EP3 - How To Get Back On Track When The Unexpected Happens | End Ramadan Strong Challenge
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In this episode, I want to share with you my no1 technique for overcoming this struggle of what to do when the unexpected happens and your thrown off course with your goals and that will help you avoid it happening again IA in the future that I call 'the rubber band effect'.
End Ramadan Strong Challenge - Where every day for the last 10 nights of Ramadan, I coming on live to share with you quranic reflections and strategies to help you overcome that Ramadan dip that usually happens around mid-Ramadan, which some of us might find ourselves still stuck in for various different reasons where our physical and mental energy levels, or motivation or productivity, etc have really dwindled away. We are addressing some of those key causes of that Ramadan dip and how to overcome them so we can really power up and end Ramadan strong IA- to help make Ramadan 2021 your best yet!
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
[The following is the full transcript of this episode of The Quran Lifestyle Show]
Asalamu Alaykum everyone, Halimah here your Quran lifestyle coach.
Welcome back to episode 3 of my end Ramadan strong challenge where every day for the last 10 nights of Ramadan, I'm coming on live to share with you quranic reflections and strategies to help you overcome that Ramadan dip that usually happens around mid-Ramadan but which some of us might find ourselves still stuck in for various different reasons where our physical and mental energy levels, or motivation or productivity etc have really dwindled away. we are addressing some of those key causes of that Ramadan dip and how to overcome them so we can really power up and end Ramadan strong IA- to help make Ramadan 2021 your best yet- because it's still not too late Alhamdulillah.
ok on day 1 we talked about how to overcome the sadness and regret many of us have over how Ramadan has gone for us so far and how to overcome the fear of feeling like its too late to turn things around that has caused some of us to end up stuck in that Ramadan dip, through my reset button technique right? and in day 2's episode, we spoke about some of the causes of mental burn out and how to overcome that through what I called the productivity injection technique right? if you missed out on any of those episodes be sure to head over to quranrehab.com/blog and catch up on any episodes you need. well, today i had initially intended on touching on the main causes of physical burn out and share some really profound quranic insight into that but because this episode as you will have noticed actually came out a little later than intended because i had last min guests for iftar yesterday who stayed pretty late i thought instead i would touch on a relative topic to my experience last night that is actually one of the keys reasons a lot of you will find yourselves still stuck in that Ramadan dip right now because of. So to give you a little context about yesterday to begin with, i have a regular time blocked out in my full busy day schedule for specifically preparing the content i want to share with you in these daily lives each night but yesterday, when I was due to prepare my day 3, live we had some last min guests for iftar, and things took a little longer to prepare for their arrival too and they stayed pretty late alhamdulillah, so that time I had scheduled didn't happen but because I've made this commitment to you all, its important to me, I want to be able to serve all you beautiful souls like yourself at this critical moment in our Ramadan journey I had to make it happen somehow right? alhamdulillah now why do I share yesterday's experience with you? well for many of you I know you will have come into Ramadan or as you went along I'm sure many of you had goals set out for yourself right? you had plans or at least in your mind ideals of things you really wanted but as the days passed and perhaps things in your day to day life came into play, unexpected things here or there happened- so you fell ill or one of your children did, or you had last min assignment at uni or extra workloads are given to you or you had unexpected guests for iftar like me, etc- whatever it might have been you found that you weren't hitting those daily milestones towards the goals you set and as that continued to happen on and off during Ramadan what essentially happened is that you lost your momentum, which made you begin feeling bad about yourself, feeling behind and so you perhaps even came to a halt and got stuck in that Ramadan dip. and it causes those doubts crept in that questioned your ability, your worthiness maybe, where you asked yourself whether there was any point, maybe it's just too late- right?
Well if you resonate with this or know someone who you think will, I want to share with you my no1 technique for overcoming this struggle of what to do when the unexpected happens and your thrown off course with your goals and that will help you avoid it happening again ia in the future that I call the rubber band effect.
And the solution here is all about really begin to exercises and developing a critical trait you will find integral to your success in anything in life and that is your flexibility- your ability to be flexible just like a rubber band. because the reality is that from time to time we all experience temporary changes to our regular schedules and time tables; we will have to deal with things that are sometimes beyond our control because life happens but what's so important to realize is that this doesn't mean we can't keep our goals including your Ramadan goals alive. just because you might not get to engage with your goals in the ways we might usually be accustomed to or the way you want and expect, it shouldn't make you panic or feel guilty or make you give up.
