Think Big Dream High,E47-Thorough Preparation Towards Achieving A Think Big Dream High Vision, Spiritual Strength-Part 4

Purely Faith And Taqwa Society

1.The complement to physical, mental, emotional strength and discipline is spiritual strength. The basis of the spiritual strength is the purity of our mind, body and soul. The purity of our relationship with Allah SWT. The purity of our relationship with mankind and not  forgetting the purity of our relationship with the natural environment.

2.The basis of all these purity is  faith and taqwa. The basis of faith and taqwa is our remembrance of Allah SWT every moment and time. The basis of remembrance to  Allah SWT is by reading the  Al Quran and Al Hadith. The basis to Al Quran and Al Hadith is our understanding, comprehension, appreciation and practicing the teachings found in Al Quran and Al Hadith. Practicing implies making Islam as a way of life, absolute submission to the teachings of Islam and ridha.

3.To built up our spiritual strength does not involve other people. It is about us and our heart. It is within our control and intuition. The most appropriate control and intuition can be obtained through purity of the heart. The purity of our heart can be obtained through completeness of faith and taqwa to Allah SWT.        

Reality in Life     

1.We put too much emphasis on our relationship with mankind. We praised and uphold mankind.The people we looked up to are those that we felt will  benefit us. We ignore the humanitarian issues. We felt that it is not our duty to help our neighbour who is experiencing sudden disaster or calamity. It is not our responsibility to give zakat to those experiencing hunger and poverty from other world communities. Osama,a Mujahid was killed, Obama the Non Muslim was praised and complimented.

2.We ignore too much our relationship with Allah SWT. We ignore too much our relationship with the environment. We give priotity to our work. We give priority to our boss. We give priority to the world’s super powers. We put aside the importance of  having a good relationship with Allah SWT. We often heard phrases, “This meeting is important”, “Boss will be angry”. “There are many more boss’s work that needs to be completed”. After salam of solat fardhu we do not do the sunnat prayers, zikir and doa.We are rushing back to office to complete the boss’s works.

3.No thoughts of having a green environment. No thoughts of picking up and cleaning the piles of rubbish around us. No thoughts of caring for animals trapped by the road side or in drains. No thoughts of helping the poor, needy and unfortunates. We felt that all of these   are not our responsibilities. Our heart is devoid of caring and loving others. These are all 100% the  government’s responsibilities.

4.These are generally the portrayals of the worldwide young executive’s or entrepreneur’s views and behaviour nowadays. They put too much emphasis on work, boss and stakeholders rather than  God or Allah SWT. Religion is none other than just a  culture. They accepted and embraced the principle of same sex marriage, gays rights, and all sort of practices, actions and decisions that are against the religious values. Secularism became their believe. They placed importance on self interest, worldly affairs and mankind. They prioritise physical pleasure rather than spiritual pleasure.

5.The outcome is that their lives are empty. The humanity aspect is absent. The sensitivity to the environment is absent. We have no spiritual strengths. Eventhough we are successful but without spiritual strength, we will not be able to maintain the success.

6. This kind of  success need not necessarily gave us joy and  satisfaction. It is a false, temporary success and will not ensure happiness in the life hereafter. It is more in pursuit of self fulfillment. Our self fulfillment is more a result of making too many assumptions and presuppositions. We assumed that what we are doing is to our boss’s and other people’s liking. We never assumed that what we are doing is for the sake of Allah SWT. 

Tips

1.There are many ways to built up a person’s spiritual strength. There are the Western ways, Buddha, Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi etc. As Muslims, we have our own ways. Our ways are simpler, it involves a process of self purification and increasing the level of faith and taqwa all the time. The basis is also simple. Do good deeds and avoid all wrongdoings or unIslamic activities.

2.The process of increasing faith and taqwa involves purification of the soul. The process of purifying the soul involves banishment of the anger inside our body. At the lowest rung of passion  is the feeling of anger or animosity(ammarah).Followed by apologetic passion (lawammah) i.e. after a wrongdoing or commiting sins. At the highest level, mutmainnah passion i.e. a passion that is calming to us. When we achieved mutmainnah passion, we possessed the perfect spiritual strength.

