Passion Planner

I know, I know. There are way too many planners and journals out there, each one unique in it’s own way. Now, the reason why I’m writing about Passion Planner is because of the amazing story behind it. I was impressed by it’s creator, Angelia Trinidad, who is a sweetheart and an amazing entrepreneur.

She switched from Pre-med to Art in college, a big decision to take, and she is glad that she took this step:

Art has taught me so much over the course of my life. It has taught me patience, collaboration, direction, and focus. But most of all it has taught me

HOW TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF A MERE IDEA AND HARD WORK.

SO HERE I AM, A PROUD RECENT UCLA GRADUATE WITH NO “REAL JOB”, NO PAID BENEFITS, NO 401K. BUT I DO HAVE  BIG DREAMS, A GIVING AND GRATEFUL HEART, A DRIVEN SOUL, AND AN AMAZING SUPPORT SYSTEM OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY. AND I THINK THAT’S PLENTY.

Enter post-college days, Angelia found her self in a loop of uncertainty. When she realized that there are a lot of young graduates that feel the same way, at a loss for direction, she sat down to find a solution.

I wanted to make a place to give us the piece of mind to restart, to find direction when we felt lost, a planner where people pursue their passions not just ideally with “one day’s” or “I wishes” but in doing something everyday and holding themselves accountable.

Passion Planner was the result. It is the perfect tool to write down your thoughts and your long-term and short-term goals, breaking them into easy-to-handle, achievable tasks.

 

 

Angelia has so much belief that her planner can change a person’s life for the better, that she wants anyone and everyone to able to access it despite their financial ability. Share about Passion Planner on any social media and send them an email to receive the full pdf version of Passion Planner for free!

How amazing is that?!

Find out more about this sweet ambitious girl, Angelia Trinidad, and her unique Passion Planner.

Here are a few more pics from the planner:

 

Passion Roadmap

 

 

Weekly Layout

 

 

Monthly Reflection

All photo credits: Passion Planner

 

Perfect your Faith

Prayer for Goodness

Picture credit: Greenstar16

This verse is from The Holy Quran; chapter 2, verse 201.

Productive Muslim Summit 2016

I received an exciting newsletter from The Productive Muslim a few days ago. Here is an extract:

It is time to explore Islam’s model for perfect Personal Development! Starting (this week) Tuesday, 20th December 2016, we are holding our first online virtual conference linking Islam to Self-Development with 19 amazing Muslim Self-Help experts!

These are the few people whom we come across that have dedicated their lives to link Islam to an area of Personal Development – and you need to hear them!

This will be a 4-day online conference and it’s entirely FREE. All you have to do is go to ProductiveMuslimSummit.com and enter your name and email address and you’re set (they promptly send a link to the upcoming seminars).

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

• How to make a life, not a living
• How to beat bad habits
• How to unleash your creativity
• How to motivate yourself and those around you
• How to build your leadership capacity
• How to be a better parent/spouse
• How to unlock your emotional intelligence
• How to keep faith, whilst earning wealth

The Program Schedule

http://productivemuslimsummit.com/

If you care about bringing Islam back to your Personal Development efforts, it all starts by us having a conversation about this link and practically implementing the wisdom of the Qur’an and Sunnah in our lives. To help you with this, I hope you’ll join the Productive Muslim Summit and make it the catalyst into your life to make Islam a central part of developing yourself and perfecting your character.

Make sure you register now and I will see you there in sha Allah!

Mohammad Faris (Abu Productive)

Curious Expressions

I have always been curious about other languages. Especially languages other than the ones I am fluent in. And so I picked out this little book of idioms and proverbs of colorful languages of the world.

There is a subtle yet significant difference between idioms and proverbs (the author also shares it in this book);

An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words.

On the other hand, a proverb is a short popular saying that gives advice about how people should behave or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true.

