Drops from the Book "Think About It?" by Ali Mujahid

By Ali Mujahid

The Reason of Existence

If we look around us we find everything in nature serves a purpose. The trees, mountains, rivers, lakes, insects are all interlinked to serve a purpose. If we look at the harmony in nature it seems that everything that exists knows it purpose. The only living thing not in harmony is the human being. Could this be the reason for such unrest within our society? That as human being we don’t know why we exist what is our purpose, do we even have a purpose. Personally these are age-old questions, which are answered by numerous philosophers from all time. But here I would like to use this aspect in person-to-person bases.

Each and every individual on this planet is different; each one of us has a different mix of talent. What I would like my readers to do is to write down the reason of your existence on a piece of paper.

This one statement can make the life of an individual more fruitful. Any individual with this statement written down would be more focused towards his/her goals and objectives. The person would develop excellent planning skills and implement them with a passion. If the individual have a strong belief about his / her reason of existence then there is a likely chance that this person would become a leader.

In order to develop a good reason of existence there are basically two rules. First is that it should not be too narrow and secondly it should not be too broad. Let’s take a simple example to say, “You exist only to fulfill your family requirements.” This statement is to narrow. What if God forbid the family dies then there would be no reason for the individual’s existence. Similarly if the statement is to broad like “I exist to perform good deeds in the society”. This statement is too broad and not much planning can go into it. The reason of existence should have a balance.

The question might arise how we can strike a balance. It’s really simply, first evaluate your personality, and look for your strengths. If you cannot find it then ask your spouse, relative and close friends. Then look for the challenges in the society and find out how you can help to make it a better place. In simple words just remember the following formulae: –

Your strengths + Society Challenges = Reason of Existence

Exercise

Write down your strengths List down Social Challenges

_______________________________ ______________________________

Briefly in one sentence describe your reason of existence

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Objectives: – What Are They Good For

Behind every successful human being is his/her thinking process. By thinking process I simply mean how quickly one can generate a new idea. Behind every thinking process there are objectives.

Objectives play a very vital role in ones life. Yet they are neglected by majority of us. In my personal opinion this is simply because we as human being have become quite short sighted. We are more concern about today or most probably tomorrow but we hardly think about ten years down the line. The following are some advantages of laying down our objectives.

Developing Strategies

Objectives are target we are trying to achieve a strategy is how to achieve that target. Planning sometimes backfires for that we try to look for alternatives. At the end a determined individual will not lose hope and always keep trying. This leads us to the second advantage, which is positive thinking.

Positive Thinking

If you are a particular individual who does not give up and always try to make the best out of any situation then there is a likely chance that you think in a positive manner. If you have objective we never give up with in ourselves there is a small voice telling us “Keep Trying”, “It is not the end of the world”. You can easily scan for alternative routes which leads us to becoming more creative. This also leads us to the next advantage which is to become more creative.

Creativity

Creativity is simply about performing a task in a better way, by minimizing your input and maximizing your output. Creativity comes in place when we scan for alternatives route for achieving our objectives. When ever you are looking for alternatives something amazing happens we always discover something new and exciting.

Conflict Resolution

There are many types of conflicts but majority of the time conflicts occur when the conflicting parties have different objectives. The mediator can resolve their issues simply by giving them a common objective. This is one of the reasons why in the time of crisis two foes can become one because of a common enemy.

Wisdom

Wisdom is about seeing the big picture, having bird eye view of every situation and issue. A person with objective would remain focus on his/her objectives. He/she would not worry about small hindrances. In conclusion objectives help us in seeing the big picture. This helps us in becoming wiser.

Exercise

Briefly list five things which you would like to achieve after five years

5
Developing a Belief System

A belief system is the best motivator of any human being; the stronger the belief the stronger the motivation factor. The question arises how we can generate a strong belief system. The concept is very simple and anyone can do it. Human beings make decisions using two factors. These two factors are logic and emotions. So to make our life easy we can easily say that decisions are based on the mind and the heart.

When ever there is a decision to make our heart and mind set to work. These two factors are looking for some sort of justification. Sometime the heart wins and sometime our mind. The problem arises when these two factors are in the collision course. At that point no such decision can be made. This is also one of the reasons why there is an inconsistency in our actions.

If we look at the other side of the picture what if an issue comes up and heart and mind both set on the same task then we see a belief system being formulated. You would witness consistencies in actions.

In conclusion if you are inconsistent in your actions that mean you are not convinced of the task given to you. You have to make sure that you are satisfied with this task emotionally and on the bases of logic. The more you are satisfied with this the better your performance would turn out to be.

Exercise

Produce three things that you believe in. List them down

Ali Mujahid is ex-president of the Muslims Student Association University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma Muslims Student Association’s Council member, khatib, writer and activist. He holds a bachelors in Business and an MBA. He currently resides in Pakistan with his wife and two children.