Aiman Azlan's Blog

A student asked me a very popular question that I got: how I got married. It is one of those stories that I have told many, many times. But I don't feel bored by it, because that is one of the best stories in my life. I don't think I will ever be bored by that story. I told him that I wanted to get married when I was 18. That time I was in Taylor's University College, studying in a pre-university program before I flew to Canada. From that moment, I was searching for a potential partner in life. 5 years later, I found my wife, who happened to be my classmate back when I was in secondary school. He took a moment to digest the story, and then he asked me a very interesting question, "So, you started with the intention to get married?" I was taken aback a bit by the question, and just said, "Ummm...yeah." I thought that was common sense. You always start with an intention, and then you do the action. But he pointed out something that I have never tho...

You have something important to do and you know that you have to do it now. You also know how to do it, or at least you know how to start the process. But you decided to delay it until later, whenever that is, and keep on delaying until a time when you are too close to the deadline. Then, you rush to finish the job and simply focused on getting it finished. It's done! You feel relieved, but the outcome is not of the quality you hoped for in the beginning. When you are asked, "Why didn't you do it sooner" You answer, "I was lazy. Sorry." Saying you are lazy is, in a way, identifying yourself with the laziness. When you do that, you accept it as a part of yourself. It is now a part of who you are as a person. When that happens often, you will get used to the fact that you are lazy. You become okay with it. When someone asks you again, you say, "I'm just lazy. There's nothing I can do." What was once an action, now becomes an identity....

Hear me out. Nobody should ask someone to make mistakes intentionally. That would be immoral. But the irony is that, we learn most through making mistakes. So, how can we avoid making mistakes but at the same time learn from them? The answer is actually simple: Try. You don't have to try hard to make mistakes. You are human after all. Whether you like it or not, making mistakes is part of our genes. Find the courage to try more and try again, and the process of trying, mistakes will naturally be made. This is a simple rule we begin with in our lives. When we were small, we just try things. We made mistakes, and we might hurt ourselves a bit along the way. But we brush it off, learn from the experience, and move on. We grow by knowing what we did that led to the mistakes, and try not to repeat the same mistakes again. We move on by trying it differently, or trying different things. We will make new mistakes, and then the cycle repeats itself. This is not us making mistak...