It is too easy to get distracted

 Bismillah

As the end of Ramadan is coming closer, I am trying to find lessons and reflections that hopefully will serve me better for the next eleven months. One of the signs that your Ramadan is accepted by God is that you continue some of the habits you gained in the month of Ramadan. In addition to fasting from food and water from dawn to sunset, Muslims try to increase their prayers and charity this month. 

I hope to continue the practice of getting up early before dawn and saying a few prayers and hope to also fast at least once a week this upcoming year.

It is too easy to get distracted and fall into the routine of wasting precious time. In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about a habits scorecard. Basically, it is the idea of identifying/documenting your habits and evaluating if each is an effective habit. 

One of my goals is to write something on this blog every day. I hope by the end of April, I am getting closer to being consistent on this. 

Reflecting on the importance of your identity and how this influences your habits

 Bismillah

I just read through James Clear's Atomic Habits Chapter Two, "How your habits shape your identity and vice versa."

My main takeaway from this was the importance of reflecting on your identity to help you establish habits. James Clear advises 'not to have a goal of reading a book, instead, the goal is to become a reader.' The goal is not to run a marathon; the goal is to become a runner."

He gives a two-step process to create a new identity for yourself.

1.  Decide the type of person you want to be.
2. Prove it yourself with small wins.

Chapter Summary (pg 41 from Atomic Habits, written by James Clear) 

• There are three levels of change: outcome change, process change, and identity change
• The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, by on who you wish to become.
• Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. 
• Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs and upgrade and expand your identity.
• The real habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself. 

So, who do you want to become? Who do I want to become?

I want to be a sophisticated, consistent investor.

I want to be a philanthropist who is consistently giving back and supporting worthy intitiaves

I want to be an athlete who consistently lifts and runs 5-6 times a week.

I want to be the best leader who serves and helps his team be the best version of themselves

I want to best son, father, brother, and community member.

I want to be a reader that applies knowledge in creative methods.

I want to be a writer who consistently generates content that uplifts and inspires people

Step One of the two-step person written down. Now, I need to work on creating small wins to support these goals.

Hope you figure out who you are trying to be!

Make the most of the rest of Ramadan and establish good systems (James Clear's Atomic Habits)

Bismillah.

Almost half of Ramadan is finished, and I'm trying to understand how much I have grown spiritually and/or updated my habits. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for 29-30 days consecutively during the month of Ramadan. Beyond not drinking and fasting, Muslims are supposed to become more God-conscious and give back more to their community during this month.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Whoever does not give up false statements (i.e. telling lies), and evil deeds, and speaking bad words to others, Allah is not in need of his (fasting) leaving his food and drink."

The Prophet is emphasizing the importance of good manners in life and not neglecting this as we are trying to be more God-conscious through actions such as fasting. I'm not sure if I have developed stronger habits during these past 15 days, but I hope I can make the most of these next 15 days. Ultimately, the hope is that Ramadan prepares you for the rest of the year. 

In Atomic Habits, James Clear discusses the importance of setting up systems rather than setting goals to achieve better results. He says, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." 

I believe there is a lot of merit in this philosophy. It is too easy to get caught up in not "seeing" the incremental progress in day-to-day life and getting disheartened about our own goals/objectives. Trusting in systems and staying consistent on "good" habits are strong principles to live by.

Wishing you all success in establishing strong systems in your life.

Reflections on the people around you

 Bismillah

Routines, habits, consistency. 

We hear about these terms all the time. We all understand the importance of incorporating positive routines and habits into our lives. 

Merriam Websters (MW) defines routine as the "habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure"

MW defines a habit as a "behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance

Consistency is defined as "harmony of conduct or practice with the profession." How do we work on building strong, meaningful routines and habits? How do we ensure that we are grateful and fulfilled at the end of each day?

Within the Islamic faith, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him (p)) was asked, "What deeds are loved most by Allah (God)?" He (p) said, "The most regular constant deeds even though they may be few."

Lets plan on discussing these concepts over this upcoming week.

Start with Why - Simon Sinek --> some notes and lessons-

 Bismillah

Altenew's leadership team and I recently read Simon Sinek's Stary with Why. The book is not the easiest to read, but its lessons and concepts are worth reflecting on. I listed some of my notes below. 

