Action Amplification

As I sat down to create this podcast , what kept coming up for me was that I could be doing something else , and the reality is that , yes , I could be doing a lot of other things other than recording this podcast .

But I do have a commitment to myself and to you guys that , regardless of who else is on the other side listening to me or not , I'm going to provide unprecedented value , a message that is life changing , and for that I have a very magnetic , mellow , emotional energy that keeps me coming back and recording this podcast week after week .

It does require commitment to actions and it does require showing up over and over again to do the same thing . It requires creativity , brain energy to put everything together and creating a message that is unique to changing the life of a Muslim woman .

So when I was questioning that I really don't have to do this , I tried to think of all of the reasons and the reasons I just mentioned surfaced for me . But another thought that keeps coming up is that I could just be doing something else . I could just not show up and nobody would care .

Well , actually , somebody might care , somebody who's looking forward to these messages and they find something important and transformational , something integrative , even if it's just one thing that they implement . They might be looking forward to this podcast , and this is podcast number 151 , and I'm coming to celebrating almost my third year of constantly doing this .

When I started this , I didn't know the impact it will have . All I knew was that I wanted to give women a resource that they can rely on to implement their own changes . Then I know it was going to have a worldwide effect . Did I know that I was going to celebrate three years of consistently releasing a podcast every Tuesday ?

No , I didn't know any of that , but it didn't matter at that point because I wasn't taking actions from evidence . I was taking actions just for the sake of consistency , and that's exactly what I want to talk about today .

Consistent actions give you amplification of the results through the mere effect of barakah , through the blessings of Allah swt that he puts in your effort when you show up day in and day out . When there's barakah in your actions , you know that you will create a result that's much more profound than you could ever imagine by your efforts alone .

And barakah this podcast has is , of course , not anything I could have ever imagined , and this has become my go-to resource .

For anybody who comes in contact with my work , who's looking for emotional fitness and mental well-being and they don't know who I am or they don't know what this work is about and they're not sure about how much time or effort or money they can invest into this .

And to me , this podcast has become my go-to resource for me to refer to them , and if it resonates with them , great . If not , they move on . No harm done . Inshaallah , they have other revenues and resources that they can find beneficial .

This world is bountiful with Allah's mercy , and you are bound to find something that is befitting your needs , and it's my utmost effort , that it's my message . But if it's not , then you'll find something else . And not only is that okay . I pray for your success , whatever path you choose .

Our Prophet peace be upon him said the most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent , even if it is small , as-sahih Hadith reported in Bahari .

So , going back to this example of not wanting to record this podcast persistently , if I didn't choose to speak to then an empty audience and I didn't choose to be persistent with it , I would not have created this result . Subhanallah , how things have changed . If I fail to upload an episode right on time , the air gets thick with anticipation .

I start getting messages and emails from you guys , but I do upload an episode every Tuesday . Sometimes it's not at the same time and people that are in a part of the world where their time zones are ahead . I start getting messages from them . When is the podcast coming ?

Alhamdulillah , I stand humbled knowing that I've gained trust with my audience not through grand declarations and big gestures , but through quiet , consistent whispers of my weekly episodes .

The reason it feels like a whisper to me is because I did not have evidence that it was going to have thousands and thousands of downloads and I did it in the quietness of my mind , going against all of the visible evidence . The Quranic verse says Surah 30 , ayah 60, . So be patient . Indeed , the promise of Allah is truth .

The action amplification is doing a five minute of effort in one area daily and consistently . If you start saving small amounts of money , it will add up in the end . It's not about waiting for a windfall or monumental success . The real success lies in the accumulation of small , consistent efforts . Just like small efforts amplify , inaction is also a silent killer .

Taking out on action or choosing inaction one day will become more consistent of a habit and that will also show up as magnified results in your life . Just like taking persistent actions amplifies , persistent inaction also amplifies , leaving a large vacuum effect in your life , a large space filled with nothingness .

When I tell you that I just take five minutes of action on a consistent basis and that is what has profound effect on my life , you will have thoughts like that's not nearly enough to complete the task I have in front of me . But this will also lead you to inaction over time which will accumulate , like I said , and it will create a whole bunch of nothing .

So , no matter how inconsequential your brain makes it mean that five minutes of action is going to be towards your money saving efforts , towards your learning to ride a bike efforts towards your gaining your MBA or getting more emotionally and mentally fit with mind management .

No matter how small your brain makes it seem the accumulation of inaction will lead to nothing , when consistent action done for five minutes each day in any of these fields , will lead to action amplification . As women , you are socialized to believe that you have to take big steps right from the start to be able to accomplish anything .

But both Islamic tradition and modern scientific studies have monumental evidence that starting small and ongoing small effort creates a big change . Rome wasn't built in a day . We don't make big changes all at once , but somehow all our brain ever presents to us is evidence against these small actions .

