Metropolitan Muslimah

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

We often talk about kindness to self in terms of pampering ourselves or not being too hard on ourselves.

But I think being kind to ourselves also include ensuring ourselves a good future and not doing ourselves a disservice.

My mother once told me that if we don’t change ourselves for the better before we turn 40, we may never change at all. I am inclined to believe this is right. I think by that age, everything gets set in stone somewhat; your habits, your savings, your plans.

I still have some good years before I ripen so I have got to give it a good go while I still can.

The reason why my 4am club membership was only for two days was because I could not see a good reason for compromising my sleep when I needed to start work later than usual, which also meant that I had to end work later, thus cutting precious sleep time since I had to be awake at 4am the next day. That was the deal breaker.

Right now, however, I am feeling the effects of falling back into my old ways. I feel less energetic and less sharp mentally. I forget things more easily as well. I discussed this with my colleague, stating how I felt sharper when I woke up at 4am despite the lack of sleep. And we came to the conclusion that it may be better for me to re-enter the 4am club.

I will need to be more realistic with my morning routine and realise that it is impossible for me to achieve so much in one day. I need to be more patient in terms of having to rotate the things I want to do, my passions essentially, instead of trying to squeeze everything in one day.

I also need to allocate a minimum of 15 minutes for each task instead of five minutes. That is part of being realistic as well.

So let’s see how things go. I need to bravely re-enter the 4am club and keep on adjusting my routines and I figure out what works best for me.

And Allah is The All-Knowing. – MM