Don’t Be Shy, Ask For More

I’m sure many of you have come across the quote “ask and you shall receive”. I was thinking about it the other day and realized how true it actually is. For many people I know (myself included), we currently have exactly what we prayed/visualized for a while ago. That being said, why do we tend to limit what we ask for?

In today’s post, I’d like to look into the aspects of asking for more and dreaming without constraint. We’re obviously limited by certain factors, but it doesn’t mean we can’t strive for more than what we can currently comprehend achieving. Let’s look into the concept of dreaming/goals, how we can ask for more, and what to do once we get what we wanted.

Dream Big

We are our own limit. Most of the time, it is our internal self-talk that prevents us from dreaming big. It can also be the people we’re surrounded by who may themselves be limited in their imagination. But ultimately, the ability to dream big and aim for the stars lies within our mind.

If you have to really think your maximum potential, it would probably overwhelm you. Firstly, because you’re not necessarily anywhere near it. Secondly, because you’d probably achieve so much more than you thought was humanely possible.

To dive deeper into that, it basically means that we can be afraid of our own success. Now that’s a trip.

Dream it. Believe it. Achieve it - QuotesBook

So how do we even dream ‘big’? The best place to start is to by just dreaming at all. Have some form of exciting long-term goals. Think about where you want to be in a few years time. Think about your career, academics, relationships, fitness and spirituality. Jot down the ideas that come up on a piece of paper and just brainstorm.

Once you have those written down, think about how you could stretch them out even further. Sure, there’s a typical timeline for climbing the hierarchy in your organisation. Why don’t you aim to be an anomaly and do it faster than ever before? The best part is, even if you fail at the ambitious goal, you’d still make far more progress than you would have if you decided to stick to the way ‘things are normally done’.

That’s how you can try to dream big. Don’t be limited by your own beliefs or what people tell you. Pray for what you want and work hard (and smart) towards achieving it.

Keep Praying (and working hard)

A reflection that I’d like to share with you all is that of praying and visualizing your goals. Something that I was taught at a very young age was to make ‘Duaa’ for whatever I wanted, which is the Islamic term for praying to God. So growing up, I made Duaa for everything. Good health, a loving family, great friends, a successful career, a beautiful spouse etc.

Obviously there were times when my Duaas did and didn’t get accepted. I ultimately believe that “What’s meant for you will never miss you, and what misses you was never meant for you.”

But the point I’m trying to make is that it was a way for me to ask for things, and not from people. That was incredibly liberating for me, as it reduced my neediness on other people. So when I started praying, it gave me a goal to strive towards. That’s the other crucial point.

What I learned later on in my life is that when you attach praying to the concept of visualizing, it becomes a much more powerful driving force and motivator. So for example when I was in undergrad, I used to pray for pass all my courses with top marks and then visualize myself at the graduation ceremony. This motivated to work hard, to keep praying and to strive towards the goal.

I know there can sometimes be a misconception around visualization. The purpose is not just to create a lucrative scenario in your imagination and daydream about it. The objective to imagine yourself having achieved the goal, and to be fueled by that motivation. That should then drive you to work even harder and to keep pushing forward.

Stay Humble and Grateful

The last thing I want to touch is the concept of staying humble and being grateful. These are two crucial elements of having a strong character. The thing about success (in any form), is that it tends to buff up our egos. We feel like we deserve it. We feel powerful to a certain extent. We feel like we are better than other people (which might contextually be true for a certain period of time).

Those feelings/attitudes are quite natural and it’s okay to feel them. The problem arises when we act on them and start to treat people less worthy because of them. That’s when we can become arrogant, snobby and disdainfully proud. The solution to that is self-awareness and a conscious effort to staying humble.

One of my favourite mottos that I have on a T-shirt says:

“Work Hard, Stay Humble”

Being humble does not mean being weak or thinking low of yourself. It just means that you’re modest in your opinion of yourself and understand the complexity and effort put in by all the people in your life, for you to be where you are today. We can act out humility by constantly thinking well of others, by embracing gratitude and by not showing off all of our success.

In essence, what I want you to take from today’s post is that you shouldn’t be shy to ask for more. Don’t hold back on dreaming far beyond what you’re capable of imagining. Keep track of your ambitions and write down certain objectives that can guide you moving forward. Keep praying and visualizing those goals. Lastly, work hard and stay humble.

