Islamic Life Coach School Podcast
Islamic Life Coach School Podcast
Everyday Retirement
Are we destined to slave away our golden years in exchange for a brief shot at leisure in old age? Or could we reimagine a world where we flourish every day in retirement?
Let's start to question your conditioned beliefs about work, wealth, and retirement. We probe the FIRE concept (financial independence, retire early) and explore how it can be more than merely accumulating wealth or having endless free time. Learn to integrate the things you love into your current lifestyle, striking a balance between personal fulfillment, responsibilities, and leisure.
But that's not all. We dive deeper into the meaning of a purpose-driven life filled with dignity. We discuss how our daily efforts can bring goodness to ourselves and others, and how every moment holds potential for joy and fulfillment. This episode goes beyond the traditional concept of retirement, offering tangible steps to start healing from exploitative labor and laying the groundwork for a life that feels like retirement every day. It's about a life where flourishing isn't put off until the future; it's embraced here and now. Join us as we redefine the essence of FIRE to mean Flourishing in Retirement Every day, and make a conscious choice to flourish today!
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Welcome to Islamic Life Coach School Podcast. Apply tools that you learn in this podcast and your life will be unrecognisably successful. Now your host, dr Kamal Uthar. Hello, hello, hello everyone. Peace and blessings be upon all of you.
Speaker 1:Early retirement has been on my mind because the topic comes up at work from time to time and I don't see what the rush is all about to retire Like. I always wonder what are these people looking to do after they retire that they can't do right now? Interestingly, when people are asked why would you want to retire, most of them say it so that we can do what we love. It's fascinating to me, because it's not about stopping to work entirely, but rather integrating things you love, like travel, spending time with the family, enjoying leisure luxury. When you're used to working, grinding, laboring away for a living, people find retirement a hard adjustment, so they look to do something to occupy their time and energy. If the point of retirement is to start doing what you love, then why not do it now?
Speaker 1:The mentality of working your youth and prime years away for someone else is very much a product of exploitative corporate work ethics. People can say you work for me, I pay you in wages and benefits, but I get to keep the long term fruit of your labor. When you're done working for me, you can finally go and do what you want. That's what I call exploitative work, oppressive labor, mechanistic, detached, devaluing. It's dehumanizing. And if you're totally repelled by this dynamic and you want to create change at the systemic level, you have to start by creating change at the personal level. I have to say millennials and Gen Z is much more about not falling for this trap, but I don't think any one generation has completely mastered coming out of this exploitative labor mentality. So if you want time to enjoy life, if you want to recover from a lifetime of overworking, you have to create a life of everyday retirement. You don't retire to start working entirely, just in the capacity that you're working in now, the extractive, exploitative capacity.
Speaker 1:There's this concept of FIRE financial independence, retire early which is very much about working smart, having multiple streams of income, having passive income, diverse investment portfolio. All of this will make you financially independent so you can retire early to actually do what you love. So this FIRE concept financial independence, retire early only partially covers what I'm trying to convey here. To me contribution of my service, my intelligence, my abilities, my voice, my unique skills, is extremely important. All of this is not captured by the concept of FIRE. What I imagine everyday retirement to be is working and contributing, and waking up each day and experiencing the joys and freedoms associated with retirement. Envision a life where you are not merely existing but flourishing, tapping into your deepest passions and hearing to your personal values and embracing the things that bring you joy. This is the essence of fire to me, fire otherwise known as financial independence. Retire early, which I now call for it to stand for.
Speaker 1:Flourishing in retirement every day. F-i-r-e. Flourishing isn't about having immense wealth or endless free time. It's about living a life true to yourself, which could be about hard work and dedication. It's about aligning your lifestyle with your values and passions, creating a life that echoes the joys of retirement every single day. It's about aging gracefully, living with longevity, the longest disease-free life filled with service and contribution, without dependency on others.
Speaker 1:The Quran speaks to this notion beautifully and it states whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer, we will surely cause him to live a good life. Chapter 16, aya 97. This good life is not merely about prosperity in material terms. It's about a life of spiritual and personal fulfillment, a life where you're flourishing in your faith and your actions. So I invite you, as I invite myself, to make the decision to flourish every day. This personal change will ripple out to systemic change where you start your practice and you live by the principle the whole dear, engage in the activities you love and create relationships in a way that nurture your soul. This way, you can experience the joy and freedom of retirement right now, creating a continuous state of fulfillment and growth. This is what it means to truly live, to flourish in everyday retirement, and this, I believe, is the real essence of fire.
Speaker 1:There is this entity of corporate, exploitative labor mentality that makes it look like that. All we have to do is get an education, work nine to five, collect enough money to then eventually retire meaning work for someone else and become disconnected from the values and ethics of your own work, which, in turn, makes you into a dreamer that one day, when you retire, you will finally get back to living your life the way you want. All of this does not mean that, if you are in an employed position after having gone through schooling and gaining skills, that you're now stuck and I'm giving you this bad news of how you've done everything wrong. What I mean to say is, whatever your source of income is your own business or a nine to five employed position, independent contractor, entrepreneurship whatever the setting is, flourishing in retirement every day is a mindset you can create in any of these positions. Now, today, while exploitative labor will have you conditioned to believe you're working to benefit someone else, it will have you believe that you're working because you have to. You're working because what else would you be doing? It creates a need of work from pressure. Healing from that without ever changing your source of income is what I'm trying to invite you to do here. That's what everyday retirement is about. So if that's all you have to do without actually quitting your job, how do you actually do it? I will give you some easy steps that you can start taking now.
