*BE KIND SO YOU CAN HELP OTHERS, BE STRONG SO YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF.*🌸

Have you ever felt that your kindness has been taken advantage of? Possibly at some stage, every kind and calm person has faced such a situation. 

Being kind is a great attribute because it is the way we give back to the world but at times some people might consider your kindness as your weakness and try to suppress you. In such a situation, you must not let others take undue advantage of you and not give up to them. 

Help others but remember you also need to help yourself. To help yourself, you must stay strong and take a stand against anything that affects your dignity.

 _Bý dew  

From Homelessness to Stardom: The Ed Sheeran Phenomenon

  

       Music is a powerful element of popular culture that not only influences what we do with our spare time but the way we talk, associate, and relate to each other. It generates a feeling of unity by reminding us that all phases of life such as heartbreak, happiness, and love are universal experiences. How then could it be possible to believe that music comes solely from the elite?  Our ancestors and the humans from decades ago have long communicated, celebrated and fought through life accompanied by musical hymns. Music is incredibly human. Examining more contemporary popular music, we see a transformation in music through a music industry that focuses on producing a hit a song that will contain a melody catchy enough for the radios and the online streaming programs to play it over and over again. This version of music is frankly depressing as strips away the creative humanity of music.  There is hope, however, at the end of the tunnel through underground artists and singer-songwriters. The most successful story which has resulted in the #1 most listened to artist on Spotify and arguably one of the most popular artists on this planet, Ed Sheeran.

Edward Christopher Sheeran was born in Halifax, England in 1991. Since his childhood he had always felt like an outsider in his “preppy, sporty, competitive private primary school” due to his humble background with his father being an art curator and his mother being a jewelry designer.(Chesterton) Additionally he was bullied for his weird-looks and strange behaviors (though not diagnosed, it was most likely ADD). (Chesterton) While there were many difficult aspects of his infancy as he recalls that he had never won at anything, he began to learn how to play the guitar and learned to sing in the local church choir discovering music as a natural vehicle for happiness.(The Famous People)

As soon as Ed reached adolescence his hardships were only amplified by teenage angst and rebellion. His father John Sheeran, the no-nonsense son of Irish immigrants, grew tired of his son’s attitude having always pushed his children to be academically driven. He played the biggest role in influencing Ed to take initiative and work hard at the one thing he truly loved the most; music. (Chesterton) Rather than getting in trouble, Ed was driven to musical gigs of artists like Bob Dylan so that he could gain inspiration from those that made a career in music. (Chesterton) Validating his father’s determined efforts, Ed has dreamed about becoming a pop superstar since he was 13 and has never taken a day off in accomplishing this dream. (Chesterton)

Rather than turning to the entertainment industry as what could provide knowledge and guidance on making it big, Ed began to study music with the organization ‘Access to Music’ and the National Youth Theater. (The Famous People) While studying music he began to produce his own music with the sole focus of making enough to live from his passion. In his own words his first dream was “to make enough money from music to pay the rent and sell 100 CDs.”(Chesterton) By the time Sheeran was 14 years old he had already released two CDs ‘Spinning Man’ and ‘The Orange Room’ independently. (The Famous People)

Although it had been his father’s aspiration for Sheeran to get a proper education, he dropped out of high school at sixteen and began to move from place to place until 2008 when he finally decided to move to London.(Chesterton) As soon as he arrived at London his life was governed by  his search for “gigs, attention and somewhere to spend the night.” (Chesterton) While searching for recognition of his own lyrics and melodies he was homeless for two and a half years famously having slept a couple of nights outside an arch of Buckingham Palace. (Her) Rather than giving up and retreating to Hallifax, Ed made it work by making important connections, “I knew where I could get a bed at a certain time of night and I knew who I could call at any time to get a floor to sleep on. Being sociable helped.” (Her) Furthermore, he formed a precise sleeping schedule allowing him to sleep on Circle Line trains after gigs waiting until around 5 am to be able to sleep on the line until 12 pm to then go to another session. (Her) While this lifestyle was incredibly troublesome it also taught him invaluable skills of determination and the ability to associate with others in an organic “human” manner. He stated that one of the keys to this was drinking at bars to socialize a technique that could potentially conflict with what any PR manager would recommend but allowed Ed to navigate the London gig circuits as an independent musician. (Her)

Yet Ed Sheeran did not only involve himself in musical gigs but also auditioned for “Britannia High” a British musical drama television series hoping to find some money. (The Famous People) Furthermore in 2009 he was accepted into the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. (Chesterton) The key here is that while he could have received a proper music education he dismissed the opportunity contending that he could teach them a lot more about music than they could teach him, most likely due to his real life experience with performing in gigs and songwriting abilities. It was through this refusal from academies and educational institutions that he became recognizable figure in London’s gigging circuits allowing him to form relationships with artists in Hip-hop and other entertainment acts.  (Chesterton) However, one of the most important steps that he made in his career was uploading his music online. It was through one of these videos that he was able to establish an invaluable connection with Example, a british rapper, singer,and songwriter. (Biography.com) Example was able to discover Ed Sheeran through online media and granting him the opportunity of performing as his opening act which drove his musical fan base and inspired him to write more songs. (Biography.com)

