Start writing….
Where to start? Assalamu alaikum, my name is Umar Gana. A lot of people know me as Umar Gee from my social ‘presence’. I’m 22 years old (No this is not my ‘media age’ I’m actually 22)
My mission is simple: I’m on a quest for greatness. Striving towards success in my Dunya and Akhira simultaneously; and sharing as much value as I can along that journey.
That’s a rough sketch of the end goal. Let me try to paint a picture of what my life looks like today:
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I’m living in a simulation. A few years ago I never would’ve thought this was the turn my life would take, But Allah is Al-Hadi and he guides in the most beautiful ways.
I don’t think there’s a fixed label to describe what I do. Why limit myself to one? :)
I’m a sales tech consultant by ‘profession’, a content creator, an (almost) author, with my first book launching a few weeks from now Inssha Allah. A “motivational speaker/influencer” as my friends would tease. But to me, I’m just Umar, trying to use the favors Allah has blessed me with to serve him in the best way possible.
On a day to day, I’m working on solidifying my Quran memorisation, I try to read a lot of books, I journal, I try to keep fit and active, A lifestyle that a younger version of myself would see as ‘boring’ But Alhamdulillah, I enjoy this ‘striving’ and pushing myself to do great things. The journey in itself is energising, and propels me to want to do more.
Figuring out my ‘purpose’ has been an incremental process (and still is) since graduating from University and starting ‘life’. I had so many Ideas of things I wanted to try doing: a clothing brand, a branding agency, a luxury perfume brand, and the list goes on. We all tend to have our ideas before finally taking the first step. Ultimately, that first step for me ended up being a travel agency called GeeWorld which I ran for about a year (temporarily put on the side).
Then I stumbled into the world of content creation through ‘Hifzpiration’, a short video series I made to help people memorise the Quran. (The book I wrote was an extension of this) Then eventually broadened the scope of my content from just Quran memorisation to more aspects of islamic views on different areas of l with Gee’s Diary, the name I chose for my YouTube channel. I started that earlier this year and posted for 10 weeks straight (Before also putting that by the side)
And Here I am now, writing the first episode for this newsletter.
You may be wondering why I’ve jumped between so many ideas, and why I decided to put my travel agency and Youtube to the side when they were performing quite well.
The answer - prioritisation
Everyone has so many ideas and things they ‘could be doing’ with so limited time for what you ‘can actually do’ effectively.
For anything to be successful it requires a sufficient amount of energy, effort and time. So we always have to try our best to make sure we are allocating ‘our eggs’ into the best possible ‘baskets’.
To avoid burning out and not being able to make progress on anything, I thought: “what’s the most important thing/best thing for me to be doing right now. And how can I focus on doing that thing to the best of my ability?”
I want you to be able to take something away from every drop of this newsletter, I guess that’s the point of having a more detailed and personal outlet to you guys. So why not start with that?
Takeaways for you:
There is something that Allah blessed you to be able to carry out better than anyone else - Think about things that you are good at and naturally inclined to and see if you can find something to work on
Be vicious when taking action. The faster you start trying things, the faster you can find out what ‘is’ and what ‘isn’t’ for you. And once you find out what is for you, then you can focus all your energy and attention into that thing to be able to grow it well
Pray to Allah, At every point in the journey, ask for his help, ask him to guide you, ask him to put barakah, ask him to make it easy. Never stop asking him.
Focus on what’s most important at each stage of your life. Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to do everything at the same time.
I promise you, If you focus on one thing, and you keep doing that thing with full dedication, focus, discipline and above all else consistency; You would be amazed how far you can go in such a short amount of time :)
This was a test episode, I want to continue with a theme similar to it - give you a personal decision/story/realisation/ anything of value from my life, and break it down into practical lessons and takeaways that you can adopt
For now, I’m thinking of doing monthly drops but we’ll see how that changes overtime. See you soon my beloved reader!
Allahumma barik
This is beautiful 🥹