The Power of Self-Belief

"You can become a victim of your circumstances or a master of your destiny"

~ Layne Beachley

Takeaways from the talk 💡💡

🌟If you want to become successful in anything, here are three things you need to remember.

✅1. You have to be willing to clarify your vision.

✅2. You have to surround yourself with a great team of people.

✅3. Write your goals down.

Click the link below to listen to the talk 👇👇
https://youtu.be/CKVSjIIt8t0

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Kyal Sin Phu
11 July 2020

To Reach beyond your Limits by Training your Mind

" When you can collaborate with your mind and tell it what you want, you can get what you want. "

~ by Marisa Peer

Takeaways from the talk 💡💡

✅1. Tell your mind exactly what you want.

✅2. Link massive, huge, enormous pleasure to getting there.

✅3. Change the picture .Change the words. ( Because, the picture you make in your head and the words you say to yourself influence how you feel.)

✅4. Make the unfamiliar, familiar.

Click the link below to listen to the talk.
https://youtu.be/zCv-ZBy6_yU

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Kyal Sin Phu
4 July 2020

Book Review: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” written by Stephen R. Covey is a self-improvement book geared towards helping people to attain an optimal level of performance personally and professionally. The book, as its name suggests, basically provides a blue-print for what it takes to thrive as a highly effective person in this competitive and fast-paced world, introducing the concept of paradigm shift - which is illuminated by three successive stages of Maturity Continuum: dependence, independence, and interdependence. Covey, then, presents the seven habits: the first three habits are focused on moving from dependence to independence; whilst the next three from independence to interdependence; and the last one the continuous growth.

The first habit mentioned by the author to become independent is “Be Proactive, which means taking actions to respond to the situations rather than just watching how things happen. The takeaway I find enlightening in this part is this: "The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it." It makes me realize that, we, learning from our mistakes, should take the initiative and work on what we can to improve the circumstances instead of complaining about things that are beyond our control and feeling powerless.

The second habit is “Begin With the End in Mind”. In essence, we need to envisage our final destination and ensure that every single effort we make should align with the ultimate goals we aspire to achieve so that we can get from where we are now to where we want to be in a more efficient manner. Setting a clear and strategic vision first and foremost, in my view, may not only assist us to stay on track with our objectives but also prevent us working aimlessly on whatever task at hand at the expense of wasting our time and energy while we are not getting anywhere or to a wrong place in a worst-case scenario. This striking message also reminds me of the famous quote of a well-known author, Alan Lakein, “Failing to plan is planning to fail**”.**

The third one is “Put First Things First”. It is true that we may at times feel inundated with tons of work, and exhausted with hectic schedules, not knowing which tasks should be accomplished first. A note-worthy advice given by the author in this regard is “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities”. I come to understand that we ought to be selective and execute on urgent and important matters without being distracted by not urgent and unimportant tasks.

The aforementioned habits, according to Covey, could help us achieve self-mastery. To become dependent from being independent, it does not necessarily mean we must disregard our social interactions with others. We should be cognizant of the fact that “No man is an Island”, which means no one, himself or herself alone, is self-sufficient and everyone has to rely on each other. Covey, thus, introduces another three habits we need to nurture to optimize efficiency and attain a greater level of achievement: to shift from independence to interdependence.

The fourth habit he discusses is “Think Win-Win”. A particular quote that caught my attention in this case is "In the long run, if it isn't a win for both of us, we both lose. That's why win-win is the only real alternative in interdependent realities." The underlying meaning we should take note of from this quote, in my opinion, is to establish long-lasting and amicable relationships, we should recalibrate our relationship paradigms: we’d better seek mutual benefits from all interactions instead of having winners on the one side and losers on the other. In other words, we ought to strive for a common welfare, which is in accordance with our goals and values, and in line with their interests.

The fifth habit is “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood” - meaning we must seek to deeply understand the people we are communicating with as well as their inner feelings and perspectives through empathic listening. This highlights that it is important to develop a sense of compassion and put ourselves in their shoes to build trust and grow together as an effective team. This very habit also reflects a typical situation in which most people have a tendency to listen to with the intent to reply rather than to understand what the other party really means. Therefore, so as to dodge unnecessary misunderstandings and foster successful relationships at all levels (personally or professionally), we should put empathic listening at the centre of our communications.

