In the process of my growing up, Dad was hard on me, who always made sure I made bed and did my homework. He would call in advance to make sure there was no alcohol at the party. I got so angry with him for laying down the low. I would scream, “I hate you!” Dad would yell back. “Good! I don’t care! ”Deep down I knew he did.

One time at a party, I drank too much alcohol and got so sick. I said. “Call my dad.” Next thing, Dad was carrying me to the car. I woke up the next morning, thinking I would definitely be criticized. As expected, I got a roasting, but I now understand why I need discipline.

Dad was 29 when he got his big roles in films. I had an early start at the age of nine with a role in a 1900s TV series, but it wasn’t until I finished film studies that I pursued my career as an actress. Like those early days for Dad, I faced lots of rejections. Working in such a competitive industry, I’ve sometimes thought, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Once, after a trip to Hollywood, I returned to Australia so depressed and spent months in my bedroom painting, listening to Eckhart Tolle’s music and trying to find myself again. Dad sat me down and said. “Alice, I know it’s hard but it’s all about persistence.”

Now I get to work with Dad a lot, which I love. We both passionate about acting, which comes from us being so interested in people. If it weren’t for Dad, I wouldn’t be where I am today. He’s my biggest fan, and when you have that in your life you can go a long way.

People tend to accept groups standards of behavior and thinking in a group work. Many illustrations(例证) could be given of this from everyday life, but what is of particular interest to psychologists is how much people’s judgments and opinions can be changed as a result of group pressure. Asch and others noticed that people in a group will agree to statements that are contrary to the evidence of their senses. It would be a mistake to think that only particular changeable people are chosen to take part in experiments of this type. Usually highly intelligent and independent people are used.

In a typical experiment, this is what may happen. The experimenter asks for volunteers to join a group which is investigating visual sense. The participants are not, therefore, aware of the real purpose of the experiment. Each volunteer is taken to a room where he finds a group of about seven people who are cooperating with the experimenter. The group is shown a standard card which contains a single line. They are then asked to look at a second card. This has three lines on it. One is obviously longer than the line on the first card. One is shorter and one the same length. They have to say which line on the second card is the same length as the line on the standard card. The other members of the group answer first but what the volunteer does not know is that they have been told to pick one of the wrong lines. When his turn comes he is faced with the consistent opinion of the rest of the group—all the others have chosen line A but he quite clearly sees line B as correct.

What will he do? According to Asch, more than half of the victims chosen will change their opinion. What is equally surprising is that, when interviewed about their answers, most explained that they know the group choice was incorrect but that they yield to the pressure of the group because they thought they must be suffering from an optical illusion(视觉假象), or because they were afraid of being different.

Tired of dealing with those slow, dumb, and unfriendly hotel staff? How about a hotel that provides chance for minimal interaction with the" people" running the hotel? In the Henn Na Hotel in Japan, there aren’t any!

Being called “Weird Hotel” by locals, the Henn Na Hotel opened in 2016 in the town of Sasebo, is staffed almost by robots. The robots are not just for fun. They do a large amount of work, saving time and money as well. They can greet you when you enter. Also, they play music in the lounge, inform you of the breakfast menu, and control the lights in your hotel room, etc.

Thinking that the hotel should be unique and appealing, the owners made each robot different from each other with a variety of shapes and sizes. One of the robots behind the front desk is designed to look like a dinosaur, “If you want to check in, push one.” the dinosaur says. Then the guest can type the information on a touch panel screen. Inside the room, there’s a small robot called Tuly in the shape of a pink tulip (郁金香). Tuly can answer simple questions like "what time is it?" and "What will the weather be like tomorrow?" With no switches on the wall, Tuly can also turn the room lights on or off if it's told to.

But how do things like check-in and room access work? Well, the screen at the reception captures and registers a digital image of the guest's face during check-in which is used to get access 10 rooms instead of traditional keys. However. the reception shall also provide you card keys on request in case you wish to keep it subtle!

If you're wondering what happens in the case of an emergency, you need not worry. Humans do step in when it's of great importance. According to the hotels website, there are a few human staff members who are available on-call 24X7 and help guests in the case of an emergency.

Our mind is a powerful thing, which can either improve or crush our mood. Many of us have problems with negative thoughts playing on the channel of our minds, but if you re engaging in it constantly, and you believe it, it could be destroying your sense of self-esteem.    31    

What can you do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Live in the moment

Self-talk is so subtle that we often don't notice its effect on our mood and belief system. Key things to notice are “if only” or “what if” statements: the former keep you stuck in the past with regret, while the latter keep you fearful of the future.     32     So stay in the present moment.

2. Visualize the good things

If we want to change the negative tapes playing in our heads, we have to visualize ourselves positively — that means seeing yourself non-judgmentally. How would that look? Draw a picture in your mind and expand on it.

3.     33    

Whatever you believe, you'll experience more, and you’ll also find yourself behaving in ways that are congruent(一致的) with your beliefs. So start believing the best about yourself: act as if you believe that you’re a valuable and worthy person.

4. Develop positive thoughts

    34     What are your strengths? What are you good at? Keep your thoughts in the here-and-now. Instead of saying “I’m not good enough”, try saying “I am capable. I accept myself the way I am.”

Thinking poorly about ourselves gets us nowhere and is extremely self-limiting.    35    

In 1984, I, a passionate student, was heading for the university with the dream of sitting on a Supreme Count bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a passionate _______ and one with quite a different tale to tell.

My grandma, a(n) _______ woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she _______ cancer. I made the choice to _______ from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to _______.

Then I got married with another _______: building my family with a combination of adopted and _______ children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then _______ son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

You can imagine how _______ occupied I became, raising four boys on my own. Our home was a complete zoo—joyous zoo. Not surprising. I never did ______________ it back to college full-time. ______________ I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant ______________ as few as one class each semester.

The hardest part was feeling ______________ about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There ______________ were times when I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set a(n) ______________ for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

In 2006, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my ______________ degree!

I am not special, just singe-minded. It always ______________ me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the ______________ it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in our life on one day. It’s a ______________. Remember: little steps ______________ big dreams.

Paperless office was first coined in 1975. Four decades later, we’re still chasing the paperless office dream. Take the financial industry for example—it is one of the slower industries to hug digital transformation. Many financial institutions today still send out trade conformations by mail. I can tell you from first-hand experience that going paperless is by no means impossible. The Centric Digital office is a paperless work environment where all the office operations go digital, which has amazed our business partners.

Actually companies need to stress the benefits of a digital culture for communications. Going paperless can save time and money. You could say goodbye to costly repairs, office supply orders, wasted employee time and so on. Besides, forbidding paper in the office forces information to be 100% digital, where you can make endless amounts of backups (备份), which easily increase transparency(透明). Not to mention, top talents want to work for digital companies.

You might think the secret to a paperless company is purely technology. Well, not really. Thanks to products like iPads, smart-phones and cloud services, the ability to go paperless is highly accessible. Yet, even with all this technology, companies continue to rely on paper. It's not because they don’t have access to the technology, but because they’re lacking the politics, organizational structure and strong desire to change. In order to go paperless, companies need to change the way they think and operate. The decision needs to be made and cried out and everyone needs to work together to make it.

Yes, the paperless office has been a very long time in the making but it no longer has to be. With numerous amounts of software, services, apps and technology available today, the only thing we need to do is to make the decision to go paperless and see it through.

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