...To live a successful, productive, powerful, energetic, fulfilled and spiritual life you have to 'Be Your Authentic Self.'

***What does this mean?***

It means being who you were created to be.

It means your soul being happy in your body.

It means accepting your flaws and shortcomings and working to better yourself.

It means celebrating your strengths and achievements.

It means having an 'Attitude of Gratitude' - thanking Allah (swt) at every point and really truly appreciating from within - from the soul.

And when your Lord proclaimed: “If you give thanks , I will give you more, but if you are thankless, verily! My Punishment is indeed severe.” [Surah Ibrahim 14:7 - partial]

***But what if the 'Authentic Me' is not so good?***

Simple - you work on yourself, daily!

Everyday we work on ourselves to make ourselves better - there is no such thing as perfect but YOU are the perfect YOU and there is only one of you - so nurture the YOU.

'You say that you are just a body but inside of you is something greater than the universe!' Imaan Shafi

You were put in this world as a unique being so celebrate that and allow yourself to grow, learn, develop, mature and enjoy the one life you have in this world.

If you spend a life time of trying to be like someone else then you are only harming yourself as you will never be happy or fulfilled in any area of your life.

Don't compare your life to anyone else - as each one of us has a unique journey and we are all travelling upon different roads.

When you are not the authentic you then you are being one way to one person and another way to someone else - a bit like lying - and we know that lying ultimately hurts only us.

So go ahead, make a vow today to start being the authentic you and working on your daily self-development - at least 30 minutes each day.

When you are being your authentic self then all the doors of opportunities will open up to you, you will make a greater impact in the world and you will be the complete person that you were created to be.

Today's Tips & Action Points:

1. Grab your pen and notebook/journal and write down who you are, who you have been up until now and who you want to be from this moment onward.

2. Schedule in at least 30 minutes a day (to start with) to read up on personal development material (or go through our previous blog posts) and start to put those teachings into practice.

3.  What is your unique purpose in this world and what will you do to make this world a better place? Now go work it! :)

I think this following dua is beautiful.

On the coming of dawn the The Messenger of God (may peace be upon him) used to say in his prayers:

"O Allah (God), illuminate my heart with light, and my eyes with light and my ears with light and let there be light on my right and light on my left. Let there be light above me and light below me, let there be light in front of me and light behind me. O Allah, make me a light"


Leave me a comment below and let me know what message you took away from this post and let's become an active community here who help to inspire and motivate each other towards goodness insha'Allah! :)

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." Albert Einstein

I'm a bit like AE; 'Passionately Curious'. But you and I would agree that AE was talented indeed!

You know, we're ALL talented and God has blessed us all with unique gifts.

When we were little we believed in ourselves. We believed we were superheroes, created to save the world - here to make a difference - we believed we could fly and would prove it by jumping off the sofa, arms spread like wings and in our minds we were flying over mountains and hills and even tall buildings.

We had hopes and wishes and dreams.

'What will you be when you grow up?' Would ask the adults and we would never hesitate to say 'An Astronaut' or 'A Teacher' or ['Insert what you said here'].

And this was all when we were age 10 and under.

So, what happened?

How did our imagination suddenly go into early retirement and when did we start not believing in our dreams?

I believe this starts happening when we start secondary school at age 11 (UK system) and we get focused on school studies. Play is only at gym time and its pretty controlled. I mean you can't run around the gym hall pretending you're a superhero and that you can fly - you'd instantaneously be outcasted and declared the official class weirdo!

But I like weird - and I think I'm pretty weird and NO I didn't run around gym hall thinking I was a superhero! I went to school too AND I guess I was conditioned in the whole schooling system to stop believing in my dreams.

By the way - this post is NOT to undermine our schooling system - I shall leave that for some academic paper lol!

What happens when we stop believing in ourselves?

We don't achieve and start to live a mediocre life.

But you know something - if you've hit a certain stage and age in life (late 20's onwards) then I would strongly suggest that NOW is the time to stop and quit the excuses and to start believing again.

And believe me - I had to do that again! It was PAINFUL!

And if you're in your early years then please DO NOT give up on your dreams!

