PROSES MENGAKTIFKAN DIRI DI AWAL PAGI

Hari ini aku bangun agak awal. Yakni 5.40 pagi. Beberapa minit sebelum azan Subuh. Namun malangnya aku masih tetap berada di atas katil dan tidak terus pergi ke bilik air. Lantas dengan sendirinya mata aku terkatup dan sedar-sedar sudah pukul 6.08 pagi takkala kedengaran Iqamat Subuh sedang dilaungkan. Ya Allah.. mengapa lemah sangat diriku ini..

Mujurlah ketika aku sampai ke Mussolla Faruq, masih ada yang sedang bersolat. Maka aku tetap boleh bermakmumkan seorang Imam. Syukur.

Selepas solat, aku bertafakur sebentar. Fikiran aku kosong..walau mulut terkumit-kumit mengucapkan istihgfar dan zikir namun hati aku tetap tidak merasakan ketenangan seperti yang seharusnya seorang abid yang tenang. Entahlah, aku tidak tahu apa yang aku fikirkan..

Mungkin sebab tentang Research Paper aku yang agak tersangkut perkembangannya sekian lama kerana ‘writer blocks’ atau…

Kemudian aku terus pergi pulang ke bilik. Dengan merasakan tekanan dan semangat untuk mula menulis Chapter 2, aku terus membuka laptor Acer ku. Malangnya , dan ini selalu terjadi setelah buka  laptop , fokus aku terus mengalih ke perkara lain, terutamanya setelah log in ke dalam facebook.

Aku tidak tahu mengapa mudah benar aku hilang fokus. Mungkinkah otak dan minda aku masih belum benar berfungsi di tahap terbaik untuk menulis?  Mungkinkah tumpuan aku masih lemah di kala setiap pagi hari? Bak kata orang, aku ini ‘not a morning person’.

Segalanya ini menunjukkan bahawa mungkin aku masih belum bersedia untuk menulis di awal pagi hari..

Namun pada masa yang sama aku juga ada menenui kaedah yang baik dalam menyelesaikan masalah ‘Not morning person’ ini. Antaranya ialah bangun lebih awal dari Subuh lagi. Yakni dalam pukul 4 .00 ke 5.00 pagi. Kemudian terus menyegarkan diri dengan mandi. Disambung pula dengan menunaikan sekurang-kurangnya dua rakaat solat sunnat, khususnya Solat Tahajjud. Bahkan disambung pula dengan membaca al-Quran sekurang-kurangnya satu muka surat sebelum Subuh tiba. Aku kira ini adalah teknik dan amalan yang amat berkesan untuk mendapat kesegaran di awal pagi. Yang pastinya membolehkan aku untuk terus menulis selepas sahaja habis menyelesaikan solat Subuh.

Cuma yang masalahnya ialah selalunya (atau hampir setiap hari) aku tidak dapat tidur awal. Atau jikapun aku terus masuk tidur awal, pastinya aku tidak boleh tidur dengan nyenyak dan berterusan, kerana aku akan kerap terjaga. Mungkin ini adalah tabiat yang dibentuk sejak menjadi aktivis 'undergaduate' dahulu yang sibuk dengan program dan mesyuarat sehingga lewat malam. Hal ini seterusnya menyebabkan aku selalu mengantuk yang bersangatan selepas Subuh, dan kebiasaannya akan mula terlelap dalam pukul 7.15- 7.30 pagi sehingga aku akan terjaga dalam pukul 10.30 pagi atau 11.00 pagi. Ini sungguh sesuatu yang amat menyiksa jiwa, prinsip dan ‘self-estem’ aku untuk lalui hari yang produktif.

Maka aku cuba usaha menilai cara urus hidup aku seharian dan bertindak semampu yang boleh untuk memperbaikinya. Aku sedar apabila sudah menjadi tabiat, ia memang amat sukar untuk diubah, apatah lagi tabiat itu sesuatu yang buruk; terutamanya tidur banyak di siang hari. Aku perlu berubah!

Jadi mungkin apa yang ku boleh lakukan ialah aku mesti berhempas pulas untuk menyiapkan apa-apa tugasan dan tidak tidur di siang hari agar tubuh aku benar-benar merasai kepenatan dan memudahkan aku untuk tidur di awal waktu di malam hari. Aku meletakkan target untuk tidur seawall pukul 11.00 malam (kata orang sebaiknya pukul 10.30 pm), atau paling teruk sebelum pukul 12.00 malam.

