غربت

 

غربت

از شیربازعلی خان 

محرومئی دنیا ہے، محرومِ وسائل ہیں

غربت کے اندھیروں کے اپنے ہی مسائل ہیں

 

کہنے کو برابر ہیں دنیا میں سبھی انساں

پر بات عمل کی ہو، تفریق کے قائل ہیں

 

مفلس کے لیئے سختی، مجبوری و تنگ دستی

پھرمشقِ ستم ایسا کہ روح بھی گھائل ہیں

 

ہاتھوں کے لکیروں پر حسرت بھری نظروں سے

دیکھے چلے جاتے ہیں دکھ کتنے ہی نازل ہیں

 

کرتے ہیں سوال خود سے، جب ایک ہی ہے دنیا

کچھ کو ملے مال و زر، کچھ کیوں بنے سائل ہیں

 

جب ہو نہ غذا پوری، تو نشوونما کیسے

دنیا یہ سمجھتی ہے لاغر ہیں یہ کاہل ہیں

 

سہتے ہوئے غربت  وہ سب کچھ سہے جاتے ہیں

اک بارِگراں سامنے، وہ اس کے مقابل ہیں

 

ہر رخ کو زمانے میں انسان نے ہے موڑا

غربت کو ختم کرنا کیا کاوشِ باطل ہیں ؟

 

غربت سے نہیں بڑھ کر مسلہ کوئی دنیا میں

   غربت نہ مٹے جب تک، سب دور کی منزل ہیں 

گر چاند کو چھو آئے، حاصل بھی بتا اس کا ؟

مفلس کے دیئے جلتے، کیا کم یہ محاصل ہیں؟

How to Improve Your Business English

How to Improve Your Business English

Minh Tran and Peter Burman

July 04, 2018

Harvard Business Review

Chun Hin is a senior manager at a Hong Kong investment bank. Every morning, he listens to Bloomberg radio on his way to work and used to read each issue of the Economist from cover to cover in an effort to continuously improve his English. As a Hong Kong native who grew up speaking Cantonese and Mandarin, Chun Hin has worked hard to become fluent in English.

Chun Hin’s story will resonate with many professionals. Pressure to speak English in the workplace continues to grow as more and more companies invest in globalizing their teams. However, mastering a new language requires time and resources that many people — especially adults who are no longer in school — struggle to find. Our company EF Education First annually releases the world’s largest study of English proficiency in various countries and industries. For the past eight years, education ministries, multinational companies, and universities have used the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) to help them understand how their approaches to teaching English — and business English, in particular — stack up against competitors.

This research has helped us map global trends in English learning. Over the years, we have found, again and again, that a country’s English proficiency correlates closely with metrics of innovation and overall economic well-being. While some global companies excel in cultivating English-speaking workforces, others flounder.

We distilled lessons learned from our work and from the literature on second language acquisition into a few tips that highlight how people can learn English more effectively. If you’re a professional looking to improve your business English, consider incorporating these into your learning plan:

Set specific goals. Learning is best done by setting specific goals that are challenging yet achievable. Don’t leave the timeline open-ended, either; set clear deadlines for yourself. A goal like “I want to be able to give a presentation in English,” is too vague. Instead, say, “I want to be able to comfortably deliver a ten-minute presentation in English about sales goals, without using a PowerPoint, by the end of August.”

Create habits. Find ways to practice English every day or every week. Regular effort builds momentum and creates habits of learning. For instance, try to read one industry article a day, deliver a presentation in English once a week, or write your weekly team updates in English.

Believe in yourself. Learners who believe in their own self-efficacy are more motivated and more willing to take on challenging tasks. Reflect on whether you truly believe you can accomplish your set goals. If not, revise your goals and make them smaller or more manageable until you trust that you can achieve them.

Enjoy the learning experience. People with more positive attitudes toward learning English make more of an effort and learn more than people with negative attitudes. If you find yourself dreading English practice time, rethink your approach. Be creative: read the English version of your favorite book, for example, or enroll in an English cooking class.

