Assalam Alaykum Warahmatullah wa Barakatu. I hope this finds you well and in the best of moods. The end of the year is nigh and so many people are beginning to gear up for a solid 2023. I wish everyone the best of luck in their endeavours. This month—belatedly— I’ll be speaking with Nusaybah Abdulfattah.
Please introduce yourself (what you do, what you’re known for, etc).
I’m Nusaybah. By day, I’m a product designer with a physiology and psychology background and by night, I’m a community builder and personal growth strategist helping young people like myself develop and grow into the best version of themselves. You can find me on both Instagram and Twitter @onethrivinglife and my newsletter
.Could you share what self-development looks like to you?
Self-development is a lifelong process and a journey you’re taking till you die. Most times, everyone has an idea of who their ideal self is and self-development is just you doing the work to get to that point.
Do you have a system for measuring how far you've come? What does that look like?
Yes. I have a life book. There, in every area of my life, I’ve written what I think is the most ideal version of that aspect of my life looks like. The way I measure is by comparing where I am to where I’m going as detailed in my life book. And looking back, looking forward gives me a sense of my growth.
How does studying factor into all the work you do?
I like to believe no knowledge is useless. Particularly for me, my psychology degree helps me a lot with the work I do— mental health advocacy, and user experience as I’m able to understand better how the human mind works and how people behave. As a physiologist with a focus on neurobiology/neuroscience, I understand how the brain works and this also ties into my work in advocacy and user experience as well.
I noticed you have a knack for creating organisations that are needed almost exactly when they are. How do you decide the needs of your society and narrow down ideas to help?
To be honest, I think a lot of the organisations I create are selfish ones because I create them first of all for me. I look at the problems I have, think of ways to solve them and somehow it just turns out to be what other young people like me need as well. It’s like that saying— no problems are unique. I make them help me and at the end of the day they end up helping so many other people.
How do your faith and spirituality play into your development and how does that factor into your community work as well?
I believe my faith is the most important thing and it’s what binds me in this Dunya1. Every work I do, I try to tie it to someone bigger than me which for me is essentially God. And I try to make it a form of worship which is one of my primary purposes in this world— to worship Allah.
I see you call yourself a multipotentialite sometimes and it’s really obvious that you are, but I’m wondering: do you think it’s something one has a predisposition for or something that one becomes? If your answer is the latter, could you share tips on reaching that part of the journey?
I think it’s both but I lean more towards the fact that it’s something that one becomes. Because when you’re young, you explore and want to do so many things and it’s like someone said— can’t remember their name— specialisation is for insects and human beings aren’t wired for that. And I’ve felt this way all my life. You realise for a lot of people, it’s inherent but society encourages us to pick just one thing so people eventually suppress other parts of themselves. And reaching that part of the journey is by exploring your curiosities and figuring out the ones you have a passion for.
What does your average day look like?
I make sure I pray my salah and then cover most of my most important tasks for the day— reciting the Quran, learning something new, reading a book, etc. To be honest, I don’t have a lot of structure. I just try to make sure my morning and evening routines are achieved.
Fun part.
Shawarma or Pasta? Shawarma
Cake or Icecream? Icecream
Ebook or Hardcopy? Ebook as it saves money and time.
Hardcover or Paperback? Hardcover.
Fiction, Nonfiction or Both? Both, definitely.
World
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