Uncertainty of Life

Condition
Recently I met a student in a bus who looked very wistful. On enquiry, she said, she had spent three years learning particular software, which by the end of her course had become outdated. She now needed to look in an entirely different direction if she wanted a good job. If we looked around us we find uncertainty everywhere. If fifty years ago one was sure of at least seventy percent success if one launched a business, today one cannot even be ten percent sure. There is such a rapid rise of competition that we are not able to cope with it.
There is insecurity at the political level in most nations. A change in government and its policies in one country is affecting every other country and each of us are in turn affected by these changes. Above all there is also emotional instability, because most of us are unsure of our relationships. We seem to break relationships faster than we make them. Values like lifelong loyalty and accepting each other as gifts from the divine seem to be out dated. Self centeredness and mistrust seems to be on the rise.
Cause
Why this sudden change in society and our own families and even ourselves? Why this growing insecurity in the lives of people?
Sri Amma Bhagavan says, “There are three reasons for this insecurity.”

1. The accelerated speed of civilization.
2. The limited sense of self, which constantly in fear.
3. Lack of communion and surrender to the divine.

While change has always been there, the speed at which things are changing today is a thing unheard of in the past. Unable to cope with these changes we are becoming physically and mentally sick. There is nothing we could do to stop this change from happening, other than equip ourselves with an entirely different state of consciousness; a state of consciousness that would permit of any suffering and one which would allow us to flow with life.
Secondly there is the individual self, the felling of ‘I’ as separate from ‘you’. The ‘self’ constantly lives in fear of the other, fear of future, fear of being rejected. So long as there is the self, so long as you are not enlightened, all security soon becomes fear, all pleasure turns into pain, all entertainment soon becomes boring. Happiness and peace are never possible, so long as you live the life of the ‘self’.
Thirdly we need to recognize the hand of grace in our lives, which might come to us as a seeming punishment or an open reward. Take the case of Venkatesh Rao, an adept marine engineer working at the Chennai harbour. Considering the dishonest reports given by his colleagues the management suspended him for a week, without further investigation. It was a blotch in his fifteen years of unblemished career. “why did this happen? What is the lord’s intention behind this?” he muttered to himself. Fighting back with tears he don't know what to do and finally surrendered to his divine. When he joined office after the week long, he was informed the very next day of his suspension a fire broke out while shifting oil tankers and the person who substituted him for supervision was blown out without any trace! He realized how his divine had protected him and the grace engulfed him the same time the accident happened at his work place! The seemingly bad incident was actually a blessing. We suffer when we try to understand life and the will of the lord.
Sri Amma Bhagavan’s Message
Life is uncertain. Uncertainty gives rise to fear and suffering. There are two ways one would overcome fear – To live in the present or to live in the Presence.
Sadhana
Contemplate on how you are getting entangled in fear every time you tried to face a change. How bad you are at facing change? How badly you are clinging on to the unknown?

(Oneness University)

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Does Your Resume Open Doors or Close Them?

Is your resume continually glossed over by recruiters, HR and hiring managers? If you are not receiving offers for interviews, you must evaluate your resume and its effectiveness.
Consider that with the competitive edge required in today's job market, it is critical for you to have a resume that highlights your accomplishments, and it must be quantifiable.
In reviewing resumes almost weekly for graduate students, a trend that consistently emerges are the highlighting of tasks and competencies with little attention to specific accomplishments for each of the position listed, and the quantifiable outcomes.
For example, bullets listing what the person did for each of their roles, i.e. answer phones, check in patients, etc. is not effective, and the information is not helpful because it is presumptive that one must have possessed such basic skills to have a particular role as a patient service representative for example.
However, if one can differentiate themselves by highlighting specific accomplishments such as performance improvement initiatives, to include the outcome, this gives hiring leaders a glimpse into ones ability to think critically and improve processes in their specific role.
One might consider highlighting who they are as a person. What is it about you that makes you the ideal candidate for a particular position. If one states, Customer service oriented professional seeks opportunity with the right organization...  This can come across superficial and as a canned response. Instead, in your cover letter, share who you are as a person through a personal story that has made you the person you are today. Then connect the dots as to how that makes you uniquely qualified for the position to which you have submitted  your resume, and then highly your accomplishments that are relevant to the position.
Likability is also an important characteristic in the workforce, especially considering the team dynamics necessary for success. Consider personalizing, humanizing, and demystifying who you are so that the hiring manager gains a sense of who you are, and how you might fit in with their team.
Consider sending out a 360 evaluation to those that might offer insight to you as to what you are good at and opportunities for you to grow. Share your resume with them seeking their input so that you can continually refine both the resume and cover letter to accurately reflect the greatness you offer the workforce!
Press on to find that great match with the amazing organization that awaits you!