Nonetheless, despite his hard work and passion for music Sheeran was still without a music contract. Thus, he took another bold step in his career by moving to Los Angeles with no contacts in 2010. (Chesterton) Through his performances and musical self-promotion, Sheeran landed a gig at an all-black R&B open mic night in Los Angeles. (Chesterton) It was there, as the ginger outsider, where Sheeran was spotted by Jamie Foxx’s manager who introduced him to Foxx letting him stay in Foxx’s home but also letting him make use of his recording studio. (Chesterton) With a new fan, Sheeran was invited to make an appearance on Foxx’s Siriusxm Radio Show gaining more international recognition.(Biography.com)  The following year he released his last independent EP which reached No. 2 on the iTunes Chart even though it had not been advertised for in any way. (Biography.com) This drew attention from many record companies and with that he was signed onto Atlantic Records that same month. (Biography.com) When the 2012 Brits Awards came around Sheeran won the Best British Male Solon Artist and British Breakthrough Act of the Year awards crowning him as a key player in the British music business. (The Famous People)



Getting back to the point, however, what is fascinating is identifying what is truly the key to Ed Sheeran’s success in popular music and its importance particularly in context to his story having been a partially homeless singer-songwriter. Now that the background is established, it is important to emphasize what distinguishes Sheeran from other popular music artists. Yes, he did not move to Hollywood with hopes of being manufactured in a particular way so that he could satisfy a particular target audience in the entertainment industry, in fact, it is much more than that.  Ed Sheeran has quickly become the voice of the Millennial generation having collaborated with mega-artists like Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd,and Harry Styles. (Beaumont) Moreover, he has written hit songs for Justin Bieber, One Direction and the X Factor all while being the most streamed artists online in the entire world through his own music. (Beaumont)  What’s exciting here is that he has taken the music industry by storm through his authenticity and sincerity with music reflecting his identity and his own truths.

One of the ways that Ed Sheeran does this is by writing about the mundane; utilizing lyrics that mention sex, drinking and love all which are incredibly real and human. (Chesterton) Take for example one of his most recent hits “Thinking out Loud ” where he sings “When your legs don’t work like they used to before/And i can’t sweep you off of your feet/Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?/ Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks.” In this song he writes about the great but also ordinary fear of ageing and living through it all while in love. Many of us have seen this through the lenses of our grandparents, parents or maybe are even beginning to see it through our own relationships, regardless, it is a mundane topic that is incredibly touching and relatable–Ed Sheeran’s magic.

Furthermore, the specificity of Ed Sheeran’s lyrics, specifically in mentioning day-to-day products, allows for the listeners to embody themselves in Sheeran’s situations through relatable emotions all while legitimizing his stories and lyrics. (Chesterton) In the song “Don’t” which talks about a celebrity love-triangle between Ellie Goulding, Niall Horan and Ed Sheeran, he mentions eating a takeaway pizza singing “And for a couple weeks I only wanna see her /We drink away the days with a takeaway pizza/ Before a text message was the only way to reach her/ Now she’s staying at my place and loves the way I treat her”. In own of his newer songs “Galway Girl” the same technique was used; “I walked her home then she took me inside to finish some Doritos and another bottle of wine.”

 While his family did do their best to support him, his father was also an alcoholic and one of the main reasons why Ed decided to flee his home at age 16. From this time he was essentially on his own resulting in various encounters with homelessness all while struggling to supporting himself with his music.  This story does not radiate privilege in fact it screams hard work, preparation and the seizing of opportunities. In defiance of musical institutions Sheeran himself never graduated from high school nor a musical institution in fact he picked up most of his skills through experience and mentorship.His ability to reach the top 10 of iTunes charts without a record label is the complete defiance of being a product of the music industry.



Works Cited:

 

Beaumont, M. (2017). 50 Things You Didn’t Know About Ed Sheeran – NME. NME. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from read more 

Chesterton, G. (2017). How Ed Sheeran became the biggest male popstar on the planet. Gq-magazine.co.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from read more 

Ed Sheeran. (2017). Biography.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from https://www.biography.com/people/ed-sheeran

 

Her. (2017). Ed Sheeran Reveals He Was Homeless for Two and a Half Years | Her.ie. Her.ie. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from read more 

 

Hodgkinson, W. (2017). Ed Sheeran is killing music | Little Atoms. Littleatoms.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from read more 

 

Who is Ed Sheeran? Everything You Need to Know. (2017). Thefamouspeople.com. Retrieved 15 November 2017, from read more 

 

Upload by sadeepa

   💌🔰    HOW TO SINGING EASY  🔰💌

Are You Stuck With the Way You Sing?

You may think that you're stuck with the voice you have, but this isn't true. You can change the way your singing sounds and end up singing better than ever. Sound too good to be true? Well, it's not. Think of it this way. Let's say you want to build muscle in your triceps. You don't like the way your arms look. After checking out a few YouTube videos or getting tips from a bodybuilder, it's clear that you can change your arms' appearance by consistently working on certain exercises. You may need to make some changes in your diet as well, but the exercises are mandatory.

Now, it wouldn't make sense to exercise your thighs if you want to concentrate on your arms. It's the same with the voice. Specific exercises geared to develop areas of the voice are essential to better singing. If singing on key is a weakness, it makes no sense to work on developing a vibrato. How is vibrato going to help to carry a tune?

Several factors are necessary when it comes to singing with a better voice, depending on your present strengths and weaknesses. It's important to focus on the exact areas that need development. Please make it a habit to always warm up your voice before singing. Warm-ups not only prepare your voice to sing better but also help to prevent vocal damage. Warming up your voice will get you ready for singing challenges, resulting in a happier and healthy voice.

