❓A few FAQs about Intention-Impact Matrix

Assalamu’alaikum,

Thank you all so much for the incredible feedback on the Intention-Impact Matrix. I really appreciated the thoughtful responses you all had to the matrix.

I am answering a few questions that kept coming up regarding the matrix below:

1. Does low impact mean low value?

No! Low impact does NOT mean low value. It means that its circle of impact is much smaller than the high-impact activities.

Moreover, you NEED some of the 'low impact' activities to recharge your spiritual, physical, and mental energy to handle high-impact work.

For example, a low-impact activity may be praying, fasting, or exercising... they are essential activities, and we need to do them. However, we should not use them as 'excuses' for not doing the high-impact work.

What's important with low-impact activities is to keep the intentions for them for Allah's sake and not let our intentions slide to low ego-centered intentions.

2. Can mundane activities become high-intention activities?

The short answer is yes. We discussed this in detail with Dr. Abdallah Rothman in the video below. We talked about how even doing laundry can be a high-intention activity. Check it out below:

3. What if my season of life doesn't allow me to focus on high intentions/high-impact activity?

Sometimes, you go through a season of life where you need to take care of young children or an elderly parent, or you're going through a tough physical/financial time in your life. 

You might feel that you're 'missing out' on doing the high-intention/high-impact work, especially if you're active in social work. 

This is where you need to reframe the situation: You need to reframe your responsibility as your high-intention/high-impact activity during this season of life; so reframe taking care of kids, or your elderly parent, or the health/financial challenge as a spiritual quest that you know if you fulfill with sincerity and Ihsaan, you'll be getting the reward for doing high impact work. 

Remember, the story of the young man who wanted to fight in the cause of Allah with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised him to serve his parents because his parents needed him at that time.

I hope you find this helpful.

InshaAllah, I plan to do a webinar to go over the Intention-Impact matrix and answer your questions live.

Stay tuned.

Sincerely,