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HOW TO EXCEED YOUR GOALS IN 2016

 

How To Exceed Your Goals In 2016

For many of us, 2016 begins with a promise—a promise that this year we will accomplish that which has eluded us. Often it’s the everyday things that prove most difficult—managing your schedule, treating people the way you ought to, and keeping things in perspective when chaos is at hand.

The sad truth is that nearly 80% of us will fall off the resolution bandwagon by Super Bowl Sunday; and by this time next year, a mere 5% of us will have succeeded in reaching our goals.
There are two reasons why we’re so bad at reaching our goals:
The first is that we bite off more than we can chew. It may seem reasonable to pick up three or four new skills to add to your repertoire, but that’s an expectation the mind can’t execute. When we try to develop too many new skills at once, they become competing priorities that leave us distracted, discouraged and overwhelmed.
The second reason most self-improvement efforts are doomed to fail is that our emotions have a nasty habit of hijacking our behavior. Without a strong ability to recognize and manage our emotions as they occur, old habits are sure to die hard.

The Good News

The good news is that you can address both problems and make the changes you desire by resolving this year to develop a single skill—emotional intelligence (EQ).
Piles of research over the last two decades has shown that emotional intelligence is likely the single most powerful success factor yet discovered, affecting everything from your performance at work, to your mood and the quality of your personal life.
We’ve tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other critical skills and found that it subsumes the majority of them. It’s no wonder that 90% of top performers are high in EQ and people with high EQs make $28,000 more annually than their low EQ counterparts.
But how does emotional intelligence play such a large role in so many important skills? Our brains are wired such that emotions are the root of all human behavior. Whether we’re aware of it or not, the motivation behind every action (no matter how small) is inherently emotional.
Here's how it works:
All of your primary senses enter at the base of your brain (the light blue shaded area below). Before you can think rationally about what you're experiencing, these signals must travel through the limbic system—the place where emotions are generated. This ensures you have an emotional reaction to events first.
Emotional intelligence ensures effective communication between the rational and emotional centers of your brain. As you improve your emotional intelligence, you improve your ability to understand and control the primary motivations for your behavior, which reaps dividends in everything you do every day. Emotional intelligence is powerful and efficient—it allows you to focus your energy on a single skill with tremendous results.

What Does Emotional Intelligence Look Like?

Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.
Personal competence comprises your self-awareness and self-management skills, which focus more on you individually than on your interactions with other people. Personal competence is your ability to stay aware of your emotions and manage your behavior and tendencies.

• Self-Awareness is your ability to accurately perceive your emotions and stay aware of them as they happen.
• Self-Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions to stay flexible and positively direct your behavior.

Social competence is made up of your social awareness and relationship management skills; social competence is your ability to understand other people’s moods, behavior, and motives in order to respond effectively and improve the quality of your relationships.

• Social Awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what is really going on.
• Relationship Management is your ability to use awareness of your emotions and the others’ emotions to manage interactions successfully.

While working on your emotional intelligence will improve a lot of different skills, there are five in particular that people tend to set goals around when the year changes. I'll explain how you can improve each of these skills solely by focusing on your emotional intelligence.

