Saif Morad – Ramadan Stretch Goals Blueprint
AI: Summary ©
The importance of having a plan and goals for achieving the best in the world is emphasized, along with the need to strive towards deeds and pursue spirituality. Building habits and achieving goals with a clear plan is crucial to achieving their goals, and achieving a reward system and accountability partners are also important. Progress is crucial to achieving goals and a plan is achievable, while identifying the reasons why progress is not achieving and creating a plan that is achievable is crucial to achieving goals.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi
wa barakatuhum my dear brothers and sisters. May
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us with the
best in this world and the next. In
the previous video, we talked about stretch goals
during the month of Ramallah. And in this
video, we're gonna be talking about the blueprint
of implementing
and achieving these goals by the will of
Allah
Having goals is great. It gives us direction.
But it is the system that actually makes
us progress towards these goals. And do I
need to have a plan? Do I need
to have these goals in order to truly
benefit from Ramadan? The answer is no. But
if you are like me and the vast
majority,
then having a plan and having these goals
will Insha'Allah take Ramadan to a completely different
level. And one of the best things that
we can do is work on ourselves, work
on our spirituality, work on our relationship with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because the more taqwa
we attain, the more mindful of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala we become, the more we understand
our deen and how it relates to not
only our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
but our relationship with other people as well
when it comes to our work, our families,
our relatives.
We will see other areas in our lives
improve
automatically.
We will approach our work with Ihsaam.
We'll try to do the best that we
can because we expect the reward from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and we know that he's
watching us. So step 1 is
what do you want?
I hope you've decided on what you want
to accomplish this Ramadan. What 1 to 3
goals are you gonna focus on that will
bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
And remember,
we want to continue
these actions even after Ramadan. In Ramadan, we're
gonna stretch ourselves and do as much as
we can. But once Ramadan is done and
we snap back, we're still gonna continue with
these goals. And Ramadan is the perfect opportunity
to stretch ourselves. There is so much motivation
involved for us to do good and stay
away from bad. Example for spiritual goals are
charity,
Quran, qiyam, helping people,
bettering our salah, reflecting over the Quran and
other things that we can do.
So once we've decided on 1 to 3
goals that we want to implement during Ramadan
and continue even after Ramadan.
So as an example, we're going to look
at.
Step number 2 in the blueprint is
to know your reason for accomplishing this goal.
Have a big enough reason why you want
to accomplish this goal. Ask yourselves questions.
How is my life going to change if
I were to be able to establish Qiyamul
Lay? Look for references that's going to increase
your motivation. For example, the Hadith of the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in which he said
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala descends every night
in a way that is befitting for his
majesty to the lowest heaven when the last
third of the night remains. And he says,
who will call upon me
that I may answer him? Who will ask
of me that I may give him? Who
will seek my forgiveness that I may forgive
him? So we want to work on these
things for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and we need to have a big
enough reason that's gonna keep motivating
us to push towards this goal. Step number
3 is
to have a concrete plan.
So going back to the example of Qiyam
and Layl, after Ramadan, I want to be
waking up 15 minutes before Salat Al Fajr
and praying my wutr and making Dua.
So in Ramadan, the first 10 days, for
example, I want to be praying 2 raka'ah
of Qiyam every single night. Then the next
10 days I take it up another level
to 4 raka'ah
and in the last 10 nights of Ramadan
I strive and I try to pray 6
raka'af Qiyam and lay with Dua and once
Ramadan is finished I continue.
I don't give up on this goal, but
now I continue from step 1, which is
to wake up 15 minutes before Fajr, pray
my wutr, and make dua to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And we need to build habits
in order to accomplish these goals, and it's
best to keep it simple. Don't focus on
the entire task, but just focus on the
beginning of the task. So in order to
build this habit, we're gonna focus on the
what,
the when,
and the where for each of these goals.
So for example in regards to our goal
of qiyamul layl, every night at 4 AM
I will wake up and I will perform
wudu. If we have a Quran related goal,
then it can be every day after salatul
Dhuhr, I will open the musaf.
So we want to focus on the beginning
action that would lead to the execution of
the task because if you wake up and
make udu, are you gonna go back to
sleep? Chances are you're gonna go and perform
qayamalah, you're gonna make dua to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And we want to write all
this down. And step 4 is to execute
and evaluate.
Having a goal is great. Writing it down
on paper is even better. But if we
fail to execute, then we're never gonna achieve
the goal. So we want to execute from
day 1 and keep track of our progress.
And we keep it simple, keep it very
very simple. For example, on a calendar
with the date, just tick yes. So three
things that will help us inshallah execute.
Number 1 is to remind ourselves why we
wanna do this. How our lives will change
if we were to accomplish this, how much
more baraka would it bring in our lives.
Number 2 is to have an accountability
partner. We tell somebody about our goals, for
example a family member, a sibling, our spouse,
a friend and they hold us accountable to
these goals. That if they see a slacking,
they remind us that, hey, didn't you have
these goals that you wanted to do? So
we find somebody that's gonna hold us accountable.
At the same time, we try to be
somebody's accountability partner as well. And number 3,
to have a reward system. Of course, we
expect the reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and we will see the improvements in our
lives. In addition to that, we also want
to have something that we can look forward
to. Something I want to buy, perhaps something
I want to do. And I hold off
on that until the end of Ramadan. I
track my progress every single day doing Ramadan.
And if I achieve 85 percent because it
is natural for some days for us to
not be able to accomplish what we set
out to do. And that's fine. We need
to take it easy on ourselves.
So if we get 85%
or higher, then I'm entitled to that gift,
then I'm entitled to doing that thing that
I want to do. And we want to
evaluate
our progress.
So we track our progress every single day
and we keep it very simple. Let's put
the date and yes or no whether or
not we did the task that we were
set to do and on the days that
we fail to execute,
we need to find out the reason why,
especially if we miss 2 days in a
row. What's the reason I'm not being able
to establish? Am I sleeping too late? Am
I eating too much before going to bed?
If I'm in bed, am I spending too
much time on the phone? We need to
find out the reason why we are being
prevented from establishing Be'ah. And many times it
can be a sin because in order to
get close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
it has to be done in obedience to
him. And sins can block us from getting
close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So if
there's a sin that we're doing something that
we saw, something that we heard, something that
we said, even we might have spoken bad
about somebody that can prevent us from achieving
our goal. So we identify
what is the reason we're unable to accomplish
this task
and then we fix it. And lastly, step
number 5,
we need to ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
We need to believe that this goal is
achievable,
that we can continue even after Ramadan and
accomplish it during Ramadan. And we consistently and
constantly ask Allah
to make it easy for us, to make
this action beloved to us, to make it
easy for us to go and execute. And
we believe with certainty that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will make us reach that goal. So
today's exercise is to make your plan in
regards to each goal.
Step 1, what do we want?
Step 2, why do we want it? We
need to have a big enough reason to
motivate us.
Step number 3, make an actual plan and
keep it simple
because complexity is the enemy of execution.
So if we keep things simple, then we'll
go out and execute. Number 4, we need
to actually go out and take action
and evaluate our progress.
And if things are not working, we need
to find out the reason why it's not
working. And number 5, to ask Allah and
believe with certainty that he's going to give
us that which we want. May Allah
allow us to reach the month of Ramadan
and make this the best Ramadan ever and
may he forgive our sins
and make us amongst those who we freeze
from the hellfire.
Until next
time.