4 . Everyone has got a plan, a goal, a target that we all want to achieve. However, for many reasons we pause to take a sigh, and most times we don’t do anything about them anymore. So how can you set goals properly?

Reading some good books about setting goals is a great place to start. These books should push you ahead of the rest, and importantly, to make you attain your set goals.

Creating Your Best Life

Written by Caroline Miller, MAPP, she takes the standard SMART formula for goal setting and goes beyond that approach. She makes a point of giving you specific exercises while also sharing related stories. It’s a great book to consider as we connect better with stories and can find more motivation to set goals in the manner that Miller outlines in her book.

The Magic of Thinking Big

“You are what you think you are,” writes David J. Schwartz, PhD in The Magic of Thinking Big. Exceeding your goals is possible when you believe in yourself. Get over the fear of failure and use the power of a positive attitude to achieve big things.

The Book of Mistakes

Skip Prichard is a wonderful storyteller and weaves that skill into this book. This book takes a figurative person who discovers nine mistakes that highly successful people never make.

Goals!

Author of dozens of books on personal development, Brian Tracy explains the 12 steps necessary to accomplish goals both large and small. The author emphasizes self-discipline and persistence and two keys to achieving your goals.

6 . Today, many people spend a lot of time reading online. Whether reading news or e-books, people are spending more time eyeballing (盯住) screens. While online reading opens up a great deal of knowledge to people, there are some disadvantages too, such as eyestrain, headaches, as well as difficulty in focusing on the text. Now a new reading system, Bionic Reading, developed by Swiss typographic designer Renato Casutt, can help people overcome these issues, and most importantly, it aims to help people read faster online and develop a more in-depth understanding of written content.

The reading system improve the reading process by guiding the eyes through text with artificial fixation points. To make it short: some parts of the words are displayed in bold (粗体). As a result, the reader only focuses on the highlighted letters and lets the brain center complete the rest. Your brain can “read” faster than your eyes, so by essentially reducing the number of letters your eye needs to look at, you can read faster while still preserving the full context.

Cassult discovered the system by accident. He was working on designing a book in a foreign language and realized he could read it if he sectioned it off. He worked for six years to develop Bionic Reading and is still working to adjust it.

A preliminary (初步的) study was conducted by the Swiss Institute InnoSuisee, but more research is needed before it can be definitively shown that the system improves reading. Some people with ADHD (多动症) prove that Bionic Reading helped them focus and comprehend what they are reading. Other people don’t seem to notice a big difference compared to regular text. There’s also no evidence to suggest Bionic Reading is any better than regular text. The best way to know if the Bionic Reader helps you read better online is to try it yourself.

7 . When it comes to reading, we may be assuming that reading for knowledge is the best reason to pick up a book. Research, however, suggests that reading fiction may provide far more important benefits than nonfiction. It may be one of the best methods for building empathy (同理心), critical thinking and creativity.

High-level business leaders have long enthusiastically praised the virtues of reading. But they almost always recommend nonfiction. Reading nonfiction might certainly be valuable for collecting knowledge. However, research suggests that reading fiction predicts a sharper ability to understand other people’s motivations.

In addition, research suggests that reading literary fiction is an effective way to improve the brain’s ability to keep an open mind while processing information, a necessary skill for effective decision-making. In a 2013 study, researchers examined something called the need for cognitive closure (认知闭合), or the desire to “reach a quick conclusion in decision-making and an aversion to uncertainty and confusion”. Individuals with a strong need for cognitive closure rely heavily on “early information hints”, meaning they struggle to change their minds as new information becomes available. A high need for cognitive closure also means individuals are attracted to smaller bits of information and fewer viewpoints. Individuals who resist the need for cognitive closure tend to be more thoughtful, more creative, and more comfortable with competing narratives — all characteristics of high emotional intelligence.

University of Toronto researchers discovered that individuals in their study who read short stories (as opposed to essays) demonstrated a lower need for cognitive closure. That result is not surprising given that reading literature requires us to slow down, take in volumes of information, and then change our minds as we read. There’s no easy answer in literature. Instead, there’s only perspective-taking. As readers, we’ll almost certainly find Lolita’s narrator Humbert Humbert hateful, but we are forced to experience how he thinks, a valuable exercise for decreasing our need for cognitive closure.

9 . It was a quiet morning in the library, and we librarians were enjoying a rather loud chat. Suddenly, a patron (常客) marched up to us, gave us an annoyed “Shush!” and went back to her seat. How strange for a group of librarians to be shushed by a patron! Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Well, it’s complicated. If you’re like me, a middle-aged woman, you probably remember libraries as places of silent reading. These days, however, libraries are more like active community centers.

In the past, most libraries didn’t focus much on programs for kids whose age made it impossible for them to be quiet on demand. But growing knowledge about the importance of kids and teens learning through hands-on experiences has since caused a sea change in how libraries connect with young readers. Now libraries begin offering interactive programs for kids, including crafts, board games, and story times. These types of programs certainly aren’t designed to be silent.

Along with more programs for ever-younger children, technology today has played a part in the transformation of libraries into places where both kids and adults can use computers, make something on a 3D printer and more. In addition, many libraries now offer programs for adults, who can participate in in book discussion, learn calligraphy, and even take college classes.

Of course, libraries still need peaceful phones. These days, many libraries have glassed-off study rooms or quiet areas. They are also less noisy in the early afternoons, after morning children’s programs and before the after-school kid crowd arrive.

It’s clear to me now that on the day my colleagues and I were shushed by a patron, we should have been using our “library voices” as we talked. Still, it’s unlikely that libraries will ever return to the days when they were places of silence. There’s just too much fun and learning happening.