Time Management

In this age of abundance, time is the one thing nobody has enough of. Perhaps that’s why Google receives 111 million searches a month for Time Management. Few people recognize how time management depends upon the emotional intelligence skills of self-management and relationship management.
Creating a good schedule is a very rational thing, but sticking to that schedule is decidedly emotional. Many of us start out every day with the best intentions to manage our time wisely. But then we receive a complicated email from a co-worker, a consuming phone call from a friend, or otherwise get sidetracked until our well-laid plans go up in flames. We spend the rest of the day trying to put out somebody else’s fire, or working to resolve issues that weren’t there in the morning. Before you know it, the day is gone and you’re completely off schedule.
When the distractions are your own, sticking to a schedule requires self-management. When the needs of others try to impede upon your plans, it takes effective relationship management to finesse the relationship while ensuring that your priorities are still addressed.

Embracing Change

Show me somebody who claims to love change, and I’ll show you a well-intentioned liar. Change is uncomfortable for everyone at times, and for many of us it makes our skin crawl. Those who apply well-honed self-awareness and self-management skills tolerate change much more successfully than others. Self-awareness enables you to adjust comfortably to change because it gives you the perspective needed to realize when change is coming and how it's affecting you.
Self-management keeps you cool in the moment—often with a reminder that even the most stable, trusted facets of your life are not completely under your control. Those most averse to change, who possess great self-awareness and self-management skills, even set aside a small amount of time each week to list possible changes and what actions they can take in response.

Assertiveness

Emotional intelligence is commonly mistaken as a synonym for “nice.” In fact, the most emotionally intelligent response is often one where you openly and directly express yourself. To paraphrase Aristotle, getting angry is easy. Getting angry with the right person, at the right time, and to the right degree requires emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence doesn’t allow lashing out, or making yourself into someone else’s doormat. To be assertive, you have to know what you’re feeling, read the other party accurately, and express yourself in a way that garners the best result. People with high EQs do this naturally.

Making Great Decisions

It has taken the world far too long to wake up to the fact that emotions simply cannot—and should not—be ignored when making decisions. Neuroscience shows us that sometimes the most rational thing you can do is trust your emotions when making a decision. But in order to make this work, you have to be aware of the emotions you’re feeling, know why you’re having them, and see how they factor into the situation at hand. Here, there is no substitute for emotional intelligence.

Giving Outstanding Presentations

Few things strike primal fear in people like standing under the spotlight in a room full of people. Even the most eloquent among us can be reduced to spewing verbal garbage once the sheer anxiety of public speaking takes hold. That’s why a knock-’em-dead presenter’s most inspiring presentation is often the one he delivers to himself. A bit of positive self-talk—reminding himself of all the times he has succeeded and how qualified he is to speak on the topic—enables the effective speaker to use his performance anxiety to sharpen his focus and make him more articulate. If you think that’s silly, then you probably haven’t tried it. Emotional intelligence doesn’t just make you aware of your emotions; it equips you with strategies for keeping them from holding you back.

Bringing It All Together

Give improving your emotional intelligence a real shot in 2016. You'll be surprised where it takes you.
How will you reach your goals this year? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, TIME, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

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How To Take Charge of Your Career in 2016

Nearly everyone has had the experience of a small nudge or a major shock that fundamentally changed our thinking.
We carry around a lot of unexamined beliefs. We just have them -- we don't know why. We don't question them.
We don't know we have those beliefs, but if someone asks "What do you think about this topic?" the unexamined belief will spill out of our lips.
Many of our most strongly-held beliefs concern our careers. Here are ten common beliefs that come from nowhere, yet are prevalent all over the world:

• The longer I can stay at a company, the better.
• Whatever my employer wants to do with me career-wise is fine with me. They know best!
• The key to being successful is to move up.
• It's riskier to change jobs than to stay put.
• Only some people are cut out for entrepreneurism -- and I'm not one of them.
• I like to get a job and do it as well as I can. I figure that managing my career is the same as doing my job really well.
• I don't see any  need to brand myself. I'm not job-hunting! The less job-hunting I can do in my career, the better.
• Job security is the number one thing I look for in a company.
• I'll be lucky if I can get hired on with a big company. They have the best benefits and career path.
• I need the security of a full-time job. That's why I like to get hired and then let my boss manage my career.