The thing is - Islam teaches us to have faith and hope and believe in ourselves. 

I mean Allah (swt) does say in the Qur'an that He most certainly will help us IF we take that all important step in helping ourselves.

You know, our pious predecessors achieved so much with so little and today you and I have so much but we waste it all - and usually on social media! (Yeah facebook).

They believed and had hope and faith! And guess what? They achieved!

The thing is we are all talk and no action and our actions are little and we believe we can't achieve.

When a fellow being believes and tries to achieve, we call them arrogant - not realising that in fact they are actually being assertive AND proactive.

We don't support each other!

We need to change that right now - you and I and start to believe again.

Yes, there will be the down days - I have them too - but we have to pull ourselves out of that rut.

I Am!

This is your new mantra from today onwards.

I Am!

And with that add all the positive things you are and want to be.

Even if it sounds fake - do it now - its just your subconscious which is trying to keep you stuck in a rut - and trust me - you don't gotta be in that rut no more.

By declaring 'I Am!' You are being assertive - not arrogant nor haughty. No, you are simply claiming back your rights of being positive again and believing in your dreams again.

Just the way we believe and have hope in God - we need to believe and have hope in all the skills, abilities and talents He (swt) has blessed us with.

Look what the Qur'an tells us and what we need to aspire towards.

"The truthful men and the truthful women, the patient men and the patient women, the humble men and the humble women, the charitable men and the charitable women, the fasting men and the fasting women, the men who guard their chastity and the women who guard their chastity, the men who remember Allah much and the women who remember Allah much - for all these Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward." {Qur'an 33:35}

Subhan'Allah! Amazing or what?!

And before you say; 'Oh but...'

No Buts!!! We are a working progress and each day we work towards achieving and becoming this female or male.

You can be a King or Queen and still be spiritual and upon the deen. Its all about balance. You're a King and Queen of your world, of your families, of your lives. You're worth it! God created you for greatness, so isn't it time YOU stepped into YOUR greatness?

I mean, didn't you grow up looking up to your parents and believing that they were your superheroes? And didn't you secretly wish you could be just like them when you grew up?

And what if you have younger siblings or children? Don't you want to set the best example for them? Is it going to be you they look up to or the next teen pop sensation?

Exactly! You decide right now.

Abdullah bin Umar reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of the people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects: a man is the guardian of his family and is responsible for his subjects, a woman is the guardian of her husband's home and of his children and is responsible for them, and the slave of a man is a guardian of his master's property and is responsible for it. Surely, everyone of you is a shepherd and responsible for his flock."

[Bukhari & Muslim]

But I also have a feeling deep within that you did want positive role models in your life and you do want to be a role model for someone else in your life.

So, right now, I invite you to give yourself permission to be the best role model for yourself. Become the better version of you. Learn from your mistakes. In fact our mistakes are life lessons for us, full of wisdom. Say; 'I Am!'

Take this verse as an inspiration and motivation to act now.

"The servants of the Beneficent (Allah) are those who walk on the earth in humility." {Qur'an; partial; 25:63}

You too can walk on this Earth in humility and excel in your field.

You are created for greatness.

You too can dream and achieve.

Check out today's tips and action points on how to 'Unleash the I Am within YOU!'

Tips and Action Points:

1. Grab pen and paper and write all your achievements to date. I don't care how long ago it was or what it was write it down right now.

- Reflect on your achievements, give shukr to Allah as He (swt) helped you achieve and think of what you want to achieve now insha'Allah. Make a plan.

2. Create a 'Dream Team!'

- This is your own personal team of all A* players ie supporters - who will support you in your dreams and ambitions.

- Become part of someone else's active 'Dream Team' and support them to achieve.

3. Forward this post to at least one person in your life right now - trust me, this one act will have a ripple effect and you might just save a soul today! :)

And finally, here's some inspiration for you to help you believe in you again. Leave me a comment and let me know how YOU will 'Unleash the 'I Am!' within YOU!' :)

George Bernard Shaw was asked on his deathbed "What would you do if you could live your life again?"

He reflected and replied with a deep sigh "I'd be the person I could have been but never was."