W. Clement Stone Quote: “Aim for the moon. If you miss ...

Implementing Change

So we’re approaching a new year yet again. I’m genuinely surprised that we managed to survive up until now. I have no idea what 2021 has in store for us, but we’ve already endured enough to take on whatever challenges it brings.

I’ve discussed the concept of reflecting, habits and preparing for a new year before. You can click on any of the hyperlinks to read those posts in more detail. Considering that December is around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling.

Prepare in advance

This philosophy has carried me a long way in terms of getting things done. Whenever we take on a new task, project or habit, it initially seems like a mountain to climb. There’s just way too much to do and it can be very daunting.

The solution? Start before you’re meant to start.

It works like a charm. If you’re writing an essay or a report for example, start with setting up your template before you even get your assignment brief. Maybe even get the introduction in while you’re at it. If you’re planning to start exercising, keep your outfit ready the night before. If you want to get into reading, keep the book by your bedside and read 1 page before you sleep.

“You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.”

It’s more or less about mentally preparing. You’re telling yourself: ‘Ha, I’ve already started… Let’s just continue and make a little more progress.’

Starting is more often than not where the most friction is. If you can find a way to lubricate the beginning, it’ll make your life a lot simpler. Prepare in advance for any of your endeavors.

Write down your goals

It’s as simple as that. Write. Down. Your. Goals. If you don’t know what to write, that’s enough of an indication that you need to start working on yourself. You’re essentially creating a map to direct your energy, perhaps we could call it a compass.

There’s an infinite number of directions that we can take in our lives. We need to figure out which ones are the most worthwhile and aligned with our values. You need to carefully start thinking about this, well before the new year comes.

*FYI, I’m just using the new year as a reference point. It psychologically helps with making abrupt changes in our lives. We should be doing these practices throughout the year at any given point.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.

http://www.wikihow.com/images/1/13/Achieve-Short-Term-Goals-Step-9.jpg

Visualize

Everything we use today is a result of someone’s imagination. It’s been thought of or visualized before. We all operate in a similar way. We’re guided by our thoughts.

Energy follows focus

Keep in mind that the more we contemplate our goals and visualize ourselves achieving them, the more likely we are to relentlessly chase them. You’re constantly reminding your subconscious of what you want. It’s essentially what we do when we pray for things that we want.

Yes, a lot of it is out of our control and somethings are destined for us, while other things are not. That doesn’t mean we should try our best to get what it is we do want. This also works best as soon as you wake up or before you go to bed. Your mind is still hazy and you absorb information a lot quicker into your psyche.

When you do visualize, really put effort into it. Feel the emotions. Feel the celebration. Feel the contentment of working hard and achieving your objectives.

Reflect

We are all just a bunch of mistakes. Each and every day, we make several terrible choices. We also occasionally make a few great ones. The best way to filter those decisions and differentiate between what worked and what didn’t, is to reflect on them regularly. It’s how we make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes again.

Before you go to bed, take stock of how the day went. What were the range of emotions? Did you achieve what you set out to do? What worked really well for you? What was a complete waste of time? What did you learn today?

These are some really great questions that we should keep in mind as often as possible. Don’t ever stop learning, especially from your own life. The treasure is there and it’s infinite, we just need to be willing to dig in.

Change

Now we’re getting to the crux of things. The post today was essentially meant to encourage you take action. To embrace change. To keep striving to improve yourself.

It’s always easier said than done. Something we’ve evolved to do is take the past of least resistance. What does that mean exactly? Well, it basically means that we’ll keep doing the same easy thing over and over again, if it give us average results. But even when we do keep at it, things just pop up and force us to adapt.

“Change is inevitable, resistance is futile.”

Ultimately, what we need to do is become more adaptable. If we start making changes in our own life and gain a new perspective, it’ll mean that we are becoming more comfortable with change. Become comfortable being uncomfortable.

“The only constant in life is change.”

And there you have it; a growth mindset. Which a central theme yet again. Because we are only capable of much more than we think we are. Our greatest limitation is our own thoughts. Remove the sentence ‘I can’t’ from your vocabulary. Whatever you’re overcoming, whatever you’re struggling to achieve, whatever you’ve been praying for, just remember: Not yet.