I can't possibly cover everything here, but you will learn important vocal techniques (skills) to help you sound better (and in some cases) much better than you do now.

1. Warm-up Your Voice With Humming

Prepare your voice to sing with a gentle warm-up. There's no better warm-up for your voice than humming, and here's why. Humming prevents vocal strain, is easy and natural, and prevents tension in the tone. It can be done anytime, anywhere. Try this right now:

• Put your lips together gently and hum in a comfortable tone. Feel the buzzing sensation in your lips. This indicates a nice relaxed feeling and sound. It also kicks in the resonating area around the nose. Don't confuse this with singing nasally. It isn't the same thing.

• Repeat several times until the buzzing feeling becomes automatic.

• Beginning with a hum and keeping a relaxed sound, slowly drop the jaw to form an “ah” sound. Now you’re singing, and it should feel easy. Focus on maintaining vibrations around the nasal area.

• Repeat the same exercise changing from an “ah” to an “ee.” Bring your lips to a slight smiling position as you hum to prepare for an “ee.”

What I'm teaching you here is the importance of relieving all tension in the lips, tongue, and jaw as you sing. One reason we dislike our singing is due to tension in our tone. Singing should always feel easy, ringing, and never forced.


2. Drop the Jaw for a More Powerful and Confident Voice

The first area to cover is the way you open your mouth. Sound silly? It's not and here's why:

The mouth is a strong resonator for sound. With the mouth barely open, your singing tone will remain suppressed or hidden-sounding. You want to create enough space for the sound to come out. Don't be self-conscious about a generous mouth opening. How will your tone ring unless your mouth is open enough for the sound to escape? Have you observed a singer up close and personal on television or YouTube? At times, you can almost see the back of their throat.

So give your singing a big boost, by keeping the mouth open as you sing. You will quickly hear a more powerful and better sound. This is no time to be embarrassed. You're a singer and the mouth is part of your singing instrument. But do avoid opening your mouth so wide as to create tension.

To assure that the mouth is open wide enough, place two fingers (one on top of the other) between the top and bottom teeth. Keeping the fingers in the mouth sing 'ah,' then remove the fingers from the mouth while still retaining the 'ah' sound. Did your mouth remain open after removing your fingers?

An exercise to help you to train your mouth and jaw to the right position for singing words using the 'ah' vowel is:

• Using a mirror to monitor for openness, sing the following words in a medium, comfortable tone: hot, brought, not, fall, hall, tall, talk, walk, father, stars, bars, far, and broad. Remember to avoid singing too low or too high. Keep the pitch centered around your speaking voice.

• Be sure to sustain the vowel 'ah' for a few seconds before closing the word with the final consonant. In other words, say you're practicing the word "walk". Sing the first part of this word "WAAAAAH", holding the 'ah' before adding the final consonant, 'K'.

• As you repeatedly practice each word, start off by going very slow. Gradually build your speed until you can sing through the above list at a faster pace.

Tip: How long must you practice? The answer: Until whatever you're working on becomes automatic. Let's say your goal is to remember to drop your jaw each time you sing a word containing the "Ah" vowel. You practice consistently until this goal becomes automatic. You no longer need to concentrate on the mouth position. Everyone is different. Some may see results quickly. For others, it may take a while. Best results are attained by practicing for a few minutes every day as opposed to practicing hour-after-hour, for long periods of time, one or two days a week.




3. Breath Control: Learn to Breathe Correctly

The voice cannot work to its full potential unless it's basic energy is not breath. Your singing sound rides on air and it's for this reason you must learn to support your sound by breathing correctly. One reason singers go flat is that the voice is not supported well enough. Belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, is essential to applying the right amount of support. Maybe the following will help you to understand this a little better:

When you begin phonation, (speaking/singing), air causes vibrations to occur within the vocal cords, which produces sound and will continue until you run out of air. If you are currently breathing in the air (inhaling) by using the upper portion of the lungs only, (just the chest) you'll not only run out of air too early but you may also find your sound is weak and breathy. Learning how to inhale by inflating around your waistline takes practice and plenty of it. Don't get discouraged or give up.

You'll need to use this way of breathing to enhance your present voice, extend your vocal range, sing with vibrato, and project your voice.

As you work religiously to learn the belly breathing exercise, you'll learn the right way to breathe. This will bring more life and energy to your singing, helping you to sound more professional. For more help on How to Breathe From the Diagram take a few minutes to add these exercises.



upload by sadeepa

     

  👑  Motivation in Management👑

               
           
       

As a manager, you can use the following steps and strategies to create a motivating environment for your team.

 

Step 1: Check Your Assumptions

You may not realize it, but your management style is strongly influenced by what you believe about your people.

For example, do you think your team members dislike working, and need continuous supervision? Or, do you believe that they're happy to do their jobs, and are likely to enjoy greater responsibility and freedom?

These two fundamental beliefs form the backbone of the team motivation concept Theory X and Theory Y .

Theory X managers are authoritarian, and assume that they need to supervise people constantly. They believe that their team members don't want or need responsibility, and that they have to motivate people extrinsically to produce results.

Theory Y managers believe that their team members want more responsibility and should help make decisions. They assume that everyone has something valuable to offer.