Apa yang aku perlu lakukan ialah aku Wajib membayangkan bahawa Esok Hari adalah hari yang amat penting bagi aku. Seperti perlu menghadiri temuduga esoknya, atau perlu berlepas ke Luar Negara seawal pagi, atau menghadap jawantankuasa pembentangan, atau perlu bertemu dengan pegawai besar untuk urusan kerja dan lain-lain yang penting dan kritikal.  Aku fikir dengan kaedah begini aku pasti akan tidur awal dan bangun pula awal. Insha ALLAH.  

Bounded Rationality, Risk and Efficiency.

Based on empirical and experimental data which are in favor of prospect-theoretic “bounded rationality”, El-Gamal concluded that with this bounded rationality individuals will reach inefficient risk-trading solutions instead of efficient risk sharing ones, which means that prohibition of risk trading (Gharar) is efficiency enhancing (Al-Saati, 2003, p.3). 

Reference: The Permissible Gharar (Risk) in Classical Islamic Jurisprudence. Abdul Rahim Al-Saati (2003), J.KAU: Islamic Econ.,Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 3-19 (1424 A.H / 2003 A.D)

The Habit of Starting

The biggest reason people fail at creating and sticking to new habits is that they don’t keep doing it. That seems obvious: if you don’t keep doing a habit, it won’t really become a habit. So what’s the solution to this obvious problem? Find a way to keep doing it.

When you look at it this way, the key to forming a habit is not how much you do of the habit each day (exercise for 30 minutes, write 1,000 words, etc.), but whether you do it at all. So the key is just getting started.

Let me emphasize that: the key to forming a habit is starting each day.

What do I mean by starting? If you want to form the habit of meditation, just get your butt on the cushion each day. If you want to form the habit of running, just lace up your shoes and get out the door. If you want to form the habit of writing, just sit down, close everything else on your computer, and start typing.

Form the habit of starting, and you’ll get good at forming habits.

How to Start When You Face Resistance

Form the habit of starting — easier said than done, right? What happens when you wake up and don’t feel like doing yoga or your beach body exercise DVD?

Let’s first take a look at why you don’t feel like starting. It’s usually for one or both of these reasons:

1. You are comfortable with what you’re doing (reading online, probably), and the habit is less comfortable (it’s too hard). We cling to the comfortable.
2. It’s too difficult to get started — to do the habit, you have to get a bunch of equipment out of your garage, or drive 20 minutes to the gym, or go get a bunch of ingredients, etc.

Those are the main two reasons, and really they’re the same thing.

So the solution is to make it easier and more comfortable to do the habit, and easier to get started. Some ways to do that:

• Focus on the smallest thing — just getting started. You don’t have to do even 5 minutes — just start. That’s so easy it’s hard to say no.
• Prepare everything you need to get started earlier. So if you need some equipment, get it ready well before you have to start, like the evening before, or in the morning if you have to do it in the afternoon, or at least an hour before. Then when it’s time to start, there is no barrier.
• Make the habit something you can do where you are, instead of having to drive there.
• If you have to drive or walk somewhere, have someone meet you there. Then you’re less likely to stay home (or at work), and more likely to go — and going there is the same thing as getting started. This works because you’re making it less comfortable to not start — the idea of leaving a friend waiting for you at the gym or park is not a comfortable one.
• Tell people you’re going to do the habit of starting your habit every day for 30 days. Having this kind of accountability motivates you to get started, and makes it less comfortable not to start.
• Start with the easiest version of the habit, so that it’s easy to start. For example, if you want to form the habit of reading, don’t start with Joyce, but with Grisham or Stephen King or whoever you find fun and easy to read. If you want to start yoga, don’t start with a really challenging routine, but an easy series of sun salutations.

Make it as easy as possible to start, and hard to not start. Tell yourself that all you have to do is lace up your shoes and get out the door, and you’ll have a hard time saying no. Once you’ve started, you’ll feel good and probably want to continue (though that’s not a necessity).

The start is a sunrise: a moment of brilliance that signals something joyful has arrived. Learn to love that moment of brilliance, and your habit troubles fade like the night.

