How to Create a Morning Routine and Stick to It
The simplest way to start your day well is to create a morning routine. Here are some steps to create a routine that will become a permanent part of your daily life.
Identify Your Current Challenges
Review your current behaviors and separate the good habits from the bad. Maybe your alarm goes off and you roll over, pick up your phone, and start checking your email. Or, you go straight for social media. If you're like me, you can easily get lost in your phone. So reserve positive habits such as exercising, reading things that you find interesting, doing daily journaling and focusing on your important projects.
Pick Habits That Are Important To You
A successful morning routine should be simple and straightforward. It should include activities that support your goals, values, and the things that make you happy. To get started, click on the link to watch this video and pick a few good habits that match your personal preference.
Schedule Your Morning Routine
It's important to schedule your morning routine at certain times throughout the week. You should schedule it at a specific time each day and make sure you have enough time to complete it. To get started, try scheduling at least 30 minutes for this morning routine.
Focus on Consistency
The most important aspect of a morning routine is consistency. That's why you should make the commitment to never miss a day of your morning routine. A quick strategy to stay consistent is to apply the "don't break the chain" principle that's discussed in the following video.
Recently our family celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday. Family members travelled to our hometown to visit her. This was the first time in many years that I had seen many of them. My aunt said how much she missed everyone. Though this was an opportunity to see family, many people did not make it. To be honest, I was usually the one who didn't go there. Living far from home, I had missed many family gatherings. But this one made me realise how much I was really missing.
Looking at the faces and realising who they are while greeting them with open arms is strange. After chatting for a while, we caught up on each other's news. Several relatives suggested having a family reunion soon if everyone wasn't so busy. The people of my grandmother's generation were much busier, yet still found time to gather. They understood the importance of visiting one another. They knew time is flying and that those you care about most won't be here forever.
Today, we focus on our careers and raising our own kids. Our extended family isn't the centre it once was. Besides, we keep in touch on social media. But what we really miss are the potato salad, the moments of laughter and sudden bursts of excitement when we hug someone we haven't seen for over 10 years. Although the next get together is always a year or so away, people aren't goods and everyone has an expiry date (到期日)．
I left my grandmother's party with a much better sense of who I am and where I come from. I spent valuable time with people who contributed to who I am today. I had forgotten how much I love them and I was reminded how much I am loved.
Foreign visitors to the UK might be disappointed when they learn that not everyone there speaks like Harry Potter and his friends. Usually, there's an assumption by many non Brits that everyone in Britain speaks with an accent known as Received Pronunciation (RP，标准发音), also called the "Queen's English". However, while many people do talk this way, most Britons speak with their own regional accents.
Scouse, Glaswegian and Black Country dialect—from Liverpool, Glasgow and the West Midlands—are just three of the countless non RP accents that British people speak with. There are even differences in accents between towns or cities just 30 kilometres apart. What is even more disappointing is that not speaking with the RP accent may mean a British person is judged and even treated differently in their everyday life.
In a 2015 study by the University of South Wales, videos of a group of people reading a passage with three different UK accents were shown to a second group of people. The second group then rated how intelligent they thought the readers sounded. The lowest rated accent was Brummie, spoken by people in Birmingham, a city whose accent is considered working class.
However, there is no need to be disappointed though you are not speaking with the RP accent. In fact, doing the opposite may even give you strengths.
Kong Seongjae is an Internet celebrity from Seoul. After studying in the UK, he picked up several regional accents. He's now famous for his online videos, where he shows off the various accents he's learnt. "British people usually get really excited when I use some of their local dialect words, and they become much friendlier. I think it makes a bond between local people and foreigners to speak with their local accent," he said. So if you're working on perfecting your British accent, try to speak like someone from Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham. You may not sound like Harry Potter, but you are likely to make more friends.
When we buy something new, we get rid of what's old. That cycle of consumption（消费）has made electronics waste the world's fastest-growing solid-waste stream, which is expected to grow as the world upgrades to 5G. However, less than a quarter of U. S. electronic waste is recycled, the rest ending up as rubbish, posing environmental risks.
Part of the problem concerns rule. In states without laws banning (禁止) electronics from the regular trash, electronics often end up in garbage. Even when e-waste rules exist, it's left to consumers to handle their old devices properly. But recycling them can be a pain. People have to take their electronics to a store, which may pay them for it or charge them to get rid of it. Many consumers simply throw their devices into the trash or throw them in a drawer.
One solution is to make electronics last as long as they once did. Yet, technology companies are speeding the pace of being deserted. "It's a strategy by producers to force us into shorter upgrade cycles," said Kyle Wiens, the founder of iFixit, which publishes do-it-yourself repair guides.
