Burnout is so real when it comes to Ramadan.
We start the month with hopes, goals and a whole lot of
motivation. But by the middle that
motivation runs out and it becomes harder to stay on your
routines and be disciplined. This episode will serve as the
ultimate guide to help you fix that and stay disciplined all
throughout this next month. Assalam Alaikum is your host
Nosheen and welcome to Journey to Jannah, a podcast curated to
help you become your own dream girl.
On the 4th episode of the Ramadan series, we are going to
talk about how to stay disciplined throughout the whole
month of Ramadan without getting burnt out.
This is the month where Shaitaan is locked up.
It should be easier than ever for us to be disciplined, for us
to do Ibalda and worship Allah right?
But then we get to Ramadan and we realize, wait a minute, why
do I still have these moments where it's so hard to go to
Allah? We start the month off with high
motivation. We're ready to conquer this
month. We have all of these goals and
plans. But then as the month goes on,
that motivation slowly goes away.
And that's when it becomes really hard.
That's where most people fail, because they fail to do one very
important thing, and that is to utilize discipline.
This leads me to my main point, rely on discipline, not
motivation. So what's the difference between
discipline and motivation? Motivation is that initial spark
that you feel that you have that starts your desire to do
something. It's the feeling that gets you
started. It's a feeling that we have, and
it can fade away very quickly. Discipline, on the other hand,
is commitment to doing that something, whether you want to
or not. Long story short, motivation can
only get you so far. The only way you're actually
going to succeed is through discipline.
If you're starting something and you rely solely on motivation,
you're going to fail. You're going to stop doing
whatever it is that you started after that initial burst of
motivation eventually fades away.
Rely on discipline instead, because it isn't based on how
motivated you feel right now or if you want to do it or not.
You're going to get the work done regardless.
Motivation should be something that you use to push yourself
forward, but you should ultimately be relying on
discipline to actually follow through to stay committed and
achieve something. Discipline is essentially making
a conscious decision to put aside what you want right now
and prioritize what you want in your future.
When you're disciplined and you stay on something for yourself
is one of the strongest forms of self love that you can give
yourself. Look at discipline as loving
yourself enough to work through your current feelings so that
you can give yourself everything you've ever wanted and deserve.
This relates to my second point, which is realizing you're going
to have to choose between the pain of discipline or the pain
of regret. Choosing discipline requires
prioritizing your long term goals and well-being over
instant gratification. Choosing instant gratification
is so normalized nowadays that we don't even realize the issue
with it. We live in a world designed to
give us what we want right now, whether that's through fast
food, one click shopping, and less social media scrolling.
Everything is shaped to be readily available, which is
constantly triggering the dopamine roar system in our
brains. It's not healthy at all, and in
a way it's a trap that makes it so, so easy to fall into the
cycle of seeking only instant pleasure.
The issue with this is that focusing solely on instant
gratification stops us from achieving meaningful goals.
And if you're constantly looking for the next quick thing to give
you that dopamine rush, how will you ever find the time to focus
and dedicate yourself to becoming self disciplined?
You can choose to say OK, I'm going to choose to not work for
this goal because I don't feel like it at the moment, but the
end result is going to be regret.
The time will pass regardless of what you do.
You can either choose the pain of self-discipline and work
towards your goal or you can sit on your phone all day scrolling
through TikTok. The day is still going to pass
and when you look back you're going to feel either happy that
you stayed disciplined or feel the pain of regret for not doing
what you should have done for your future self.
Imagine looking back at the end of Ramadan and all you're doing
is wishing you actually put in the effort towards your goals.
That feeling is so much worse than the initial discomfort
you'll have of pushing yourself to be disciplined and through
your feelings of not having motivation.
I understand that feeling of not wanting to do it right now, but
the point is to just get up and do it.
It's so much easier to procrastinate than to sit and
focus on something. You can choose to take a nap or
work hard 100%. I want to take a nap.
I'm tired and I'm fasting, so I'm also hungry.
But why would I do that at the expense of my future?
Why would I choose to eternally be in comfort when it's in the
uncomfortable that we grow and make progress?
Ramadan isn't an excuse to just lay in bed all day.
I know what my priorities are. I have them lined up and I will
put them first. Every single time.
I've already done so much that, looking back, I wish I had done
this differently, or I wish I had worked harder and put in
more effort, or I wish I had made a different choice.
Do you think I want that going forward and to keep on making
choices that I'm going to regret?
No, Nobody does. Nobody wants to look back at
themselves and feel regret for the things that they didn't do.
Your actions have consequences and you have power over both, So
pick your hard. It's all in your hands.
A lot of the time people will start to feel scared or nervous
when they try to become disciplined and try to be more
productive throughout their day. And this leads them to feeling
like they're incapable, like they can't do this, which causes
them to then lose their motivation or their discipline.
But in reality, you can. You have the power.
You are 100% capable of doing this.
It's not that you can't do it, it's that you're uncomfortable.
That's where those feelings of fear and nervousness are coming
from, and that's completely normal when you're doing
something new, When you're going out of your comfort zone and
trying to grow, being uncomfortable is a good thing.
Next, we're going to go over how to actually build discipline.
Think about it this way. Building discipline is similar
to working on a specific muscle at the gym.
The more you work that muscle, the more you're going to be able
to build it right. And what this takes is
consistent effort, and we can apply this to discipline.
It's also something you develop with consistent effort.
Consistency is key when it comes to discipline, and this is point
#3. Consistency is key.
By incorporating small, consistent actions into your
daily routine, you gradually strengthen your ability to
prioritize your goals. Embrace the small wins that you
have every single day. Celebrate the progress that
you've made so far, and don't be discouraged by the setbacks that
you will inevitably have. Stop focusing on the extremes.