Simon Sinek discusses the importance of understanding and clearing expressing a person/company's purpose. This understanding allows a company to be the most congruent version of itself. 

He introduces a golden circle concept where the inner ring of the circle is your 'why', surrounded by the 'how', and the most outer circle being the 'what' and how companies can use these to differentiate themselves successfully. 

Why: What is your purpose? Cause or Belief-

How: Differentiate value proposition. Explain how something is better or different; these are the actions you take to realize that belief 

What: Describe the products or services a company sells or a job function they have within a system; results of those actions; everything we do, our products, service marketing, culture, who we hire.

The above diagram comes from this link (smartinsights.com) 

I appreciated Simon Sinek's quotes on internalizing goals, "when you compete against everyone else, no wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you!"

Reviewing The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

 Bismillah

I read 3/5 of The Gap and the Gain, by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy this past weekend. I thought the principles and concepts presented were absolutely excellent and useful.

High level, the two authors discuss the importance of focusing on your progress every day by measuring it by looking at your past accomplishments, (THE GAIN), rather than an ambiguous ideal goal (THE GAP).

Dan Sullivan says, "Your future growth and progress are now based on your understanding about the difference between the two ways in which you can measure yourself: against an ideal, which puts you what I call 'the GAP' and against your starting point, which puts you in 'the Gain', appreciated all you've accomplished. "

The authors also present the idea of wants and needs; and how one should not tie their happiness or sense of worth to external factors. Basically, if you 'need' something external to be fulfilled, you are always putting yourself at risk. Instead, look internally to find your self-worth and contenement, and turn your needs into wants, thus, limiting external factors' ability to affect you as a person. 

I will plan to share more in the upcoming days, iA.

Take care and be safe

NR

The power of consistency

 Bismillah

Consistency. We all hear about how consistency in thought/action leads to success. How do we make this part of our life? 

One of the Merriam-Webster definitions of consistent is "marked by harmony, regularity, or steady continuity."

Consistency means being steady in your actions in a routine manner to me. There are many habits that I'm trying to make a consistent part of my life (e.g. working out, writing on this blog, learning about investing, programming, community services).

What habit or action are you trying to be consistent on?

Anyhow, hope to share some more thoughts on this in the future.

Be hopeful

Bismillah

Choose hope over despair. Hope is a beautiful and meaningful emotion. We all go through tens of emotions every day. Remember to be grateful for your blessings and try your best to be hopeful.

In my faith tradition, one of sayings of Prophet Muhammad is, “you will not have complete faith till you love for your brother what you love for yourself.”

I find that this state of wanting the best for others is healthy and helps me stay hopeful.

How do you stay hopeful?

Lots of love and peace

Gary Vaynerchuk's Twelve and A Half: Leveraging the emotional ingredients necessary for business success

 Bismillah

So I have been listening to and following Gary Vaynerchuk on Instagram for a bit and appreciate his approach to business. Gary V. is an investor, serial entrepreneur, author, and public speaker.

I wanted to understand his philosophy better and I started reading his book, Twelve and a Half: Leveraging The Emotional Ingredients Necessary For Business Success. 

Gary proposes cultivating and developing the following emotional ingredients within oneself on a consistent basis:

1. Gratitude
2. Self Awareness
3. Accountability
4. Optimism
5. Empathy
6. Kindness
7. Tenacity
8. Curiosity
9. Patience
10. Conviction
11. Humility
12. Ambition

I just finished the introduction and will plan to shares more tangible lessons/reflections in the upcoming days. I believe his basic thesis is to focus on happiness and the importance of using emotional intelligence in leading "successful"/fulfilling lives.

Enjoy this Friday.

Making the Most of Our Mistakes- quick review on John Maxwell's podcast

 Bismillah

Some of our leadership team and team leads recently discussed John Maxwell Leadership Podcast's Making the Most of Our Mistakes.

We had an interesting discussion on the importance of taking advantage of our mistakes in achieving success. 

The podcast shared an Arianna Huffington quote, "Failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success," that set the tone for the discussion.

