We all have a tendency to look at our own flaws with a magnifying glass. If you continually tell yourself that this or that part of you is not up to standard, how can you expect it to get any better? Focus on the things you like about yourself. You will see how much better it feels to praise yourself rather than put yourself down. With this good feeling, you can do more for yourself and others than you could ever do with the negative energy of self-¬criticism. Choose to see the good. The choice is yours alone.

I went to a local hardware store and purchased my first barbeque. I didn't consider the size of the box relative to the size of my tiny car. However I tried, it wouldn't fit. Being new to the area, I didn't have many people I could call to help. As the store clerk and I stood in front of the store scratching our heads, a man in a big pickup truck pulled up in front of us. He too was picking up a barbeque and without being prompted, offered to throw mine next to his in the back of his truck and follow me home. He wouldn't even let me tip him. He just pulled up in my driveway, unloaded the box, waved, and quietly drove away. Mister, you made my week!

Soil erosion is not new. What is new is the rate of erosion. New soil forms when the weathering of rock exceeds losses from erosion. Throughout most of the earth's geological history, the result was a gradual, long-term buildup of soil that could support vegetation. The vegetation in turn reduced erosion and facilitated the accumulation of topsoil. At some recent point in history, this relationship was reversed—with soil losses from wind and water erosion exceeding new soil formation. The world now is losing soil at a rate of billions of tons per year, and this is reducing the earth's productivity. In many countries, the loss of soil is decreasing the productivity of the land.

Researcher Jack Greenberg studied how employees from various career sectors perceived their performance evaluation. He found that, regardless of the industry, it was incredibly important for employees to feel that they were active participants in the evaluation process. The employees were more likely to feel that the process was fair when supervisors requested their input prior to an evaluation and used it during the process, when there was two-way communication during the evaluation interviews, and when the employees had the chance to challenge the evaluation. In other words, if the employees were involved in their evaluation, they felt it was fairer.

The body is like a symphony where thousands of metabolic actions are orchestrated into harmony through the constant fine-¬tuning of conscious (e.g. exercise) and subconscious (e.g. digestion) instructions. When the harmony is broken, the body sends us information, signals and symptoms, in very direct and obvious ways. It is necessary that we pay attention to these signals instead of viewing them as burdens in our life. If we ignore or suppress health symptoms, they will become progressively louder and more extreme as the body attempts to capture our attention. When the oil light comes on in our car, do we disconnect the light, or do we take the car in for service? We usually take our car to the shop at the first sign of trouble. However, when it comes to our health, how many of us wait until the situation becomes serious before taking action?

A woman in one of my seminars found that by going to bed early she could get up at four o'clock in the morning. She could then do the equivalent of a full day's work by seven or eight o'clock, before the average person even got started. In no time at all, she was producing and earning double the amount of her co-workers. She was continually promoted and paid more money because she was getting far more done than anyone else. Successful people make a habit of getting up early, usually by 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning, sometimes earlier, and then getting going immediately. This gives them a great jump on the day. The average person, on the other hand, takes a full hour to get up and get going in the morning. Then they drag themselves off to work, thinking about lunchtime, and what they are going to do in the evening.

In 1995, Derek Parra was the best inline skater in the world, with eighteen world titles to his credit and a projection of many more to come. He was the king of his domain. However, there was a problem. Inline skating isn't included in the Olympics and Parra dreamed of winning an Olympic gold medal. So, at the age of twenty¬-five, he switched to the sport of speedskating, a cousin of inline skating but with two important differences: you race on skates instead of wheels and on ice instead of asphalt. There was nothing easy about the switch. Parra had grown up in southern California and had hardly ever seen any ice, let alone spent any time on it. Overnight, he went from being No. 1 in the world to just somebody in the back of the pack. However, he stuck to his goals and persisted in making the transition, and in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, he won his Olympic gold medal.

