‘The Key Within’ is a self-help book in a league of its own. The author, Waseem Ijaz, is founder and chairman of Employment & Career Solutions. This charity organization is engaged in improving the quality of Pakistani human resources through its various activities including, a charity school for street children, food programs for poor and handicapped families, personal development seminars for professionals, career counseling activities for students, and facilitating employment seekers in the KSA job market.
‘The Key Within’ was written with a sincere desire to help others, and its distribution on a non-profit basis, sets it apart from the rest.
Although the author, born in Lahore, acknowledges that he wrote the book in the context of his native country, ‘The Key Within’ targets a larger readership with useful advice about decision making, succeeding in business and maintaining good relationships.
The book opens with a strong statement: “Common sense is heading toward extinction”. We not only fail to differentiate what is good and not good for us but we are also becoming more tolerant of immorality. The loss of common sense is due to both “mass demoralization, through the deprivation of basic needs”, and also to the constant “mind wash of the masses” through disinformation campaigns systematically engineered by the media.
To help us think properly and make the right decisions, the author introduces us to the way our mind functions. The explanation is brilliant in its clarity and conciseness.
We have at our disposal both, a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. The conscious mind designed to work on logic can only focus on one thing at a time while the subconscious mind can deal with many things at once. “In essence, the subconscious mind is like our hard disc. We function based on exactly what is defined on this hard disc” explains Ijaz.
Besides predefined instructions concerning bodily functions such as breathing or eating for example, we are free to inscribe any command on our subconscious mind we want it to carry out. Giving instructions to our subconscious mind is quite simple. We only have to keep on repeating the commands, a few times a day over several weeks. But the orders should be given with complete honesty and clear determination.
‘The Key Within’ also reminds us that if technology has disconnected us from each other, a happy life depends more than ever on our ability to nurture healthy relationships. The TV, the computer and the cell phone have isolated people. Traditional Eid visits are increasingly being replaced with telephone greetings which have been conveniently downgraded to SMS messages which take even less time.
Cell phones are not only taking away our privacy but they are also cutting us off from our neighbors, friends and relatives. We have never been so connected and disconnected at the same time.
“We live in isolation in this so called global village, where no one knows each other. We are left with barely any options but to adapt to this way of life” writes Ijaz.
The key to adapt lies in one’s ‘emotional quotient’ and that is not only the ability to identify, evaluate and control our own emotions but also to understand and manage other people’s emotions better. Nurturing our emotional intelligence can safeguard our relationships but it requires showing respect and empathy, and being flexible, thankful, trustworthy, positive as well as forgiving.
One of the key lessons of the book is the necessity to move forward and to look to the future. We should also keep in mind that all the decisions we make today, will shape our future.
However, according to the author, minor decisions generally do not get our fullest attention because we often do not realize how they will affect our lives.
“In reality, the actual situation is the reverse; the minor decisions are the major decisions. They are the ones that carry the potential of high impact in our lives. For example, not making a good decision on our wake-up time in the morning is reflective of our poor time management skills that may seriously harm our professional growth…” writes Ijaz.
The key to improve our knowledge, health, financial stature, or spiritual joy is to start small, and keep adding bit by bit. Eventually, the consistent addition of all these tiny efforts will show their positive cumulative effect:
“Baby steps are the bases of giant leaps later, but consistency is the key”.
Incidentally, Stanford University carried out a research to identify the skills required for a person to be successful in life whether he is doing a job or running a business. Two skills were shortlisted: technical and knowledge skills and communication skills. A person who does his job well, possesses a good knowledge of the world, and has both the ability to communicate and understand people, has better chances of succeeding.
Talk simple, stay natural, speak the truth, listen and understand, always use positive language, and remain open and flexible. These are the six core principles that can help improve a person’s communication skills.
In one of the best chapters of the book, Waseem Ijaz reminds us that Islam teaches us that:
“The upper hand is better than the lower hand’, that is, a donor is superior to a beggar. Why then do we find it so hard to understand what our Creator wants from us?... we have to achieve self-reliance with an aim to become a donor, an almsgiver”.
Financial stability gives us the freedom and the power to do the things we want, without hindrance or restraints.
“I don’t want too much money. All I want is just enough to buy some comfort for my family and for myself, are the kind of examples of confused and unclear objectives. These sorts of unclear aims will take us nowhere. Warren Buffet once said that he never had any doubts that he can’t be rich” writes Ijaz
Six simple steps can help us achieve financial success. First, spend less than what you earn and save the difference. Second, reduce the expenses, increase your income and increase your savings. Third, invest your savings by buying assets. Fourth, re-invest your savings by buying more assets. Fifth, when the returns from your assets are equal to your monthly expenses, you have reached financial stability. Sixth, when the returns from your assets are more than your monthly expenses, you are becoming rich.
Teeming with useful advice, expert opinion and wise recommendations, ‘The Key Within’ takes the reader on a voyage of self-discovery and guides him on the road to success.
Email: [email protected]