It is our job to go against this evidence and in this podcast I will give you plenty of language to help you shift your mindset about how to work on your dreams in just five minutes each day . And I'm already anticipating your skepticism , and that's okay . That's exactly why I'm here . Five minutes isn't enough . I have big goals .

I don't want to just walk for five minutes . I want to be perfectly fit . I don't want to write some notes . I want to write a viral article or a blog post . I get it , but doing a little bit every day will add up . You'll be surprised what you can do in just five minutes if you do it every day .

Imagine the cumulative effect on your life at the end of six months if you work on one goal for five minutes each day . You'll be much closer to writing a book or finishing your master's or your FIC studies .

You'll be much closer to loving your job or changing your career path or becoming more intimate in your relationship with your husband or any of those goals compared to if you were just waiting around to make a massive leap one day . The brain dismisses the long-term effect of persistent actions because it is much easier to accomplish things than you might think .

Again , women are socialized to work hard and give their maximum at all times . You are welcome to do that , but you don't need to do that in everything . My idea of such a project has to do with me trying it out on a daily basis for five minutes at a time .

An example is that I recently started a wellness initiative at my kids' school where our goal is to get parents to choose as much of a sugar-free diet as possible for themselves and for their kids . And when I say , this effort that we're just starting to implement seems like it just sprung to life .

It had invisible actions behind it and it was a year in the making . Every day , I would dedicate five minutes of thought to this effort . Who will be our resources ? Where are we going to get together scientific information from ? How are we going to bridge the knowledge and the application gap ? How am I going to conduct the program ?

And all of that not only proved to my brain that I could be consistent , it also proved to me that I could sustain it over a long period of time .

My current consistent five-minute efforts include my relationship that are , with my immediate family , my husband , my children , my relationships with my parents , in-laws , relationship with chosen family , like my best friends that are my lifeline . And this is just in the area of relationship .

Other five-minute efforts of the day could include financial situations , my investment portfolio , my wealth . Is it being spent on the right way ? Is it being accumulated for the right reasons ? Other efforts include my passion for art , my hobbies , travel plans . Five-minute efforts towards community how and what am I giving back to them ?

Efforts towards a chosen profession that I hold a license in as a physician . Effort towards memorizing the next ayah of the Qur'an . So some of you might be wondering about the next natural question , which is how can I take such a monumental part of my life as a relationship with my children and only do it for five minutes a day .

And that's not the challenge here . The challenge and the real question to ask here is what can I do towards the benefit of my relationship with my children that's going to help me grow in this area and will benefit all of the people involved , and that only takes five minutes to think about it .

In that sense , I'm not asking you to spend just five minutes with your children a day . I'm asking you to put five minutes of consistent efforts in an area where you think you need to grow in those relationships .

The real question you should be asking to gain the baraka in your action , to amplify your actions , is how can I take a large goal and just break it down to five minutes of action time a day and this is a recent concept that I learned from a coach of mine , but I've expanded it to apply everywhere and these five minutes can include just you thinking about

the plan and you just creating a picture in your mind , trying to gain more clarity about it .

What could be the possible next steps ? What should you avoid doing ? That will not bring you any closer to your goal . What the five minutes of persistent action does not include is mind drama .

Let's say , if you're trying to be consistent with your prayers , five minutes of daily action could mean possibly considering how would you benefit from this , rehearsing the belief that the prayers are for Allah , just doing the mental practice of becoming a person who is more consistent with the prayer .

When you think about the ultimate goal of praying five times a day or adopting a more modest clothing choice , or if your next aspirational goal is just to stop wearing shorts , then your five minute action a day towards the goal just becomes . Start to think about how can you make it possible Along those lines .

The five minute action does not mean to start judging yourself for not being able to do any of these things . That is the source of biggest burnout that people create for themselves before they even create any sort of measurable small change .

Action amplification will halt if you come to judging yourself for not being consistent and not having achieved your vision already . The five minute action towards the goal will not have a large dopamine hit . It will not create a large pleasure effect of immediate gratification , but that is what you need to build a legacy . This is working towards the long term .

Maybe sometimes a sentence that I say in these episodes create a shift , but most of the time it does not create a landslide effect , and that is what the brain desperately craves . It wants to see big changes immediately , and that , of course , will be true for you as well .

When you start to become consistent with just one action , your brain will immediately go into screaming mode , and it is so important that you call it out and that you recognize it and you label it and you don't give in to the pressure of the brain screaming for immediate gratification In an attempt to gain a large pleasure . Hit .

Your brain will show you all of the evidence how what you are doing is not important , but your job is to just come back to your practicing and taking five minutes of action in the face of lack of evidence . And those are the people who succeed , those are the women who leave a legacy .

In the Quran it says so whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it , and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it . Sura 99 , is-7 and 8 . This is the go-to thought that I deliberately practice , when my default brain offers me that what I am doing does not matter .

It does not seem to be making a difference , and this is the automated version of being a human . It's the toddler's brain job to throw a tantrum Every time . There is no evidence of immediate gratification , but the key is to harness the amplifying power of your actions .

