“There are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting until things change, until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down — until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some major event that must occur in our lives before we begin living.” – George Sheehan
The choice is yours!
TOPICS
Session 1 : Change Begins with Choice.
“Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. How many are left? Answer: five. Why? Because there’s a difference between deciding and doing.” -Mark L. Feldman & Michael F. Spratt
If it is to be, it is up to me! Every day we wake up with a resolution to make that decision – to start the change we’ve been meaning to begin years ago. While we listen to the motivational talk, read inspiring articles and watch others life transform and become better, our inner selves whisper, “it’s time for you to start the change you wanted to”. But as we push ourselves to into making the first crucial step, our minds start to bombard us with excuses to stop and turn back and more often than not, we fall prey to those excuses, “Nah, I’m not ready for changes. Maybe later”, “It’s already too late for things to change.”
If you think it is too late to start now, remember that moving slowly is much better than not moving at all. Today’s problems will still be here tomorrow. The hard reality for each of us is that change doesn’t begin in others. Change begins with us.
And it all begins with your very own power of choice!
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Session 2 : The Ummah is a Stalled Car.
“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” – George Bernard Shaw
It seems we have forgotten the glorious early days of Islam when the Muslims engine were running at full throttle. Not a single dedicated Muslim remained idle. They used all available means to establish Islam and keep the momentum going. But today, we remain in the stalled car that is our Ummah and wonder what can be done. After a while, we notice four very distinct groups of people begin to emerge. The first group is inspecting the car and trying to fix whatever went wrong. The second is asleep inside the car. The third bunch is standing off to the side watching, but doing nothing more. Finally, we have the fourth group which is trying to ensure that the car remains broken.
Clearly, we are at a stage where not a single Muslim can be wasted. Every hand must contribute, in its own way, to restarting the Ummah. This may involve small sacrifices of doing what is needed rather than what we want individually. We need to hone our skills, yet be diverse enough in our abilities to perform a variety of functions. Shall we wait until the Muslim thought collapse, leaving the Muslims with nothing but the Quran and Sunnah, and the memories of glorious Muslim achievements? [1]
Let’s make changes, one layer at a time.
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Session 3 : There’s more to life – bridging the gap between the spiritual and physical self.
“If scientific life is to be real and hopeful and not to end in nothingness, it needs the driving force of spiritual ideals.” -Fazlur Rahman
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Session 4 : Intellectually drained – the reality of today’s leader?
“The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart from the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.”- Charles de Gaulle
You walk into a young Muslim (leader) room and you find on the shelves, DVD’s of current Islamic movies, nasheeds as well as novels; and you speak to yourself, “Alhamdulillah, his soul is nurtured with Islamic entertainment”. Although you can find only a few material that are of the intellectual level (apart from the textbooks of course), it doesn’t bother you that the Ummah today is declining intellectually.
Go to any knowledge retreat or leadership conference. Inspiring speakers appeal to the youths’ hearts and souls and talk about the need to make changes in societies. Discussion after discussion is made. And while we engage in discussions about the affairs that are happening around the world, we forgot that the Ummah is starving intellectually. Often, not much focus is put on the importance of the mind, of the crucial role that good reading and responsible study play in its development.
In reality, when the leaders overlook the need to feed their minds, they often get caught up in idle activities, too many activities, silly reading and leisure habits which lead, finally, to a shallow understanding of whatever that is happening around them.
So how do we address these issues?
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Session 5 : So You Want to Manage Your Time Better?
“Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.” -Stephen Covey
Session 6 : Emotional Intelligence – the Challenge for Leadership.
“Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from the expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear—and doubt. Self-discipline allows a pitcher to feel his individuality, his inner strength, his talent. He is master of, rather than a slave to, his thoughts and emotions.” – H.A. Dorfman
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the general catch phrase for a field of study that is relevant to all of us, because it relates to the most important skills we use every day. And whether you know it or not, these skills – that determine how well you know yourself, how well you deal with all that happens to you, and how well you deal with others – are vitally important to your success.
Plain and simple, all available evidence clearly shows that you cannot achieve extraordinary levels of success, without a high level of competency in the core EI realms. In fact, the professional landscape is littered by bright, would-be leaders with great technical skills that failed due to their lack of self-knowledge, self-control, confidence, or an inability to understand others and build trusting, empowering, mutually beneficial and productive relationships with their constituents.
How can lack of EQ be a challenge for leadership?
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Session 7 : Managing Yourself – Coach Yourself To Optimum Emotional Intelligence.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” -Carl Jung
In life, 80% of the results of what you do are due to EQ and 20% due to your IQ. Therefore when your EQ rises your performance will rise up! But, if you are going to deal with your life successfully, you will need to be aware of the psychological ideas that underline Emotional Intelligence (EI).
The question is, how do we coach ourselves to achieve optimum emotional intelligence?
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Session 8: Putting it all together -What kind of Legacy will you Leave?
“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
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[1] adapted from The Ummah is a stalled car by Nusheen Ameenuddin.
"No foot of a servant (of Allah) (on the Resurrection Day) will move before being asked about four things: his years (age) and how he spent them, his youth and how he worn it out, his wealth and how he earned it and on what he spend it and about his love towards us, the Ahlul-Bait (the Prophet's Household) ". [Sayuti, Ihya' al-Mayyit, Hadith No. 44.].