Speaker 1:First thing you have to do is to start creating balance. Balance is central to the concept of fire. Flourishing in retirement every day. It's about balancing personal fulfillment with responsibilities, with leisure. Allah swt says in the Qur'an and thus we have made you a middle nation, chapter 2, ayah 143.
Speaker 1:Whenever I feel guilty about spending too much time away from my kids, I know that guilt is there because I have moved away from this balance. I immediately do whatever I can to course correct. It might look like taking them to a splash pad on a hot summer day. It might look like going for a long drive or taking them on individual dates. Or it might look like stroking their hair as we sit lazily on the couch or tucking them extra tight in bed until they giggle silly Even my teenager, who thinks I'm silly for doing that, but he doesn't know how much I need to do this to be able to feel balanced. And this balance goes in other direction too In my career. If I haven't shown up as the best clinician that I can be, then my brain will constantly nudge me. Did you pay attention to the labs, the extra results? Did you show up with respect to the patient at their bedside? And if I notice that I'm falling short anywhere, then I know I'm out of balance and I am immediately course correct, creating balance between the areas you choose to be valuable to you and furiously protect that balance in each block of time.
Speaker 1:When you overdo or underdeliver on any of your chosen values, your body will let you know in some sort of discomfort, in shape of some sort of a negative emotion Anger, resentment, disdain. Again, it's not about what you do for work. It's not about if you're employed or not. It's not even about what your life looks like. Each of our lives look fundamentally different than the other human being. All it is about is that who you are believing yourself to be when you're doing these acts.
Speaker 1:Balancing is the key method to flourishing in your retirement every day. Which personal beliefs have you pushed aside in order to fulfill your professional duties? That will set you off balance. That will not let you feel like you're in retirement every day. Pushing aside personal beliefs to accommodate the demands of life, believing that you'll have time for them once you retire that's what pushes retirement to be a dream. What if you could live in alignment with your values now? The next key point towards flourishing in retirement every day has to do with personal growth. It's not merely about achieving a state of continuous retirement. It's about ongoing personal growth and development.
Speaker 1:A sleep by Abu Hurra Allah's Messenger, peace be upon him said the strong is not the one who overcomes people by its strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger. A Sahih hadith reported in Buhari in Muslim, strength in the fire concept involves self-control, discipline, personal growth and self-actualization. If your personal growth currently lies in the arena where you need to master your anger, then get started there. If it is about that you don't get angry enough when you ought to, then start there. And here I don't mean to act from your anger, which is different than feeling angry. This is especially evident in this hadith the strength is assigned to the one not acting from anger. Strength is not in not feeling anger. Anger is sometimes appropriate when there is discrimination, when there is abuse towards you or others you love. So if your personal growth is that you don't get angry enough, then work on it. You don't have to act on the anger. The skill of controlling anger involves using that energy to do something constructive about your situation.
Speaker 1:You don't want to delay your personal growth when you retire. Your personal growth time is now, when you are in your prime, working and facing spiritual challenges every day. Part of your personal growth might be that you need to keep consumerism mentality in check buying things just for the sake of buying them or just for the fact that you can. When I teach about taking caution against consumerism, I'm not advising against a leisurely or even a luxurious lifestyle. I'm just asking to keep your intentions in check behind this lifestyle. This is a huge part of personal growth that will help you make peace with everyday retirement.
Speaker 1:The third aspect to practice when learning to live with everyday retirement is to combat exploitative labour mentality. That type of mentality will have you disconnected from your values and your true purpose of your work. It will make you feel that you're working to benefit someone else, pushing you to dream of retirement as a time when you can finally be living according to your terms. In the Quran it says and I, allah, did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. Surah 51, ayah 56. This teaching is not confined to formal acts of worship. It extends to all actions performed with the action of pleasing Allah, including your work. By reorienting your intentions, you will be able to combat this exploitative labour mentality on a personal level.
Speaker 1:How can you begin to view your work as an act of worship and service? And I'm going to give you some powerful questions here and pause to come to these questions as many times as you need to to be able to answer them, because they really hold the key to coming out of this exploitative labour mentality. How can you create worship out of your labour? Is it because you're using your able body and able mind to provide a halal income? How are you using your professional skills to contribute positively to society, fulfilling your ethical and social responsibility? How are you currently incorporating your Islamic values of honesty and integrity? How are you able to conduct yourself with the Islamic principle of excellence, or Ihsan, in your workplace? Can you see that the discipline and routine it takes for you to do the daily work is a form of devotion? Where do your professional goals intersect with your personal and spiritual goals? Can you see that your work is an opportunity for dhawa, subtly conveying the teachings and principles of Islam through your conduct and character? Oh my God, these questions are so good and so helpful when answered by taking a little of time. Will we two still do it? These answers will create a mentality that will be the opposite of exploitative labour, and that is that it's uplifting value, creating soul, nourishing it's purposeful labour, self actualizing.
