Pausing and Finding Time to Get Inspired

The past 1.5 years has been extremely busy for many of us, and also for Phosphorus Diagnostics team. Our company joined the fight against COVID-19. We put our scientific and technical capabilities to work in order to help public health and developed an at-home collection saliva COVID-19 kit. Our amazing laboratory, clinical, logistics, client services, customer success and bioinformatics/engineering teams worked around the clock to take care of our patients. At the same time this great and dedicated team lead by our exceptional CEO, Alex Bisignano, came together during those busy times, and developed GeneCompass, a test with the aim to revolutionize personalized genomics and provide better access to genetic testing to enable individuals to become more proactive about their health. Yes, we want to and we are changing the world!!! I couldn't be in a greater place and with a greater group of people to do this.

However, with a great goals and initiatives, there also needs to be a time for the brain to breathe and get touched with an inspiration that in turn can fuel new ideas and drive innovation. This summer I was greatly influenced by father of my friend - I call him Confucius of Our Times - Professor KB Maharjan. He is well-known educator, politician, philosopher, business leader in Nepal. Not to mention that he is also the founder of first university in Nepal. Every time I am visiting my friend, he provides me with new perspectives. One of these is on how to pause and find time to get inspired in our busy world. KB has this daily routine of reading affirmations over a cup of coffee in the morning. As he described in his blog: "Keep a quote book or an inspiration book handy. Manage some time to read some pages of it at random. They inspire you to move forward on a daily basis. The list is called ‘Affirmations’ by those who know how to lead a calm and peaceful life. I have treasured a couple of such self-help books. I read them over my cup of coffee early in the morning and declare: all positivity 'In', all negativity 'Out'".

Now, I also take these pauses to relax and reflect, to get inspired by practicing KB's affirmations. It is important to enjoy the quiet moments, which could result in the realization of new and important ideas. What an approach to start a day!!!