When you find your true purpose , you create , imagine the evidence of all of the benefits you will gain down the road and you use it to create momentum for yourself .

Now you notice that the evidence of your success will start to emerge just through that effort , and it will be monumentally more than what you expected , because of the effects of barakah , the effects of action , amplification , and it will be directly from Allah , inshallah . Consider your brain as a house . If you continuously neglect it , then chaos is inevitable .

Same thing with your consistency of inaction . That will result in the chaos of your brain , but in the craving of immediate gratification , the brain conveniently omits this information . Your job is to clean one drawer at a time and honor yourself for that 5 minute effort and focus on your momentum based on these 5 minutes , and the time and effort will add up .

In my opinion , the better goal for me is to teach kids to keep up with their maintenance of the room . I would rather spend 5 minutes a day teaching them basic cleanliness and independence rather than 5 minutes of me picking them after them . I consider that time well spent .

Teachers have responsibility and they have the freedom to learn from their own mistakes under your guidance . Another thing that is so fascinating to me is that consistency is everywhere in nature . There is consistency in the cycles of the day , the seasons , the human beings , life .

There is predictability , there is repetition and there is always reliability , all happening through the will of Allah and optimally . We are learning these lessons from the design of Allah and implementing it in our life , compared to implementing what the western education system teaches , and that is work like a machine until there is nothing else to give .

If you pour a daily dose of negativity in your mind , that's what's going to amplify over time . If you choose to listen to the news that overwhelms you , there is less and less chance that you will be able to do something about the situation from that overwhelm .

But with the action amplification method , maybe the 5 minute action you take is to protect your sanity , but also might choose to take actions in the area of your influence , things that are in your control , without creating overwhelm , taking the unknown effects of the social media .

As the algorithm tries to figure out what you will be interested in , those little exposures have an amplified effect over time . The algorithm doesn't care if the message is negative or positive for you . All it cares about is your attention .

Let the consumption of social media be very deliberate and intentional Because no matter how much you think that a small snippet of a video doesn't affect you , subconscious mind registers it and the effects of each video and each moment spent like that are amplified over time .

If you want to become a published writer and if you find the idea of finishing a book rather far reaching and distant future , then maybe 5 minute action for you in a day is starting to believe about yourself that you are a person that can write a book or you're becoming a person that can write a book .

The initial 5 minute might not even include any writing .

It might just include giving the right type of attention to the topic , apart from the toddler's brain , that's , the brain that's constantly looking for immediate gratification and drama , but attention from the higher brain that has the foresight that tells you that I've seen you as a published writer , as an owner of a business , as an owner of a house , something that

you want to create in the future , something that you don't have any active evidence of now . Reflect on your life's choices . Some are like treasures that have magnified into fortunes , while others might be like chains that pull you down . The ripple you start today will become the wave of tomorrow . Learn the skill of harnessing the power of action amplification .

The name of Allah that I invoke when I'm having a difficult time envisioning my daily , consistent efforts towards a goal is Al-Mateen the firm , the steadfast . Since we are created in Allah's qualities , remembering this name evokes a sense of unwavering resilience , because you carry that within you .

Regardless , breaking a goal into tangible steps is not going to be done unless you follow through with steadfast , determination and consistent action . If you're facing a challenging project at work or there's a life situation that you don't know how to handle , make Dora and invoke the name of Allah , al-mateen , for inner firmness and steadfastness .

When it comes to building relationships , whether familial or romantic or platonic , every relationship goes through trials . These are the time when Al-Mateen's essence will provide the resilience you need to strengthen your bonds .

Action amplification in this context means not just reacting to situations , but being proactive and understanding , being forgiving , rebuilding or even leaving a relationship if that's what's better for your faith . In your quest of knowledge , of higher education , many times there are moments of doubt , challenges , information overload .

By invoking Al-Mateen , you can seek the firmness required to persistently pursue actions . You can seek the firmness required to persistently pursue knowledge Action .

Amplification here involves reinforcing your study techniques , being consistent in the art of your research , continually seeking to understand deeper , correct the thought errors that for you to accomplish something you have to do backbreaking work . You can do that if you want , but you can also do all of that work and have it feel easy , and that's okay as well .

With that , I pray to Allah SWT that you see evidence of fruits of all of your consistent labour in this life and that you become an example of what's possible . Ya Allah , the firm , the steadfast , grant us the unwavering persistence of actions as we strive to build and maintain our faith , relationships and prosperity .

Guide us consistently when we seek knowledge and let us remain steadfast . Lead us to financial abundance . Lead us to peace on the planet . Allow us to give generously , allow us to stand against oppression . O Allah , al-mateen , draw us closer to the best version of ourselves in this world and securing a blessed place for us in the afterlife .

Amen yadabu l-alamin , please keep me in your dhuras . I will talk to you guys next time .