INPUT ARTICLE: Article: It can be tempting to try to develop all a person's strengths at once. However, it's better to really focus on one or two strengths at a time. Focusing on too many can lead to no strengths being developed because your energy and the person's energy is focused too thinly. One way you can choose is to pick the top places a person really stands out. Another option is to look at where a person has raw talent that still needs development rather than the person's strengths that are already in full swing. In other words, if a person is already great at technology, maybe skip developing that right now in favor of working on her written communication skills, where she shows promise but could use more development. A third option is focusing on skills the company particularly needs. If you're having trouble deciding between two strengths, go with the one that would benefit the company the most. Once you realize what an employee is best at, it's important to put them to work in those areas. Not only do you get a benefit from an employee doing well in that area, the employee gets a chance to practice even more and become better over time. For instance, someone whose strength lies in verbal communication may be wasted in an area that has no contact with customers. On the other hand, you may find someone who's good at technology who isn't being utilized that way. Expanding that person's job description to include technological work can benefit both of you and give the employee needed challenges. One way to help people develop their skills is to challenge them a bit. If the same person is always doing the same job, they become complacent, and their skills don't grow. Tasks that require a higher skill level make people rise to the challenge. Try to challenge people just above their current skill level. That is, you don't want someone who's barely learned the phone system to try to learn how to code a website. Maybe a better challenge would be to learn how to provide feedback through the website, which requires them to learn how to navigate the website. You don't want to throw the person in the deep end, but you do want to challenge them just enough that they must grow and learn to meet the challenge. Continuing education, such as workshops, conferences, and classes, help employees to develop or renew strengths. Encouraging your employees to take advantage of these opportunities will only serve to develop strengths. Try to take away as many hurdles as possible between your employees and continuing education classes. Of course, you can require a certain number a year, but you can also encourage employees to take advantage of opportunities by paying for continuing education, making sure employees are paid for their time while there, and even providing opportunities for continuing education in office. For instance, you can bring in experts to lead workshops on certain skills and strengths to help employees improve. Don't forget that some continuing education can be done online. Volunteering in the community is a great way to develop strengths. In addition, encouraging your employees to volunteer not only helps the community, it makes your company look good in the process. One way to encourage volunteering is to allow employees a certain amount of paid time off a week to go volunteer, such as an hour or two. Another way to encourage volunteering is to have incentives. For instance, you could have a race to see who can get the most volunteer hours, with prizes going to the top contenders. How you set up the volunteering is up to you. You could handpick volunteering opportunities to encourage certain skills. However, employees may resent being forced into volunteering at places they don't want to be. If you let employees choose, they'll likely gravitate to places that use their skills, anyway.

SUMMARY: Limit your focus. Let employees use their strengths. Provide challenges. Use continuing education to your advantage. Allow space for volunteering.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Upper or middle back pain is often caused by poor posture. Try to stand or sit tall during the day, balancing your weight evenly and straightening your back. Avoid slumping or slouching to keep pressure off of your back. Tight hamstrings can contribute to lower back pain. Try stretching exercises on your hamstrings to alleviate your back pain and prevent future flares. Massages can soothe strained or sore muscles. If you're sleeping in the room with someone else, ask them for a massage to soothe your back. You can also massage your own back if you cannot get one from someone else. To massage yourself, knead the area of tension or pain in circular motions with your fingers or a massage roller. Although mild back pain can be treated at home, some symptoms may need clinical treatment. If your back pain doesn't go away after several days or is accompanied by numbness, tingling, wobbling legs, or incontinence, visit an urgent care clinic as soon as you can. These symptoms may indicate a nerve condition or other serious medical condition.

SUMMARY: Practice good posture during the day to ease upper back pain at night. Stretch your hamstrings to relieve lower back pain. Massage your back if your pain is caused by overworked muscles. Call your doctor in the morning if you're experiencing severe back pain.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Asylum is a benefit offered to refugees who are fleeing persecution in their home countries. If you win asylum, you can stay in the United States and eventually apply to become a permanent legal resident by getting a "green card," known more formally as a United States Permanent Resident card. Asylum applications can be "defensive" or "affirmative." A defensive asylum application is one made when you are in removal proceedings in the U.S., either because you are attempting to enter the country without proper papers or because you broke an immigration law when inside the country and are about to be deported. Affirmative asylum applications are ones you file when not in removal proceedings. In order to apply for asylum, you typically need be physically present in the United States. . You must also have suffered from (or fear that you will suffer from) persecution in your home country. This persecution must be shown to be based on at least one of the following personal attributes: race religion nationality membership in a particular social group political opinion In affirmative asylum applications, you can include your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21. Any other children must apply for asylum on his or her own. There are several bars to winning asylum in the United States. Many of these involve criminal activity undertaken either in the United States or elsewhere. For example, if you participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular group, you would be ineligible for asylum. Other bars include: a conviction for a serious crime (which includes aggravated felonies) the commission of a serious, nonpolitical crime outside the United States your posing a danger to the security of the U.S. your being already firmly resettled in another country before arriving in the U.S. You must make an application for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States. However, you can make an application later if there has been a material change of circumstances. For example, if people from your political party are suddenly targeted for assassination while you are in the United States, you could claim that circumstances have sufficiently changed so that an application after the deadline is acceptable. If there has been a change of circumstances, you should file for asylum within a "reasonable" amount of time. USCIS does not define "reasonable" with any precision, so you are best advised not to wait.

SUMMARY:
Understand asylum. Verify that you are eligible to apply. See if you can include your family. Confirm that you are not disqualified from applying. Do not wait.