【推荐1】How to Carry out Consistent Practice

Consistency is a great characteristic to build in your life. The key to consistency is setting and achieving specific goals. Here are some ways to help you through the process.

Create specific and realistic goals.    1     When starting your new path, create easy, simple goals with specific, measurable results. Once you’ve identified your end goal, come up with smaller steps to reach it. For example, if you want to become physically fitter, you might set the goal to exercise for 5 days out of the week or to sign up for a class.

Create a schedule. It can be easy to pile on tasks and promises, but a calendar, planner, or schedule will keep you on track. A schedule will help you plan your day so that you get everything done on time.    2     Use a paper planner or a desk calendar. Alternatively, download a scheduling app on your phone, like Google Calendar or Outlook.

    3     Sometimes, it is easy to forget our new goals, habits, commitments, or promises, especially when we make them to ourselves. To remind yourself throughout the day, put messages to yourself in visible areas. Write down your goals on post-it notes and place them around your home, workspace, and belongings.

Make promises only if you can keep them. Consistency often involves making commitments and keeping them. It is easy to fail, however, if you make too many promises.    4    .

Reward yourself when you get something done. If you do complete your goals, give yourself a reward. For example, if you’ve managed to complete your work by 5 pm every day for a week, take an evening off.    5     Even small goals deserve small rewards to help keep you motivated throughout the process.

【推荐2】When you are overwhelmed, you feel like things are too many to deal with. Everyone gets overwhelmed from time to time, but you can still do something to handle this negative emotion.     1    

Slow it down.

The first thing you need to do when you feel flooded or overwhelmed is to slow everything down.     2     You will have more time to focus on the present and thus do things more leisurely. The experience of being overwhelmed can feel very chaotic and out of control, but when you slow it down, you are reclaiming control over the experience.

    3    

If you’re wondering how to get your life together, it’s time to reflect on what led to the stress. Reflecting is great because it helps you sort through the data you have received from being overwhelmed. Taking the time to understand the data will also help you better understand what your body is trying to tell you if you meet with these situations again in the future.

Release, regroup, and redirect.

It’s easier said than done, but when it comes to feeling overwhelmed, the best thing you can do is let it go. The release of the source of feeling overwhelmed is critical to the “getting my life back together” component of this process.     4     Regrouping is important because it allows you to close the feedback loop(循环)on all the slowing down, stepping back, reflecting and releasing. It allows you to hit the reset button, and with all you know now, you can move forward in a prepared and empowered manner. Lastly, you should redirect.     5     Even if your trajectory(轨道)only slightly altered its course, that’s OK! What is important is that you have processed integrated, and learned from your life so that you are better prepared for the future and more equipped to face it.

【推荐1】People love to hate on pigeons (鸽子) for the way they mess up parked cars or rush to food scraps on the sidewalk. But with more than 300 species of wild pigeon found on Earth-many of them amazing it’s time to truly understand the animal. “Pigeons are biological wonders,” says Rosemary Mosco, author of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching. “They can take off almost vertically (垂直地). They see colors we can’t, hear sounds we can’t, and find their way across hundreds of miles using ways we don’t fully understand,” she says. “They’re the world’s most overlooked birds.”

Pigeons are unbelievably complex and intelligent animals. They are one of only a small number of species to pass the “mirror test” a test of self-recognition. They can also recognize each letter of the human alphabet, differentiate between photographs, and even distinguish different humans within a photograph. Besides, pigeons are known for their outstanding navigational abilities. They use a range of skills, such as using the sun as a guide and an internal “magnetic compass (指南针)”. A study at Oxford University found that they will also use landmarks as signposts and will travel along man-made roads and motorways, even changing direction at crossroads. Pigeons also have excellent hearing abilities. They can detect sounds at far lower frequencies than humans are able to, and can thus hear distant storms and volcanoes.

Despite the social idea as dirty and disease-ridden, pigeons are actually very clean animals and there is very little evidence to suggest that they are spreading disease. Pigeons and humans have lived in close relationship for thousands of years. Although pigeon droppings are seen by some as a problem in modern society, a few centuries ago they were seen as extremely valuable. They were viewed as the best available fertilizers (肥料) and armed guards would even stand by pigeon houses to stop others taking the droppings.

【推荐2】Queen Elizabeth II’s face is on every note and coin in the United Kingdom, but still little is known about how much money she has personally, how she gets it and who stands to inherit (继承) it.

What we do know from public records is that the Queen receives at least $20 million in annual income through her private estate, and another 100 million dollars from the UK government each year.

The first thing to understand is that the Queen’s income comes from both public and private possessions. A large amount of it comes from something called the Sovereign Grant. Here’s how that works.

In the 1700s, the monarchy (王室) handed over income from land to the government known as the Crown Estate. Each year the government pays a percentage of the profits made on those possessions back to the monarchy. That annual income is known as the Sovereign Grant. Last year it totaled more than $107 million. And it is used to fund the Queen’s official duties and maintain royal residences like Buckingham Palace.

But even if we can’t identify her exact worth, the royal finances are looking healthy as the Queen celebrates her 70th Queen Ceremony. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated the Queen’s net worth is $466 million, up $6.2 million dollars from last year. And while the Duchy of Lancaster saw UK income drop during the pandemic, according to its financial records, the Queen’s income has been turning upwards over the past decade.

Anyway, the monarchy is a private family, and they are unlikely to share any details of their wealth with the British public, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.

【推荐2】5 of the Most Interesting Customs in the World

Switzerland—Honesty shopping

There are little shops in the middle of the Swiss Alps that allow you to buy your fresh cheese, milk, bread, honey, and butter without anyone to watch you. In fact, no one watches these shops because they are owned by farmers who are out taking care of the animals.

South Korea—NOT tipping

Tipping is in the blood for someone who is raised in the United States along with many other European countries. But in South Korea, employees in the food service industry are given fair wages and take pride in their work, and it is insulting to attempt to tip them.

Iceland—Christmas Eve books giving

People puzzle over the eternal question of Christmas gifts. Iceland has solved this problem with the Christmas Eve tradition of giving a book. After everyone unwraps the books, they spend the evening reading together.

Japan—Pushers on the subway

Japan's subway is crowded during rush hours. But instead of settling for the inefficiency that personal space demands, Japan has "pushers". They are exactly what they sound like-employees whose only job during rush hour is to push more people onto the train.

Russia—Offering vodka

It is the custom to welcome new friends with shots of vodka. What better way to break the ice than with some stomach- warming shots of this Russian tradition? That's something we can all toast to, or, as they say in Russia, "Na zdorovye!".