The graph above shows the main non¬academic motives identified by UK and US students wanting to study overseas in 2012. The number one motive for students from both countries was to have a unique adventure. To travel overseas was the second biggest motive for US students. The percentage of UK students interested in starting an international career was seventeen percentage points higher than that of US students with the same motive. To improve employment prospects was the second biggest motive for UK students, but the least attractive to US students. The percentage of US students who wanted to build self¬-confidence was higher than that of UK students who wanted to become self¬-sufficient.

《Fire Safety Poster Contest》 What do you know about fire safety? Create a poster displaying a tip for fire prevention and safety. * Participants: The contest is open to all elementary school students. Entries are for single applicants only. Group artwork will not be accepted. * Form: All entries must be original paintings. Photographs are not accepted. A short fire safety message must be written on the artwork. * Deadline: March 28, 2015 The first winner will get an opportunity to ride to school on a fire truck. All winning posters will be on display in the City Hall.

《2015 Superhero Walkathon》 The Superhero Walkathon is an annual fundraising walking event held to support the Active Way, a charity dedicated to granting the wishes of terminally ill children. Come out dressed up as your favorite superhero and be a real hero for kids who need one. * Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015 * Place: Green River Park * Registration: You can register on the event date. - $20 per person - $10 for children aged 12 and under * Time: Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. Walk begins at 10:00 a.m. Superhero capes are given to the first 200 registered participants. For additional information, please send an email to patrick@activeway.org.

Coming home from work the other day, I saw a woman trying to turn onto the main street and having very little luck because of the constant stream of traffic. I slowed and allowed her to turn in front of me. I was feeling pretty good until, a couple of blocks later, she stopped to let a few more cars into the line, causing us both to miss the next light. I found myself completely irritated with her. How dare she slow me down after I had so graciously let her into the traffic! As I was sitting there stewing, I realized how ridiculous I was being. Suddenly, a phrase I once read came floating into my mind: 'You must do him or her a kindness for inner reasons, not because someone is keeping score or because you will be punished if you don't.' I realized that I had wanted a reward: If I do this nice thing for you, you (or someone else) will do an equally nice thing for me.

Igor Cerc went to a store to have a clock engraved. It was a gift he was taking to a wedding the day he was picking it up. However, when he arrived at the store, he found that the technician had broken the glass of the clock during the engraving process. They offered to replace the entire clock, after they got money from their insurance company, but Igor needed the clock now. He realized that it would not serve his goals to get upset. He calmly said that he needed to go to a wedding in thirty minutes; the clock was his wedding gift. He noted that there was similar glass in other clocks in the store. Couldn't the store take apart another clock to fix his? He was calm and polite throughout. The clerk thanked me for not yelling at him as other customers do, said Igor. I realized that he would do everything he could for me as long as I remained polite. The clerk took apart another clock and quickly replaced the glass, and Igor went on his way.

It is often believed that an active person can make friends more easily than a shy person, and that a conscientious person may meet more deadlines than a person who is not conscientious. Walter Mischel found, however, that the typical correlation between personality traits and behavior was quite modest. This news was really shocking, because it essentially said that the traits personality psychologists were measuring were just slightly better at predicting behavior than astrological signs. Mischel did not simply point out the problem; he diagnosed the reasons for it. He argued that personality psychologists had underestimated the extent to which the social situation shapes people's behavior, independently of their personality. To predict whether a person will meet a deadline, for example, knowing something about the situation may be more useful than knowing the person's score on a measure of conscientiousness. Situational influences can be very powerful, sometimes overwhelming individual differences in personality.

When the navigation app on your smartphone is telling you the best route to the airport based on current traffic patterns, how does it know where the traffic is? Navigation systems are tracking your cell phone and the cell phones of thousands of other users of the applications to see how quickly those cell phones move through traffic. If you're stuck in a traffic jam, your cell phone reports the same GPS coordinates for several minutes; if traffic is moving swiftly, your cell phone moves as quickly as your car and these apps can recommend routes based on that. The quality of the overall system depends crucially on there being a large number of users. In this respect they're similar to telephones, fax machines, and e-mail: If only one or two people have them, they are not much good―their utility increases with the number of users

When scientists describe tool use by human beings, it is usually in terms of mechanical tools. This may apply to tools such as a sharpened flint blade or an electric drill. The key point is that the tool is thought of as passive and with a small number of predetermined uses. The digital revolution has begun to change this landscape in a significant way. Tools are now being developed with a general function in mind, but they are not predetermined in their operations. As a result, it is not possible to predict the outcome of their use. For example, the personal computer is designed for the general function of handling and processing information, but exactly how the PC is used is not predetermined. Therefore, for some, it may offer a means of communication; for others, a sophisticated means of managing accounts; and for yet others, an entertainment platform.