3.The good deeds that we should practice is simple. As a Muslim everybody knew what is required of them i.e. solat 5 times a day, fasting in the month of Ramadhan, pay zakat and perform the Hajj and Umrah. The good deeds, sunnat to practice i.e. solat sunnat dhuha, tahajjud, witir, solat before and after dzuhur, before asar, after maghrib, before and after isha’ and before subuh, zikir as much as possible, read the Al Quran and Al Hadith, attend religious classes, sadaqah, perform sunnat Umrah, sunnat fasting every Monday and Thursday and on days recommended especially during Muharram, Rejab, Syaaban and Shawal.

4.We commenced our daily activities at 5 am by performing solat tahajjud and witir followed with solat subuh. We commenced our sight activities by looking at the Al Quran and not the internet or TV. The first thing we utter is Bismillah, doa and zikir. We ended our daily activities by uttering Alhamdulillah, read Al Quran and zikir until we fell asleep.

5.This will bring us closer to our Creator, Rezeki Provider, our Guardian and the one who Bestowed us with the good things in life. This is an indication of gratefulness and appreciation to Allah SWT, who is tirelessly hoping that we are successful in this world and life hereafter. We expressed our gratitude not only through words but also by our actions. This way of life will not allow any room for anger that may provoked us to doing wrong things daily. Doing good deeds daily will ensure that we remained cleansed for the rest of our lives.

6.All of these are actually simple and workable practices. Since  our thoughts are focused on worldly issues such as work and other activities, we sometimes overlooked, forget or went unnoticed to do the good deeds. In the end it became tough, difficult and troublesome to practice.

7.We should avoid all kinds and forms of sins either big or small. We are checked or hindered from performing the sins by continuously performing good deeds. This is Allah SWT’s promise. The good deeds will be the barrier to performing the bad deeds. In Islam there is no such terminology as oil and water do not mix or everyone to their own graves to justify committing sins. A sin will always be a sin and we should be avoiding it.

8.Practise makes perfect. Therefore, we should continuously perform good deeds in our daily lives. Little by little we will built up our faith and taqwa. It will bring us closer to mutmainnah passion and the purification of our soul to the highest level. It will enable us to be steadfast in maintaining our spiritual strength. It will complement all of our internal strength. It will bring us closer to achieving  ultimate success, happiness and satisfaction both in our profession in this world and in our ibadat in the hereafter. It will make us realized all of our goals using the sacred slogan of think big dream high and have a strong heart.  

        

  

Think Big Dream High,E46-Thorough Preparation Towards Achieving A Think Big Dream High Vision, Emotional Strength and Discipline-Part 3

Emotionally Stable And Discipline Society

1.Emotional strength and discipline are inter-related. Discipline is relevant in all aspects of our lives. Without discipline, we will not be able to conduct the exercises to built up our physical, mental and spiritual strengths. Our inability to control our stress level and  weak emotional strength will affect our ability to built up other strengths.

2.Thus, the emphasis on discipline to built up our emotional strength should be a priority. Failure in controlling our emotional and stress level will cripple all our efforts to built up our physical, mental and spiritual strengths. This would mean failure on our part to realize all of our dreams and vision.

Reality in Life    

1.We often have angry feelings, bear grudges, deep seated hatred, disappointment, feeling awkward, guilty conscious, not willing to accept apologies and not able to control the pressure and stress level.

2.We placed ourselves at the lowest level of self-esteem and confidence. We have no clue as to how to utilize our ability. We are too humble, we keep things to ourselves, pessimistic and assumed everything with  negative connotations.

3.We felt sad for no particular reason. We felt down, panic, uneasy and sweating even in an air-conditioned room, unable to control ourselves when confronted with pressure. We always felt left behind, a failure when compared with the others. We are unable to forget the dark moments in our life’s history. It remained permanent in our memory.  It made us traumatic, painful and living in fear forever.

4.All of the above feelings are burdensome to us. If we weigh all these, highly likely we will not be able to handle it all by ourselves. It will be even heavier than our body weight by multi folds. The body weight can be reduced with physical exercise and proper diet. The pressure even though not easily reduced as we reduced our body weight through exercise and diet, can actually be totally eliminated. It can be eliminated totally by carrying out the following exercises with full discipline.  

