the * effect. Now, you might be thinking what the * they should trying to
say. But let me explain. Many of you may have had this experience in which you set a goal, say for
example, you say, I don't want to eat any sugar. And then in the morning, you have a small cookie,
and you say to yourself, oops, I didn't mean to eat that cookie. And then there goes my sugar diet.
Oh, well, what the *. So since I've already blown my diet, I might as well have another cookie.
		

			And then the next thing you know what? You're like, what the *, I might as well just eat the
whole job. And you do. So you see, what just happened was that you gave in the first time, and it
was a very small mistake. And then that led to doing it again. And then you just kind of thought,
Oh, well, you know what, I just messed up, I might as well just let go. Pretty much. Now this is
what I mean by the what the * effect. It's actually a psychological trait that occurs when you
have a little slip, or you make a small mistake. And then the next thing you know, your self control
is slipping away. And you see, this takes place in many areas of our life. So this includes our
		

			spirituality. Say, for example, you tell yourself, I'm not going to backbite anymore, and then you
start a conversation with a friend. And then the first sentence is a backbiting one of your
colleague and then in the back of your mind, you're like, Oh, shut off. backbite but what the *
and then you just continue having a full backbiting conversation for the next 30 minutes. And Allah,
Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us in the Quran, oh, you who believe to not follow the footsteps of
the shaitan and whoever follows the footsteps of the shaitaan Indeed, he enjoined immorality and
wrongdoing, and if and not for the favor of Allah upon you and his mercy, not one of you would have
		

			been pure, ever. But Allah purifies whom He wills and Allah is most hearing and most knowing. Now
this is from Surah 24 verse 21. So you notice in this verse how Allah mentions footsteps of the
shaytan. So it's not that the shaytan would tell you immediately, you know, do that certain action
or whatever, he will make you take a first step and then a second step and then the next thing you
know, you are fully indulged in that scene. And now this is why the what the * effect is very
dangerous. It puts us on a slippery slope, and we end up becoming the worst self, the worst version
of ourselves.
		

			This is Matthias founder, productive muslim.com Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, and the practical
tips within it, that I think you'll enjoy a production model an online course. This is a one stop
course for all the practical tips you need to overcome your Ramadan challenges. For example, how do
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Do Ramadan that lasts after Ramadan, how to manage your work and your work colleagues and so on and
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			Muslim academy.com Thanks.
		

			Now, when we put this into a Ramadan context, you start Ramadan fast really well. You're balancing
between your spiritual physical and social productivity. And then five and 10, five to 10 days into
Ramadan, you have a really bad day that makes everything go haywire. Say you miss a horde, or you
overslept and you miss your prayers or you ate really unhealthy food that made you feel groggy and
tired and then you fall for the what the * effect that you might as well end up telling yourself
what the * I messed up this Ramadan, it's it's been tough. And let me just survive Ramadan this
year, and I'll do better next year. But the reality is, you may not even get an opportunity to be
		

			here next year to experience Ramadan. So this is why the what the * effect is so dangerous, and
it happens in many areas of our life. Now the question comes, what can we do to stop this? What the
* effect there are three things you can do that I'm going to list here. The first one is to fight
the what the * narrative in your mind. So you see, when you acknowledge that this thing exists,
then instead of saying what the * or if you find yourself saying this, then you can stop yourself
and replace it with something else. So for example,
		

			You made a mistake. And then instead of saying, oh, what the *, let me just do it anyway. You can
tell yourself, you know what, I'll forgive myself for this slip and stop this train of thought, so
that I don't make this situation even worse. Or another thing you can tell yourself, when you make
that mistake, you say, Okay, well look, every little bit helps. And so I'm just going to keep going
and improving. So pretty much in this first point, watch what you're saying in your mind and control
that narrative control what you're saying and say something better, and replace that with a positive
talk. Now, the second way that you can stop this, what the * effect is by setting specific short,
		

			short term goals. So I'll give you an example to explain this. Let's say that you missed out on
fudger in the morning, and you might be tempted to say, oh, what the *, I can never pray on time.
And so instead of having that you can tell yourself, okay, I just miss fudger. But my goal is that I
am going to make it on time to pray for local prayer. Can I do it? All right, so let me try. So then
do her comes, you pray on time, and then at the right time, you can tell yourself, okay, my next
goal is that, I'm going to pray my answer to prayer on time. And so after comes and you pray, and
you did it. So pretty much what is happening here is that you set these specific short term goals,
		

			so that it builds emotional momentum. And you can be able to build up and experience these small
wins, which in turn will motivate you back again and get you back on track to your original goal
that you had. Now, the final thing of dealing with this, what the * effect is by remembering that
you're human, you see, this is something that many of us will be guilty of an idea I have as well.
The thing is, at the end of the day, we are human beings, and we're not perfect, we are going to
make mistakes. And that's just a part of our life. You see, you know, in in the story of our mother
and father at Ramallah Salaam and how they made a mistake. But what happened was that they repented
		

			after the mistakes. So the key here is to not let the little mistake turn into a big, continuous
mistake. But rather, the key is to repent straightaway to understand the mercy and forgiveness of
Allah, and correct it in time so that you don't continue going down. So now I want to put forward
the question to you. Have you experienced the what the * effect? Do let me know share your
stories and examples below in our show notes. And the specific Show Notes for this episode is
productive Muslim podcast.com slash s two e 12. And that stands for season two, Episode 12. And
while you're at it, let me know how your three challenges went as well. So I look forward to reading
		

			your comments. And I will speak to you all tomorrow in our next episode. Until then, remember, work
hard and be sincere