A basic overview of the podcast is the following:

1. Stop Fearing Mistakes

2. Don’t make the biggest mistake of all: Do nothing

3. Learn from the mistakes of others

4. Focus on progress, not mistakes

5. Focus on the future

6. Don’t make the same mistake twice (Admit it, learn from it, don't repeat it- Coach Paul Bear Bryant)

7. Remember that the size of the person, not the size of his mistakes, determines success or failure

8. Evaluate your mistakes and respond accordingly

9. User your mistakes to take yourself to a higher level

I appreciated Mark Cole's advice on John Maxwell's lessons: "Our attitude toward our mistakes will determine our altitude after our mistakes." Cole gives his prescription on mistakes:

1. Fail First

2. Fail Fast

3. Fail Frequently

4. Fail Forward

The main thesis here is to be courageous, reflect, and take action. It is too easy to second guess our next move or action, and ultimately not make significant progress. We should plan and take tangible steps forward towards our goals and aspirations on a routine basis.

Anyhow, hopefully, this summary and reflection were beneficial to you. Talk soon. Thanks, Marie for the reminder to write the blog post.

The Power of Full Engagement

 Bismillah:

As I jumped on the computer this morning, my first instinct was to take care of tasks of some sort: I entered the URL address for our payroll site. Before logging in, I picked a book from my bookshelf and started reading The Power of  Full Engagement, written by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Let's work towards growing in perspective and expertise a bit each day, iA.

The authors make the assertion that "Energy, Not Time, Is Our Most Precious Resource." I can definitely relate to this. I am definitely more productive and inspired when I'm focused and energetic. 

They outline 4 principles that will help individuals become fully engaged:

1. Full engagement requires drawing on four spearate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiratual
2. Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermitted energy renewal
3. To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do ("We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity")
4. Positive energy rituals-- highly specific routines for managing energy-- are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance

I will try to add some more notes from this book as I continue reading-

NR

Write something

 Bismillah.

I follow Seth Goodin and he recommends writing something every day. Writing is always listed on my calendar, but it seems that I never get around to it.

Anyhow, I hope today is the day I begin this habit and hopefully, we will get to some consistency as we move forward.

Perspective. Gratitude. I believe it is important to reflect on your blessings on a routine basis. This reflection brings comfort and sets the tone for each day. Believe in yourself and always strive to want the best for others.

Till next time- 

The Difference Maker- attitude- John Maxwell notes

 Bismillah.

I'm reading The Difference Maker by John Maxwell with one of my teammates. See below for notes from the book. I believe John Maxwell's reflection below is the best summary of the book-. Maxwell advises the importance of leveraging a positive attitude and explains how to deal with 5 Attitude obstacles in this book.   

"Attitude is important. It is so important that is truly is the difference maker. It isn't everything, but it on thing that can make a difference in your life."

How to make your attitude your greatest asset:

1. Take responsibility for your attitude
2. Evaluate your present attitude
3. Develop the desire to change
4. Change your attitude by changing your thoughts
5. Develop good habits
6. Manage your attitude daily

Dealing effectively with discouragement-->

1. Get the right perspective
2. See the right people
3. Say the right words
4. Have the right expectations
5. make the right decisions

  Get the right perspective (remember discouragement is temporary)

• take a good look  at the whole picture
• take a short look at the problem (focus on solutions)
• take a close look at yourself
• take a long look at successful people
• take wide look at the possibilities

Change

1. you must make a commitment to pay the price for change
2. change must happen within you before it can happen around you, and
3. its never too late to change

Problems:

Perspective on problems:

• problems are everywhere, and everyone has some
• our prespective on the problem, not problem itself, usually determines our success or failure
• there is a difference between problem spotting and problem solving
• the size of the person is more important than the size of the problem
• problems, responded to correctly, can actually advance us forward

Fear:

• Fear breeds more dear
• Fear causes inaction
• Fear weakens us
• Fear wastes energy
• Fear keeps us and other from reaching our potential

How to handle fear?

1. Admit your fears
2. Discover the source of your fears
3. Realize your fears can limit you
4. Accept normal fear as the price of progress
5. Convert fear into desire (Roger Babson, "If things go wrong, don't go with them")
6. Focus on things you can control
7. Give today your attention- not yesterday or tomorrow
8. Feed the right emotion and starve the wrong one

Failure: 

How to profit from failure?

1. Change your attitude
2. Change your vocabulary (failure isn't failure if you do better the next time)
3. Pay little attention to the odds
4. Let failure point you to success
5. Hold on to your sense of humor
6. Learn from your mistakes
7. Don't lose your perspective
8. Don't become too familiar with failure
9. Make failure a gauge for growth
10. Never give up

"Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped." - John Maxwell

Making the most of our evenings

Bismillah.

