Application of the Standard
Battle self-defeatism by being a believer in yourself, be a believer in your ability, be a believer in your competence. You will never bring about the death of fear; that emotion is there for a reason – for your own security. Courage, however, can definitely shut it up. Confront those fears and they maybe just smoke and mirror.
Living in a society where we have not been raised surrounded by Muslims (or maybe we adapted to the culture after relocating to the west), it is hard to determine what good we are actually lacking and what bad we possess. This happens because our society does not condemn the bad we possess and it does not praise the good we actually lack.
Motivate yourself by Understand the Purpose: What are your reasons for doing what you are doing? List as many reasons as possible. This should help to motivate you when you do lose the motivation, because you forgot why you are doing something for. Now every time you lose your motivation you can return back to this list and remember the reasons why you undertook the task.
Motivate yourself by creating a lofty Position: Create a position for yourself where you see yourself already having succeeded. Ask yourself how do you feel while pretending that you have already succeeded at a task.
Motivate yourself by rewarding yourself: Reward yourself for accomplishing a task, and do not give up for failing. In fact, allow room for occasional failure and use it as a learning tool. Simply take one day at a time. Reward can be as simple as a verbal statement like self talk.
Motivate yourself by seeking support: There are two types of support that are readily available to us. One is the support of our Muslim brethren, family, spouse, and this is going back to having good companionship. Let your family and friends know that you have undertaken a task to change yourself, and get their support.
The second type of support is the more powerful type – support from Allah. We should supplicate to Allah to help us in accomplishing our goals. In order for our dua (supplication) to be effective, we need to show our desperateness.
Motivate yourself by struggling hard:
“Whoever struggle in acquiring patience and endures, Allah grants him patience.” [Saheeh Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
Change will require struggle, self discipline and continuation. The struggle cannot be a temporary struggle, rather you should continue to struggle until you achieve your goal. The struggle may become easier but you have to continue. Take it one day at a time. If you become bored or fatigued with the tasks find alternative routines to replace your current tasks.
Ibn Qayyim (raheemullah) said, “We all get a khatara (a thought), fight those thoughts because if you don’t it will evolve into a fikrah (fantasy). Fight those fantasies, because if you fail to snap out of it, it will evolve into a plan. At that, you need to declare a war against it; if you do not, you will fall into it by doing that deed. If it happens, you need to counter it (tawbah and good deeds), because you will go through it again. If you fail, it will become a habit and then it will be very difficult for you (but not impossible).”
On the authority of Abdullah bin Omar, who said: The messenger of Allah took me by the shoulder and said: “Be in the world as though you were a stranger or a wayfarer.” Abdullah used to say: “At evening do not expect [to live till] morning, and at morning do not expect [to live till] evening. Take from your health for your illness and from your life for your death.” [Saheeh Al-Bukhari]