Use authentic English materials. Textbooks and practice tests have their time and place. But authentic materials, such as TV shows, podcasts, and TED talks, expose you to English in its native habitat. They better prepare you for real-life situations, and they’re often more enjoyable than strictly educational materials. Seek out good writing, watch great speakers, and try to imitate the format, structure, and language of those whose work you admire. Exposure to authentic materials not only helps with language proficiency, but it can also enhance your knowledge of a particular field.

Join a positive learning community. While there are plenty of good language learning apps on the market, our own research at EF shows that learners still benefit from having an effective teacher and a supportive learning community. Teachers help students set achievable goals and overcome barriers that inevitably arise along the way. Supportive classmates provide accountability and the friendly push that students need to keep up with their study plans. Our students who join a social media group with their teachers and classmates study two to three times more than those who do not.

Ask for feedback. The research is clear: prompt and frequent feedback has a huge effect on learning. Seek regular feedback from teachers and mentors while you practice an important speech or work on a critical business proposal. Find people who like to nit-pick about language and grammar. They will help you perfect your English.

In today’s digital age, it is becoming easier to find great resources for improving your business English. However, our research shows that busy professionals learn best when they have some kind of structured course with a flexible lesson schedule.

Of course, none of the above tips will make learning English easy. Even with the best approach, taking on a foreign language is a long-term and challenging commitment. But our research is encouraging: with patience, realistic goals, and a good community of learners, it really is possible for busy adults to master the world’s lingua franca.

Minh Tran and Peter Burman (2018), How to Improve Your Business English, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved as of July 20, 2020 from: https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-to-improve-your-business-english?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter

 

9 Habits that'll help you grow

9 Habits that'll help you grow 1. Self awareness. 2. Positive self-talk. 3. Constant learning. 4. Understanding people. 5. Living in the present. 6. Not worrying about future. 7. Not regretting the past. 8. No self-deprecating talks. 9. Believing in yourself.

(Motivation & Success)

Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

John Coleman

January 24, 2017

Harvard Business Review

I recently worked my way through Edmund Morris’s first two Teddy Roosevelt biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. Roosevelt wasn’t without flaws, but he was by nearly all accounts fascinating and intellectually voracious. He published his first book, The Naval War of 1812, at 23 and continued to write on everything from conservation to politics and biography. According to Morris, at certain periods he was rumored to read a book a day, and all this reading and writing arguably made him both charismatic and uniquely equipped to engage the host of topics he did as president: national conservation efforts, naval expansion, trust regulation, and a variety of others.

Roosevelt was what we might call a “lifetime learner.” Learning became, for him, a mode of personal enjoyment and a path to professional success. It’s a habit many of us would like to emulate. The Economist recently argued that with all the disruptions in the modern economy, particularly technology, ongoing skill acquisition is critical to persistent professional relevance. Formal education levels are regularly linked to higher earnings and lower unemployment. And apart from its utility, learning is fun. It’s a joy to engage a new topic. Having an array of interesting topics at your disposal when speaking to colleagues or friends can boost your confidence. And it’s fulfilling to finally understand a difficult new subject.

But this type of continuous and persistent learning isn’t merely a decision. It must become a habit. And as such, it requires careful cultivation.

First, developing a learning habit requires you to articulate the outcomes you’d like to achieve. Would you like to reinvigorate your conversations and intellectual activity by reading a host of new topics? Are you looking to master a specific subject? Would you like to make sure you’re up-to-date on one or two topics outside your day-to-day work? In my own life, I like to maintain a reading program that exposes me to a variety of subjects and genres with the goal of general intellectual exploration, while also digging more deeply into a few areas, including education, foreign policy, and leadership. Picking one or two outcomes will allow you to set achievable goals to make the habit stick.

Based on those choices, set realistic goals. Like many people, each year, I set a series of goals for myself. These take the form of objectives I’d like to achieve over the course of the year (e.g., read 24 books in 2017) and daily or weekly habits I need to cultivate in accordance with those goals (e.g., read for more than 20 minutes five days per week). For me, long-term goals are tracked in a planner. Daily or weekly habits I monitor via an app called momentum, which allows me to quickly and simply enter completion of my habits on a daily basis and monitor adherence. These goals turn a vague desire to improve learning into a concrete set of actions.