In short, your beliefs about your team members' motivation affect the way you behave toward them. So, it's important to think carefully about how you view your people, and to explore what you believe truly motivates them. (It can help to think about it from your own perspective – would you prefer your own boss to manage you using Theory X or Theory Y? And how long would you stay working for a Theory X manager?)


Step 2: Eliminate Dissatisfaction and Create Satisfaction

Psychologist Fredrick Herzberg said that you can motivate your team by eliminating elements of job dissatisfaction, and then creating conditions for job satisfaction.

In his Motivation-Hygiene Theory, he noted how causes of dissatisfaction often arise from irritating company policies, intrusive supervision, or lack of job security, among others. If you don't address these issues, people won't be satisfied at work, and motivating them will prove difficult, if not impossible.

Once you've removed the elements of job dissatisfaction, you can look at providing satisfaction. Sources of job satisfaction include clear opportunities for advancement/promotion, an increased sense of responsibility, ongoing training and development programs, or simply a feeling of working with purpose .

Step 3: Personalize Your Motivational Approach



         

Remember, your team is made up of individuals who have their own unique circumstances, backgrounds and experiences. Consequently, each person may be driven by different motivating factors, and be more or less adept at self-motivation . When you make an effort to understand each team member, you can help them stay motivated.

There are a number of tools and strategies that you can use to tailor your approach to motivation – and not all are completely consistent with one another. However, it's important to remember that every individual and situation is different, so make sure that you choose the theory or model that best fits your circumstances.

Let's explore these in more detail:

• Sirota's Three-Factor Theory  argues that there are three crucial factors that motivate your people. These are Equity/Fairness, Achievement and Camaraderie. You can help to ensure that your team members remain motivated and positive by incorporating each of these factors into their work.

• McClelland's Human Motivation Theory  is subtly different. McClelland believed that we all have three different drivers, the need for Achievement, Affiliation and Power, with one of them being dominant. If you structure your motivators and leadership style around a team member's dominant driver, your efforts should produce good results.

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs  identifies five needs that we all have, from the most basic to the most complex. These are physiological/bodily, safety, love/belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization (the sense of doing what you were born to do). Maslow's Hierarchy is usually presented in a pyramid – you place the basic needs at the bottom, because you need to meet these before you can address any of the more complex ones. According to this approach, you can motivate your team by addressing all of the levels.

• Amabile and Kramer's Progress Theory  highlights how progressing and achieving small "wins" can be motivating. It suggests six things you can provide – clear goals and objectives, autonomy, resources, time, support, and the ability to learn from failure – that give people the best chance of making recognizable and meaningful progress at work.

• You can also use Expectancy Theory  to create a strong, motivating work environment where high performance is standard. It clarifies the relationship between effort and outcome, and you can use it to tailor motivational rewards to individuals' preferences.

• According to the Pygmalion Effect , your expectations can affect your team members' performance. For example, when you doubt that someone will succeed, you can make her feel undervalued and you undermine her confidence. The Pygmalion Effect is useful because it reinforces the idea that you can encourage people to perform better at work by having and communicating high expectations of them.

• Of course, money does matter, and Understanding Strategic Compensation  can help you structure your team's extrinsic rewards. Whether you reward people with increases in base, performance or group-performance pay, understanding the differences between them, and their inherent benefits, can help you structure financial compensation in a more motivating way.

Step 4: Use Transformational Leadership
 
Motivation is vital in the workplace, but this will only take you so far, and then leadership takes over (click here to visit the Mind Tools leadership section). Once you've used the motivational approaches we've discussed above, you need to take the next step towards becoming an inspirational, transformational leader .


When you adopt this leadership style, you can motivate and lift your team to new heights, and help it to achieve extraordinary things. Transformational leaders expect great things from their team members, and they spark feelings of trust and loyalty in return.

To become a transformational leader, you need to create an attractive, inspiring vision of a meaningful future, encourage people to buy into this vision, manage its delivery, and continue to build trusting relationships with your team members. Set aside time to develop your own leadership skills, and focus on your own personal development, so that you can become an inspiring role model  for your people.


Upload by   dew

       The Ultimate Guide to Confidence

                   

Written by sadepa

Learn ways to build your self-confidence both personally and professionally.

10 min remaining

“To establish true self-confidence, we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.” — Denis Waitley

I know what you’re thinking … easier said than done, right?

Nobody is born with high or low self-confidence. Confidence is a feeling that people develop and work on over time. For most people, confidence is something that comes and goes.

Think about it in terms of a cycle: When someone is at the top of the cycle, they are focused on their successes and accomplishments, meaning they might feel confident and strong. But when they are at the bottom of their cycle, they are focused on their failures and may feel low self-confidence or even defeat.

If you can identify with the feeling I’m referring to at the bottom of the confidence cycle, know you’re not alone. Everyone struggles with self-confidence every now and then. The key is realizing that confidence is like a muscle — the more you work on it, the easier it will become for you to use and maintain.

This article will teach you why everyone should work on their self-confidence, and it’ll provide you with ways to build your self-confidence.

But first — what is self-confidence?

What Is Self-Confidence
       
Self-confidence is the feeling you have when you strat into a job interview knowing you’re going to impress the hiring manager. A person feels confident when they believe they can successfully do something by applying their judgement, knowledge, and prior experiences.

How Does Self Confidence Impact Your Life?

Think about a time when you felt extremely confident in your ability to do something.

Did you feel an adrenaline rush? Did you feel strong and powerful? Did you feel as though you could conquer the world?