The human brain cannot completely comprehend or appreciate all that it encounters in its lifespan. Even if a music lover kept his headphones on for every minute of every day for an entire year, he wouldn't be able to listen to more than an eighth of all the albums that are released just in the United States in one year. Because we do not possess the capacity to give equal time to every artistic product that might come our way, we must rely on shortcuts. We may look for reviews and ratings of the latest movies before we decide which ones we'd like to see. We often let personal relationships guide our decisions about what art we allow into our lives. Also, we continually rely on the distribution systems through which we experience art―museums, galleries, radio stations, television networks, etc.―to narrow the field of possibilities for us so that we don't have to spend all of our energy searching for the next great thing.

In an astonishing example of how nurturing can influence nature, there is considerable evidence confirming that how parents emotionally respond to their children can encourage or suppress genetic tendencies. Biology is not destiny, so gene expression is not necessarily inevitable. To produce their effects, genes must be turned on. For example, shyness is a trait that seems to be partially hereditary. If parents are overprotective of their shy young daughter, the toddler is likely to remain shy. However, if they encourage her to interact with other toddlers, she may overcome it. Thus, genetic tendencies toward intelligence, sociability, and aggression can be stimulated, controlled, or suppressed by parental response and other environmental influences.

Animals may have a limited understanding of what is happening now, but only humans seem to enrich their understanding of the present by thoughtful links to events in the distant past and future. Indeed, human goals often link what one does now to possible outcomes that lie years away. Thus, human action is not just a here-and-now response but is often designed to help bring about something far off, such as graduation or marriage or retirement. It can also be linked to things that have happened elsewhere or long ago, such as when people celebrate Independence Day or a religious holiday. Moreover, people often follow the rules made in distant places by people they will never meet. Most Americans pay income tax, for example, though few have any direct contact with the people who make the tax laws.

Sir Edward C. Burne-Jones was a prominent nineteenth-century English artist. One day he was invited to dinner at the home of his daughter. As a special treat, his young granddaughter was allowed to come to the table; she misbehaved, and her mother made her stand in the corner with her face to the wall. Sir Edward, a well¬trained grandfather, did not interfere with his grandchild's training. The next morning, he arrived at his daughter's home with paints and palette. He went to the wall where the little girl had been forced to stand, and there he painted pictures―a kitten chasing its tail, lambs in a field, and goldfish swimming. He decorated the wall on both sides of that corner with paintings for his granddaughter's delight. If she had to stand in the corner again, at least she would have something to look at.

Mass customization is a strategy that allows manufacturers or retailers to provide individualized products to consumers. Today's apparel supplier must look for new ways to offer customers top-quality goods at highly competitive prices. Consumers desire products that can be personalized through fit preferences, color selection, fabric choices, or design characteristics. A solution to the fit preference is a body or foot scanner that takes a customer's measurements digitally, creating what is referred to as digital twin. Based on the exact image, body scanning software then defines and captures all the measurements necessary for actually producing the garment or shoe. This data is forwarded online to the manufacturer, whose production technologies ensure an exact fit. The customer then receives the finished product in a very short time. This technological strategy is used today by some fashion firms. This type of customization is often limited, however, to a small number of customers.

Often, a word is used with more than one meaning. Indeed, a brief look at a dictionary will show you that the majority of words are used with more than one meaning. If such words were said to be ambiguous, then the vast majority of words would be ambiguous. However, linguists and philosophers usually call a word ambiguous only when there is some uncertainty about which meaning is being used in the particular instance. A word isn't ambiguous by itself but is used ambiguously: it is ambiguous when one cannot tell from the context what sense is being used. However, in most cases one can tell from the context what sense is being used. For example, if you say I'm going to the bank to deposit some money, I don't expect you to go to the river bank. The word bank has these two senses (and more), but it is not thereby ambiguous: the two senses are so unrelated that no one is likely to confuse them.

