Aiman Azlan's Blog

Someone asked, “I’ve thought about quitting my course because I have no interest in it. What should I do now?” It is very important for you to have an interest in what you are studying. At the very least, that can provide an intrinsic motivation to keep studying and keep expanding your knowledge. If you are not interested in what you are studying, it is very difficult for you to get up in the morning and keep on going. Interest is a good starting point in your journey to build your knowledge and skills in the subject matter. The journey is long and hard, so having interest as the intrinsic motivation is important to reduce the likelihood of burning out. Along the journey, that interest can evolve into passion. If you are not interested what you’re studying, then you have two options. Option 1: You can persevere and see where it goes. It is possible that you will end up sparking an interest in the subject matter. Option 2: You can quit and pursue another path that you find inter...

Usually that question comes from university students. At this point of your life, you should be able to make your own decisions and try things you are interested in. You should be given some room to move on your own, especially in this stage of your life. Perhaps in this stage you don’t know what you like, you don’t know what you passion is, and you don’t know what to do with your life. That is okay. I can even say that it is normal. You are in a stage of your life where discovery and exploration are the norm. You should not rush the process. Besides, life is not a race. Take a time out, sit down with your thoughts, and slowly figure out what would you like to do. You can even start with a guess. When you start your pursuit, things will become clearer and you will modify your goal to something more meaningful to you personally. You can start with a few basic questions: What are some of your interests? What are the things that you want to learn? What makes you feel excited ...

Consider this example: I like to do public speaking. But in order to be good at public speaking, I have to read books about public speaking. Problem is, I don’t like to read, so how? The pursuit of my passion is prevented by this thing that I don’t like to do. Let me begin by reminding all of us this simple rule of life: You don’t always get what you want. Ideally, it will be great if everything that we do follows everything that we desire and like. But in reality, that is not how life works. If you found whatever it is you are interested in and passionate about, but then you have to learn something that you are not interested in, then that is just a part of life’s challenges. Think of it this way: If your goal is worth it, then you will power through the challenge to get to your goal. But if you give up easily, then maybe you don’t want that goal as much as you think you do (or, maybe it’s not your goal to begin with?). There is something that you can do to make the process...