Self-confidence does a lot of things for us. It boosts our self-esteem, diminishes stress, and often pushes us to act. But most importantly, it makes us feel good about ourselves.

Let’s dive into a few more ways self-confidence impacts our lives:

Your happiness and self-esteem will increase
              



Self-esteem is closely related to confidence but has a slightly different definition — it is a person’s evaluation of their self-worth and value.

There is a direct correlation between confidence and self-esteem. When you believe in yourself — your talents, capabilities, worth, and potential — both your self-esteem and confidence increase.

When your self-esteem increases, you believe you are worthy of the life you dream of and the success you desire. Not only will you become more confident, but you will more easily accept your failures, give yourself the credit you deserve, accept new challenges, and become happier.

In fact, self-esteem always exists with happiness — and there are studies to prove it. In almost every instance, people who feel good about themselves are significantly happier than those who lack self-worth. When self-confidence increases, your self-esteem and happiness do the same.

Think about it in terms of the following chart. Most people would feel high self-esteem, sure about their abilities, and good about standing up for their beliefs when behaving confidently — as listed in the left column. They are doing what makes them happy.

 
Your stress and anxiety will decrease

Did your math teacher ever randomly call on the students who weren’t the strongest mathematicians to complete a problem in front of the entire class? Mine did.

Could you sense the stress and anxiety fuming from those students (yes … I was one of them) as they reluctantly walked to the front of the classroom?

My palms were sweaty and my right hand would shake while writing on the chalkboard — the pressure was on!

When a person in a situation like this doubts their abilities, they are down at the bottom of that confidence cycle I mentioned earlier. Due to increased stress and anxiety, they start to believe they don’t have the knowledge or experience to complete a task (or in this situation, complete a math problem correctly), even if that isn’t truly the case.

The feeling of low confidence and not being good or smart enough often manifests as stress or anxiety. And in extreme cases, it can even turn your body’s fight or flight mode on, which isn’t ideal unless you’re being chased by a hungry lion (or are experiencing another life or death situation).



Stress and anxiety on a regular basis can be detrimental to your self-confidence. These feelings cause excess release of cortisol and norepinephrine in the brain — making our bodies feel out of control and overwhelmed.

Unless you are actually trying to avoid becoming the lion’s lunch, there’s no reason to feel these feelings. And you certainly don’t want them just because your math teacher called you up to the board to complete a problem. Stress and anxiety can cloud your judgment and prevent you from thinking logically.

When stress and anxiety fade away, the excess release of cortisol and norepinephrine in the brain come to a halt. You are able to believe and trust in your abilities again, think logically, and feel as though you are ready to tackle new challenges that come your way — you’ll jump back to the top of that confidence cycle.

You’ll feel more motivated to act

              
If someone is confident in their ability to successfully do something, they’re more likely to volunteer to complete a task than someone who is less confident.

For example, imagine your manager coming to your team and saying, “Is anyone able to help me design a logo?” Chances are, the person with the background in design, or the most knowledge in the field, would volunteer their expertise … versus another person without any experience whatsoever.

This is called the power of certainty. When you’re more certain of — and confident in — your knowledge and abilities, you’re more likely to act.

If you’re confident in your abilities, not only will you feel more motivated to act, but the people around you will also want to trust you more … which takes us to our next section:  

People will trust you




If you’re the one with the design background, do speak up about that logo and successfully follow through with a fantastic result. You’re not only going to feel a boost in your self-confidence (“Yay! I did this, and I did this well”), but your manager and team will also trust you more. They’ll think of you next time they have a design project.

When you are confident in your abilities, people are more likely to trust you, listen to you, and follow you.

For example, imagine you’re working on a group project, and you need to elect a leader. One person in the group says, “I know I can lead us to success, and I already have a few ideas I’d like to share with you on how to accomplish this.” Another person in the group says, “I  don’t really like leadership roles, but I guess I could try if you all really want me to.”

The first person seems a lot more convincing, right? They also sound significantly more confident in their abilities to complete the job ... and succeed.

When you are confident, more people are likely to follow your lead.

You have a greater potential for success

There are several studies that show a strong positive correlation between high levels of self-confidence and success. That’s not to say that people who struggle with confidence won’t be successful. However, research shows that people with higher levels of self-confidence achieve greater success in multiple areas of life.

There are a couple reasons for this:

• People who are confident have self-efficacy — a belief that they have the innate ability to achieve their goals, overcome challenges, and succeed

• When someone believes in their abilities, they are more likely to try until they succeed. They then have the experience that creates self-efficacy — it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now that you understand the benefits of having self-confidence, you may be asking yourself how you can work on your own self-confidence.

How to Build Self-Confidence

As I said earlier, self-confidence is like a muscle — you need to work it in order to improve. This means anyone can become more confident. Try these exercises to work on your self-confidence:

Get to Know Yourself

Knowing yourself means you understand your strengths and weaknesses. That also means you know exactly which areas of your life you are confident in and which areas you need to work on.

It’s clear why you would feel confident about your strengths. If you are good at something, you are much more likely to share your knowledge or act on that strength rather than a weakness or vulnerability of yours.

Take advantage of these strengths and use them to exercise your confidence. If you know how to do something, be the first person to raise your hand and demonstrate your skill or teach others. If you are confident in research you did, share your expertise. This will make you feel good and boost your confidence.

Then, work on some of your weaknesses. A confident person is not only aware of their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but they embrace and use them as motivation.