Tips

1. Determine our wants. If we yearn for respect and love then we have to ensure that we are not being bullied by anybody. We need to set the criteria that can invoke the feeling of love and respect from the other party likewise vice versa.

2. If the criteria are being violated then we knew that it will destroy the feeling of love and respect for the other party. We also need to have a tolerance level. For example if our beloved did not sent any messages 3 days in a row after a small fight or argument, then we began to doubt his love to us. We can however compromise that if after 7 days our beloved did not message or call us then our subconscious mind will tell us that for sure he has found a new replacement.

3.When we set our boundaries clear then the feeling of disappointment as a result of being jilted by our lover can be fully controlled. The fact remains that there are millions more girls and boys out there who are far better. We just need to choose one among the millions that really love and respect us wholeheartedly in line with the criteria set.

4.Bury deep in the sea all kinds of burden that we have been carrying all this while. All feelings of anger, resentment, hatred, disappointment, sadness, jealousy, furious etc. as above are actually burdensome to us. We need to consciously realized that all these burden need not be carried around forever. Firstly, we need to get rid of the burden by connotatively setting it afloat until it reaches the open sea. Secondly, let this burden be buried deep in the seabed with no possible way of surfacing anymore.

5.Bury bit by bit all incidents or bad moments that has befallen us. Maybe our parents separated when we were too young to understand and it has been haunting us all this while until it created a sense of deep seated revenge and hatred towards our parents. If we don’t allow the matter to rest, the feeling of revenge  and anger will always remain until it disrupted the smoothness of our lives.

6.If we think positively we need to go back and look at the reality of life. By realizing the fact that divorce or separation between husband and wife, boy friend and girl friend for example, cannot be avoided in real life. By accepting this as a reality of life, it will make it easier for us to forget the bitter incident.

7.We may be a rape victim at the age of 6. It has made it difficult for us to accept this black incident. The traumatic experience remained in our hearts and mind throughout our lives. Thinking positively, we need to accept the fact that what has happened has already happened. We do not want the matter to drag on till we felt down the steps. We do not want one black incident to continue haunting our lives forever. We need to pull the hand brake and  stop the incident from continuing to haunt us as the sayings in the proverb, “Do not cry over spilt milk”. The fact remains that even though we entertained the bad and sad emotions, it will not revert back to the original situation. What we need to do is to move forward. 

   

8. We want profound  happiness, excellence and golden opportunities in our lives. We are confident of achieving them. Why should we think of the bitter past. The gold and diamond mines out there are up for grabs. We know for sure that with the right strategies and mental strength we are capable of owning them all. So do it. Go all the way to get it.

9.Know ourselves in and out. Identify our dreams, our beliefs and vision, our weaknesses and strengths. What makes us excited, happy and satisfied. What kind of impression do we want others to have on us. Detailed out, who we really are. Then state  clearly our dreams. Have dreams appropriate to who we really are then  work hard to achieve our dreams.

10.The physical exercises and hormones secretion by our body have bearings on our emotional level. The best effect for this emotional exercise can be derived if we practice it together with the physical exercise. Physical exercise can assist in controlling the production of hormones by our body. As mentioned earlier, the production of cortisol hormones can be controlled whilst the production of endorphins hormones can be optimized through physical exercise. Both of these hormones have relationship with our ability to control stress, pressure and emotions. The lower the cortisol hormones the better. The higher the endorphine hormones is even better in order to control our stress level.

11.All the above approaches are the various forms of interrelationship between emotional exercises, physical exercises, mental exercises and self discipline. It is not easy to practice but our consciousness and maturity made it easier on us. Ultimately we can practice them in a more conscientious manner.

12.These approaches will allow us to control stress and built up the emotional strength gradually, continuously and permanently. The more earnest our efforts and practices the more stable our mood and emotions. This stability will make it easier to realize all of our dreams minus the mood and emotional disturbances.

         

Think Big Dream High,E45 -Thorough Preparation Towards Achieving A Think Big Dream High Vision, Mental Strength-Part 2

Knowledge Based Society

1.During Hang Tuah’s era, physical strength is given a priority. As human civilization progresses, mental strength became more relevant. We are in the ICT era . Knowledge expanded fast at too quick a rate.  

