Kuantiti Buku Bukan Pengukurnya

A few years back, saya memang fikir "lagi banyak baca buku lagi bagus". Tapi sebenarnya it's more than that. 

Lepas saya tengok Alex and books (famous bookish content creator) pernah kongsi jumlah bacaan dia hanya 60++ buah buku pada tahun tertentu, ia buat saya banyak refleksi diri. 

Saya jadi tertanya kenapa agaknya orang hebat & terkenal dalam bidang membaca macam Alex hanya baca 60 buku sedangkan lebih ramai yang baca 100 buku ke atas. 

Dan saya temui jawapan bahawa; apa kita baca dan sejauh mana kesan positif dari bacaan kepada diri kita; juga perlu jadi ukuran, bukan kuantiti buku semata. 

Dari situ saya mula: 

- tepis rasa insecure bila tengok orang baca lebih banyak buku setiap bulan

- ajar diri rasa selesa untuk baca tanpa terkejar-kejar

- dah tak ada monthly TBR (to-be-read) list 

- suka berlama-lama pada halaman yang bermakna pada saya, samada untuk baca demi betul-betul faham, untuk anotasi, untuk dinikmati bersama kopi, untuk diabadikan dalam format gambar dan sebagainya

- tak kisah reread buku yang sama

- tak kira dah baca berapa buku

Membaca buku bukan pertandingan dengan sesiapa. Tak perlu rasa down bila jumlah bacaan orang lain jauh berganda banyak berbanding kita. 

Yang penting kita tahu kita sudah usahakan yang terbaik, sudah cuba konsisten membaca, sudah cuba fahamkan apa kita baca & cuba praktikkan semampunya ilmu serta nasihat dari bacaan kita. 

Bila kita membaca dengan nama Tuhan, kita tahu kita membaca untuk sentiasa baiki diri untuk jadi hambaNya yang lebih baik. 

I am not a serious person.

I am not a serious nor a shy person. 

I might be quiet at times but I am also that type of woman yang mudah terhibur & I love people yang mudah terhibur. For me these kind of people are the people who can appreciate little things in life amidst the struggles. 

Yes, people see me as someone who writes a lot about life's reflection, self growth and so on. But that doesn't mean I am all the time serious. Get to know me, talk to me and if I am comfortable with you, you'll see a part of me that you never see online.

When I look back, the people I am comfortable with are all 'crazy' people. 🥲♥️ They're the type of friends who are loud,  happy go lucky, extroverts & not ala-ala perempuan melayu terakhir. 

I am not really a loud person, hence why I think they complement me. Oh how I miss them so much. Life happens and here I am, without them.

Studio Sajida

I was reading a book about course creator and the author mentioned that it's still significant for a course creator to update their blog once in a while; for the sake of SEO. 

So here I am, trying to update my beloved blog. There's nothing much to share about my life but let me write here about my current job. 

Some people think my job is a book reviewer, and some even think that I am a full time author. Truth be told, I no longer do paid book reviews (coz I wanna choose the book I read on my own, and I don't wanna force myself to finish reading a book simply because someone paid me to do so). 

My current source of income is actually from the course I offer, it's called Muslimah Content Masterclass. So it's basically an online course where people (specifically Muslimah) are being taught about building their personal brand through creating content on the topics they choose. 

I wanna inspire women to realize that they can be confident, can have their own income, and they will keep growing as an individual if they truly practice being a content creator; and being consistent in optimizing their platform to help others as well as to spread knowledge. 

I don't want our generation to use social media mainly for updating stories of their life and family, but way beyond that. Hence why I tell my students that a content creator is different from an influencer (in term of their online content). 

So what's with Studio Sajida? Well, that's my IG username, the name I use to build my personal brand regarding the niche. Muslimah Content Masterclass is one of the classes that I offer. 

I guess I need to sleep now. It's already 0122 hours. Good night! 

Of the UK, my childhood dream and us.

