A Problem and A Solution

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties” ~ Harry Truman.

Yesterday I went to Toyota service center to service my car and I saw tha above sign. It attracted me and while waiting for my car I read the article stated that optimists are healthier and live longer. So, according to Harvard study that followed the lives of 99 students from the age of 25 found that those who were initially classified as optimists at that young age were significantly healthier at the ages of 45 and 60. While pessimism in early life is a stable predictor of poor health in later life. Similar studies have shown that pessimism is a good predictor of not only infectious disease but also of early mortality. In other words, being a pessimist literally means that we will likely die sooner. Research conducted on cancer patients has shown that those who are optimists have healthier outcomes than those who are pessimists. So, be optimist rather than pessismist even though you have a lot of problems.

Reading the article made me smile. I'm trying to be optimist now, since I'm in the middle of having problem of my laptop, I really need to find a solution. A day before I accidently left my laptop in my car and rushed to the class. As a consequence, a problem occured with my laptop may be due to the hot temperature when I left it in the car. It happens that I am in the middle of finishing few of my assignment and of course without my laptop it gives me headache. I am not worrying about my laptop but the data and the software that I bought from U.S that cost me more than the laptop itself. For now my solution is really simple; what can I say? - Be Cool. What can I do? - send my laptop to computer technician...... what else?!

Be Confident!

Sometimes confidence in ourselves can make the difference in many ways. Last week, I was in the Econometrics class, there was one question asked by one of the students in my class that attracted me very much. The question was exactly like the question that was asked by scholarship panel to me when I was presenting my research proposal. I listened carefully to the answer given by my professor. Surprisingly, the answer was exactly the same as my answer given to the scholarship panel. It was about the differences in variable terminology in Econometrics.I felt like screaming there " That was my answer and I thought it was wrong!'. The only difference between my answer with my professor's answer was the level of confidence. He answered it confidently whereas me??? He 3x. Only Allah knows... During presenting my research proposal infront of 5 high rank person in my department (scholarship panel), I was really lack of confidence until they said my answer was wrong and I was kena bambu teruk. I accepted everything they said and serve me right for not being confident with my own answer. Anyway, I still get my scholarship.

Lack of confidence is a not a really good thing. It robs our tremendous number of opportunities in life. It wastes time. It causes emotions that hurt and tear down. Sometimes things can go wrong, even for successful, confident people. It happens to everyone. It happens constantly. No matter where we are. No matter what we are doing. No matter how hard you try or prepare. Things go wrong. As for my case, I prepare for everything but when I saw the panel, it was like having butterfly in my stomach and in the room I even couldn't hold my computer's mouse correctly.

At least I accept the comment and critism given by the panel. It is good to learn from criticism rather than dwelling on it and applies it to becoming better. If the criticism is invalid then we should simply ignores it and moves on. We must willing to try many times and many ways to accomplish a goal. We make mistakes but we have to perceive as chances to learn rather than for self destruction

Moral of the story BE CONFIDENT!

HIJRAH

I just started my life as a student. My first day of registration was not really good. My sister's car broke down and as a result I didn't finish my registration. Then, I missed my first class and I lost in Bandar Kajang. It has been years I didn't ride in the bus. I really don't know about the system of this transportation anymore. Luckily I am in Malaysia, just read the sign or ask other people, Insyallah you will arrive home. I didn't bring my car yet and still searching for a new home in Bangi.

Sometimes it's not easy to begin all over again when you're already so comfortable in your old routine. But things change for a reason and we have to go with the flow. Changing from a lecturer to become a student and moving from a small town where life is so simple to a big city is not easy as ABC. This is a really HIJRAH for me.

There is an old saying I said "The one constant thing in life is change".So, we must be prepared for any sudden changes in our lives. Although it may seem like an uphill task trying to face the changes in our lives, we must remember that sometimes a little bit of change is good for the soul! Sometimes we are so afraid to rock the boat that they appear to be trapped in their own little world that is safe..or so it seems. Make a hijrah in our own way so that we can become a better person with a higher iman.

SALAM MAAL HIJRAH!

A Year and A Lesson

I t has been awhile I haven't written anything. After a year of having an exhausting year, I took a break and went to Langkawi for a vacation with my family. It was an awesome vacation before starting my new life as a student again.

A year come and a year end. Time went so fast until sometimes I don't know what I have done last year but it seemed last year was really havoc. There are many times things happened in my life without my control and there were many times I was really tired and I didn't want to think anymore and just let things happened.

I remembered one of the topics in economics I taught to my student was business cycle. It shows few stages of economic conditions. Sometimes economic will be at the peak and sometimes it will be at the bottom/trough. I relate it with the story of prophet Yusouf. Prophet Yusouf interpreted the king's dream as the first seven years to come will be good years with good harvest, but the next seven years to follow will be bad years with famine and hunger. It just like our life, we face ups and down in life, just like rollercoaster. I remembered 2006 was a really good year for me where I was truly happy in that year, many things went smoothly. But like what Einstein said in the theory of physique, what goes up must go down. It just like a life cycle or a law of life. 2007 was a challenge year for me. I faced a lot of challenges but despite all these challenges there is one good lesson I learnt, If you have problems or choices, solve it ASAP, If not it accumulates more problems. Seek the guidance from Allah (istikharah) and forget about what is going to happen in the future. Kick the worry habit. All we can do is give our best effort until bedtime and let tomorrow take care of itself.

One thing we must remember is that things happen for a reason. Life has many ups and downs and we must try to bear the many challenges that come our way.When life gives us lemons, make lemonade! However if we just think hard about why things happen and why our life has turned out the way it is, we will find that the problems we had were meant to make us stronger.We must remember that life is meant to be lived and that life will inevitably gives us a lot of surprises that are sometimes pleasant and make us happy or...maybe life will shock us, make us sad...Whatever happens, we must remember that we are not in control. We can plan our life all we like but actually we must remember that it is God Almighty that determines the outcome of whatever we had planned. It is not easy to relinquish control at times because we tend to forget that it is He alone that controls our fate. But then that doesn't mean that we don't better ourselves and try to get on with out life.The best way is to work hard at achieving our goals, become a better person and be happy!Of course the main thing that we ought to do is to put in the effort to make our life better, pray hard for His blessings and guidance and wait for peace and happiness to finally arrive.

Happy New Year!