With goals in hand, develop a learning community. I have a bimonthly book group that helps keep me on track for my reading goals and makes achieving them more fun. Similarly, many of my writer friends join writing groups where members read and edit each other’s work. For more specific goals, join an organization focused on the topics you’d like to learn — a foreign policy discussion group that meets monthly or a woodworking group that gathers regularly to trade notes. You might even consider a formal class or degree program to add depth to your exploration of a topic and the type of commitment that is inherently structured. These communities increase commitment and make learning more fun.

To focus on your objectives, ditch the distractions. Learning is fun, but it is also hard work. It’s so extraordinarily well documented as to be almost a truism at this point, but multitasking and particularly technology (e.g., cell phones, email) can make the deep concentration needed for real learning difficult or impossible. Set aside dedicated time for learning and minimize interruptions. When you read, find a quiet place, and leave your phone behind. If you’re taking a class or participating in a reading group, take handwritten notes, which improve retention and understanding, and leave laptops, mobiles devices, and other disrupting technologies in your car or bag far out of reach. And apart from physically eliminating distractions, consider training your mind to deal with them. I’ve found a pleasant impact of regular meditation, for example, has been an improvement in my intellectual focus which has helped my attentiveness in lectures and ability to read difficult books.

Finally, where appropriate, use technology to supplement learning. While technology can be a distraction, it can also be used to dramatically aid a learning regimen. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow remote students to participate in community and learn from some of the world’s most brilliant people with the added commitment of class participation. Podcasts, audiobooks, e-readers, and other tools make it possible to have a book on hand almost any time. I’ve found, for example, that by using audiobooks in what I think of as “ambient moments” — commuting or running, for example — I can nearly double the books I read in a year. Good podcasts or iTunes U courses can similarly deliver learning on the go. Combine these tools with apps that track your habits, and technology can be an essential component of a learning routine.

We’re all born with a natural curiosity. We want to learn. But the demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits — consciously established and conscientiously cultivated — can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness. Maybe Roosevelt had it right: a lifetime of learning can be a success in itself.

John Coleman (2017), Make Learning a Lifelong Habit, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved as of July 19, 2020 from: https://hbr.org/2017/01/make-learning-a-lifelong-habit?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=hbr

 

How to Give a Great Presentation

 

How to Give a Great Presentation, Even if You’re Super Anxious about It

Joel Schwartzberg

Joel Schwartzberg, 

I recently worked closely with a 24-year-old client—let’s call him Martin—who was tapped to deliver a five-minute presentation at his company’s annual Town Hall meeting. Martin had never given a public speech in his professional life, but his accomplishments impressed his supervisors, and they wanted Martin to share his success with the rest of the organization.

Martin would have felt rightfully honored and proud, but one dominant feeling dwarfed all the others: abject fear.

With three weeks until the event, that’s where Martin and I started—with his fear. Below, I’m sharing eight pieces of advice I offered to help him manage his anxiety, build an engaging presentation, and convey it with confidence.

1. It’s not about you. It’s about your point.

Many people would rather pour hot soup over their heads than speak in public, but that aversion is not really a fear of public speaking. It’s a fear of public humiliation—that you will somehow screw it up and embarrass yourself.

But here’s the thing: Your presentation is not a public speaking contest and you’re not being judged. You’re not even a performer; you’re a presenter, moving important concepts from your head to your audience’s heads. (That’s why you “deliver” a presentation).

Shifting the spotlight from yourself to your ideas can make you less anxious because it focuses you on your real job—not to be amazing, charismatic, or entertaining, but to effectively convey your point.

2. Know your point

Of course, you must know your point in order to convey it. But don’t make the mistake of confusing your point with a broad topic or theme. Typically, your point is a contention that a specific idea will lead to a successful outcome.

Once you understand your contention, ask yourself four easy questions:

1. What is the idea?
2. What tactics make the idea successful?
3. What is the impact of that success?
4. What can others learn from that success?

The answer to those four questions—supported by data, stories, or reasoning—is your presentation. Boom.

Adjust as necessary, but a five-minute presentation means answering each of those questions for a rough average of 75 seconds each. And so long as you make a point, no audience will ever complain about you running short.

