选择知识点

Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I hardly went to bed before midnight, and I would always get up late the next morning.

But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity（效率）was always higher. So I set out to become a habitual early riser. But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep. Eventually some sleep research showed that my strategy was wrong.

The most common wrong strategy is this: supposing you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail.

There are two main schools of thought on sleep patterns. One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day. The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up. However, I have found both are wrong if you care about productivity. If you sleep at fixed hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed awake.

My solution is to combine both methods. I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time. So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5 a.m.), but I go to bed at different times every night.

However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning are my ways. If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own.

I’m sure you know the song “Happy Birthday”. But do you know who wrote the song and for whom it was written?

The retired professor, Archibald A. Hill in Lucasville, USA could tell us the story. Ninety-seven years ago, two of Mr. Archibald Hill’s aunts, Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were asked to write some songs for a book called Song Stories for the Sunday Morning. Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were both kindergarten teachers then. They loved children very much and wrote many beautiful songs for the book. One of them was the famous “Good Morning to You.” The song said, “Good morning to you, good morning to you, children, good morning to all.” This song was very popular at that time among kindergarten children. But not many grown-ups knew it. A few years later little Archibald was born. As his aunt, Miss Patty Hill sang the song “Happy Birthday” to the melody(曲调)of “Good Morning to you” to her little nephew(侄子).She sang the song like this:

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, Dear Archie!

Happy birthday to you!

Miss Patty Hill and her sister had never expected that this song would become so popular, but it really did. People all over the world like the song because of its simple tune(曲调)and friendly words. 

It’s generally believed that people act the way they do because of their personalities and attitudes. They recycle their garbage because they care about the environment. They pay $5 for a caramel brulee latte because they like expensive coffee drinks.

It’s undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions(性情),but in many instances we also draw inferences about who we are, as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bern, by observing our own behavior. We can be strangers to ourselves. If we knew our own minds, why would we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior? If our minds were an open book, we would know exactly how much we care about the environment or like lattes. Actually, we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.

Moreover, we don’t just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character—we infer characters that weren’t there before. Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us, which we fail to recognize. Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn’t. Maybe we buy lattes in order to impress the people around us. We should not believe that we always behave as a result of some inner disposition.

Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make, people become what they do, though it may not be in compliance(符合)with their true desires. Therefore, we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut’s advice: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

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    A large number of the public believe young people aged between 18 and 30 have the toughest time, with work pressure and financial worries the leading cause of stress, according to a survey.

     The study of 2,003 adults of all ages found that work stress and financial worries are significant sources of pressure for 59.8 percent and 55.1 percent of adults separately.

    Other major sources of stress include feeling anxious and lost (32.6 percent), a lack of promotion opportunities (32.3 percent), and emotional instability (不稳定) (28 percent).

     Wang Yong, a post-90s salesman, said he is now experiencing extreme stress over money. "I have got nothing two years after graduating and this uncomfortable situation might last for another two or three years."

       The good news is that, on average, 40.3 per cent of respondents (受访者) reported their stress levels are tending downward.

     Nearly 55.1 percent reported they lessen pressure with more effective mental hints (暗示) or motivational keywords, according to the report.

    Some people take other steps to reduce stress. Talking with friends, allowing time to heal, and talking to parent and professional counseling (咨询) were reported by about half of respondents as ways to reduce stress.

     To fight against financial stress, He Shanjun, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, noted that adults who are feeling stressed and are out of balance in their life should persevere (坚持不懈) with their careers and go through the tough times.

     "It might be the best time for the young, especially between 18 and 30, to experience hardship and build up willpower."