I am a morning person and thus I tend to focus my energies on trying to make my morning productive. Over this past few weeks, I have noticed that my evenings haven't been that productive or fufilling. This morning, I started researching afternoon/evening habits that can I hope to incorporate in the upcoming days/weeks, iA.

As an aside, I am reading  The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod with one of my teammates. I will plan to share some of lessons learned from this book in the a few days.

Going back to making better use of afternoon/evenings, I didn't see any books that popped up easily with my initial Google searches. I did find some of articles and will share some those links below.
John Rampton from Entrepreuner.com wrote the following piece: 11 Afternoon and Evening Routines That Will Make You Much More Productive Tomorrow. 

His list of routines include the following:

1. Stop while you are ahead
2. Get up and Move
3. Take a micro nap
4. Save the easy stuff for last
5. End your workday on a high note
6. Chillax when you get home
7. Do one more thing that you love
8. Eliminate negativity and reflect
9. Prepare for tomorrow
10. What good did I do today?
11. Turn your bedroom into a cave

Thomas Oppong from medium.com wrote the following article:  8 Powerful Evening Habits That Will Prepare You For a Better Tomorrow. He included the following habits:

1. Get ready for tomorrow today
2. Create a shutdown ritual
3. Establish a restorative place to unwind
4. Make time to reflect
5. Focus on mastery experiences
6. Read something you enjoy
7. Cut out the blue light
8. And prioritize sleep

I  haven't really been as structured on my evening habits. I plan to try some of the aforementioned routines and see how that changes my evenings. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have figured out to make the most of your evenings and/or are working to making your evenings more productive.

Take advantage of 5

 Bismillah.

The Prophet (S) says, "Take advantage of five things before 5 others.. 

1. your youth before you become old; 
2. your health, before you fall sick; 
3. your wealth, before you become poor, 
4. your free time before you become preoccupied, 
5. and your life, before your death."

This is an excellent reminder to prioritize life's blessings before they are gone or diminished. 

John Maxell says in his book, Today Matters, "You will never change your life until you change something you do daily."

Lets always be proactive in the way we approach life and our daily challenges.

Have a wonderful and productive Friday- 

Fail or Succeed Quickly

 Bismillah.

Failing or (succeeding) quickly allows us to test hypothesis or potential solutions efficiently. I am a believer in executing on your vision or idea as quickly as possible so that you can either build on your idea and/or move on to your next contribution to the world. 

John Maxwell writes in his book, Failing Forward, "The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure."

John Maxwell also cites a Thomas Edison quote, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

I haven't read the full book, Failing Forward, but Maxwell's main thesis to redefine how we look at failure and treat it as a stepping stone towards success.

notes from today matters by John Maxwell

 Bismillah.

I'm reading Today Matters 12 Daily Practices to guarantee tomorrow's success by John Maxwell with one of my teammates.

I listed some quotes from chapter one that resonating with me. In terms of reflection, John Maxwell’s main point is to take full advantage of today, don’t stress about what happened yesterday, and don’t push off something worthwhile to start tomorrow. 

Hope some of the notes below inspire you to make the best use of today. I’ll try to add more reflection in future posts IA.

"Real, sustainable change doesn't happen in a moment. It's a process."

"Growth comes from making decisions and following though on them."

"The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda...Successful people make right decision early and mange those decisions daily."

 "One today is worth two tomorrows; what I am to be, I am now becoming." Benjamin Franklin

Today can become a masterpiece

The only adequate preparation for tomorrow is the right use of today.

Today's Priorities give me Focus

Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing." Michael LeBoef

Ralph Waldo Emerson advised, "Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."

Priorities help us to choose wisely. Author Rober J. Mckain says, " The reason most goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first."

John Maxwell recommends asking yourself three questions when determining your priorities:

1. What is required of me?
2. What give the greatest return?
3. What gives me the greatest reward?

Today's Health Gives me strength

Successful people make the major decision in their life early and mange them daily.

