Patience and blessings

In this world of broadband and super lightning speed of information sharing, people tend to expect that everything will be equally speedy and fast. Of course if this is possible and achievable, it will indeed be speedy and fast. However certain things are slow and times consuming that require patience and perseverance in order for it to be possible and achievable.

Most people rely more on their ability, strength and intelligence to achieve their targets. Some of them achieve their targets and some will not. What makes this difference is still a mystery to some. What I am going to share with you is based on my own experience in life.

Some nights ago I had a guest to my house. He is young with a start up family and had just changed his job. He had come to share with me his vision and targets to improve the standard of living of his family and himself. He works as a gym instructor in a reputable Health Centre with good earnings and benefits. I got to know from him that professional gym instructor requires certification from international fitness bodies through certain exams. Most of gym instructors in Malaysia lack this certification as it is not made compulsory by most Health Centre. However, with proper certification, a gym instructor may fetch higher salary at reputable Health Centre. This certification is similar to professional accounting certification that requires study fee, exam fee and membership fee.

His vision that he shared with me is to be a gym instructor having the highest professional certification from the best international professional body. With this he hopes that he will earn a lot more and will be able to better cater the needs of his family. At the same time as he plans to sit for the next highest gym instructor certification, he also plans to start up a small business with his wife who is expecting their next born. So with the higher earning and the business, the family income will be higher than what it is now. However he does not have enough funds to implement all these plans. With this limitation he plans to make a loan and had come to me for an advice.

After listening to him, I planned my conversation to include the topics of vision, targets, priorities, capability, opportunities and risk. Firstly I congratulate him for having a clear vision and good targets. I told him that these are important for everything that we intend to do either be it our work or our life. After having visions and targets, I shared with him the importance of prioritizing the targets by looking at one's capability, other option of opportunities and the risk that is involved in the targets.

Looking at his situation, I told him that he needs to think of what is coming to his and his family. Firstly, he just changed job and currently earning quite well, his wife is expecting their next born and they are trying to start a business. I asked him whether he is able to handle all these changes with ease. He seems to be confident, however he could not answer me on what will be his plan if these do not work out well as he intended.

I then related this situation to how he would act as a gym instructor in coaching a new comer to the gym. He would first coach the new comer how to make stretches, warm up and start with the easy routine. After the new comer is able to handle these, only then he will teach the much more strenuous exercise until the new comer is able to handle all of the gym apparatus with ease. By then, the new comer will become a regular and would probably handle his or her routine by him or herself and will seek guidance from him once in a while.

I then concluded that in life it is more or less the same situation. We need to take some slow and some fast steps. As long as we have a clear vision and good targets, we will have to prioritise our tasks as we are provided with limited resources in term of time, fund, strength and ability. We will also need to find other opportunities as an alternative plan if the initial plans did not work out well. Last but not least, we will need to be aware of the risk involved in planning and implementing the plan so that we may avoid pitfalls and overcome barriers.

With a parting statement, I said, however all these will also require patience and blessings from Allah the Almighty. The blessings determined how contented and grateful one is with his or her achievement that Allah is pleased with his or her effort.

n.b: Allah in this context is the God of All in the Universe