Monday, 11 April 2011

Try, try again


It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.~ Theodore Roosevelt (1).

This quote is what willpower is all about. To put your convictions into practice, you must first have willpower.  It takes willpower for a person to do something arduous. Likewise, it takes willpower for him to shun temptation. 

For me, the questions to be asked are: how to cultivate willpower and how to strengthen it on a daily basis?  I remembered when I first learn to ride bicycle, I fell down numerous times, get on the pedal countless times over until I finally get it right. That, my friend was willpower at its simplest. Indeed, the greatest exemplar of willpower was our beloved Prophet Muhammad. To live to Prophet’s example may be a bit too hard for me though, but, what we can learn from the great stories of our Prophet is that great triumph can be achieved in the times of adversity-only if we have the willpower to endure the hardships. 

In short, developing and strengthening willpower needs:  positive thinking, confidence of realizing you can do what you set your mind to, consistency and knowing that there will be reward for our effort. After all, Allah promised us that no effort will go wasted. ‘Indeed, this is for you a reward, and your effort has been appreciated.’” (Qur’an, 76:22). SubhanAllah. Isn't it great? Sometimes we deal with Allah as though He doesn’t know about the worry we feel, the stress, the striving. When we fail to see the results of our effort, we think that we failed and that it was a waste of time. But Allah (swt) tells us: “And never is your Lord forgetful…” (Qur’an, 19:64)(2). Thus, the littlest of our effort WILL be rewarded, and it gets me thinking: how about if our effort is a lot? Then, yes! A lot of rewards!!

In view of the above, when one thing in our lives doesnt work out the way we want it to be, it must not make us feel down for an extended period of time because we know that even a single effort we made is rewarded-as long as it is for the betterment of ourselves. Isnt it beautiful? We dont have to be successful at it, we just have to try and put effort! What can be more meaningful than Allah's reward? So, dont let yourself defeated internally! come on friends.. let's strive! 


*sources:(1) quotationspage.com (2)suhaibwebb.com

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