
Connect Your Goals to the Hereafter
Chapter 3
We are driven to entertainment because our lives are boring and we have no goals.
The purpose of a magazine may be to make as much money as possible and everything else is in service of that goal. Likewise the purpose of our lives is to worship Allah and everything else is in the service of that goal.
A person’s true wealth lies in the good they accrue for the Hereafter through the works done in this world. The achievements in the time of the Prophet ﷺ were the result of a full participation in this world, not of a withdrawal from it. The only time when withdrawing is encouraged is in times of extreme obscurity when one cannot distinguish between right and wrong, otherwise it is better to interact and be patient with people.
Confused
The problem for a lot of people is that they don’t really know what they want. They have a vague desire to do something “creative” and to earn more money or “to be free”, but they can’t really pin down what it is precisely that they want. Elbert Hubbard said “Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal.”
Your potential energies and dormant abilities will continue to remain marginalised and disabled if you do not stir them and motivate them through having major objectives and radiant goals.
Know what you want and then do what it takes to make it happen.
Align Your Goals
We become stagnant and hold back in committing our full energies when we perceive there to be a conflict between our values and what we want. The idea is to eliminate this conflict and commit to a goal that is fully aligned with your values.
When you have self-acceptance, you rid of yourself of the emotional states that hinder success. You become effective with your time, able to say NO whenever necessary, and committed to doing that which is important and valuable for you and your path.
Constraints Inspire Creativity
Limitations drive you to figure out solutions. If you’re five foot five inches tall and you’re playing basketball, you figure out more creative ways to score than the six foot five inch guy. If you have a one-year-old child that takes up almost every minute of your day, you figure out more creative ways to get some exercise. Time constraints have forced many people to produce some of their best work. This may be why professionals set a schedule for their production while amateurs wait until they feel motivated.
Set goals that are challenging, specific, and driven by your personal values. Not every cause or action is appropriate for every person. It is wise therefore to be somewhat selective about how and where we are using our energy in order to keep ourselves from becoming scattered. By limiting your options to those that fit your values, you are taking an important step to ensuring that your behaviour matches your beliefs.
What constraints are you setting for yourself? What type of schedule do you have for your goals?
Finding a Worthy Goal and Connecting it to the Hereafter
The ability to choose a goal and work toward it without getting distracted is a trademark among highly successful people. They have laser focus, which boosts their ability to think and execute, create a list of priorities and use them to select which opportunities to pursue. Its rare to find someone who continually goes after want they want whilst adding new skills to their repertoire.
We often come across the ḥadīth of “Actions are judged by intentions”, but rarely do we pause or take a minute to fully comprehend its meaning and implications on our life.
The Muslim will receive that which he intended rather than that which he necessarily achieved. For example, Person X intended to memorise Qur’ān in his life and took steps towards it, but for whatever reason he was unable to complete the memorisation of the Qur’ān before his appointment with the Angel of Death.
This person may receive a reward proportional to that which he intended rather than that which he achieved, and thus he could be rewarded as though he had memorised the entire Qur’ān even if he did not do so, depending on the sincerity and quality of his intention.
Ibn Al-Mubarak said, “Maybe a small action is made great by its intention, and maybe a great action is made small by its intention.” — And so even the smallest of deeds can become magnificent with sincerity. Hence the people of knowledge are more intentional and conscious of their worship.
This beautiful paradigm shift turns our attention to the intention rather than the result. And, for the Muslim seeking the highest levels in the Hereafter, this opens up huge opportunities to attain good deeds in the most exceptional of ways. A sincere intention can transform an everyday mundane act into an act of worship, rewarded by Allāh. Our intentions help us to connect the spiritual with the material.
Moreover, this opens up the possibility of turning every second of our remaining existence from being a mere empty pastime to something that will credit our scales in the hereafter and count as worship (‘Ibādah). And thus, yielding huge returns in the next life with the limited time that we have.
Our connection to our creator and the home of the hereafter is the unrivalled priority. These priorities should inform everything else you do. If a project or opportunity doesn’t advance one of these goals, it hits the chopping block. Distractions will slip away and you’ll be better equipped to make meaningful progress in something more worthy of your limited time.
Be Open to Gaining Inspiration in Unlikely Places
Immerse yourself in different experiences and you will find your own way to make an impact. It is often through the process of doing stuff and trying new things that people discover what they really want to do for the longer term.
So you just need to rack up some experience doing anything remotely interesting. If you do it every day, you’re going to develop skills and interests (not to mention courage and confidence) that will qualify you for your next thing, and the next, and the next, and all the way to your “true passion”.
Your own goals may change over time as you explore new ways to contribute to the over arching goals of the Ummah, so be aware of opportunities in your periphery that allow you to add more value.
Goals Require Actions to be Taken Towards its Achievement
Once you have decided where you want to be, you can then plan the logical steps you need to get there. By striving to hit a target that is far away, you’ll be forced to come up with a variety of creative ideas and inventive tactics.
Manage your huge goals by breaking them down into smaller parts. Focus on what matters and create systems to support your mission. The barrier to getting stuff done for a lot of people is that they struggle to divide a large responsibility into a series of discrete, specific, and ordered tasks. You must train yourself to find smaller tasks within the bigger task and double down on the areas that will have the greatest impact for your goal.
A monthly strategy can be broken down into a weekly action plan, where you delineate specific steps that you can realistically do one day at a time for the week ahead. Every action you take should be contributing in some way to these larger ideas. People that leave this off, often fall into despondency and apathy.
Behaviour is Proof
Decide what you care about and act accordingly. People with daily habits and behaviours consistent with their goals tend to be the most successful.
Your actions have to match your ambitions as it is in the nature of extraordinary goals to inspire extraordinary effort.
