Here's to a new chapter 🥂
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” -Winston Churchill
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” Steve Maraboli
Hey hey!
How are you doing? I hope this love letter meets you well.
Gosh!! It's 1:12am and I'm so excited to be writing this letter to you.
The Love Letters from Nusaybah newsletter turned 2 years old in June and it just felt appropriate to update it to reflect the new chapter of my life (and online presence, lol)
Firstly, I want to say Thank You!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 💜🤍
• To all my day one subscribers, I genuinely love & appreciate you guys for all your support.
• To the person who gave me the nudge to start this, may Allah honey you! Xo
• To the people who constantly ask about the newsletter, who share for others to benefit, may Allah bless you all.
• To all 399 subscribers, thank you for sticking around. I'm super glad that this has been of benefit in one way or the other. AlhamduliLah ✨
Secondly, to answer the biggest question on your mind “Why this change?”
One Thriving Life ™ is a call to action for me & hopefully for you that's reading this too.
OTL originally started as the name for my “coaching” business but to be honest, it didn't feel authentic identifying as a “coach”. I always thought “What life have I lived that I'm coaching people?”
This is something I’ve struggled a lot with for the past 3/4 years and it has seriously affected how I showed up in service of others in many ways that I wouldn't even get into in this newsletter.
In May, I signed up for a 15mins free coaching session (I've done a lot of free and paid sessions like this in the past few years, SMH) with the best coach, The Othman hoping to solve my clarity problem. Would you believe that a few minutes before the session, I CANCELLED?
Lmao, I'm such a ridiculous babe.
Anyway, The Othman immediately called and asked me what was wrong and why I cancelled. And trust me, I gave a very good response (I'm good at those). It went like this “Oh, I'm not ready yet. I know I'm not ready to take action so when I'm ready, I'll come back”
Good right?
In response, he asked me this “What are you afraid of, Nusaybah? Are you afraid of success?”
I swear this was my exact expression. I felt so so attacked.
I had to sit with the question for a minute or two.
That follow-up call lasted just 3 mins 25 secs but I promise you, it was life-changing. There was a huge shift in my thinking and I sent some messages afterwards. This is a part of it👇🏾
Of course, I needed to have more clarity so I went on a YouTube binge to consume as much content as I could (what this really was, was procrastination, smh). But I learnt a lot of things and I was able to connect some previous knowledge to my current situation.
One that stood out for me was how Ali Abdaal always talked about how people these days prefer “guides” rather than “coaches”. Guides are people like them who have experienced what they're currently going through and can help them get through it.
I thought,
“Oh, that's more like it. I can totally be a guide.”
“Yep, makes sense”
A few days later, I decided to just get out of my head and do. This looked like changing all my social media handles from @nusaybahox to @onethrivinglife. This was such a small step but it felt really huge. This newsletter was the last thing to change, tbh.
I've loved “Love Letters from Nusaybah” since my first letter in June 2020 buuut, at the same time, One Thriving Life is going to be great, I know it.
Thirdly, what does One Thriving Life mean?
Like I said earlier, it's a call to action for me. That I have just 1 life and I should make it a thriving one.
And what does it mean to thrive? Thriving for me is a lifetime journey. Of trying to live a life of excellence (Ihsan), purpose & happiness.
All these are subjective terms. It looks different for everyone. I'm constantly trying to define mine and work towards it. The goal is in the striving.
The point of changing my socials to reflect this is because I want to show up authentically and create content around what I discover as I go on, on this journey called life.
The newsletter isn't going to change. Much. If anything, I think it’s going to be more refined. And that's a really good thing. AlhamduliLah.
So there you have it.
2 Quotes :)
“Thrive where you are and you will reach at a destination where thriving will become life.” (Hiral Nagda)
“The world around us changes every day, so we too must evolve to thrive”(Torron-Lee Dewar)
Living by the mantra of “one thriving life” hasn't been easy.
In next week's letter, I'll share how I quit the largest youth organisation in the world and the lessons I learnt from that experience.
Oh yes, this newsletter is now a weekly one 😊 Once a week, you'll be seeing me in your inbox, in sha Allah.
See? I told you this was good.
Also I'm super super excited to announce that I'm starting my podcast :) We go live next week, in sha Allah 🤭
If you have anything you'd like me to talk about on the podcast, please feel free to leave a comment or reply this email. I want to hear from you!!
Also if this letter resonated with you in anyway, I want to hear it. Leave a comment. Please and thanks!💜
TL;DR -
• Your feelings are valid. Sit with them to find out the truth of any situation.
• One Thriving Life is a call to action for me and hopefully for you that's reading this.
• I prefer being a guide, than telling myself I'm a coach.
• The newsletter is now a weekly one + there's a podcast now!
FOLLOW ME.
If you'd like to talk to me about anything relating to
• (generally) personal development, productivity, career decisions
• (specifically) procrastination, purpose, happiness,
please feel free to schedule a session here.
I'm not a coach. I'm just someone who's figuring out life, just like you, okay? But I’m known for giving really good advice + I actually have some experience as a coach even if I don't identify as one anymore 😅
Enjoy your weekend, relax, do some self-care activities & I hope you have a great week.
Until next time (in sha Allah),
lots of love,
Nusaybah xoxo.
I can totally relate to the aspect of the "human mind focussing on labels so everything is tidy".
I always try to define and label myself with the things that I do such that everytime I take up something new, rather than enjoy it as it blooms, I struggle to attain a limit that I set for myself to be able to call myself that thing. If that doesn't work out, It's a whole round of disappointment.
BarakaLlahu Feekum on this new phase, looking forward to the amazing stuffs you'll do.
Good luck with your new phase, identity and everything.
Barakallahu fih.