Knowing yourself
By: Fatima Riaz
Tags: Amal Totkay, Amal Positive Reflection, Amalacademy, My Beloved Amal Academy

Positive Reflection

Knowing yourself

As rightly said by Kristie Barnett, The first impression occurs at a subconscious level before your brain has time to evaluate the space at a cognitive level.

Amal could be just a name for those who have never heard about it and don’t know anything about it. For me, it’s living a mini life in three months. I learnt a lot about my career, job, networking and so many other things by this fellowship that I never dreamt of! This fellowship is just a package for me. I don’t even remember how these three months passed by. Most people create a false assumption in their minds without knowing others. But here’s a suggestion that I learned from my life experience which goes the same way as a quote goes, ‘Never judge a book by its cover”. We Pakistanis are so judgmental about what we mostly do, we never tried to communicate with the people or organizations but still we had an opinion about that person or particular organization. So, please try to discover the world by interacting with them , not assuming them!

As rightly said,

A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.

My story of Amal started at 11:00pm on 30th October 2020 when my elder brother came to me by saying fill up the form, its deadline. I just took the phone, filled up the form at 11: 30pm and started wondering what this Amal is and why my brother asked me to do so. I asked my brother what this Amal is. He said he will tell me in detail in the coming days but he couldn’t help me because of his work load. So I decided to explore that word name Amal. I started my research on different media sites and got to know much about it. Then I had an interview call, orientation session and finally enrolled in Amal 172 Batch. And Here Amal journey begins!

I can feel this statement,

How you present yourself, is how people first view you. What are you showcasing?

Now the question is what the instance that has impacted me was. My journey at Amal is really good and I enjoyed it a lot. From day one to now every session, every activity was memorable. Getting to know my whys, creating life maps, Amal circles, group meetings, PWs, mock interviews, everything was just unforgettable. But the one that I could never be is my One on One with my PM. The whole session was good but when I asked her for a piece of advice and she said so many things but the only sentence that I could never forget is “ Don’t be so rude to yourself”. This is the line that I think has been impactful on me from that day till now.

The maya Angelou rightly said,

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

This sentence or line has more impact on me than anything else. After that incident I tried to reflect more on my personality than before. I am working on myself and trying to praise my personality, every day. I know like all the others I also have some negative sides but what about those beautiful sides for which I get praised. I get appreciation from my people and then try to praise myself too. I started understanding from that day that no one is going to appreciate you for your good points but they can degrade me for my bad side, so why don’t I encourage myself to get the best version of myself. Now, I start knowing my worth and I start loving myself. I got the point that nobody is going to accept me until or unless I am going to accept myself.

To fall in love with yourself is the first secret of happiness.

I have realized by a few of my close friends that I am not doing well to myself. I usually used to underestimate myself. Whenever I achieve something great, I usually try to give credit to those and I was having a reason for that, a mind game you know! Most people have tried to realize this thing in the past but I never pay attention to myself.

I realized that thing, which bis in Ellie Holcomb words is so,

When you make a mistake , respond to yourself in a loving way rather than a self shaming way.

Now, these days when I see myself, I feel some changes. I try to appreciate myself for my good and try not to be harsh on myself for my bad too. I remember in my interview, I was asked a question that why I want to be part of Amal academy and my answer was I want to discover myself! And today I can say I achieved that goal and this is the lollipop moment for me.

Amal Academy is doing great and I want to say thank you to them and to Ma'am for letting me know myself. She helped me in knowing myself and that was the goal of mine to be here. I am a better version of myself now and I believe I would be the best versions in the coming days, In Sha Allah!