Some environmental groups say big companies like Apple and Samsung should pick up the cost of recycling the devices they sell. Lawmakers have passed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, which require producers to establish and fund systems to recycle or collect deserted products.
Some companies are increasing their recycling efforts on their own. For example, Apple in 2018 introduced Daisy, a smartphone-recycling robot that can take apart 200 iPhones every hour. But that's a drop in the bucket compared with the 50 million tons of e-waste produced globally last year.
Forgiveness
To forgive is a virtue, but no one has ever said it is easy. When someone has deeply hurt you, it can be extremely difficult to let go of your hate. However, forgiveness is possible, and it can be surprisingly beneficial to your physical and mental health. People who forgive show less sadness, anger and stress and more hopefulness, according to a recent research.
Try the following steps：
Calm yourself. You can take a couple of breaths and think of something that gives you pleasure: a beautiful scene in nature, or someone you love.
Don't wait for an apology. Many times the person who hurt you does not intend to apologize. They may have wanted to hurt you or they just don't see things the same way. Keep in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily mean becoming friends again with the person who upset you.
Take the control away from your offender (冒犯者). Rethinking about your hurt gives power to the person who caused you pain. Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you.
If you understand your offender, you may realize that he or she was acting out of unawareness, fear, and even love. You may want to write a letter to yourself from your offender's point of view.
Don't forget to forgive yourself. But it can rob you of your selfconfidence if you don't do it.
A. Why should you forgive?
B. How should you start to forgive?
C. Recognize the benefits of forgiveness.
D. Try to see things from your offender's angle.
E. For some people, forgiving themselves is the biggest challenge.
F. To make your anger die away, try a simple stressmanagement technique.
G. If you wait for people to apologize, you could be waiting an awfully long time.
Exercise and I have never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad 1me into a dozen sports. I didn't like any of them, though. When I entered University of Regina, my dad2telling me "You have to find a way to stay3." or "You don't want to get the Freshman 15, do you?" So I4to give swimming a shot, but I 5managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester. Worse still, I was 6to convince myself that "Yeah, that's OK."
The spring semester came. A friend of mine7me one day to go to Zumba（尊巴舞）with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically exercise dancing to Latin and pop songs. It didn't sound too bad, but I couldn't be 8.
I went, and that was it. Zumba became my cup of tea. The instructor would always say: "Don't worry about the9. Have fun. Do your own thing." That removed my 10about sports. I didn't have to be 11. I didn't even have to be good. I just needed to 12the music and move. Zumba did 13 me from the Freshman 15, but it also did so much more. It let me make 14
with my unpleasant past with physical fitness, and enjoy staying15.
Mr. Vincent was tired of （live）in the big city where he worked. He wanted to move to the country and live in a house from he could get to his office in the city early every day. He was looking for a house until he saw an ad in a newspaper one day. The ad said that a suitable house in a quiet area was up for sale a reasonable price, and the house was within a stone's throw of a railway station from which there were frequent （train）to the big city.
"That's exactly I need." Mr. Vincent said to (he). So he called the house agency and arranged to go down by train the next day to have look at the house. The house agency （meet）him at the station and they started walking. It took them at least 15 minutes to get to the house. When they arrived, Mr. Vincent said （angry）, "I should be very （interest）to meet the man who threw the stone you mentioned in the newspaper."
Today I was walking along the street when a homeless woman asked me for some change. I gave her some money and stopped to talk to her for a while.
I asked her about how she ended up on the street and if there was a shelter she could go to. She told me about some of her struggles. She told me that she left home at seventeen and had been homeless since then. She said that her bag with all her clothes and possessions was stolen the night before, while she was sleeping outside a church. She said that she went to the day centre every day and they made calls to try to find her a shelter but nothing was available, as all shelters for women were full up. It had been like this for months. I listened to her and said a few kind words to her. After we spoke, I told her that it was really nice to meet her and wished her all the best.
I left feeling really sad and frustrated that there was nothing I could do to ease her situation. I have spoken to a few other homeless people and I have heard about how difficult it is to get a place in a shelter, or sometimes some shelters can be so unsafe that it is better for them to sleep on the streets.
I was on my way to my flower store. While trimming(修剪)these kinds of beautiful flowers, I thought about the lady I had just met and other homeless people I had spoken to. I thought it must be frustrating not to be able to experience so many of the day-to-day things that I and many others take for granted such as a roof over our heads, a bed to sleep in, money to buy food and even money to buy presents for a dear one.
注意： 续写词数应为150个左右。
Paragraph 1:
I decided that I could do something for her.
Paragraph 2:
She raised her head suddenly, with her eyes full of surprise.