Post written by Leo Babauta in http://zenhabits.net/starting/

How to Overcome Procrastination?

1) First thing you should do is to view and focus on the dateline of that job.
If we can create an anxiety about the dateline, then all of our energy will be focused on the result (which can make us work fast without have to wait longer). However, if we are not anxious about the dateline, all of our anxiety will be directed to the creative part. In other words, our time and effort will be wasted on non-most-priority task.


2) Secondly, by creating the sense of accountability (and fear) !
In this case, we should imagine our self being pushed to give sudden presentation in front of big audience. When we are able to create this feeling, we would then light fire under our ass to carry out the task as fast and as perfect as possible. Again, all of this can happen provided that you have the strong feeling of not wanting to disappoint a large number of our expectant audiences (by not completing our task in time).


3) Thirdly, by focusing on the concrete task (than the abstract task). We also have to break the project down into smaller concrete tasks. Studies have shown that any concrete physical things that resulted from the working progress can multiply the person's effort and focus to complete the job. Therefore, you should (physically or psychologically) be able to be as creative as possible to transform any of your abstract tasks into concrete parts. 


4) Fourthly, by working on that project a little bit each day.  By this, its mean that we should start as soon as it is assigned! ! (1 hour or so, is fine). After making your starting move, you can stop working and do other things. You just have to come back to that project every day for a small amount of efforts and little bit of continuation. By doing this, you will be having a progress over time although in slow momentum. Moreover, it should be noted that once your brain start to work on a specific problem or project, it doesn’t stop.

Thus, the most important point is that, you just need to pull yourself to do the task now despite of unbearable small amount of effort as you can imagine. :)

TWO IMPORTANT LESSONS

According to Adam Khoo in his book, Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses, there are two important lessons that we should embrace in order to be successful millionaire of entrepreneur.

The first lesson is that rejection was part of the game. If you want to make a sale, you have to got to be rejected an average number of times. For example, if it took ten "NOs" for you to make sale and earn a commission of $100, then each "NO" was worth $ 10. Once you overcome that fear of being rejected, you will start taking massive action for any goal that you wanted to achieve.

Second most important lesson that we should have is that if you don't like the idea of SELLING, you will never ever be rich. To achieve ANYTHING in life, you have to get out there and sell!
 
  If you want to land a lucrative job, you have to be able to sell yourself during the interview. If you want to get a promotion, you have to sell your ideas and yourself  to the top management. It is not always the smartest and the most hardworking person who gets the promotion. Rather, it is the person who is able to sell himself to his bosses. The reason why there are so many individuals with Masters degrees and PhDs who never become rich and successful is because they don't know how to sell.

WHAT IS METHODOLOGY?

According to Glenn Fox, methodology is the study of process if appraisal of theories that are purported to be scientific.

To simplify, methodology can be defined as theory of theories, which is in this case it is closely related to epistemology.

While epistemology here means study or the theory of origins, the nature, the methods of authentication and the limits of knowledge. Therefore, in relation to epistemology of economics, firstly it can mean the concern with the sources of economist knowledge about human social interaction.

Secondly, it concern with the scope of the application of that knowledge and thirdly it can mean the protocol through which knowledge is validated. 

A Reflection on Aging Parents

Source: suhaibwebb.com

By Amatullah

Like most children, I thought my parents were superheroes.
My mom could open the tightest of jars and could carry us around while she finished her chores.
My dad could come back from a long business trip and still have the strength to play and take care of all six of us.
I was in denial about my parents’ aging until my dad asked me to take a basket of laundry down the stairs for him because he wasn’t able to carry it.
It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that they no longer had the strength I thought they’d always have.