Whether it’s studying a little harder, practicing more, asking for help, or spending a few extra minutes re-reading something, you can always push yourself out of your comfort zone to improve — and become more confident — in areas in which you typically lack confidence.

For example, if you’re someone who freezes up and gets anxiety while speaking publicly, sign up for a class or two. Practice in front of your family and friends. Then, when you have to give that speech, not only will you impress the audience, but you will impress yourself. This will help you develop the self-confidence you’re striving for an area in which you typically struggle.  

Be Prepared

When you are prepared to do something, you’re more confident in your ability to accomplish a task successfully.  

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” — Arthur Ashe

Preparation is a simple way to boost confidence. Think about it in terms your co-worker presenting at a big conference. This presentation is a reflection of your fellow employee’s work and knowledge, and it also requires them to speak alone in front of 50+ people — managers, directors, and other people of great influence included — for 30+ minutes. Sweating yet?

Your co-worker can prepare to the point that they are able to walk into that conference on presentation day excited to get started. By avoiding procrastination, knowing the information like the back of their hand, preparing for questions — or even technical difficulties — and working on their public speaking skills prior to the due date, they will feel confident and ready to give their presentation.

Think About Your Appearance

People can tell a lot about you and your level of confidence by the way you physically present yourself. That includes your overall dress and body language.

Imagine you’re conducting a job interview, and you have two equally qualified candidates. The first candidate is slouched over the entire interview, not making eye contact, and looks slightly disheveled. The second candidate gives you a firm handshake, is sitting up straight, looks you directly in the eyes, and is wearing a nice suit. Who would you choose for the job?

The second candidate seems significantly more confident, prepared, and impressive — and you can probably gather all of that about a person without even talking to them.

It’s proven that people feel greater self-confidence and esteem when they feel good about their appearance. So use appearance to your advantage — not only will you radiate confidence for the people around you to notice, but you will also use your appearance and body language to make yourself feel more confident in any type of situation.

Stay Positive

Positivity is a key component to building self-confidence. It’s what keeps you from beating yourself up after a setback or mistake.

By not accepting failure and staying positive, you’ll actually help yourself become a more confident person.



Here’s an example: If you’re trying to learn a new software at work, and you’re continually making mistakes, sure, you might be frustrated, but I’d bet you’re also learning a lot throughout the process.

Once you’re finally able to iron out these issues and understand how to use the new software, you have proven to yourself that you can get through a challenging time. This should not only get you excited and make you feel confident about this specific situation, but it should also make you feel confident in your abilities to tackle another difficult project.

It’s not always the stuff that comes naturally to you that makes you super confident. Instead, it’s usually the stuff you have to work really hard to get through.

Resources to Help You Build Confidence

Whether it’s a book, podcast, or TED Talk, there are a number of resources to help you build self-confidence.

Pick Up a Book

There are hundreds of books on building self-confidence and how to use it  to your advantage. Here are few options::

You Are a Badass

This humorous bestseller is a self-help book that contains a guide on how to create a life you love. It’s filled with inspiring stories, advice, and applicable ways to incorporate aspects of the guide in your life.

This book will help you build confidence in everything you do, love yourself, and achieve your biggest goals.

The Confidence Code

Research, gender, behavior, and cognition are all discussed in The Confidence Code. The book — which is targeted at women — talks about the reasons why men are typically more confident in the workplace and gives female readers advice on how to close this gap.

This is a great option for any woman who wants to learn how to develop more confidence at work and achieve their dream careers, whether or not they’re in a male-driven field.

Daring Greatly

This New York Times #1 bestseller dives into the ways that vulnerability can help measure courage.

This book — written by Brené Brown — teaches individuals how to use their vulnerabilities and challenges to their advantage. According to society and culture, vulnerabilities are weaknesses. But according to Brown, they are a way to build courage and confidence.

Listen to a Podcast

Maybe you need some audio inspiration before your next confidence challenge? Here are a few podcasts that will help you build your self-confidence:

Earn Your Happy

This podcast gives you insight and advice on ways to work through your fears, boost self-esteem, and build your confidence in both your personal and professional lives. It’s great for those who need the occasional reminder to stay positive and take life a little less seriously.

Daily Meditation Podcast

Meditation pushes individuals to look inward, reflect, and determine what changes they can make to improve their lives.

With daily meditations on confidence, self-esteem, anxiety, confidence, and stress reduction, this podcast will help you work towards the healthy and happy lifestyle you’re looking to achieve.

Your Motivational High 5

All you need is five minutes to enjoy this podcast.

This podcast will take you through five minutes of meditation and help you develop good mental health practices. This podcast is quick, effective, and forces listeners to take a short break during the day to focus on their happiness, well-being, confidence, and strength.

Conclusion


Self-confidence is not always easy to achieve or maintain, but it’s something that everyone deserves to experience. There are many reasons why confidence is essential in our personal and professional lives, but most importantly, it plays an integral role in our happiness.

Try boosting your own confidence and self-esteem in some areas of your life that need a bit of attention or work. Give a few of the steps mentioned above a try and learn what works for you.

Source :-   wekipedia/mindtool/  my  personally experiences/youtude /experts

Thank you

      


Beginners guide to Mobile Photography- how to take breathtaking photos without a professional camera (Framing and Snapseed)

                

With the tremendous increase in people inclined towards social media and image sharing apps, better mobile cameras have become a key selling point for most mobile phones. There’s a huge demand for Camera Smart Phones and companies have come up with dual, triple camera setups, telephoto lenses, bokeh modes, portrait modes, AI selfies, and a lot more.