Stop trying to seek perfection and everything that you do.
We're humans, we're going to make mistakes.
When you focus so much on doing something with perfection, what
usually happens as you keep up with it for a few days, maybe a
few weeks, but then you burn out because of that pressure you're
putting on yourself. It can get really exhausting
after a while, and that fear of not doing everything to the tee
tends to delay doing it, which then leads to just not doing it
all together. So stop seeking perfection.
Instead of striving for an unrealistic ideal, focus on
making progress through consistency.
Even the smallest of consistent actions can lead to significant
progress over time. 1 technique you can use to help you stay
consistent is habit stacking. Let's say your goal is to pray
the Hudroth every single night. Look at a habit that you already
have around this time. So here we could say brushing
your teeth and doing skin care before bed right Now stack your
new habit on top of that. So right after you brush your
teeth and do your skin care, pray the Hudroth.
This way you're using a habit that already exists as a
reminder and a trigger for the new one that you're trying to
implement. You can also use a tracker or a
checklist. You're able to see the progress
that you've made, and this also adds a little boost of
motivation which makes staying disciplined a little bit easier.
Side note, I do have a free weekly habit tracker for Ramadan
available on my website if you want to check that out.
The link will be in the description.
We all have setbacks and as I said, perfection isn't something
we're striving for, it's progress and consistency.
Don't let just one bad moment ruin your entire day.
Just because you missed doing something or you weren't able to
do something doesn't mean you should let your whole entire
rest of that day go to waste or not try again the next day.
I don't know about you, but I have this really bad habit where
if one part of my day goes bad I sort of self sabotage and waste
the whole rest of the day. And this usually comes from not
having productive mornings. Like if I wake up late or end up
not having time to go to the gym.
I think what's the point And then the rest of the day is just
as unproductive and wasted. This is something that I really
need to change, and one way I'm doing this is by using this
method I created called the five frames method.
The idea for it stemmed from the saying that we should plan our
day around our prayers, not our prayers around our day.
So I basically break down each day into five different frames,
and each frame is the time for one prayer.
The aim of this for me is so that I can reframe my day.
So instead of losing a whole day after having just one bad
morning, I can still strive for success and progress throughout
the rest of it. Because now I'm looking at it
as, OK, I messed up one frame, but I still have four more that
I have the opportunity to succeed in, and it makes me feel
a lot less bad about myself when I do mess up because I have
something to fall back on. Another thing that I think is
also extremely important is having a baseline.
Basically the bare minimum that you expect from yourself.
Yes, we're building discipline and consistency is crucial, but
it's important to establish a realistic foundation from where
you're going to grow. A great way to do this is by
creating a list of non negotiables, which is exactly
what it sounds like, a list of things that you 100% must do in
your day-to-day life. And this will change as you
progress and grow. By setting your baseline, you
automatically take care of the most important goals for you.
And it makes sure that you're not scrambling to squeeze in
things like healthy meals, prayers, reading Quran because
you simply quote UN quote, don't have time and also holds you
accountable when you're making your non negotiables think about
all the different aspects of your life.
So physical health can include eight hours of sleep and your
Dean can include praying five times a day.
Again these are like bare minimum what you expect from
yourself on any given day. So these non negotiables are
going to look different for everyone.
So make sure they are realistic for you.
If you go ahead and plan unrealistically, it could lead
to burnout and that is the last thing that we want.
So make sure to plan for yourself properly.
And remember again, it's about progress and consistency.
I think this was too long ago, but I basically was going into
the month with lots of goals, lots of motivation.
The first few days were amazing. I did everything I wanted to,
but after that first week I literally got so burnt out and
it was so hard to get back on track for the rest of that
Ramadan. Looking back, I realized it's
because I put way too much pressure on myself to do
everything. I didn't give myself any leeway,
I was overloading myself with all these tasks and goals and I
wanted everything to be perfect. What I should have done instead
is balance that out throughout the whole entire month and focus
on, again, consistency and progress.
Let's just say you are currently facing burnout.
How are we going to go about fixing that?
I'm going to give three steps. Step one, figure out what's
causing it. Where is the stress and anxiety
stemming from? You can write down your thoughts
and feelings in a journal, which can help you identify patterns
that you have in. Pun.
Point the root causes of your burnout.
Step #2 Find a form of emotional release, whether that's going
for a walk outdoors after throwaway or sketching a in a
journal. Find something that you enjoy
and use it to unwind and destress.
It is also so important to increase activities that create
oxytocin, which is one of the three happy hormones.
Oxytocin also has been shown to decrease stress and anxiety.
A few ways to trigger the release of oxytocin is spending
time with pets, performing acts of kindness and spending quality
time with people that you love. And then step three is getting a
healthy amount of sleep during Ramadan.
It's very tempting to stay up late, whether that be to catch
up on work you miss during the day or to engage in night
prayers and read Quran. Yes, you're going to get a bit
less sleep during this month, but skimping completely on it
will leave you feeling so burnt out, so foggy, irritable and
just. It's going to be harder to
manage everything that you want to do.
You should be aiming for at least 7 to 8 hours of quality
sleep whenever that is possible. You can also do this by taking
shorter power naps throughout the day to help you recharge and
feel more refreshed if you weren't able to at night time
for whatever reason. That brings us to the end of
this episode. I hope you all take this
information and actually apply it to your life so that you can
make the most out of this following month.
Make sure to follow my Instagram for daily motivation and to just
see my life. I'll have a link to that in the
description. I'll also have a link to the
Journey to Jenna website. There are a few free resources
like a weekly planner and a habit tracker that you can
download and use with that Assalamualaikum and I'll see you
in my next episode.