Slowing Down to Speed Up: Review the Past Year and Build Forward with Intention - Part 2

As-salamu’alaykum,

Welcome back! Over the past week, I have been able to re-establish my daily planning/journaling routine which had been derailed over the course of my busy winter break.

Re-establishing this routine is one of the steps that I took to slow down as I had started to sense a subtle feeling of overwhelm.

This renewal of my planning/journaling habit and the intention to stay grounded has helped me to regain clarity on key pillars of my days and weeks, Alhamdulillah. It has refueled my commitment to this newsletter and to serving you all along with the rest of the global community of healthcare workers in ways that nurture our resilience and fosters peak performance at home and at work. 

I am hopeful that you have been able to take some time to pause as well. It is not only therapeutic, it is transformational; you gain a much deeper understanding of your motives, you take the time to express gratitude for your successes and the lessons you learnt from your failures and it helps you to renew yourself and grow from this newly established vantage point.   

Today, we will explore how to build forward by leveraging the insights gleaned through the annual review process. Let’s jump right in!

According to one of our pious predecessors, Ibn ‘Ata’illah (May Allah SWT have mercy upon him) in his highly regarded work, Taj al-’Arus; he described two ways that we generally plan; Blameworthy planning and Praiseworthy planning.

Many of us tend to make plans for the year ahead (and often beyond) without factoring Allah SWT into the equation -what Ibn ’Ata’illah describes as Blameworthy planning - “planning that revolves around the self and its appetites, heedless of one’s debt to God, as well as God’ remunerative generosity and spontaneous grace”.

Among healthcare workers, there’s a strong potential to operate from an ego-centric locus with a key driver being our professional identities given the very meaningful work that we are opportuned to do in the service of humanity which then informs much of our planning efforts without factoring the divine role in our successes and incorporating that consciousness into our planning. 

Ibn ‘Ata’illah proposes a different approach, praiseworthy planning: “planning that seeks to enhance one’s relationship with God”.

For the healthcare worker, this calls for a reappraisal of how we currently operate. It redirects us to redefine what success in the year ahead (and beyond) will look like and how the intentions we make for the year can transcend the professional accomplishments that they are at face value to something that is more lasting and can help our pursuit of eternal success in the hereafter by aligning us with Allah’s will.

Here are 3 key principles to consider as you plan for the year ahead;

1. Set sincere intentions for the year across the different areas of your life.

In the annual review process, you scored yourself across 6 areas (if you used the free annual review tool from the Productive Muslim Company). As a healthcare worker, the burden of work and how you manage yourself within the healthcare landscape can have an immense impact on the quality of your life so for this reason, I also recommend doing a burnout check in using this free resource and self-resilience assessment here so that you can integrate this into your grand plan for the year. 

2. Consider who you want to be and not just what you want to achieve in the new year

An often under-appreciated factor in our capacity to succeed with the intentions that we set is the impact of our identity and how that informs the choices that we make daily.

Will you choose to be someone who protects their Salah times because it enhances your mental health and spiritual resilience;  or someone who eats healthy because it impacts your performance at work and at home; or someone who chooses exercise as a matter of priority because it translates to improved mental and physical health; or someone who prioritizes healthy sleep habits because it improves resilience and many other similar lifestyle choices and habits which eventually compound and contribute to our likelihood of success with our intentions.   

3. Detach from the results of your intentions

As healthcare workers who have often gone through rigorous training, we are driven to be high achievers and often link these successes directly to our hard work.

The reality is that no true success comes without Allah’s permission.

Allah SWT reminds us about this subtle but profound reality when he ask these 2 questions in quick succession in Surah Al-Waaqiah (Ch. 56): v 63-64; “Have you considered what you sow?, Is it you who cause it to grow, or is it We Who do so?”

Allah reminds us that our role is to plant these seeds (our intentions) and then work hard to nurture them as we see in this hadith taught to us by Prophet Muhammad PBUH. 

Anas bin Malik narrated that a man said: "O Messenger of Allah! Shall I tie it and rely(upon Allah), or leave it loose and rely(upon Allah)?" He said: "Tie it and rely(upon Allah)." Source: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2517 Grade: Hasan (Darussalam)

The results are however not in our hands. The same is true when we take care of patients in healthcare, sometimes our best efforts result in a poor outcome and sometimes, our not so great efforts still result in a good outcome despite a near miss related to a preventable patient safety mishap or medication error.

Our role is to do our best, at all times, with regards to our patients, in dealing with colleagues or in executing on our personal intentions and rely upon Allah SWT for true success which may come in the form that we imagined it or that Allah will guide us to a be better outcome in this life or the next.

Consider these 3 key principles as you plan your year ahead and prioritize leveraging opportunities that enhance your relationship with Allah from your 5 daily Salah to a daily relationship with the Quran as these are guaranteed to keep your grounded and resilient in the face of the very real challenges that you face at home and at work as a healthcare worker.

Please let us know how your praiseworthy planning session goes. Until next time,

Ma’as-salam

Sincerely,

Sulyman