The sixth habit, Covey stressed we should live to achieve interdependent relationships, is “Synergize”. The bottom line he is trying to convey here is that appreciating the differences and building unity in diversity, we must reinforce positive teamwork and make a concerted effort. Since I believe different people hailing from diverse backgrounds bring different unique strengths, I realize that it would be smart of us to leverage those diverse capabilities and strive to yield far better results, which are less likely to be achieved individually. I also think there is no harm in collaborating with each other as an effective team as the proverb goes “Two heads are better than one”.

The seventh habit, which Covey considers important to attain both independence and interdependence, is “Sharpen the Saw’. The very quote I find worth-noting and enlightening in this part is “You must never become too busy to take time to sharpen the saw”. I have learnt that no matter how busy we are, we should set aside time to learn to improve our technical knowledge and polish up our skills related to our field of work or study if we aim to achieve a sustainable growth. It is undeniable that persistent efforts made without renewing our assets would be a bottleneck to our path to a productive and fulfilling lifestyle. It may also be detrimental to our physical and mental well-being, which could in turn lead us to pitfalls of lagging far behind the fast-developing world we are in despite our relentless endeavours. Thus, having understood that continuous learning is the backbone of making significant breakthroughs, we should act on this very valuable message to maximize our efficiency and productivity.

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Kyal Sin Phu
20 July 2020

“How the Burmese Youth are Tackling the effects of “Brain Drain”

Myanmar’s standard of education is lagging far behind the developing world, having faced decades of an underfunded education sector. According to UNICEF Myanmar, the effects range from weak school infrastructures and outdated teaching methods and curriculum to having insufficient numbers of qualified teachers. The 2013 ASEAN State of Education Report also states that the grossly underfunded education system and the scarcity of the state-of-the-art learning and teaching resources have been impeding the country’s efforts to upgrade the education standard. The situation is aggravated by the circumstances in which the students have to learn by rote and regurgitate in exams rather than being nurtured to think critically and develop reasoning skills.

It is undeniable that such a low standard of education results in a lack of literacy, and technical know-hows and life skills that students in Myanmar need to thrive in a globalised 21st Century world. These implications on existing human resources contribute to a very high level of unemployment among the younger generation in particular.

As poverty causes migration, a large number of Myanmar’s citizens (4.25 million according to the “2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census” reported by UNFPA), are living abroad to pursue better education and for employment opportunities. The Burmese diaspora are also very likely to lose connection and are unable to contribute back to their home country owing to the geographical distance and some other circumstances. This highlights that the poor quality education and the shortage of human resources are the pressing issues heading Myanmar towards increasing brain drain.

A Solution is Born

In 2018, a group of Burmese college youth studying abroad initiated a passion project called BridgeBurma in an attempt to counteract the effects of brain drain in Myanmar. With the mission of cultivating collective wisdom, and the vision of increasing talents in their home country, they are dedicated to sharing information, knowledge, resources and experiences that they have acquired abroad with their peers studying in Myanmar, bridging the gap of opportunities and resource access between the local and global Burmese youth.

May Shin Lyan, Co-founder and CEO of BridgeBurma, said, “whilst pursuing state-of-the-art education in Germany and the United States through various scholarships, I have always dreamed of sharing similar education opportunities to youth in Myanmar. Knowing our country is one of the developing nations in the world and as a Myanmar citizen, I feel the responsibility to make sure youth in Myanmar can dream freely without limit, without concerns about finances and without obstacles from lack of opportunities. So for the betterment of the Myanmar’s youth community, my dream is to make their dreams come true through our BridgeBurma platform.”

What BridgeBurma does for Myanmar’s Youth Community

With the aim of educating the Myanmar youth community and enriching their knowledge, BridgeBurma is providing a number of education services free of charge: forum, online and offline mentorship programs, editorials, podcasts and informational videos.

• Forum 

The Forum is the first feature that BridgeBurma developed for Bridgers (the organisation’s preferred moniker for its audience). It allows students to ask any questions regarding education abroad, career and many others, and receive answers and advice from the mentors who are pursuing higher education abroad.