ok, so how do we practically implement the rubber band effect technique? well its important to realise first and foremost before anything that there is a time and place for everything that Allah writes for us in life I believe we should be fully present and enjoy the blessings found in those moments of life whether the blessings seem apparently obvious or not- so step one is gratitude for me. so when i had those last min guests yesterday as i mentioned i could have gone into full panic mode or become overwhelmed by the cleaning and food preparation that needed to be done, but it was important that i made myself first stop, step back, breathe and exert gratitude first. so to see that was an opportunity Allah SWT brought to my door to feed the fasting which is a tremendous reward right? so for you, if you fall ill for example and are unable to show up to work on your Ramadan goals like with your Quran goals for example in the way you ideally expect or want to its important to take a moment to realise that for you perhaps Allah swt has given you an opportunity to cherish and care for the beautiful gift of your body that he gave you- to focus on nourishing it with the right food, drink, sleep it needs to perform your ibadah and fulfil the responsibilities he has given you. or if it's your child inshAllah who has fallen ill for example you view this as more quality time you get to spend with your beautiful child that Allah SWT blessed you with. you know even if you have fallen behind on your goals due to pure laziness or procrastination, after seeking the forgiveness of Allah and granting self-forgiveness you can show gratitude here by simply viewing this as an opportunity Allah has lovingly awoken you to in order to help you learn a new lesson from which you can grow moving forward inshAllah. so always take a moment to see the potential good in and appreciate those unforeseen challenges. so to take a moment, breathe and exert gratitude is the best starting place. Step1 But like I said it doesn't mean we cant still keep the development of our goals alive, we need to view our challenges as an opportunity to also exercise and strengthen that all-important muscle of flexibility ia. and we do this, in step two by simply asking ourselves one important question: which is: what one action CAN I take either right now or at any alternative time within the next 24 hrs to help me move forward towards my goal- in Ramadan for example, if your goal for that day was to read a certain Juzz but you are unable as you tend to your sick child why not at least listen to that juz played on audio out loud- because we know Allah swt rewards us by intention and this way we are still directly engaging with that specific goals. or if for example your goal was to memorise half a page of the Quran that day but you will be having guests over at that blocked out time that you carved in your day for your hifth why not choose to reschedule that 1 hour after isha instead of your usual before fajr to do it? when I had guests over for iftar yesterday I had to look at my schedule be flex i had to reshuffle things around to make sure I get on live with you know regardless. so based on what the nature of the challenge is that you face you basically just need to either a) identify alternative pockets of time to work on your specific goals or b) at least identify an alternative action that will still help you develop in that same area of your goal to help keep things alive, to keep your momentum going. you know momentum is built off the back of doing one or two huge tasks but through small consistent action taken every day- and isn't that what Allah swt teaches is beloved to him Subhanallah? you know we see the importance and power of flexibility demonstrated for us on many occasions within the Quran. i will share just one of those great examples from the Quran here with you ia. we see it through the actions of prophet Muhammed PBUH in signing the treaty of hudyabiya right?. For those who don't know the prophet pbuh despite having initially set out having left medina towards Makkah with all the Muslims unarmed to peacefully perform hajj, they were prevented from doing that by the Quraysh. and when the Qurayshes emissaries were sent to negotiate with the prophet, the two parties decided to draw up a treaty amongst themselves. and as some of you know the sahaba were v upset by one of the clauses in that treaty that stipulated that they would only be able to perform the hajj the following year they considered themselves as having been unable to accomplish what they set out to do and thus failed in their goal. but the prophet PBUH happily signed that treaty and Allah swt called it in the Quran called manifest victory' SubhanAllah. although they didnt get to accomplish their goal to perform hajj that year , the prophet pbuh's flexibility he exerted in this situation did yield progress it gave momentum and lead to much success to the Islamic movement as that treaty signified that the Quraysh of Mecca no longer considered Muhammad to be a rebel or a fugitive from Mecca. It also meant thy recognized the Islamic state in Medina. and The treaty also allowed the Muslims who were still in Mecca to practise Islam publicly, so there was no longer a constant struggle between the Muslims and the polytheists, and many people saw Islam in a diff light with many more people accepting Islam as a result SubhanAllah. It even leads to other tribes making treaties with the Muslims too alhamdulillah. , to end here I want to emphasise that what's important to remember when it comes to this topic is that you don't need to delay working on your goals in wait of the 'ideal time' to do it because trust me that ideal time often doesn't exist, it comes down to you actually actively create and carve that time out for yourself in your day or alternatively like i said identifying an alternative but relative action you can take that can ensure you still keep momentum and are progressing towards your goal ia. If you fall behind know the shaytan will come and make you think it should be all or nothing but that isn't a notion in our religion because Allah tells us in the Quran that nothing is lost with him and everything is rewarded by Allah swt no matter how small. just remember Allah focuses on the quality of our intentions in actions, not the quantity. So to summarize here, take a moment right now to breathe, leave what was in the past I the past- how Ramadan has been spent so far- if you need to go back to day one episode to remind yourself of how to utilise that effect reset button technique do that now by going to quranrehab.com/blog ia. and then get excited about exercising and developing your flexibility with this rubber band effect technique by simply choosing to face your unforeseen challenges with gratitude and by asking yourself, regardless of where you are in relation to those initial goals you set yourself at the start of Ramadan,- what 1 action can i take right now to help me move forward towards my goals, being sure to block out specific time in the next 24 hours to do that as well if you use this technique over the remaining nights of Ramadan it will help you get out of that Ramadan dip and when you use it when facing any future struggleS you will find it greatly serves you consistently progressing with your goals IA. ok with that said do please head over to quranrehab.com and sign up to our newletter so you can recieve all the training videos in this end ramadan strong challenge video series im doing every day directly to your inbox so you dont miss out on any of our episodes. ok until the next episode tc wsalam
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