2.Now, information can be obtained online via the social media such as twitter, fb  on our mobile. We will be left far behind if we are slow  in responding to the latest information. Slow in responding result in countless losses in time and money and these cannot be recouped easily.  We need to build up our mental strength so that we are at par with those who are successful.

Reality in Life     

1.The Chinese civilization started more than 5000 years ago, Egyptian civilization more than 4500 years, the Jewish civilization more than 4000 years, Western civilization more than 2000 years, Islamic civilization  i.e. followers of  Prophet Muhammad SAW’s more than 1400 years and Malay civilization about 600 years.

2. In general, the older or aged the human civilization, the more matured and excellent the race. This implied that the Malay civilization which started around 600 years ago can be assumed to be the youngest civilization. This does not imply that the Malay community is way behind the other world major communities in terms of progress. We can catch up with them in quantum leaps approaches and there’s no necessity to wait 1000 or 2000 more years to be at par with the other communities. How can this be done?

3. As soon as we realize all this, we should work hard and start to build up all of our strengths so that we are not left far behind. As the world revolves and developed, we are confronted with bigger and new challenges. In this competitive world, we need to be strong mentally. In the ICT and  borderless world era, what is required is mental resilience, sharpness, readiness and alertness.   

      

Tips

1.Mental strength is our ability or capability to overcome all kinds of barriers such as laziness, slowness, lifeless, clueless, lacking in ideas ,unimaginative, not energetic, day dreaming, passive, inferiority complex, sleepy and listless, in achieving our goals in a conscious and proper manner. We are conscious of all these disturbances but all we want to do is to get rid of them. It is in a way influencing our decisions and actions.

2.We need to struggle hard mentally to overcome all barriers and disturbances to our success. We need to be active all the time. Don’t be too comfortable, don’t waste time on things not worthy of your attention, make lots of references such as reading, discussion or meetings, watching TV, observing and appreciating the beauty of Allah SWT’s  creations, memorizing verses of Al Quran, doa, perform solat, zikir and sleeping for at least 5 hours a day. All these activities are important  to strengthen our mental capability on a continuous basis. We need to discipline ourselves to practice them at all times.

3.At youth our neuron cells count is about 100 billion. As we aged the cells count gradually decreased to about 50 billion when we reach our 50s, and further reduced to about 20 billion when we reach eighties. The size of our brain also shrunk accordingly. We need to avoid the mental illnesses like forgetfulness,senile and  Alzheimer.This done by slowing down the death rate  of the neuron cells and maintaining the cell count and size of our brains. Through exercises and proper diet with sufficient multivitamins and multiminerals, we can maintain and extend the youthfulness age  of our brains into the nineties or even hundreds.

4.As discussed previously, by exercising our body and brains we can maintain  our mental strengths. We need to maintain the freshness of our brains. We must ensure that our brain neuron cells are not destroyed and eliminated at  too fast a rate. In order to maintain the youthfulness of our brains we need to ensure that it is supplied with adequate oxygen and water. With sufficient intake of multivitamins and multiminerals, we can increase and retain water and oxygen in our body system especially in the brain. The water and oxygen will protect the neuron cells from being destroyed by free radicals in a speedier and multifold manner.

5. Having a good  mental strength has its advantages.  We will be ever ready, alert, sharp, active, creative, innovative, knowledgeable and full of ideas. This together  with the right attitude, maturity, decisions and actions will lead us to confidently think big dream high and have a strong heart. We will be able to face any situations and to accept any kinds of challenges to portray our wisdom and intelligence to compete and grab opportunities in this competitive world.

Think Big Dream High,E44-Thorough Preparation Towards Achieving A Think Big Dream High Vision, Physical Strength - Part 1

A Physically Fit Society

1.Each and everyone of us need to have a vision and goals in life. Our vision must be clear and it must be the best. Our goals too must be the best and in line with our vision. Our goals must be achievable but not necessarily simple. If the vision and goals laid down are too simple, there is no need to think big and dream high as they can easily be accomplished.

2.Even if our goals and vision  are tough and complicated, it can easily be achievable with adequate preparations and planning. Preparations must be thorough and not done in a haphazard manner as this will only lead to failure. A thorough preparation among other things involves building up our strengths so that we are ever ready to put in the effort to achieve our goals.

