Aiman Azlan's Blog

On 29 November 2016, I was invited by Institute Of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS) to be one of the young panelists for a discussion about sustainability. The discussion was a part of a book launch program. Since the topic was so interesting and rare, I grabbed the opportunity. The thing is, when we talk about sustainability in the eyes of the youth, we have to realize that it is not one of the top topics the youth discussed. I know that because after 5 years of being a public speaker in Malaysian universities, I can only recall 1 time where the environment is the main topic and that was back in 2012. Most of the times, the youth are discussing about topics regarding their future such as love, education, and career. This is not to say that the youths are selfish. No. They are insecure and afraid. In other words, the youth are preoccupied about their own survival in this seemingly scary world. If you refer to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, survival is the...

Credit: IKRAM Siswa Perlis That happened at UniCITI ALAM, UniMAP on November 25th. I delivered a talk about one of my favourite topics: self-confidence. It is the topic I am exclusively focusing on right now, with Aiman Azlan Academy and Speak Up! I believe it is one of the core issues of Malaysian youths, based on my observation for the past 5 years being a motivational speaker to a primarily youth audience, especially university students. I had to revamp my 4-hour Speak Up! materials to fit the 1 hour and 30 minutes time slot that was given. It was a challenge, but it enabled me to look at my Speak Up! materials in a bird's eye view and find a simpler way of delivering the same powerful message. Last night, I touched upon 3 things which I believe to be the key elements of sustainable self-confidence. 1. CONCLUSION Having a set of sound guiding principles as reference for all our choices and decisions. This provides consistency in our lives. Without sound guiding ...

I had my tertiary education in Toronto, Canada. I studied there for 4 years, and I graduated in 2013 majoring in Biology and Psychology. Since I have studied overseas for four years, I think I am somewhat qualified to address some of the misconceptions surrounding the whole thing. Starting with… Misconception #1: Being overseas will make your English perfectly fluent. Just because you are overseas doesn’t necessary mean that your English will be fluent. Being in an English-speaking environment is a huge opportunity to improve your English fluency, but it doesn’t happen automatically. It is an opportunity, which means it will only benefit you if you choose to take it. So don’t be surprised to find some Malaysians who come back home without having the ability to communicate in English well. One popular reason why they don’t improve their English communication skill is because they hung out with other Malaysians and ended up talking Malay all the time, in an English-speaking ...

Remember that time when you wished you could say something to the Prime Minister's face? Careful what you wish for, because it might just come true. In this case, it came true! Now, the people of Malaysia can interact with their Prime Minister using the Najib Razak app (available on the App Store and Google Play . But before you go on a keyboard warrior mode, I would like to ask that you take a minute to think about what this means. This is an opportunity, a golden opportunity, to do a positive thing or  a negative thing. You can choose whichever option you like. AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER I'm going to call out the elephant in the room: many people have issues with the Prime Minister. I can imagine that many frustrated Malaysians will see this as another outlet for them to spew all their negative feelings on the Prime Minister, as if Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Whatsapp, Telegram, and coffee shops are not enough. You can u...

Note: I translated this  Facebook post  written by Noor Afidah Abu Bakar from Parent Connect Consultancy .  The video of a school pupil being bullied was spreading across Facebook. Recently, we are being bombarded by videos of bullying in schools. I am worried if this trend will lead to the society being desensitized by bullying, similarly to how our society sees wrestling as something entertaining and pranking as a joke. According to a statement made by the Deputy Minister of Education, last year alone we have 3000 bully cases in schools. It seems like bullying is fast becoming a very serious issue. We haven't include cases outside of schools. One bully case is enough to cause worry in the society, let alone 3000. We often focus on the school and the teachers for not punishing the bullies. We also often focus on the bullies themselves, and we want them to be in jail just to experience how it feels like being bullied by other inmates. Sidenote: It is rather...

There are two types of confidence: inner confidence and outer confidence. Outer confidence is common, where you seek confidence from outside of yourself. A few examples of that are you seeking confidence from your peers (their approval give you confidence), from your looks (looking attractive makes you feel confident), or from your status (having titles elevate your confidence level). Outer confidence is important, but it shouldn't be the core of a person's confidence. Why? To put it simply, outer confidence is temporary. It has a tendency to fade away. Your peers will not be with you all the time. One day, they will go away. If they are not there to give you the approval you crave, then what happens to your confidence? Your looks, no matter how hard you maintain it, has a natural tendency to decay with time. It is a part of the circle of life that we have to make peace with. When wrinkles start forming and white hairs start appearing, what will happen to your confi...

This year will be my 3rd year of being married to the woman I love. I had a deep problem that was bothering me, and I decided to keep it to myself. But somewhere in my mind, I knew that I shouldn't do that and I should express it to someone - especially someone really close, like my wife. I knew it, but I forgot. Today, I was reminded of it. When you find yourself a spouse, you are creating a team. In a team, we look out for each other. There is not such thing as winning without the other member of the team on board. When one member wins, the other wins too. When one member loses, the other loses too. When you are on the same boat, there is no competition. You have the same goal: to keep the boat afloat and to reach your destination. If the boat sinks, it takes everybody with it. That is the analogy that I have to keep reminding myself in this marital relationship I am in. For a while now, I have been contemplating on some financial matters. I have to make a financial...