But honestly, any 2017 smartphone’s camera is more than enough in most conditions (except night time). So what is that makes the difference? Why is that some people get amazing photos from their mobile cameras and some just can’t? Trust me your phone camera can do a lot more than you think it can and so can you after reading this article.

It comes down to two simple things- Framing and post-processing.

This article is mainly aimed at naive users without any prior knowledge about photography. I’ll try and keep it as simple as possible and you’ll definitely become better after going through this and post better photos on Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

A lot of people have asked me about how I achieve such images using my phone and coincidentally I've been preparing for my Digital Image Processing semester exam and learned a lot about the technicality of photography, so I thought it’s high time I materialize it.

Before diving into the actual process, let me show you few photos I’ve shot with my Phone (Mi Redmi 4- 13MP, f/2.0) a ~100$ phone and processed in Google’s Snapseed app. All the photos in the article are shot using the same phone unless otherwise mentioned.

Disclaimer 1: None of the devices and apps mentioned in this article have paid me to do so, they’re solely my personal choice and opinion.

Disclaimer 2: I’m partially colorblind (Deuteranopia), which basically means I have trouble distinguishing between closer tones of colors(especially red-green). Excuse me if there is any error while talking about colors


           

You don’t need a Pixel 2 XL or an iPhone 10 (obviously they have better hardware and software, but you’re paying a premium), the best camera is the one which you have with you. Let’s dive into the process now.

Framing

Framing is the key to any photo, it is how you want people to see your photo but it is very subjective and can take a lot of time to understand and improve. Nonetheless here are a few tips on how to frame your photo better.

1. Symmetry:

Symmetry brings a lot of beauty to a photograph but can be quite challenging sometimes. The Taj Mahal photo shows some degree of symmetry, with the fountain places in the middle of the photo. To make it easier to find symmetry turn on grid-lines on your camera app. It basically divides the frame into 9 boxes (3x3).

Pro tip: Place the subject of interest on one of the intersections (where horizontal and vertical lines meet) as our eyes tend to focus first on these points. This is known as the rule of thirds.














2. Background and foreground:

Most smartphone cameras today have the ability to blur the background (even the ones with a single camera lens setup) which gives us more flexibility to differentiate between the foreground and the background. To do so, tap on the screen where the object is located in the frame.


                  


Shooting a time-lapse,
Here, after opening my camera app, I tapped on the DSLR which appeared on the screen to change the focus on to it, the background was then blurred. Note that most cameras have a minimum focus distance and cannot focus on objects that are placed too close, in that case, move back a bit.

This pops the object in the foreground and gives it a nice look.

3. Shoot from a different angle:

Shooting from a new angle gives a whole new perspective and meaning to a photo, even if it’s of the same location. It is what makes a difference. It is something most people tend to not see.

For example, look at the below images: The one on the left is what most people see and click, but if you just point it upwards and try to shoot, you get a different (and most of the time, better) image. In case you are having trouble framing it, switch to the front camera (like I did to click this) and shoot it.

Don’t be lazy and try different positions ;)







Miscellaneous tips

If you’re shooting anything other than humans, always shoot in HDR (most camera apps have these options, just dig in your settings). HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It is the ratio of the brightest light (“whitest white”) to the darkest shadows (“blackest black”) in a shot.

HDR mode basically shoots 3(or more) photos of varying exposure- one underexposed, one normal, one overexposed, and combines them to give a better image and a lot more details, an image closer to what the eye sees.

All of the above are quite subjective and depend majorly on the scene and your eye. But keep them in mind next time you shoot and trust me, you’ll have better-framed photographs.

Let us now look into a less subjective part- Post-processing.

Post-Processing

Oh wait, here’s the part which most people think is cheating, manipulating, etc. TL;DR, it’s not. Most cameras (especially phone cameras) are physically incapable of capturing exactly what you see(yes, there is the camera’s inbuilt post-processing algorithm, but at the end of the day, it’s an algorithm- a set of predefined instructions) so we have to change a few basic properties of the image to make it look like what it’s meant to be.

There are a ton of image enhancement apps available for both Android and iOS, personally I prefer Google’s Snapseed (snapseed apk download touch here)

It has a very neat UI, simple to use yet extremely powerful with loaded features. You can use any other app, what I am about to discuss are common and basic post-processing techniques that do the same thing to an image( Even Instagram has an inbuilt image editor). They only differ in the presets they have inbuilt. I’ll be using Snapseed for this tutorial.








        




Next @

Click on Tools->Tune Image

Here, you’ll have a lot of options to play around with. I’ll be briefly explaining most of them.

1. Brightness

It is the overall lightness or darkness of an image. Adjusting it would make the image more bright or dark. Use this when the image is dark or too overexposed.













Left to right: Original image,brightness increased, brightness decreased

2. Contrast

Contrast is the difference in color and brightness which makes an object distinguishable. As you can see below, increasing the contrast increases the separation between dark and bright parts of the image, and decreasing does the opposite.













Left to right: Original image, contrast increased, contrast decreased

3. Saturation

Saturation is the amount of white light mixed with a hue( dominant color as perceived by an observed). Increasing saturation increases the separation between colors and vice versa. You get a punchier image if you increase the saturation.