When we read, we are alone. Reading calls us to our sole self, and away from the world of distractions; but it also furnishes us with far-reaching connections to other people. The peaceful calm of a desert island is not a bad image to have in your head as you prepare to read. No earthly storms can reach you here; you are safe. The desert island image reinforces the idea that reading is a fundamentally solitary experience. Reading has also always had a social dimension, however, as it does in our early lives: our first acts of reading are performed with parents and teachers standing by and guiding us. These mentors left their stamp on how we approach a text; they gave us the tools we use to get closer to the words on the page. There is, of course, another social connection in reading: we always converse, by implication, with the book's author.

The main reason you're drawn to novel or surprising things is that it could upset the safe, predictable status quo and even threaten your survival. If you've ever tried to carry on a conversation in a room in which a TV is playing, you know that it's hard not to glance at the screen occasionally. Even if you don't want to watch, your brain is attracted by that constantly shifting stream of images, because change can have life-or-death consequences. Indeed, if our early African ancestors hadn't been good at fixing all their attention on the just-ripened fruit or the approaching predators, we wouldn't be here. For the same reason, a strong sensitivity to the odd detail that doesn't quite correspond with the way things usually are or ought to be is a major asset for a soldier in a war zone. Even in everyday situations, you can't afford to miss that jaywalker darting in front of your car or the single new and important fact in a long, boring list.

Blood pressure has to rise when we get out of bed in the morning, so that there is enough blood flow to the brain to keep us from fainting. When we sit down to read the morning newspaper, it goes down again. There is not a single, ideal level of blood pressure that our body tries to maintain. At the same time, it is obviously not to our benefit for blood pressure to get too low or too high, and there are mechanisms in place to keep it within a limited range. I believe that a similar process occurs with human emotions. It is to people's advantage to react emotionally to their environments, such that emotions vary from moment to moment. It is also to people's advantage to have mechanisms in place to keep them away from the emotional extremes. Think, for example, about the last time you experienced a state of happiness. Maybe it was the day you were married, or the day your child was born. You probably experienced a wave of pleasure rushing through your body. Your heart was beating rapidly, your blood pressure went up, and you were short of breath. Now imagine what it would be like to feel this way for an hour, a day, or a week. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it? Prolonged positive (or negative) emotions might have psychological costs, making it difficult to concentrate and to notice new emotional information.

Justin wished that his dad had a different job. It sounded so cool to say, My dad is at the office! However, Justin's dad sold plastic souvenirs to tourists from a street stall. When other kids asked him, What does your dad do for a living? he always said, He is in business. Then he would quickly change the subject before anyone could ask details about the kind of business in which his dad was involved. He was also upset that his dad had to work on Saturdays. He was never free to watch Justin play in soccer matches. The other dads would stand on the sidelines, cheering their sons, but his dad only said, Enjoy the game, Justin! I wish I could be there to see you score the winning goal! In the final match of the final season, when he had been voted man of the match, his dad wasn't there to see it. Justin dreamed of going to college one day, but he thought it was an impossible goal. Yet he prayed about it regularly. On his seventeenth birthday, his dad handed him a big envelope. 'What could be inside?' he wondered. He hoped for money to buy new sneakers. But inside the envelope was a file of documents. What's this? he asked. Those are application forms for college, his dad answered. You can look through them and tell me which course you want to take. But where will the money come from? Justin asked, surprised. His dad smiled. Ever since your sixth birthday, I've put Saturdays' earnings into a savings account for you. Now you can study at a college of your choice. Justin felt a lump in his throat. Thanks, Dad! I'll work hard, he promised. I'll get a degree and a good job and then you won't have to stand on windy street corners to sell your stuff any longer. His dad gave him a warm hug.