I woke up on Saturday morning, not too early and this blog idea came to my mind so I got out of bed grabbed my notepad (got back into bed) and jotted down two pages of notes.

There are many blogs and articles that tell you to believe in yourself, to take the first/next step, ‘achieve greatness’ but what IS that exactly? It’s interpreted differently to every single person. It can be hard to gain inspiration, they’re becoming generic. The positive words are one thing – ‘you can do it’, ‘hang in there’ but not much practical and systematical advice.

I get inspiration from a lot of places, Babar’s blog post about him starting his honey company is for sure one of them. I see disabled people all the time, they don’t let their disability stop them getting out and about by themselves to do their daily duties and living their life.

I’m currently reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography – Long walk to freedom and I’m extremely inspired by this man and the way he conducted his life. I will write a few blogs on the book God willing. One of the main things I take from the book is that life goes on  and we must continue to do good in the hardships and struggles and continue to keep striving and bettering ourselves. An example, when Mandela was in prison on Robben island for 27 years, he still studied for his law degree, took on legal cases in prison and never stopped fighting for their rights in prison.

Muhammad Ali – The Greatest

Muhammad Ali was the greatest and the greatest example that comes to my mind of someone projecting that to others to make them believe it.

He projected to the world that he was the greatest and we all believed it, inside the ring and out. To his opponents in the ring he made them believe how dare they even have the audacity to believe that they could beat him and they didn’t 🙂

Ali said that he didn’t believe he was the greatest but he said it, in turn making us believe then working hard and becoming that.

We HAVE to believe in ourselves

Without self belief in ourselves and our abilities, we cannot achieve what we want to achieve. Also with that we have to LOVE ourselves. If we do not believe in ourselves and love ourselves how will others? It is not their job to do that. We have to project this self belief so others will believe in you, for a job position, as a parent, a husband, whatever it is we want to achieve.

People want value from you and what you have to offer and bring to the table and every single person has that, just everyone doesn’t believe they do.

This is also coupled with confidence, self-esteem and working hard. There’s a line between confidence and arrogance. We become more confident with things we are familiar with, so if it a subject or a craft, we have to study and learn it to understand it and become great at it.

If one is lacking in areas of confidence and self-esteem, there are many videos online and books that one can watch and read to help themselves. If you do not help yourself seldom few will. A book I’m currently reading that I have found useful practically and for my mindset is emotional first aid, it has chapters on different areas that I find very relatable that I struggle with.

Don’t let them tell you, you can’t

I’ve noticed, that people are often negative about someone doing something for two reasons, either they’re fearful that they themselves cannot do it and they’re projecting or jealousy.

Everyone is created weak. Some may hide it better than others but for sure they have their weak moments and spots. Don’t let others make you feel you are weak and they are not.

Everyone has bad days, we know this but what do we do in those bad days?

You might often feel like you’ve taken one step forward and three steps back, one day for you five against, knocked down repeatedly but as the cliché goes we don’t stay down. Even when we’re down we have to do something, anything, something small, you may slow right on down but never stop.

Visualise this, building blocks, some days you may have many large one’s, some days just one tiny one but you add it to the pile and it keeps building and it SHOULD feel like you’ve achieved something TO YOU. Forget what others say, many don’t really care anyway and people don’t ever stop talking. Don’t get me wrong this is not an overnight thing but a consistent building up of ourselves overtime with a lot of effort and hard work.

What CAN you do

I believe a dream has to have a thorough plan and we all need a purpose.

It starts with ourselves first, then our families, then our local communities and then farther after that. We cannot be in any position to do anything for anyone else till we help ourselves first.

So start small, micro – do something daily that will benefit you or write a list of 3 things you want to achieve and do it every day and when you have achieved them, tick it off. Do this consistently and build. If you want to get fit start going for walks, then increase to going for jogs. If the current climate is bothering you and you want to have your say start a blog, write 250 words or 1 or 2 pages in a notepad. I started reading a page of Quran everyday and now I can’t go without it, I’ve been doing it for a while, small but consistent.

You don’t need to be in the public eye to make a difference, you don’t have to be a Linda Sarsour or a Haitham Al Haddad but our daily actions and interactions matter. A simple smile can make a difference, it can diffuse tensions that we feel on the streets daily because we are Muslim, create conversations it is also a good deed. We need to get these things into our system, smile at just one person today, I know for us Brits it can be tough 😉

What can one person do? A lot, we are all one person that need to work on our talents,  united we are an ummah that can benefit, so be proactive not reactive everyone is needed.

If everyone was a doctor we would all be walking around in dirty streets.

Jealousy and envy of others will not grant you success quicker but just affect one’s own heart.

I started this blog with one post with just over 600 words in August 2016, I’ve been posting consistently since and now I’m thinking of expanding upon this and it all stared with just one blog. UPDATE – I’ve bought a website name & I will be starting to create my own website in July 2017 God willing. Almost a year from when i published my first blog. I’ve come along way and I’m proud of my consistency and what I’m trying to build and as i said it all started from one blog… SO GO DO IT!

Btw I’ll rate you if you know where the photo at the top is from..

SO, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE TODAY?