Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do?
I’m Sudanese. Born in Abu Dhabi and raised most of my life in Dubai. I work in a major oil storage company based out of the UAE. A typical day for me starts at 8am and finishes about 7:30pm. It’s really quite busy. We manage customer service, commercial stuff with customers, so it’s a very demanding job throughout the day.
What challenges were you experiencing before the Life Accelerator?
When I looked back at the past couple years and thought to myself, what have I achieved that’s really amazing or outstanding? – I couldn’t really come up with anything. So I thought to myself, well, this is my chance to join a programme that would help me to make some drastic changes this year, instead of just feeling stagnant and that I’m just doing the same old thing.
Why London Real?
I came across your channel through one of Alex Ikonn’s videos. I realised you’ve interviewed a lot of the most amazing minds around the world. I was just really intrigued by your channel because you put a lot of good and valuable content out there free for everybody to see. It’s one of my favourite channels!
You had to make an investment – what was the thing that made you want to do that?
Before even thinking about the money it was the fact that I just wanted to make a change this year. The way you put the message across that this was the chance for us to really crush our goals and really master high performance, that to me was key. It was a strong magnet for me. In terms of money, how do you put value in investing in yourself? I mean, why do people do MBAs and stuff like that? Because they want to invest in self-knowledge and self-development.
What was your first kind of ah-ha moment?
It’s difficult to specify that specific ah-ha moment because for me it was this sequence of events that really mattered. So we started off with the mind. That was quite powerful. Making the meditation very consistent and so on. And then doing the food module and the Wim Hof breathing and the active meditation. I just feel like the way you’ve sequenced it in the sense that the initial modules really made us look at the later modules in a different perspective. You really make it more constructive and more beneficial for us. I think that was truly powerful.
But for me, personally, my achievements were beating my sugar addiction and getting over the hangup of social embarrassment by putting myself out there on videos. Sugar was the hardest for me because I had to come to terms with the fact that I’m addicted to sugar, in a big way. I didn’t know how to really get over it myself. But what’s unique about this programme is the ownership, the ownership that you put on us to really make a difference, and the fact that I had a peer group watching over me, watching my every move, and you were watching our every move. So I had to really not embarrass myself and really be honest with myself and say, okay, I could easily post pictures of vegetarian salads and say this is what I’m eating, and then behind closed doors eat five Mars bars or whatever. But I didn’t wanna do that because I really wanted to make a change so I had to be very truthful about it. And honestly, if it wasn’t for the peer group and the fact that we were being held accountable by everything we were doing, I don’t think I could’ve beaten that sugar addiction.
Did you feel more mental clarity now that you weren’t having that sugar and gluten in your diet?
Yes, definitely. I think that gluten was also making me feel really bloated and foggy, and it was very important that we actually cut it out of our diet. But also I’m noticing a change also in my body, and I think by the time the end of the year comes, it will be a major transformation.
Tell me about this group.
It was a very surreal moment last night because I’m hugging these people like they’re long lost friends, and I’ve known them for six weeks but I’ve never actually met them. I’ve never had that before, but it was really special. Because everyone is so vulnerable and so open on their videos and being very honest about themselves, you really got to know them really well. I think that’s very important. To really make the most out of this programme you need to be honest and you need to be very open in sharing what you’re going through, otherwise how else can you support each other? And so when you get to meet them face to face, you see that glow in their faces. You notice the difference between the very fist video they posted about introducing themselves. It was also looking dull and a bit depressed and dark and now they have this vibrancy, this renewed energy. It’s pretty incredible. A big difference.
To someone who’s not quite sure if they should take the Life Accelerator, what would you say to them?
I would say if you knew that you could have complete mental clarity and master your food and your health and your diet and your body and your relationships, would you not automatically be performing and achieving successful and amazing things at work to the point where you reap those benefits in any way, making multiples of that amount that you’ve invested initially anyway? You would definitely get that back somehow ’cause that’s how it works. You master everything about yourself and that automatically translates into everything else around you in life. What do you have to lose?
Chapters
0:00 | Meet Life Accelerator graduate Maha Abdelmajeed
0:41 | Feeling stagnant before 2017
1:26 | How she found London Real
3:04 | Overcoming her fear of video
5:03 | Her biggest wins on the course
6:32 | Tackling her sugar addiction
Read the full transcript
Full transcript: Maha Abdelmajeed on London Real
0:02 I’m here with Maha Abdelmajeed, recent graduate of the Life Accelerator. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do? I’m Sudanese, born in Abu Dhabi, and raised most of my life in Dubai. I work in a major oil storage company based out of the UAE. Okay, what’s a typical day for you? I start at 8, finish about 7:30. You know, full-on day. It’s really quite busy. You know, we manage, you know, customer service, commercial stuff with customers, so it’s very demanding job throughout the day.