These widely-held but unexamined beliefs will hurt you as long as you hold onto them. They are not based in reality.
Most of us grew up in a working world that doesn't exist anymore. We have to run our own careers now, not let anybody run them for us.
Our client Violet ran into a career-management problem that got her to rethink her path. She wasn't planning on thinking about her career in 2015, until Mother Nature gave Violet a nudge.
Violet would have said"I'm happy in my  job - I know how to do it and it doesn't ask too much of me, personal-life-wise."
Violet worked in state government. One day her manager told her "Good news, Violet! I'm putting  in your name for a promotion. They're going to choose one person from this office and train them on the state's new financial software. I'm nominating you for the job. It's a nine thousand dollar a year pay raise if you get it."
Violet was flattered but hesitant. "How do they conduct the software training?" she asked. "Is it during the day, or at night?"
"It's at night," said her manager, "but it's online so you don't have to go anywhere to be trained. It's only two hours per class and there are 24 classes, with assignments in between."
"I just don't see it," said Violet. "I appreciate you thinking about my career, but I don't think I want to learn a highly specialized application that only states use, and only a few states at that. I don't want to pigeonhole myself as a finance person for state government."
"Oh, come on, Violet," said her manager. "If you can learn one software application, you can learn any of them. If you left the state at any point, not that I could imagine why you would, you could learn any software application you might need to use."
"I agree with you," said Violet, "but my time is also valuable. I'd estimate one hour of homework for every hour of class time in the training program.
"With 48 hours of class time and 48 hours of homework, that's 96 hours of my time. That's two full unpaid weeks of work, for what?  To learn a software application that the state wants me to learn. If the state values me, then the state should pay me for that time."
Violet's manager was shocked. In his worldview, the best thing you can do is to get a secure job and stick with it, even if your employer's career path doesn't excite you. Moving up in an organization is the brass ring and the grand prize. In his world, you don't say no to a promotion, no matter what.
Violet understands the human urge to seek security, but sometimes the cost of that security is too high.
"The cost is too high for me!" said Violet. Her conversation with her manager opened the door to a frank discussion of Violet's goals.
She ended up quitting her state job, but she did it in collaboration with her manager who hired her to work 12 hours per week as a consultant for his department after she left.
"Now I'm a consultant," said Violet. "That was Mother Nature's decision. I've never been a consultant before. I'm finding my way. I have three clients so far. My manager's plan to nominate me for a promotion I didn't want was the nudge I needed!"
You get to run your own career the same way Violet does. In fact,  you have to run your career. No one else will run it for you. Whatever you do career-wise in 2016, it'll be your choice. Not making a choice is a choice in itself!
As you step into running your career like a business, you'll start by asking yourself these questions:

• Where is my current job taking me? What career path does my employer have in mind for me, if any? If I stay in this job for another year, what will it get me besides a year's worth of paychecks? 
• If I can't see a future at my current job - a future where I'll keep growing my flame, learning more, earning more and feeling better all the time - why am I still working there?
• If I'm job-hunting, what is in my way? Maybe I'm stuck in an old mindset that is making it harder for me to get hired. Maybe I'm keeping my flame on a low setting when I should be turning it way up!
• What kind of career and life would I have if it were up to me?
• Why am I focusing on other goals - non-life-changing goals like losing ten lbs. and paying down my credit cards -- when I can start taking steps to make my life-and-career dream real?

The biggest problem most of us face is that we don't think we have the right to design our lives to our specifications. We are surrounded by messages that tell us "Don't have dreams. Who do you think you are? Stick to what you know."
Well-meaning people around us keep us boxed in, and less-well-meaning people, sometimes including our bosses at work, also make sure to remind us how ordinary and insignificant we are.
The toughest thing to do is also the most important thing: it is to set your own vision for your life and shut off the negative voices that tell you to stop complaining and stop trying to change your situation
Remember that fearful people want you to be fearful, too. The lobsters in the pot pull back the lobster that tries to escape.
It takes mental toughness to say "This is what I want, and I'm going to pursue it regardless of anyone else's doubts," but that's how lobsters get out of the pot.
Take control of your career. Get altitude on your life and career by looking back at your path since childhood and then looking forward.
Create a vision for yourself and then break it down into steps, and take step one. Then, take step two!
Your life is up to you and no one else, and that can be the hardest lesson of all to learn.

