Motivational Talk Semester I 2007/2008

29^th July, 0740 hours. I receive a text message from my boss, asking me to join him at Sciencess’ “Motivational Talk” program. Being my usual lazy self, I ignored it and went back to sleep (it was a Sunday mind you). However, being my also responsible self, I couldn’t help but feel like I would let him down if I rejected his invitation, so I decided to get up, take a quick shower and head to our KOS. The fact that there was free nasi lemak also added some extra incentive for me by the way =p

The 1^st speaker was one of our own, Sis. Lina Diyana Mohd. Jamal, a final year student from the Department of CTS. Her talk was entitled “The Secret Recipe of an Exceptional Student”. Quite frankly, she was a perfect choice to present such a topic. With 7 straight Dean’s List awards in her course, not to mention having obtained a 4.0 GPA for 2 of her semesters, and to add to that, a healthy interest in debate and taekwondo, she really does seem like an “Exceptional Student”, don’t you think so? Moving on, her recipe for success contains 5 “ingredients” if you like. The 1^st being a goal. Without a goal, you would have no direction in your pursuit of knowledge. Her advice in this aspect is to believe in yourself, if you think you can, you can, if you think you can’t, you can’t. The next ingredient is simple enough, study. Take notes of what to study, which means pay attention in class to what your lecturers emphasizes on and what they don’t. Find a suitable time to study (varies between individuals), and develop a way to study that suits you (again, varies between individuals). The next is a problem for many of us, time management. Luckily though, the 3^rd speaker of the day presented on this topic, as I will report on shortly. Lastly, Duaa’ and blessings from our lecturers can be a huge help in our search for academic success.

The 2^nd speaker of the day was Y. Bhg. Prof. Dato’ Dr. Md. Tahir Azhar, the dean of the Kulliyyah of Medicine. His talk was entitled “The Importance of Students’ Appearance and Grooming”. Basically his main point, and advice to students was to dress appropriately for every occasion. Classes, lectures, talks, seminars and the likes, require a formal, somewhat professional attire. I got the vibe that he wanted us to know that how we dress reflects our personality to a certain extent. It could be true for all we know.

Lastly, Kapten Hafiz Firdaus bin Abdullah presented his talk “Wal-Asr: Pengurusan Masa Dalam Islam”. It was in Malay by the way. He provided handouts for students, outlining the main points of his talk. Similar to Sis Lina, he set out 5 points for his topic, time management. The 1^st is to realize that time is unchangeable. 60 seconds will always be one minute, 60mins is 1 hour, and 24 hours make a day etc. After making this realization, we need to then realize that instead of doing too much, and thus limiting the amount of “free” time we actually have, it would be wiser to do less, excel in those, and not have to worry about time management. The next point is to stay focused and prioritized. Make more time for the more important aspects of your life, and less for the less important. Step 3 is to again realize that time waits for no man. Basically the gist of this point is, don’t procrastinate. The 4^th step is to be creative and resourceful, and make your own time. Take note of your daily activities that could be better spent, and make that time more productive. Lastly, find the blessings of Allah S.W.T in time. Time may be an unchangeable entity of the universe, and may not wait for any man, but if we are able to find the value of time and appreciate it as muslims, insyaAllah we will be granted with more time for our worldly and spiritual endevours.

Last word from me, don’t ever think that we don’t need motivation, or that these kinds of events would be pointless and meaningless to us. No matter how old we are, no matter how high our CGPA, we can always learn something new everyday. Something which I myself only learned recently.

Reported by,
Jazli
Bureau of Information and Communication
Sciencess