0:41 Okay, and what challenge were you experiencing in December when you decided, I got to be on this Life Accelerator? What was going on inside your head? I think when I look back at 2016 and 2015 and I think to myself of what have I achieved that’s really sort of amazing or outstanding, and I couldn’t really come up with anything. So I really thought to myself, well, this is my chance to really join a program that would help me to really make some drastic changes in 2017, instead of just feeling stagnant, feeling that I’m just doing the same old thing, not really doing anything different.
1:26 Okay, and why London Real? I came across your channel through one of Alex Ikonn’s videos, and then somehow it came to your channel. After watching his videos, he mentioned that he had an interview with you, and then I thought, okay, who’s this Brian Rose? So then I came across all your other videos and I realized you’ve interviewed a lot of the most amazing minds around the world, and I was just really intrigued by your channel, because you put a lot of good and valuable content out there free of charge for everybody to see, and it’s one of my favorite channels, to be honest. So that’s how I came across London Real.
2:08 Okay, thank you for that. When you decided to join us in December, you had to make an investment, and what was the thing that made you say, okay, I want to go ahead and do this? I think before even thinking about the money, it was the fact that I really just wanted to make a change in 2017, and the way you put the message across, that this was the chance for us to really crush our goals and really, you know, master high performance, that to me was key. It was a strong magnet for me.
2:32 In terms of money, I mean, how do you put value in investing in yourself? I mean, why do people do MBAs and stuff like that? Because they want to invest in self-knowledge and self-development. And anyway, you offered the 30-day money back guarantee, so I couldn’t resist. I thought I’ll just put on the credit card and see how it goes. I’ll try it out for 30 days. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just pull out and get all my money back. So it was zero risk for me. Fair enough. Good answer. Yeah.
3:04 All right, January comes, you start, you go onto the Facebook group. Yeah. You have the first live call with me, you watch the module, you got these 60 people from around the world that you never met before. What are you thinking then? Well, before we even get to the live call, we had to do this introductory video, so module zero if you like, and I thought, what, I have to do a video? Nobody said anything about doing videos. And I thought, no, no, no, I don’t know what this Brian guy is smoking. I’m not doing videos.
3:38 I don’t even like having my photo taken, let alone do a video. So that was my first piece of resistance, of course, but I didn’t realize it was resistance at the time. And then the days go by and I’m seeing everybody else posting their videos introducing themselves, and I think, okay, I’m going to look like a total loser if I don’t do it. So, yeah, it was interesting.
4:02 Obviously, after seeing all the introductory videos, you already felt like a sense of familiarity, that you kind of know these people. You know something about them, you know why they’re there, you know what’s driving them, and it was actually very well organized through these Zoom calls. I didn’t like the fact it was late at night my time, which was a bit of a challenge, but otherwise it was pretty cool, and you could tell there was a bit of anxiousness, because people didn’t know what to expect. I think it was the first one you’ve ever done, and, yeah, just waiting to see what’s going to happen.
4:38 Okay, but you did this huge video where you were out in this crazy, you know, oil and gas field at night, and you’re like, this is me, you know. Immediately everyone was like, wow, she’s very interesting. I just thought, I didn’t have time to do a video during the day, I was working, and I thought, let me just wait till the evening for everybody to leave so I don’t look like I’m a weirdo. And I thought it would give a good impression about where I work and what I’m actually doing, and who am I. This is what I am. Yeah, it worked. Yeah.
5:03 What was your first kind of aha moment where you were like, wait a second, this is working, something popped for you, you had like a win? What was that? I think it’s difficult to specify that specific aha moment, because for me it was the sequence of events that really mattered. So we started off with the mind, that was quite powerful, you know, making the meditation very consistent and so on, and then doing the food module and the Wim Hof breathing and the active meditation.
5:36 And it just, I just feel like the initial, the way you’ve sequenced it, in the sense that the initial modules really made us look at the later modules in a different perspective, to really make it more constructive and more beneficial for us, and I think that was truly powerful. But for me personally, my achievements were beating my sugar addiction and getting over the hangup of social embarrassment by, you know, putting myself out there on videos.
6:07 Because after the first one I thought, okay, at least I did a video, no more videos. Little did I know that we had to do a video for each and every module for six weeks, and I thought, oh my God, this is a nightmare. I have to go out there and put myself out there. I felt very vulnerable and very exposed, but I had to get over it, and yeah, that was very interesting process. Now you seem to enjoy posting those videos, actually. Yeah, they come with ease now. You’re right.
6:32 Tell me about the sugar addiction, because it’s week three that we did diet, right? And there was a quadrant. It was no gluten, there was one vegetarian quadrant, intermittent fast, and then sugar. Yes. Tell me about that. So sugar was the hardest for me because I had to come to terms with the fact that I’m addicted to…