One of my childhood dreams was to go back to the UK to experience going to school there. I was born in Scotland but my family returned to Malaysia when I was only 9 months (if I am not mistaken) coz Abah had completed his degree. 

When I was in primary school, I had quite a number of friends who came back from the UK and undoubtedly their English speaking & writing skills are profound. And that surely increased the desire in me to go there too, to improve my English proficiency as well as to 'balik kampung.' 

When I was 10, I kinda heard my mom said that there's possibility for Abah to pursue his master in the UK. Upon hearing that, I had an indescribable feeling inside. 🥹 

I vividly remember having beautiful dreams of waking up in a room with a snowy view from the window, touching down the Heathrow Airport, as well as spending the weekends with family in London. I prayed even harder since then, for Abah to fly there and bring the whole family with him.

Well, Allah knows best and that didn't happen. However on that particular year, Abah went to the UK for work matters for 2 weeks and he brought back luggages of gifts and chocolates! 😍 I still remember how wonderful I felt at that time to receive items from the UK. It kinda heal my yearning to visit my birthplace. 

I can say that, knowing the fact that I was born in the Scotland is a motivation for me to keep improving my English. It makes me fall in love with reading English books as well as talking to myself in English. 

Till today, I still long to be there, to walk on the quiet roads in Scotland, to experience raining season in lovely Edinburgh, as well as to spend time for bookstores-hopping. ♥️

Husband once said that it might be a great idea if we hijrah to the UK for a year or two, for him to pursue his study as well as to experience living abroad. Unfortunately it was kinda joke coz it's not in his mind (yet) to pursue his formal education to the next level. 

He was born in the UK too (many Malaysians my age were born there coz our parents studied there) and returned to Malaysia when he could barely remember anything about it, so he kinda had the same dream as mine about the UK. Fortunately he had the chance to visit England (his birthplace) a year before we got married, and I envy him. 🥲😂

Husband had the dream to pursue his degree in the UK but Allah knows Australia is the best for him at that time, so He sent him there for 2 and a half years. 

Fun fact; I had the opportunity to fly to the UK for degree in accounting but I chose to study in Malaysia instead (precisely UIA) because I don't want to be an accountant, I wanna learn Arabic, or anything related to Islam. And truth be told; at that time I was sure that I don't wanna go to the UK for years and leave my parents. I told myself that if I were to go there without family; it's for traveling and that's it. 

Whatever it is, when the time is right, we'll surely be there bi iznillah. Amin. 🥰 

Reader VS Book Lover

That night, when everyone else was asleep and I was at my working desk, reading (or I could say, busy deciding which books to read ), I suddenly came to the realization that there’s a difference between a person who loves reading and a person who loves books. 

For me, to love reading is: 

- to love the process of comprehending and understanding the written words (hence, a reader doesn’t really mind dog-earing or annotating their books) 

- to focus on the knowledge within the books - to be concerned about the impact of a book’s content on one’s life 

- to make sure to read daily 

- to have the goal of becoming a reader, instead of simply being a book buyer or a book lover. 

So, when it comes to being a reader, the yardstick isn’t how many books we have on our shelves, but rather how reading has helped us improve as a person and how it has become a daily habit. 

However, I can say that loving to buy books is one of the stages toward becoming a reader. We can’t really fall in love with books if we are far from them. And yes, there’s nothing wrong with reading for leisure. But it’s important not to get stuck at the stage of “reading ONLY for leisure” because reading is indeed a form of work — a deep work that we have to do in order to grow. 

When we read only for leisure, we tend to read only when we have free time, and only for comfort, not for growth or knowledge. But when we have the mindset of reading for growth, we’ll make time for it, and we’ll seek books that can help us grow. 

That’s why busy people (CEOs, stay-at-home mothers, working mothers, doctors, etc.) are still able to read many books in a year. Does that mean we can’t read for leisure or escapism? Of course we can. We do need books for those purposes. We are human beings, and we have various needs. Just make sure that we don’t label reading as merely a hobby. 