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CBN attempts to make startup fund more accessible

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BY TECHDIGEST.NG ON DECEMBER 26, 2015NEWS, STARTUP, FUNDING

The Nigerian government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has decided to make its NGN220 billion fund initiative for startups to be accessible.

According to the Governor of the apex bank, only 30% of the N220 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund had so far released because of the tough conditions startups must meet before accessing the fund.

To ensure that more startups access the fund, CBN has directed financial institutions across the country to accept applicants’ educational certificates as collateral.

According to the new guideline, loans granted to startup businesses by deposit money banks and development finance institutions will have as collateral “educational certificates such as Senior School Certificate (SSCE), National Diploma (ND), National Certificate of Education (NCE), National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), Higher National Diploma (HND), University degree (NYSC Certificate where applicable) and a guarantor.”

Entrepreneurs are also required to present their Bank Verification Number (BVN) while Venture Capital Firms (VCFs) that wish to finance startups in form of equity participation shall be eligible to access the MSMEDF at 2% for investment in startup projects. The collateral for such facility to the VCF shall be bank guarantee.

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TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL

[Tips for Writing Your Research Proposal]

1. Know yourself: Know your area of expertise, what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses. Play to your strengths, not to your weaknesses. If you want to get into a new area of research, learn something about the area before you write a proposal. Research previous work. Be a scholar.
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2. Know the program from which you seek support: You are responsible for finding the appropriate program for support of your research.
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3. Read the program announcement: Programs and special activities have specific goals and specific requirements. If you don’t meet those goals and requirements, you have thrown out your chance of success. Read the announcement for what it says, not for what you want it to say. If your research does not fit easily within the scope of the topic areas outlined, your chance of success is nil.
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4. Formulate an appropriate research objective: A research proposal is a proposal to conduct research, not to conduct development or design or some other activity. Research is a methodical process of building upon previous knowledge to derive or discover new knowledge, that is, something that isn’t known before the research is conducted.
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5. Develop a viable research plan: A viable research plan is a plan to accomplish your research objective that has a non-zero probability of success. The focus of the plan must be to accomplish the research objective.
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6. State your research objective clearly in your proposal: A good research proposal includes a clear statement of the research objective. Early in the proposal is better than later in the proposal. The first sentence of the proposal is a good place. A good first sentence might be, “The research objective of this proposal is...” Do not use the word “develop” in the statement of your research objective.
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7. Frame your project around the work of others: Remember that research builds on the extant knowledge base, that is, upon the work of others. Be sure to frame your project appropriately, acknowledging the current limits of knowledge and making clear your contribution to the extension of these limits. Be sure that you include references to the extant work of others.
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8. Grammar and spelling count: Proposals are not graded on grammar. But if the grammar is not perfect, the result is ambiguities left to the reviewer to resolve. Ambiguities make the proposal difficult to read and often impossible to understand, and often result in low ratings. Be sure your grammar is perfect.
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9. Format and brevity are important: Do not feel that your proposal is rated based on its weight. Use 12-point fonts, use easily legible fonts, and use generous margins. Take pity on the reviewers. Make your proposal a pleasant reading experience that puts important concepts up front and makes them clear. Use figures appropriately to make and clarify points, but not as filler.
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10. Know the review process: Know how your proposal will be reviewed before you write it. Proposals that are reviewed by panels must be written to a broader audience than proposals that will be reviewed by mail. Mail review can seek out reviewers with very specific expertise in very narrow disciplines.
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11. Proof read your proposal before it is sent: Many proposals are sent out with idiotic mistakes, omissions, and errors of all sorts. Proposals have been submitted with the list of references omitted and with the references not referred to. Proposals have been submitted to the wrong program. Proposals have been submitted with misspellings in the title. These proposals were not successful. Stupid things like this kill a proposal. It is easy to catch them with a simple, but careful, proof reading. Don’t spend six or eight weeks writing a proposal just to kill it with stupid mistakes that are easily prevented.
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12. Submit your proposal on time: Duh? Why work for two months on a proposal just to have it disqualified for being late? Remember, fairness dictates that proposal submission rules must apply to everyone. It is not up to the discretion of the program officer to grant you dispensation on deadlines. Get your proposal in two or three days before the deadline.

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