• Online and Offline Mentorship Programs

BridgeBurma has been conducting Online Mentorship programs once a month, and this May marks its 5th batch. Approximately 75 Burmese students so far have been provided with one-on-one education counselling with regards to their further studies and career development. The mentorship program received many positive reviews from the mentees.

On top of the virtual mentorship programs, in the summer of 2019, the BridgeBurma team went to six academic institutions in Yangon and Mandalay, and mentored approximately over 300 students regarding higher education abroad and scholarship opportunities.

• Editorials, Podcasts and Videos

Led by the Editor-in-Chief, Anna Tan, BridgeBurma has recently launched an editorial project, which is starting off as a blog page featuring opinion/academic articles and scholarship news. “BridgeBurma Editorials aims to educate the Burmese community on a range of academic fields from computer science to international relations to economics, as well as through tips on professional and academic development,” explained Anna, on the purpose of BridgeBurma Editorials.

BridgeBurma also has a developing podcast project under the editorials, which is expected to be launched around the end of June or early July. “We do this with the hope that the Burmese online community, especially its youth members, who may not have access to private education can still have access to high quality, liberal, educational resources," Anna added.

In addition to Editorials and Podcasts, BridgeBurma is also striving to educate the Burmese youth through the video content, giving advice on education, personal and career development, and so forth, by its outstanding mentors who are pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in different universities abroad. “We are now working on creating the informative and educational video content to channel the knowledge and wisdom we have acquired and our experiences abroad back to the local Burmese youth,” says Thu Ta Aung, BridgeBurma’s Chief Operation Officer.

BridgeBurma’s Response to COVID 19

In response to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, BridgeBurma team initiated COVID-19 Campaign through GoFundMe and helped the Burmese community by fundraising and mobilizing donations to Myanmar. During Phase 1 of the campaign, the team raised around $5000 together with Ko Ye Foundation and donated over 12,500 masks to the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) of the Myanmar Government, with the aim of supporting healthcare workers on the ground to have more protective wear. “We thought even though our efforts are small in the grand scheme of things, we were happy to still be able to make a difference big or small. The COVID campaign is aimed to help not just the youth but the wider Burmese community,” said Anna Tan, Editor-in-Chief and HR Manager, who led the Phase 1 COVID 19 campaign for BridgeBurma.

Partnering with the Cambridge University Southeast Asia Society (CUSEAS) as well as Doh Eain/I Do Nation for the Phase 2 part of the campaign, BridgeBurma team also supported Myanmar’s urban vulnerable communities. In the Phase 2, BridgeBurma donated $1425 (2,000,000 MMK) to 200 street vendors residing in different impoverished townships in Yangon, who cannot operate their business due to the pandemic and are at risk of hunger. Each vendor received 10,000 MMK.

“We have always wanted to support Myanmar in any way we can because BridgeBurma is founded on the very idea of giving back to our home country. Therefore, in times of hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we took a prompt action by fundraising and mobilizing donations to the most needed areas of Myanmar,” said Khin Myint Myat Zin, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of BridgeBurma.

For the time being, BridgeBurma team is collecting donations to conduct Phase 3 of the COVID 19 campaign in which another $1425 (2, 000,000 MMK) is planned to be disbursed to 200 vulnerable street vendors in Yangon again, as so they have done for Phase 2.

BridgeBurma’s ambitions on the Future of Myanmar’s Youth Community

BridgeBurma, is now a growing team with the recent involvement of some new members who are the local Burmese students studying in Myanmar. The global and local Burmese youth have come together to work towards cultivating collective wisdom and increasing local talents in Myanmar, by creating more projects and services on education for the professional and academic development of Myanmar’s youth community.

“In the future, we plan to provide additional services like online e-learning, organization collaborations and university linking. Through our online e-learning service, youth across Myanmar will be able to learn world-class educational content,” explained May Shin Lyan on BridgeBurma’s future plans for the academic growth of Myanmar’s youth community. “We will always be there to help our home country and work to the best of our abilities to have a positive impact on Myanmar,” Khin Myint Myat Zin expressed BridgeBurma’s enthusiasm to work towards the betterment of Myanmar’s human resources.

This article was originally published in Change Magazine by Development Innovation Insider on July 3, 2020. Click the link to read the original piece. 

Kyal Sin Phu
Change Magazine 
Development Innovation Insider  
3 July 2020