Beyond ROUTINE: Making the Most of Every Day
Mahek Anwar Ali, Associate
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicince
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
Marcus Aurelius
The alarm goes off. You slowly open your eyes. You have a new day ahead of you. Today does not have to just be another day of performing routine tasks in this journey called life. Yes, it's another working day…
We are experts at reacting to everything life throws at us, working our way through our never-ending to-do lists, skipping lunches, sacrificing sleep, and neglecting ourselves in the pursuit of more. But what else? And for what purpose?
To have a more of Salary? No, it will soon come to an end before the month ends. To have more of a completion of tasks? NO then what will you have on your plate the next day? Then the more of what and to what end? This is the question one needs to ask themselves daily.
To me every day was just the same day. I didn't realize the importance of Blue Mondays and every other day till I Joined AKU back in 2018, I realized that every single day is actually very important. It is important in how we foresee the rest of the week going. But what is more important is how do we approach or set ourselves up for a long week.
میں اکیلا ہی چلا تھا جانب منزل مگر
لوگ ساتھ آتے گئے اور کارواں بنتا گیا
– مجروح سلطانپوری
The thing that I learnt in almost 5 years with the caravan of my department is to pay attention carefully and thoroughly to yourself and to others. To open doors of yourselves for more and more opportunities. Embrace your uniqueness; there is nobody like you or like me. Once we understand and embrace our uniqueness we start to collaborate, to feel safe, and instead of competing with each other and judging each other, we compete with ourselves and strive to achieve more and do more.
You see, the mind is much easier to trick than the heart. We can sit at our desks for almost 9 hours and try to convince ourselves to attain more. But what did I actually achieve? I achieved multiple things while working in Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, such as teamworking, resilience, Multitasking, performing several tasks under pressure and completing them within the given time period and above all the basic soft skill I learnt is openness to feedback and to apply in my day-to-day life.
We can work on simplifying our lives, taking better care of ourselves, and reducing stress, but some things are beyond our control. Surprising events, uncertainty, difficult people, loss, and failure will always occur. With a reserve of grace and gratitude, we'll get through the tough times and emerge stronger on the other side, making the good times even sweeter.
نہيں تيرا نشيمن قصر سلطانی کے گنبد پر
تو شاہيں ہے ، بسيرا کر پہاڑوں کی چٹانوں ميں
علامہ اقبال
