1 . Do you have dreams, visions or plans about things you'd love to have or achieve? Of course you do! We all do. Unfortunately, dreaming is the easy part. Turning those dreams into a reality is a challenge. The good news is that there are proven techniques that can get you from where you are to where you want to be. Follow this process to bring your dreams to fruition (实现):

Turn your dream into a goal.

When you have a goal, you have a true target. For a greater chance of success, your plan should have a deadline and it must be measurable.     1     Give yourself the gift of setting a deadline and things will start to happen. Make your goal as desirable as possible without being unrealistic. If you feel that your goal is unreasonable, it's much more difficult to encourage yourself to actually pursue it.

Prioritize（优先化)your goal daily.

    2     You give instructions to your brain thousands of times a day. Let your mind know that your goal is something more important than “I feel like eating a ham sandwich” or “I need to stop at the grocery store on the way home”.

    3    

Difficult goals can rarely be achieved alone; you're likely to need some help and guidance. Look at the list you made and see what you already have in your life that could help you on your path.

Track your progress.

Measure your progress each day. Use old fashioned paper and pencil or take advantage of the latest smartphone app.     4     You can only adjust your approach if you know how you're doing. Consider making a chart if that's applicable to your goal.

2 . The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark.     1     Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours rigorously practicing their craft.

If you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average verbal ability, a talent just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar biographical traits. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same ethnic background, or, shared the same birthday.

    2     It would give her some idea of a fascinating circle she might someday join and fuel a need for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She’d be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly perceive its inner workings.

Then she would practice writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. By practicing in this way, she delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly learned skills into unconscious, automatically performed skills. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance from the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges.     3     She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.

The primary trait she possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine. The latest research takes some of the magic out of great achievement.     4     And it’s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behavior.

3 . Make Your Brain Smarter

You know that eating sensible diet and getting plenty of exercise help make your body healthy and strong. But did you know that there are ways to make your brain healthier and smarter? Studies show that when the brain is forced to do something new, it creates new neural pathways.     1    

◆ Limit Your TV Viewing

Watching an average TV show requires very little brain power and brings the same result as neglecting physical exercise.     2     If you watch TV informative, choose something educational and informative.

◆ Use Your Non-dominant (不占优势的) Hand

If you are right-handed, use your left hand for everyday activities, or use your right hand if you are left-handed. Doing familiar things in a new way will cause your brain to create new neural networks. Brushing our teeth is something most of us do daily. We really don’t put that much thought into it -- but maybe we should. Experts suggest that we can stimulate this right brain by changing things up and working with our non-dominant hand. So the next time you brush your teeth, open the tube, apply your toothpaste and brush with the opposite hand.

◆Shower with Your Eyes Closed

    3     Even if you drop the soap -- that’s okay. Use your different senses. Searching for the soap or shampoaing while feeling the textures with your eyes closed works your brain and helps make you smarter. Using your fingers to make fine distinctions between objects or textures can rewire the brain areas involved in touch, suggests Larry katz, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Centre and author. This has been true for brain-imaging experiments with blind Braille readers and monkeys trained to use their fingers to get food.

◆     4    

Can playing “Chopsticks” on the piano make you smarter? Well, according to a study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, it can. Kids who received at least three years of instrumental music training outperformed children without training in fine motor skills (精细运动技能), vocabulary and non-verbal- reasoning skills. Apparently, people who are better able to move to a beat show more consistent brain responses to speech than those with less rhythm. The study findings suggest that musical training might sharpen the brain’s response to language -- making you a little smarter.

4 . Get Happy: Four Wellbeing Workouts

Relieving stress and anxiety might help you feel better — for a bit. Martin E.P. Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, does not see alleviating(缓解) negative emotions as a path to happiness. To Seligmen, the most effective long-term strategy for happiness is to actively cultivate well-being. He suggests these four exercises based on research at the Penn Positive Psychology Centre, which he directs, and at other universities.

Write down a story about a time when you were at your best. It doesn’t need to be a life-changing event but should have a clear beginning, middle and end. Reread it every day for a week, and each time ask youself: “What personal strengths did I display when I was at my best?” Then consider how to use these strengths to your advantage, intentionally organizing and structuring your life around them on a daily bases. Gradually, people will have on average lower rates of depression and higher life satisfaction. Possible mechanisms could be more positive emotions.    1    .

Set aside 10 minutes before you go to bed each night to write down three things that went really well that day. Next to each event answer the question, “Why did this good thing happen?” Instead of focusing on life’s lows, which can increase the likelihood of depression, the exercise changes what you attend to.    2    .

Think of someone who has been especially kind to you but you have not properly thanked. Write a letter describing what he or she did and how it affected your life, and how you often remember the effort. Then arrange a meeting and read the letter aloud, in person.    3    

This exercise was inspired by the work of Shelly Gable, a social psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has extensively studied marriages and other close relationships. The next time someone you care about shares good news, give what Dr. Gable calls an “active constructive response.”    4     Prolong the discussion by, say, encouraging them to tell others or suggest a celebratory activity. Love goes better, commitment increases, and from the literature, even sex gets better after that.

5 . The jobs of the future have not yet been invented.    1     By helping them develop classic skills that will serve them well no matter the future holds.

(1). Curiosity

Your children need to be deeply curious. Encourage kids to cook with you. Ask kids—what ingredients(配料)can we add to make these pancakes even better next time? And then try out.

(2). Creativity

The creativity is the ability to take something existing and create something new.    2    . there are a dozen different things you can do with them. Experimenting with material to create something new can go along way in helping them developing their creativity.

(3). Personal skill

Understanding how others feel can be a challenge for kids. We know what is going on inside our own head, but what about others? Being able to read people helps kids from misreading a situation and jumping to false conclusion.    3    —why do you think she is crying?—can you tell how that man is feeling by looking at his face?—if someone were to do that to you, how would you feel?

(4). Self Expression

    4     There are many ways to express thoughts and ideas—music, acting, drawing, building and photograph. You may find that your child is attracted by one more than another.

6 . I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier(收银台)in her general store. Before long, she let me sit there by myself.I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you”. 

At first I was paid in candy.     1    I worked every day after school, and during the summer and on weekends and holidays from 8 a. m. to 7 p. m. . My father helped me set up a bank account.     2    

By the time I was 12, My grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics(化妆品). I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear? ”I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup(化妆)ideas.     3    

The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener.     4    Expect they are no longer women purchasing cosmetics from me; instead, they are kids who tell me which toys they would like to see designed and developed.

8 . Shen Yinjing, a therapist in Shanghai, volunteered to help distressed people in the coronavirus-stricken cities by offering counselling over the phone or by text. Before long she was running an online support group for people being treated in the hospitals for COVID-19 patients. Now Ms. Shen wonders how she should assist those losing their beloved ones because of the disease.     1    

Ms. Shen is among a small group of mental-health professionals who have provided support during the coronavirus outbreak. Hundreds of universities and charities have set up “psychological hotlines” for people suffering from depression.     2    

Such attention reflects a profound change in official and public attitudes. In recent years, the government has begun to stress the importance of mental health in the country’s long-term development goals.     3     The government’s “Healthy China 2030” plan, issued in 2016, called for a stronger “mental-health service system”.

    4     Zhiying Ma from the University of Chicago says that young Chinese, in particular, have grown comfortable using terms such as depression and anxiety when talking about their difficulties. A Chinese government-funded survey published in 2019 found that such disorders were becoming more common in China. The study’s authors suggested that “rapid social change” was intensifying “psychological pressure and stress”.

At the same time, mental-health counseling has become more widely available, particularly for those willing to pay for private treatment.