3.We need to build up our internal and external strengths. All these strengths are within our control i.e. we can make our own decisions and the manner with which to implement it.

4.Internal strengths comprised of physical strength, mental strength, emotional strength and discipline, spiritual strength, courage, the effectiveness of our diet and personal grooming. External strengths comprised of our reaction to the environment which is within our sphere of influence such as  maintaining cleanliness, our social interaction, team effort and contributions to our stakeholders.    

   

Reality in Life

1.Physical strength is relevant in the sense that, by having a healthy body enable us to implement all of our plans and carry out our duties professionally to achieve the set goals. The implementation of all plans must be continuous. Continuity is important.

2.Any health problems will definitely affect our internal and external activities. If there is no continuity, work completion will be delayed and to a certain period, abandoned. Our time will mostly be spent at the clinic, hospitals or in the hands of the masseur. We will be on medical leave, when in actual fact the time should be spent working on our goals.

3.During job interviews, the usual questions  asked i.e. on  education, eligibility, experience and what will be our  contributions to the organization. With the exception of the airline,security and safety industries, almost all employers never posed questions on weight,  BMI or  waist and hip measurements during job interviews. If the  medical report looks ok, we will be offered the job. Logically, if we are obese, our BMI is 27 and our waist measurement is 82 cm, we should not be offered the job.

4. In view that the society can still tolerate obesity, many of our friends who are overweight are holding important jobs and positions. They claimed that their cholesterol level is ok, their BP is ok and their sugar level is also ok. In the long run, they are actually not ok at all. A sense of impending doom awaited them i.e.  if they are complacent with their current weight status. Their obesity will in fact be much worsen. Their BMI will be more than 30 and their waist measurements reaching up to 120 cm. They will be spending more time at the hospital rather than the office.

5 We should not by right, be recruiting them in our organization. Considering their excellent qualifications and experience, we will still offer them the job but with conditions attached. The condition being: report for work in 3 months time with BMI reduce to 24 and waist measurement 76 cm or else the offer will be retracted.

 Tips

1.A person who wants to think big dream high must be slim, fit and presentable. This discussion is not about our appearance but more on physical strengths and health. We have no way of determining our appearance however our  physical strengths, optimal health and wellbeing are all within our control. President Obama is not that handsome neither do his wife Michelle, who is not that pretty. Both however, looked healthy, possessed good physical strengths and looked great.

2.Do set aside not less then 30 minutes a day for cardio or aerobics exercises such as jogging, brisk walking, cycling, going up and down the hill or staircase, gardening, mopping the floor, chopping fire woods, treadmill, cross trainer, rope skipping or cycling. These are good forms of exercises and friendly to our heart and body strengths. These kind  of exercises will help maintain the skin moisture balance, bringing oxygen to all parts of the body cells and balancing the production of various hormones so as to delay the ageing process.

3.We need to build muscles to maintain our body sculpture. Push ups and squatting are the two best forms of anaerobic exercise without having to use the weight lifting machines. Push ups will strengthened the middle and upper portion of the body such as abdomen, waist, arms, neck and our face. Squatting will strengthened the waist portion downwards such as feet, thigh  and lower limbs. The frequency of push ups and squatting is recommended to be about 10 times per set for a 3 to 6 sets cycle in a day. If we have more time, we can make up to 9 sets i.e. 3 sets in the morning, 3 sets in the afternoon and 3 sets in the evening or night time. Push ups and squatting can be done daily within 10 minutes even at the office.

4.Our body needs to have the flexibility. This is important to avoid any forms of injury during exercise or daily activities. Doing stretching or warm ups before and after each exercise session is the best way to achieve a high level of flexibility. Stretching exercises must be done for the whole body i.e. the lower portion (feet, legs and thighs),middle portion (hip, waist and abdomen) and upper portion (neck, arms and chest) of the body. We can do all kinds of  stretching exercises or even similar to the ones conducted in the PE lessons during our school days. It will only take about 7 minutes of our time daily.

5.By having a good physical strength, it demonstrates that we are serious in holding on to the principle of think big dream high. With excellent health condition we become more focus, cheerful, full of confidence and determined in our efforts to achieve our vision and goals.