“Read, in the name of your Lord Who created...” (Al-‘Alaq: 1)

Of Coffee and Life Lessons

When I started drinking coffee last year, I learned a lot of precious life lessons revolving around it. It’s not simply about a well-known beverage; it goes far beyond that. 

And honestly, it’s kinda sad to think that some people have such a negative mentality regarding those who love sharing their coffee moments on social media. Let me list down a few negative connotations that people usually associate with coffee lovers: 

- showing-off attitude 

- unnecessary lavish lifestyle 

- bad for your health 

I’m not gonna say anything about the points above, but I do wanna write down some beautiful coffee-life lessons I’ve learned so far: 

1) People who enjoy their coffee moments in a coffeehouse are usually people who appreciate being alone and actually feel good about it. (And this is important.) 

2) Making our own coffee at home teaches us that there are little things in our everyday lives that we can look forward to and be grateful for. 

3) To be able to find people who love coffee as much as we do is indeed a blessing. It’s kinda like an instant friendship, but with a deep connection. 

4) It’s important not to think badly of others who love doing something that we don’t. Just because we don’t understand why they love something (in this case, coffee), doesn’t mean it’s bad. Let people love what they love and enjoy life in their own way, as long as it’s halal. 

5) It’s okay if people misunderstand us (regarding coffee or any other aspect of our lives). Let them say we’re showing off or damaging our health. They’re accountable for what they say, and we don’t owe them any explanation. People should know better than to think that a picture or video truly reflects what actually happens in someone’s life.

A Beautiful Mind

Bismillah. 

Watched a beautiful and inspiring movie with my husband just now. The title is A beautiful Mind, based on a true story of a Professor named John Nash. I rarely watch movies but this movie is an exception. 

In brief, he was a genius student (then a professor and won Nobel prize on 1994- hey I was 7 at that time!) in the field of economics and mathematics and obviously numbers fascinate him a lot. To cut the story short, he suffered from scizophrenia and he found out about it shortly after he got married to his student; Alicia.

I don’t wanna write a lot about the story, so if you are interested to know, just head on to wikipedia and read the synopsis. What I wanna share here is about the lessons I learned from it;

1) mental illness can happen to anyone including genius and smart people. 

2) having a mental illness isn’t embarassing and it’s not a choice. 

3) Some mental illness patients might feel afraid or ashamed to let others know about their condition but it’s quite helpful if they let people aware about it. Those who aren’t afraid to share about their struggle to healing, are indeed strong and resilient. 

4) Mentall illness doesn’t only affect the patient, but the caretaker or the people living with them as well. So it’s of paramount importance for them to learn how to live with these patients, and more importantly, how to make them feel supported in their journey to recovery. 

5) The first brave thing to do for a person with mental illness is to admit they have it, and the second is; to seek help. 

6) Certain mental illness can’t be healed and the patient just have to live with it forever. And the only choice they have is to fight it and to learn how to control themselves whenever the illness strikes. 

7) Never give up to fight for our life, no matter what tests are being given. And it’s totally worth it to keep on doing the best that we can, with what we have, in the condition we are in. 

8) Love can make us strong, love can help us to heal.

9) To sacrifice for our beloved ones, is always worth it. 

10) No matter what we experience in our life, add meaning to it.  

Before I stop, I wanna leave you with this lyrics;

All Love Can Be (from the wife to her sick husband)

I will watch you in the darkness 
Show you love will see you through 
When the bad dreams wake you crying 
I'll show you all love can do 
All love can do 

I will watch through the night 
Hold you in my arms 
Give you dreams where no one will be 
I will watch through the dark 
Till the morning comes 

For the lights will take you 
Through the night to see 
All love, showing us all love can be 

I will guard you with my bright wings 
Stay till your heart learns to see 
All love can be.