Source: Learners Dictionary

I was in for a marvelous surprise; this book has all the right elements for some light, yet intellectual reading. Each idiom and proverb is beautifully explained; Ella Frances Sanders provides both, information about the culture of the country, and also smoothly connects and compares it to the idioms which we are familiar with in the English language. A colorful illustration, done by the author, accompanies every proverb and idiom. I’m still finding a hard time to decide whether I like the writing more or the illustrations; both are so simple at the same time impactful, making it a fun and easy book to read for a wide range of audience. Below are a few of my favorite sayings from the book:

To pull someone out of their watermelons (Romanian)

Grapes darken by looking at each other (Turkish)

Swallowed like a postman’s sock (Colombian Spanish)

My eye went with me (Maltese)

To feel like an octopus in a garage (Spanish)

To wear a cat on your head (Japanese)

To give a green answer to a blue question (Tibetan)

God bless you and may your mustache grow like bushwood (Mongolia)

Some days honey some days onions (Arabic)

I wonder if you are familiar with any of these expressions, if not, quick! Set out to find their meaning, and use them to amaze and amuse the people around you, after you have entertained yourself with them. You might just end up with a lot of phrases becoming your favorites as well.

The only disappointment I experienced while reading this book was when I realized that there were some languages put in twice, not that I dislike those languages, but because I would have loved to learn another handful of idioms from other countries. I understand that this book could have only so many, and so I hope the author soon publishes another, similar book of intriguing curious expressions from the countries left out.

Some of the sayings made me grin, some made raise my eyebrows with surprise, some made me sober, and some made me laugh out loud. This little book of curious expressions is a wonderful choice to read. Pick it up, and learn a little something about the world through the most expressive form of art- language.

 

Disclaimer: Thank you to Blogging for Books for sending me this book in exchange of an honest review. That being said, all opinions are sincerely my own.

Acts of Excellence

A hadith (saying) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):

Photo credit: Fatehah Norran

Don’t Settle for Less

Photo AND Title credit: Move Me Quotes and More

(I really love the title they used)

Transcending through Time

Photo credit: The Friday Collective

Day of Arafah

For those who would like to know why the Arabic word Allah is preferred to the English word God in Islam, please refer to this previous post.

 

 

‘The best of supplications is the supplication on the day of ‘Arafah and the best which I and the Prophets before me have said (is):

‘None has the right to be worshiped except Allah, alone, without partner. To Him belongs all praise and sovereignty and He is over all things omnipotent.’’

Source

 

BarakahGO

Abu Productive, from Productive Muslim, sent me an email this morning introducing a productive game which motivates you to increase your good deeds. He wanted people to try it before their free webinar, What Hajj Teaches Us About Barakah, goes live tomorrow at 12:00 PM (Central Time). Abu Productive will be sharing what the story of Ibrahim/Abraham (PBUH) teaches us about Barakah. If you haven’t registered already, please do, you will gain much more than you expect In sha Allah (God willing).

So, what is Barakah?

Imam Al-Raghib has a beautiful definition for Barakah, he says that:

“Barakah is the attachment of Divine Goodness to a thing. So if it occurs in something little it increases it, and if it occurs in something much, it benefits”

If Allah attaches Divine Goodness to your money.. you might have little money but you help so many people with it.. or perhaps you’re a rich person and Allah attaches Barakah to your wealth, and you do even more good! (Think of Uthmaan Bin Affan (RA) who was a wealthy companion of the Prophet and who did so much good with his wealth!)

If Allah attaches Barakah to your home, to your family, to your work… you’ll see increase and benefit from them! How beautiful is that!..

Click barakahgo-a4-printable to download the BarakahGo Sheet!

Here’s how the game works

You have 21 sources of Barakah and your goal is to tap into as many of these sources Barakah as you can before our webinar tomorrow on the lessons of Hajj & Barakah (If you haven’t registered for the webinar, register here).

I’ll ask those who attend the webinar session LIVE tomorrow; how many of the sources of Barakah they were able to collect in 24 hours? The one with the highest number will get this cool new poster from the ProductiveMuslim Store on the 21 Sources of Barakah!

Hope that you earn tons of good deeds in these blessed days of Dhul-Hijjah. All the very best!

P.s. The marriage piece in the printout is for attending a marriage, you don’t have to get married to check it off  ❤