Zaid Ismail's Blog, page 6

The victim-hood of self-loathing

No good deed goes unpunished. I was reminded of this in recent days when the bitterness of a self-loathing human distracted me from what is important about life. It’s not the bitterness that was jarring. It’s the intensity, and the immensity of the self-loathing that has become the battle cry of too many that jarred […]

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You’re human. Be human.

We need to be careful with subscribing to a victim mindset. Any form of abuse leaves emotional scars. But that doesn’t mean it breaks us. Nor does it mean that it’s impossible to heal from it. Don’t believe everything you read. No human is broken. And every mind can be healed. When we convince ourselves […]

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Honour yourself

Self-respect is more about who you want to be, rather than what you are willing to tolerate. Claiming your space while diminishing the contribution of others in your life is not self-respect, it’s unintended ingratitude. Self-respect is reflected in how you hold yourself accountable for the impact of your actions on others, and not just […]

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Stop judging. Be human.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING This meme showed up on my timeline earlier and highlighted everything that is wrong with the way in which we treat each other. There are a few terms that I generally disagree with (sometimes very strongly) if used to describe people. These terms include broken, damaged, toxic, and basically anything that reduces […]

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Do you see you?

Life conditions us to look at what we’re getting, rather than what is given. That means that we focus on what we’re giving, and not what others are receiving from us. That’s how we end up misinterpreting the signals that we get from them, while they also misinterpret the signals that they get from us. […]

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Look back with understanding

When you don’t have a gentle hand to guide you, or an understanding structure to support you, life will be shaped through trial and error. In the same way that we can’t give what we don’t have, nor can others offer us what they don’t have – no matter how much we need it from […]

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10 Rules for life

If you don’t hold yourself accountable before you hold others accountable, you’re insincere about what you claim to uphold. If you focus on everyone else’s shortcomings that you think may justify your behaviour, you will be defined by everyone else’s shortcomings. Is that really the standard by which you want to live? It always starts […]

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Be the village

While it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to corrupt a child. Parenting is a monumental challenge in itself, but becomes infinitely more challenging when being done by a single parent. Add to the single parenting challenge by having an obstructive co-parent, and the challenge continues to grow ever […]

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Who do you want to be?

Don’t get so lost in trying to find yourself that you lose the opportunity to reinvent yourself. If you’re struggling to discover who you are and what you should be doing with your life, perhaps it’s time to focus on who you want to be instead? You cannot be purposeful about life if you don’t […]

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Divinely obnoxious?

Godliness is like humility. It is lost when we actively pursue it. Living by the doctrine to which you subscribe is infinitely more important than preaching it. People learn from how you treat them, not from how you chastise them. Judging the faith of another reveals the cracks in your self-worth more than it offers […]

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