Today's family gives me stability

Decide on your philosophy

1. Commitment to God
2. Continual growth
3. Common experiences
4. Confidence-- in God, Ourselves, and others
5. Contributions to Life

Today's thinking give me an Advantage

1. Big Picture Thinking
2. Focused Thinking
3. Creative Thinking
4. Realistic Thinking
5. Strategic Thinking
6. Possibility Thinking
7. Reflective Thinking
8. Questioning Popular Thinking
9. Shared Thinking
10. Unselfish Thinking
11. Bottom-Line Thinking

Today's Commitment Give me Tenacity:

Today's Finances Give Me Options

Today's Faith Give me Peace:

Self Evaluation 

1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitude daily
2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily
3. Health: Know and follow health guidelines daily
4. Family: Communicate with and care for my family daily
5. Thinking: Practice and develop good thinking daily
6. Commitment; Make and keep properly commitments daily
7. Finances: Earn and properly manage finances daily
8. Faith: Deepen and live out my faith daily
9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily
10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily
11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily
12. Growth: Desire and experience improvements daily. 

Some notes from 7 Habits from Highly Effective People- Stephen Covey

 Bismilah. 

I'm going to try and be consistent on this blog again. I listened to a talk from Seth Godin recently and he spoke of the benefits of writing/blogging every day.

I am currently reading a few books with my team members at Altenew. I will share some of the lessons/takeaways that are in my mind from two of the books today.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People- by Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey discusses the concept of P/PC balance. P stands for production of desired results and PC stands for production capability. He gives an example of a goose that lays golden eggs. Golden Egg in this example would be the P and the goose itself would be the PC. Covey makes the case to nurture both P and PC to be most effective. Focusing on just one of these concepts isn't optimal.

See below for Covey's own words:

Effectiveness lies in the balance. Excessive focus on P results in ruined health, worn-out machines, depleted bank accounts, and broken relationships. Too much focus on PC is like a person who runs three or fours hours a day, bragging about the extra ten years of life it creates, unaware he’s spending them running. Or a person endlessly going to school, never producing, living on other people’s golden eggs-- the eternal student syndrome

The P/PC concept instilled a stronger initiative in me to produce more results  (i.e. share my own golden eggs with the world). Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in reading and learning, and not spending enough time in executing and contributing to the world. I agree with Covey that there needs to be a balance between developing skills and achieving results. 

For those of you that are not aware of 7 Habits that Covey illustrates as fundamental are listed below:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Thing First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand Then to Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John Maxwell 

Out of the 21 qualities of a leader highlighted by John Maxwell, the one on Vision probably made me reflect the most.  Maxwell discusses the importance of vision in guiding a leader and helping them provide a pathway for their team. 

On a personal note, I plan on outlining a vision statement for Altenew, my family and personally in the upcoming days. Let me know if you want to compare notes and if you want to hold each other accountable.

Hoping these thoughts sparked something in you to contribute a bit more today, inshAllah- NR

Build to Last continued- clock builder vs time teller

Bismillah

In chapter 2, Collins discuss the importance of being a clock builder vs time teller. A person who can tell time by just looking at the stars has a remarkable skill, but the person who can build a clock that can tell time forever even after he/she is gone is more remarkable. 

Similarly visionary companies had leaders and systems that worked on building lasting companies rather than focusing on increasing one's influence or ego within the company.

In own lives and within our companies, are we taking actions that focus on making the best company or the best possible family, or we taking steps that only benefit us personally? This is my biggest reflection from this chapter.

Build to Last Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Mini Review (by Jim Collins)

Salams all:

I am trying to get back to blogging, iA. The hope is that I can share some of the concepts and ideas that I am reading about in a more consistent manner.

So, I picked up a book I started a while back, Build to Last, by Jim Collins. Jim Collins and a team of researchers performed research of a visionary companies and distilled their findings in this book.
Visionary companies were selected through a CEO survey and typically outperformed the market by 15 X and outperformed comparison companies by 6x

In chapter 1, Collins defuses 12 misconceptions on the visionary company habits:

It takes a great idea to start a company
Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
The most successful companies exist first and first foremost to maximize profits
Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values
The only constant is change
Blue-chip companies play it safe
Visionary companies are great place to work, for everyone
Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change
The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition
You can't have your cake and eat it too
Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements"


Two things that stuck with me from the 1st chapter were that visionary companies were committed to "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAG) and that they were primarily focused beating themselves (rather than competition).

Anyhow, hope I can be consistent with these posts. iA.