badrobot14
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Assalamu Alaykum Everyone.
It's a good time to start making resolutions for the new year. What changes do you want to make in your life and what would you like to improve? As you know most resolutions only last a few months if that. So here are a few tips to help you follow through:
1. If you make a resolution, make it public and tell your friends and family about it. If you keep it to yourself there's more of a chance you'll not follow through. When people know, they will check up on you and not wanting to fail in front of them will motivate you to keep going. E.g. you want to run a marathon, memorize 10 parts of the Quran, or lose or gain weight. When all my Facebook friends know I plan to take part in the July marathon, they will ask for updates and I will put more of an effort to not fail in front of them.
IMPORTANT: If there are people who tell you that you can't do it, keep those "friends" away from you if you can.
2. They say that it's easier to make resolutions to change negative things than it is to acquire new positive traits. So your resolution could be to never lie, stop drinking sodas (pop), stop wasting time etc.
3. If you resolve to change a bad habit, you need to understand what cues trigger the habit. If you can find out what triggers it, changing the habit will be much easier. E.g. someone watches haram things online. This could be due to stress believe it or not. A person has a very stressful life or job, so when he gets home he looks at haram, which releases chemicals that cause him to relax and now he is able to go to sleep. One of the ways this person can stop this addiction is to start by eliminating stress from his or her life (read more about habit change and the power of habit).
4. Make sure the change you want to make is not too vague. "I will increase my Iman", is too vague and probably can't be quantified. I will share a more quantifiable technique later on Insha'Allah.
5. Small changes are part of the bigger change. E.g. Weight loss. It doesn't always have to be major changes to diet, it can be something as simple as removing all carbonated drinks from your diet or maybe just sugars. 200 years ago, people living in America consumed about two pounds of sugar in a year. Today it's about 150 pounds a year! There are people who made dramatic weight changes without dropping bread or meat from their diet, just removing sugar goes a long way.
6. Be realistic, make sure it's something you want to do, and if it's religious make sure it's for Allah's sake alone.
These are just some quick thoughts. Do some further reading, think carefully and then post your resolutions on your page (not mine). I will post one or two as well IA.
Wassalam!
-------------------
written by sh. Kamal el Mekki.
It's a good time to start making resolutions for the new year. What changes do you want to make in your life and what would you like to improve? As you know most resolutions only last a few months if that. So here are a few tips to help you follow through:
1. If you make a resolution, make it public and tell your friends and family about it. If you keep it to yourself there's more of a chance you'll not follow through. When people know, they will check up on you and not wanting to fail in front of them will motivate you to keep going. E.g. you want to run a marathon, memorize 10 parts of the Quran, or lose or gain weight. When all my Facebook friends know I plan to take part in the July marathon, they will ask for updates and I will put more of an effort to not fail in front of them.
IMPORTANT: If there are people who tell you that you can't do it, keep those "friends" away from you if you can.
2. They say that it's easier to make resolutions to change negative things than it is to acquire new positive traits. So your resolution could be to never lie, stop drinking sodas (pop), stop wasting time etc.
3. If you resolve to change a bad habit, you need to understand what cues trigger the habit. If you can find out what triggers it, changing the habit will be much easier. E.g. someone watches haram things online. This could be due to stress believe it or not. A person has a very stressful life or job, so when he gets home he looks at haram, which releases chemicals that cause him to relax and now he is able to go to sleep. One of the ways this person can stop this addiction is to start by eliminating stress from his or her life (read more about habit change and the power of habit).
4. Make sure the change you want to make is not too vague. "I will increase my Iman", is too vague and probably can't be quantified. I will share a more quantifiable technique later on Insha'Allah.
5. Small changes are part of the bigger change. E.g. Weight loss. It doesn't always have to be major changes to diet, it can be something as simple as removing all carbonated drinks from your diet or maybe just sugars. 200 years ago, people living in America consumed about two pounds of sugar in a year. Today it's about 150 pounds a year! There are people who made dramatic weight changes without dropping bread or meat from their diet, just removing sugar goes a long way.
6. Be realistic, make sure it's something you want to do, and if it's religious make sure it's for Allah's sake alone.
These are just some quick thoughts. Do some further reading, think carefully and then post your resolutions on your page (not mine). I will post one or two as well IA.
Wassalam!
-------------------
written by sh. Kamal el Mekki.