Four books that will change your life

If you're already working 9-5, you might not have much time to read. With the Blinkist app, you can get the key information from the best nonfiction books in minutes, not hours or days. Start with the four most-read titles on self-improvement.

You can't escape misfortune in life. But you can change how you respond to it.Do you struggle to get over your failures? Or live with things out of your control? Getting over these troubles can have a great influence on your everyday life, Morin shares how her most successful therapy（治疗）patients overcame these difficulties.

Ever wondered why you can't stop worrying about something? No matter how hard you try, do you focus on the same issue? By defining the source of your stress, you can get over it once and for all. Camegie came up with an effective way that helps you deal with any over-thinking situation.

Society often encourages us to follow a certain linear plan. Everyone has a passion. If you don't know what yours is, it just means you haven't discovered it yet. Or perhaps you have, buth disappeared early in life. Find out how you can break free of society's strict rules and find your calling in life.

Did you know if your pulse rate rises above 100 bpm, you're considered too emotional to think rationally（理智地）? You probably let feelings cloud your judgment more often than you know. Goleman explains how you can avoid letting your emotions rule you and make better decisions in life.

My wife and I went to this vegan(严格的素食主义的) restaurant to give it a try. As we were eating our pepper and salt tofu, a young lady named Debra walked in. She wasn't aware that the place is vegan and was looking for some meat. My wife and I talked up the place and invited her over to try some of our tofu. Debra tried it, nodded and went out.

After a few minutes, she and her mother both walked back in. We were having the rest of our meal at that time, so we told her what we had ordered. Debra then asked the waitress to just repeat our order for them. Next , Debra said. "And we want to pay for their meal", pointing to my wife and me. We tried to say no, but Debra wouldn't listen.

That was not the end ofit. Hugs were in order. Debra came over to our table and my wife got up to hug her. Debra hugged my wife and put $ 100 into her hand. My wife firmly said NO, but Debra insisted. Debra kept talking about our kindness, and we did the same about hers and her mother's.With tears in the eyes, the workers were blown away by this whole exchange between four strangers.I left the waiters and waitresses a tip that would cover all ofour meals and we were on our way.

I've been witnessing so much kindness, especially over the last few years, as I began to pay more attention. We now have a new favorite restaurant and every time we go there my plan is to pay for someone else's meal.

Engineers have put a huge garbage collector to gather plastic material in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii, the world's largest spread of garbage, twice the size of the state of Texas.

The Ocean Cleanup organization created the collector. The group's founder, Boyan Slat, an inventor born in 1994, was just 16 when he was moved to clean up the oceans when he was on a dive and saw more plastic bags than fish

Last Saturday, a ship pulling the pipe-shaped floating barrier left San Francisco. Attached to it is a screening skirt that hangs three meters down in the water. The screen is designed to collect the plastic as it moves through the water. Sea animals can safely swim under the barrier

The cleanup system also comes with lights powered by the sun, cameras, and other special devices, so the system can communicate its position at all times. That way a support ship can find it every few months to remove the plastic that has been collected.

Shipping containers will hold all the plastic gathered , including bottles and fishing equipment and are expected to be back on land within a year. Then the plastic will be recycled. The free-floating barriers are made to survive extreme weather conditions and damage from continual use. They will stay in the water for twenty years , thus collecting 90% ofthe garbage in the area.

The Ocean Cleanup has received $ 35 million in donations to pay for the project, hoping to put 60 free-floating barriers in the Pacific Ocean by 2020. "It's important to turn off the taps on plastic entering the ocean, but I also think people can do more than one thing at a time to deal with this problem," Slat said.

When people find themselves in difficult conflicts, they often turn to mediation(调解). Mediator are advised to listen attentively, avoid favoring the ideas of one party, and make both sides feel at ease. Surprisingly, new research that my colleagues and I conducted shows that, to effectively help people settle their conflicts, mediators   should adopt a hostile(敌对的 ) attitude rather- than a calming one. A hostile mediator, we find, brings better results than a nice one

Why would adding more negativity to an already hostile situation prove beneficial? Consider how parents typically react when they can't get their children to stop quarreling: "I don't care who started it, both of you, go to your rooms!" At first sight, a calm mediator seems likely to be more effective. But as anyone with brothers or sisters knows, parents' seemingly unsympathetic treatment of the situation can have an unusual effect,

In our research, we created situations in which pairs ofnegotiators were part of a heated conflict.In some cases, the mediator had a "nice" approach-calm and polite. In others, he was hostile-aggressive and somewhat rude. Across different types of conflicts, we found that negotiators were more willing and able to reach an agreement in the presence of a hostile mediator than in the presence of a nice one.

The main result of the test is not that hostility pays off. In fact, recent research has documented the social costs of negative behavior. For example, being the target of rude behavior reduces people's performance on a variety oftasks. Other research shows the social benefits ofpositive behavior.People are more likely to close deals and become future business partners.

Even with the widespread social benefits of positive behavior and costs ofnegative behavior, hostility can pay offin certain situations.