Never Show Anger
The hardest part of witnessing our parents age is seeing a regression in their strength and capabilities. The two people who we turned to for a helping hand no longer have the physical strength to do so.
Yet when Allah, glorified is He, speaks of their old age in the Qur’an, He does not advise us to offer physical help to them. Rather He says:
“And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], “uff” (fie), and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.” (Al-Isra’ 17:23)

While there are many verses in the Qur’an that instruct us to be good to our parents, this one specifically highlights how we should treat them in their old age. In his explanation of this verse, Sheikh Ash-Sha’rawi says that God mentions their old age here because it’s the time in their lives that they are in the most need of their children. He further explains that when parents are younger and stronger, their children rely and depend on them because they are able to help them. But as they age, the roles are reversed – the parents go from giving to being needy, from breadwinners to dependants.
One thing we all notice as our parents age is the change in their character. As we become more independent, they may become demanding, forgetful, irritable, and stubborn. Because of this change in character, God reminds us that especially during this time we have to show the utmost kindness and respect to them.
We are told in this verse to not treat them even with the slightest form of anger. The term “uff”, fie, is the smallest expression of dissatisfaction. For us today, this can be rolling our eyes or a slight tone of annoyance in our voices. Sheikh Ash-Sha`rawi mentions how hard it is to keep ourselves from expressing “uff” because sometimes we do it subconsciously. He advises that we as children should be vigilant in keeping ourselves from expressing these small gestures of annoyance and anger because of how hurtful they can be to our parents.
In the following verse, Allah goes on to explain further how we should treat them:
{And lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy and say, ‘My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up [when I was] small.’} (Al-Isra’ 17:24)
“Lowering the wings” is a saying used to express humility. It means that you have a chance to show your power, but you refrain out of humbleness. Similarly, the word “Rahma” or “mercy” gives a connotation of someone, despite having the upper-hand, still showing kindness.

Righteousness is Good Character
Some of us may consider our parents to be difficult. We may have given up hope that our relationship with them can improve. The beauty of Islam is that God will reward you for your intentions and efforts just as He rewards for good actions. We have to put in effort before we see change. It is important for us to remember that there is no magic pill for good character. If we are truly sincere in improving our character then Allah will put us in difficult situations with difficult people. We learn good manners through these trying experiences.
We have been given an opportunity to improve our character through our parents. As our parents age, we should speak in a kind and gentle manner. We are merciful to them. We cover their faults. We overlook the things they may do that annoy, irritate or hurt us. We reciprocate with love.
Easier said than done, right? God has given us the answer to why we may not have a strong relationship with our parents:
{And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], “uff,” and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.} (Al-Isra’ 17:23)
This verse allows us to gauge our relationship with our parents by first looking at our relationship with God. Essentially, if we are not fulfilling our duties to Allah, then we will not be able to treat our parents in the best manner .The Prophet, peace be upon him, taught us: “Righteousness is good character” (Muslim) so a righteous and God-fearing child will treat their parents with good manners. Allah has placed such great importance on parents that even their religion does not warrant their child to behave improperly to them.

A Chance to Enter Paradise, Don’t Miss
Now that we are older, stronger and more capable than our parents, this is the time to really show our compassion to them. Our emotions will be stirred by what they say and do, which is why God reminds us that instead of getting angry, frustrated or annoyed at them, we should restrain ourselves and be humble.
The Prophetic Hadith (tradition) provides us with motivation when we find it hard to deal with our parents.
In a famous narration, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Amen,” to three supplications made by Angel Gabriel. One of them was, “Far away is the person whose parents, one or both of them, reach old age during his lifetime but he does not enter Paradise!” (Muslim)
This person was given a chance to enter Paradise by being good to their parents, but they let the opportunity slip away. This person lost out because of how easy it can be to gain reward for helping them or staying in their company. The Prophet called out this person because it is the ultimate lack of mercy to leave your parents in their old age.
Similarly in another narration, the Messenger said:
“A parent is the best of the gates of Paradise; so if you wish, keep to the gate, or lose it.” (At- Tirmidhi)
The scholars explain this narration to mean that entering Paradise through being good to your parents is of the best ways to enter it. It not only shows the honor that lies in being good to your parents, but also that it is up the person to take advantage of this gate.
Sheikh Ash-Sha`rawi says:
“Just as they showed you ihsan (the best form of kindness), you must do your best to do the same. But your mercy alone is not enough to compensate for what they did for you. Therefore seek the best form of mercy for them from Allah, the Most Merciful, by saying: ‘My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up [when I was] small,’ (Al-Isra’ 17:24)”
Just as they still loved us when we said or did things to hurt them as children or youths, we in return do the same in their old age.
Don’t wait until you see your parents carried out of the masjid in a box to realize how much better they deserved from you.
Don’t wait until that largest gate of Paradise is closed in your face to realize how easy it could have been to enter through it.
May God have mercy on our parents.