Hi friends, Ramadan Kareem. It's so good to have the old Ramadan days back. May you make this holy month memorable with your loved ones, and may you grow your spiritual lives by leaps and bounds. Last time we talked about the shoulds we impose on our kids, this time I want you to notice your own shoulds. P.S. I decided to make this Sunday Spark as easy as possible by sharing a post that first appeared on my blog last week, I hope you enjoy it. |
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By Now I Should - By now I should be able to be calm and patient with my kids.
- By now I should have my home decor and design taste all figured out.
- By now I should have a proper dining table for guests.
- By now I should be driving that fancy car I always eye in the street.
- By now I should be making that amount of money.
- By now I should have my emergency fund up and running.
- By now I should be able to cook extravagant meals.
- By now I should have upgraded my beauty routines.
- By now I should have the body of my dreams.
- By now I should have started my own business.
- By now I should have a much higher number of followers.
- By now I should have traveled the world.
- By now I should have had a third kid.
- By now I should have had kids.
- By now I should have registered my kids in many extracurricular classes.
How did you feel reading the above? Have you noticed that dreadful word; should? Should is such a heavy word that we need to question constantly; coupling it with an arbitrary deadline, such as āthis many years into adulthoodā, makes us feel much worse. We feel less than, not enough and late to the party. Who decides who is invited and when the party starts, no one knows. We are just late. Thatās what society taught us. So, we set too many goals but achieve none, and knock too many doors but donāt stick enough to see if one opens. We are too late to wait and find out. I am here to tell you that yes, time is finite, but that makes it all the more worthy to spend doing what matters most to you, not what others say you should do. Yes, you canāt do it all and have it all. Once you stop fighting that and accept it, you will see that the gift of time is to sharpen your big-picture most important goals, so you would seek only them and forsake the shoulds that are hunting you. Your big picture goals are probably very different than mine, but the question is, why are you checking mine? Reflect on where you want to be at the end of your life to uncover your most important goals and work backward from there to now, to your very next step right here. Your timing is perfect. |
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Taken by me on the first Springy weekend of 2022 |
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Here is your weekly dose of The Sunday Spark ā”ļø a newsletter listing 5 inspiring things I thought were worth starting your week with: - š§ On March 29th, I celebrated the 2nd anniversary of my podcast and the launch of my interview with Yalla N7ki Podcast about my story with burnout. Please give it a listen. It was fun to share my story two years after telling it for the first time on my show. Also, let's support the amazing podcasters of the Arab World; start by subscribing to Yalla N7ki Podcast, and don't forget to tell me what you think about the episode.
- šŖ Do you suffer from overthinking? The awesome Jon Acuff is back and doing "A Free 5-Day Overcoming Overthinking Challenge, " starting on April 11th. You thanked me for introducing you to him last year, so I am sure you would not want to miss his new challenge. He's brilliant.
- šHere are the 37 most important verbs to have on your task list to relate to the time horizon of your project, according to Charlie Gilkey, the author of Start Finishing. What a nifty trick. For example, "develop" is a month-sized verb, "edit" is a week-sized verb, and "schedule" is a daily task-sized verb. Tip: print the image.
- šŗ Written over a decade ago, Laura Vanderkam's book 168 Hours is still one of the best I read about time management, and she summarized it beautifully in her Ted Talk; give it some time ;).
- I think we are at our best when we find what brings us alive and share it with the world:
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"The goal in life is not to attain some imaginary ideal; it is to find and fully use our own gifts." |
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What was your favorite Spark? I am eager to know. Reply to this email or share with me on my social media. See you next Sunday š First name / my dear friend. |
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Some cool resources I personally use, love and recommend, with discounts just for you: - I like to start the day with my personalized Momentum plus tab, which helps me stay focused with a powerful mantra, an inspiring image, a to-do list, countdowns to big dates, and world clocks where I keep an eye on time zones of friends and family living abroad before contacting them. Being a newsletter friend, you would get a special offer of a 10% discount when you subscribe to Momentum Plus with the promo code: bardees.
- In the past two years, my work routine pretty much consists of going over to Brain Fm, selecting deep work mode and time duration; the rest is... focus. You get 20% discount on your subscription using my code: bardees.
- Enjoy 10% off my favorite gratitude journal that I have been using since 2017, The Five-Minute Journal, using the code Bardees10. One journal will last you 6 months. I loved the newly released colored covers.
- Enjoy 10% off my favorite daily planner, The Full Focus Planner, using the code Bardees10. One planner will last you 90 days.
- Enjoy a free month of the Readwise app to remember your highlights from books/articles you read on Kindle or websites.
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Note: some of the links above may be affiliate links, but always keep in mind that I donāt endorse anything I donāt use and love myself. |
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In case you missed these posts on Instagramā¦ |
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