3. Let your notes support you

Think of your speaking notes as you would a shopping list: shorthand reminders (no complete sentences) of what you need to cover and in what order. Your notes may be lengthy at first but shorten them during your practice as you rely on them less and less.

Remember: Your notes are there to support you, not script you. Audiences want you to relay your points, not read them.

4. Get loud

Whether you’re in a room or a Zoom, volume is critical to making powerful points. In addition to making you more audible, increased volume instantly conveys authority, confidence, leadership, and competence.

I run an exercise in my workshop in which I ask every participant to speak in a louder voice, then ask other students to weigh in on the resulting differences in that person’s overall impression. Universally, I hear reactions like “more assertive,” “more confident,” and “more persuasive,” whether or not the speaker was, in fact, more assertive, confident, or persuasive. That’s the value of volume.

5. Be yourself

A day before his presentation, Martin messaged me with a series of sudden questions: How often should I gesture? What happens if I sneeze or say “umm”? Should I start with a joke?

My answer to all: “Be yourself.”

Audiences respond best to authentic, even flawed human behavior because they can relate to it as fellow human beings. Coming across artificial, on the other hand, breaks that connection, reduces your engagement, and harms your reputation.

So if you’re comfortable gesturing, gesture. If you need to sneeze, sneeze. If you’re funny, be funny. Being your most authentic self will also best convey your personal conviction for your points.

6. Practice meaningfully

Effective practice is about having your mind and your mouth act together to produce points. When you mumble your presentation—as we often do when we practice—you’re only practicing one of those two key elements. To practice meaningfully, say it out loud and in real time. You don’t need an audience, a camera, or a mirror (in fact, avoid practicing in front of mirrors entirely). All you need is time and space to run through your full presentation.

This is also the only way to know precisely how long your presentation will run.

7. Turn nervous energy into excitement

Studies show that toggling from nervous energy to excitement may be as easy as telling yourself “I’m excited” every time you think “I’m nervous” because the reactions are closely related. Try saying, “I’m excited. I’m excited. I’m excited” in the minutes and moments before your presentation.

Chances are good you will come across as excited, exuding passion for your point versus anxiety in your performance.

8. Kill Roy

Meet Roy. He’s the voice in your head constantly trying to destroy your confidence, whispering things like, “you’re boring them,” “this is not going well,” and “you’re embarrassing yourself.” But know this: Roy is a liar. He’s the voice of your insecurity, trying to make you feel more self-conscious, not less.

I hear Roy with my own ears whenever a workshop student starts a presentation with “I’m pretty nervous…” or ends with “Sorry, I know that wasn’t great.” The ironic thing is that these presenters never came across as nervous or underwhelming. That’s just Roy, doing whatever he could to sabotage the presentation.

The good news is that confidence is Roy’s Kryptonite. Recognize that the voice in your head is lying and let your faith in your abilities and your points diminish Roy’s impact until no one can hear him.

After lots of practice, Martin eventually nailed his presentation, coming across focused, confident, and passionate (which was confirmed in a follow-up survey including hundreds of staff).

To the audience, Martin “did a great job,” but he knows, I know, and you know that he succeeded not because he was born a great public speaker or has a special gene for fearlessness. Martin succeeded because he knew his point, his job, what mattered most, and what didn’t matter at all.

Joel Schwartzberg

Published on Ascent, Harvard Busines Review, Retrieved as of July 15, 2020 from: https://hbrascend.org/topics/how-to-give-a-great-presentation-even-if-youre-super-anxious-about-it/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr

Joel Schwartzberg oversees executive communications for a major national nonprofit, is a professional presentation coach, and is the author of “Get to the Point! Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter.”  Follow him on Twitter at @TheJoelTruth

25 Tips to Improve Self-Esteem and Boost Confidence

25 Tips to Improve Self-Esteem and Boost Confidence

Advice to my younger self

Advice to my younger self:

1 read more 2 write more 3 practice public speaking 4 be a better friend 5 memorizing is not learning 6 learn to invest 7 you are not your job 8 forgive first 9 find a mentor 10 protect your time 11 solve harder problems 12 networking is about giving

(Vala Afshar)