Left to right: Original image, saturation increased, saturation decreased

4. Highlights

Highlights are usually the bright elements of an image, changing this property increases or decreases the intensity of these bright areas. Don’t confuse this with Brightness- which applies to the whole image, whereas Highlights only modifies specific parts.

Notice how the Hills are now more visible when the highlights have been decreased.













Left to right: Original image,highlights increased, highlights decreased

5. Shadows

Shadows are the exact opposite of highlights. When increased, they uncover the areas which were previously dark due to real shadows. Increasing shadows too much can introduce noise, since the image doesn’t contain much information about what is there.

Pro tip: If your camera supports shooting RAW format, which captures a lot more information ( like information about the image in shadows and highlights), use it, but it comes at a cost of larger image size (usually 5–6 times more)





Upload by sadeepa

  
15 Ways to Motivate Yourself and Others


                     


“You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.” – John C. Maxwell

When it comes to getting results, it takes motivation and ability.

Motivation makes things happen.

Where there’s no will, there’s no way. One of the best ways to improve your personal effectiveness is to master your motivation and find your drive.

 

If you can master motivation, you can deal with life’s setbacks, as well as inspire yourself to always find a way forward, and create new experiences for yourself, and follow your growth.

In this post, I’ll demystify motivation and give you the motivation tools that really work.



 

1. Connect to your values.
      
            


This is the ultimate secret. If you can connect the work you do to your values, even in small ways, you can change your game.

One of my values is learning and growth.

I find ways to grow my skills in any situation. For example, I don’t just “call back a customer.” I “win a raving fan.” I don’t just “do a task.” I “master my craft.” I don’t just “get something done.” I “learn something new.”

2. Find your WHY.

Figure out a compelling purpose. Turn this into a one-liner.

For example, when I fall off the horse, I remind myself I’m here to “make others great.” This gets me back on track, sharing the best of what I know.

3. Change your WHY.

Sometimes you’re doing things for the wrong reason. Are you doing that task to get it done, or to learn something new? Just shifting your why can light your fire.

4. Change your HOW.

You can instantly find your tasks more enjoyable by shifting from getting them done, to doing them right.

I think of it as mastering your craft. Make it artful.

Sometimes slower is better. Other times, the key is to make it a game and actually speed it up. You can set time limits and race against the clock. Changing your how can get you out of ruts and find new ways to escape the mundane.

5. Remember the feeling.

Flipping through your head movies and scenes is one of the fastest ways to change how you feel.

Remember the feeling. How did you feel during your first kiss? What about laying on the grass on a sunny day?

When you feel good, you find your motivation faster.

6. Shift to past, present or the future.

Sometimes you need to be here, now. Sometimes, the right here, right now sucks. The beauty of shifting tense is you can visualize a more compelling future, or remember a more enjoyable past.

At the same time, if you catch yourself dwelling on a painful past, get back to right here, right now, and find the joy in the moment.

You’ll improve your temporal skills with practice.



7. Find a meaningful metaphor.

Find a metaphor that fuels you. Maybe you’re the “Little Engine that Could.” Maybe you’re “in your element.”

The most powerful thing you can do is find a metaphor that connects to your values. This is why I turn my projects into “epic adventures.”

8. Take action.



        
Here’s a secret that once you know it, can change your life. Action often comes before motivation.

You simply start doing an activity and then your motivation kicks in. Nike was right with “Just do it.” For example, I don’t always look forward to my workout, but once I start, I find my flow.

9. Link it to good feelings.

Find a way to link things to good feelings. For example, play your favorite song when you’re doing something you don’t like to do.

It has to be a song that makes you feel so great that it overshadows the pain of the task. It’s hard to tell yourself you don’t like something when it feels so good.

A similar approach is to find your theme song.

10. Impress yourself first.

This is how people like Peter Jackson or James Cameron or Stephenie Meyer inspire themselves. They make the movies or write the books that impress themselves first. They connect their passion to the work and they don’t depend on other people setting the bar. Their internal bar becomes their drive.

11. “CHOOSE” to.

If you tell yourself you “HAVE” to do this or you “MUST” do that or you “SHOULD” do this, you can weaken your motivation.

The power of choice and simply reframing your language to “CHOOSE” to can be incredibly empowering and exactly the motivating language you need to hear. Choose your words carefully and make them work for you.

12. Pair up.

This is one of my favorite ways to make something fun. One person’s painful task, is another’s pleasure. Pair up with somebody who complements your skill or who can mentor you and get you over the humps.



13. Change your question.

Sometimes you need to change your focus. To change your focus, change the question.

If you ask yourself what’s wrong with this situation, of course you’ll find things to complain about. Ask yourself what’s right about the situation and you can quickly find the positives and get your groove on.

14. Fix time for eating, sleeping and working out.

Sometimes your body or emotions are working against you because you’re not giving them a break or fueling them the right way.

One simple way to improve results here is to find a routine for eating, sleeping, and moving or working out that supports you.

15. Play to your strengths.

Spending too much time in your weaknesses wears you down. Spending more time in your strengths helps you renew your energy and find your flow.

Strengths are the place where you can grow your best. Find the things that you can do all day that you really enjoy and find excuses throughout your day to do more of that. Success builds on itself and this helps you build momentum.

Try out the motivation techniques to see what works for you.

At the end of the day, all motivation really comes down to self-motivation, and you get better at motivation by building your self-awareness.

Learn how to push your own buttons from the inside out.

Upload by sadeepa