Speaker 1:The next area you need to fulfill to really feel everyday. Retirement is prioritizing happiness today, and I urge you to consider what makes you happy, what brings you joy and meaning in your life. Is it a peaceful prayer at dawn. Is it a heart to heart conversation with someone? Or perhaps it's the satisfaction of a job well done? Whatever it is, make it a priority today. Let's not postpone your happiness. Instead, let's integrate it into the fabric of your daily life and begin to truly live. If your brain offers you that, you cannot possibly be happy with the work that you do, it does not bring you joy, and I will challenge you to believe that there might be something that brings you happiness today, and I will challenge you to look for it in the upcoming days. When we judge what we do every day, it limits us from creating joy out of it today.
Speaker 1:Who says you have to wait until retirement to start enjoying your life? Often we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that we overlook our own happiness. We get so focused on fulfilling our duties and responsibilities that we forget to pause or breathe and embrace the joy that life has to offer. Happiness isn't a destination, it's a journey, and your journey has been ongoing. You just have to recognize it.
Speaker 1:All of these pieces of the puzzle that I've given you to create everyday retirement challenge conventional wisdom. Traditional wisdom tells you to work hard now so you can enjoy your life later. But what if you challenge that perspective? What if you begin to question why is it that you have to wait for the future to start living in the dream life? What if you can start doing that now? I invite you to explore your own values. What truly matters to you? Is it your faith, your family, your work, passion for art and literature? Is it travel adventure? Is it a field of science that you haven't explored? Whatever it is, start living towards that and align with these values today.
Speaker 1:And how you will accomplish that will depend on your brain If you're able to come to these questions with creativity and resourcefulness or if you're coming at it from objections and obstacles. That will entirely depend on how optimized your mind is. In your mind is exactly what we work to optimize in my empowered Muslim woman EMW private coaching program. For example, a client to me with a mismanaged mind will say I don't have time or money. But a client with a managed mind will learn to make the most of what time and money she has. Maybe she will decide to spend her free moments reading books that enrich her mind. Maybe she will use her lunch break for rejuvenating walks and cherish the evenings spent at dinnertime. A mismanaged mind will create an abundance of time or wealth. When a mismanaged mind will be operating from your lower brain, that will only show you lack.
Speaker 1:Before I came to this work, I remember having thoughts like if only I had more hours in the day, if I had lived in a different city, my life would look different. What if I had pursued my childhood dream of becoming something else? Then I would have been able to retire early. I thought about when I finally retire. I plan to do whatever it is I needed to do. I thought about how I wished I could go back in time. If I only had the courage to follow my passion when I had the time. I always thought about when my children are grown, I will be able to do whatever I need, but with internal work.
Speaker 1:Alhamdulillah, each morning as I wake up, I feel a sense of freedom that many associate with retirement. Yet I am not officially retired, nor do I have endless time or boundless wealth. Instead, I have chosen to live each day to its fullest potential, making a conscious decision to never compromise on my happiness or live in discordance with my values. You will see when you learn to operate from everyday retirement mentality, you will create true financial independence. In this constant pursuit of fulfillment, I also found that every single day brings with it a potential for joy and contentment, a potential that I get to reach with my actions. Each morning prayer I observe, I use it to anchor me. It offers me a serene start to the day that is deeply rooted in my faith as a Muslim woman.
Speaker 1:My daily interactions with people in my life. I am able to create out of them cherished moments of connection, not just responsibilities or obligations. Rather than continually chasing after future aspirations, I make the life I am having now fuller and more enjoyable. I choose to appreciate the blessings and opportunities that already exist in my present. It's like living my retirement life 20 years in advance, enjoying the richness of life that we have often told is reserved for a distant future. Each decision I make, every path I choose to follow, is done with the focus of maintaining my happiness and staying true to my values and keeping up with the balance, and my day looks different each time. It might be time with the family, engaging in community service or showing up in service for you guys.
Speaker 1:For me, it also can be just self-reflection and self-care. All of this is only able to happen with conscious thought and language of the mind. This is the concept behind everyday life-long retirement. With that I pray to Allah swt.
Speaker 1:Ya Rahman, we seek refuge in you from the hardships of exploitative labour. Grant us the ability to work with sincerity, integrity and purpose. Help us treat our daily efforts not as just mere means to a material end, but as a form of worship and service to you and your creation, ya Malik, provide us with livelihoods that honour our values, respect our dignity and bring goodness to ourselves. Help us remember that true success is not measured by wealth or status, but by adherence to your teachings and commitment to righteousness. Ya Wadud, inspire us to live each day to the fullest, to find joy and fulfilment in every moment. Let us flourish in our lives, experiencing the richness that we once attributed to retirement, one day, not as a distant dream, but as an accessible reality. Today, ya Rafar, we seek your forgiveness for any shortcomings and pray that you guide us towards actions that are pleasing to you. Keep us steadfast on your path. Please keep me in your dharas. I will talk to you guys next time.