Building up Self-Confidence
Self-confidence, as is approved by research and practice, has an amazingly powerful i
nfluence on the output of people’s activities. Patients who believe that they’ll recover s
oon generally cures faster than those who think they won’t. Students with optimistic charac
ters usually provide better performance, even if they work the same hard as others. Although
someone may regard such conclusion as superstitious, it does take place everyday and everyw
here. Neural scientists have discovered that, when a man feels confident, his brain will sec
rete some kinds of hormone that boost brain activity and improve the efficiency of his immun
e system. In contrast, a melancholic brain is suppressed by other chemicals and cannot fully
exhibit its potential.
To help building up self-confidence, you can take the following two steps. First, ide
ntify your merits and value them. If you constantly compare your weakness to others’ advant
ages, you’d only gain frustration rather than confidence. Second, track every little progre
ve
ss you’ made and review them frequently. You may not possibly become perfectly successful
in one day, but if only you can see yourself growing gradually, surely you’re on the right
way. There’re also other methods making you more confident that depend on yourself to find
out, and they’re all necessary elements to make you more competitive in your area.
2、积极面对竞争
Competition is Fun
Chairman Mao once made a famous remark about competition, “To battle with God is gre
at fun! To battle with Earth is great fun! To battle with people is great fun!” His words,
although seeming a bit too aggressive, have illustrated that competition is never regarded a
s something formidable by a brave.
s
Competition exists throughout the evolution of nature and everyone’ life. Creatures
compete to survive the merciless environment, eliminating weaker ones; Nations in the world
compete for resources and power, and whichever fallen behind is beaten. As for individuals,
ever since the very first day of our lives, we are forced into a competition with thousands
of others around us, including taking examinations, applying jobs and striving for promotion,
the results of which definitely determine our fate. Competition is as real a fact as the ai
r around us that can neither be evaded nor be ignored.
Thus, my dear friends, do not fear competition. Accept it and enjoy it. With competit
ion, you grow stronger, and you gain so much precious experience worth remembering of, regar
dless of what the outcome would be. Without competition, you cease to grow; you become a dea
d moth sealed in its own cocoon.
3、提高个人修养
Shaping the Morality
According to a survey, more than two thirds of people in China agree that, the public
moral level is lower than before. This figure, although hard to accept, has indicated the f
act that the nation’s overall morality is declining. If you pay some attention, you could e
asily point out some improper behaviors happening around: young men refusing to give seats t
o the old on buses; shoppers jamming into queue instead of waiting in line; crude riders neg
lecting red lights, etc. So what the hell is going on?
As analysts have figured out, this trend of degradation mainly originated from faulty
education. For decades, Chinese schools simply infuse bookish knowledge to their students,
whilst moral cultivation becomes a kind of formalism; on the other hand, children are natura
lly influenced by their family and other adults in the society, most of whom are too sophist
icated to be considered as eligible moral models.
Facing such disappointing condition, you may ask: how can things become better? As fa
r as I am concerned, we must following these three steps. First of all: self-shaping. We sho
uld manage ourselves well, and try to shape our own morality as perfect as possible. The sec
ond step: family-shaping, which is to behave as the model for your children and improve thei
r moral status through strict discipline. The third: organization-shaping. If you are leadin
g people, such as being a manager or national president, you could reinforce your whole orga
nization’s moral situation with policy and your own action. Even if you’re no leader, you’
ll have a positive impact on the society if only you manage yourself well and try to influen
ce others as much as possible.
二、自然问题
4、危险活动的吸引力
The Attraction of Dangerous Activities
In the past, people often faced many dangers in their daily lives. They had to cope w
ith not only natural disasters and frequent outbreaks of disease, but also dangerous animals
and warfare. The need to hunt and to protect their territory from other people required the
m to be skilled in the use of weapons. In addition, any travel also involved great risk as t
here were few roads and bridges. Nowadays, people do not have to live with such dangers on a
daily basis, and yet many people choose to involve themselves in risky activities such as d
angerous sports. I believe the following reasons can explain the attraction of such activiti
es.
One reason people are attracted to risky activities is that hey crave excitement. The thrill
of mountain climbing or bungee jumping can satisfy their need to break out of their routine.
Without the excitement of such sports, they may feel bored with their lives. Another reason
people like such activities is that these activities often require a certain amount of skil
l. Learning to drive a racecar or hang-glide may satisfy the desire to excel and give the pa
rticipant a feeling of accomplishment and personal confidence in his abilities. A final reas
on that people may choose to engage in risky activities is that they want to stand out from
the crowd. By developing a skill that others don’t have, they can feel unique.
For all of these reasons, I believe that risky activities will continue to be popular
with some people. In fact, it seems that as soon as one activity becomes safer or commonpla
ce, thrill seekers come up with a new way to challenge their skills and courage.
5、资助环保
Money for the Environment
Both the arts and protecting the environment are important causes, and both are often
underfunded. They depend on government grants and private donations in order to continue. I
f a company were to give a sum of money to one of these causes, it would be difficult to cho
ose between them. However, I believe that the company should put the money toward protecting
the environment for the following reasons.
First, the state of the environment affects everyone, and it affects people in a very import
ant way. If mankind destroys the environment, we will not be able to survive. The arts are i
mportant to our quality of life, but the environment is important both to the quality of lif
e and to life itself. Second, because industry causes much of the damage to the environment,
I believe that companies have some responsibility to support conservation and cleanup effor
ts. Finally, protecting the environment is a bigger problem, and so requires a higher level
of funding than the arts. A company’s donation to the arts may be more visible, but one to
the protection of the environment would be more meaningful.
In conclusion, while both the arts and environmental protection are worthy causes, I
believe the company should make its donation to an environmental cause. The environment affe
cts everyone in important ways and protecting it is a big job. Hopefully, private donations
will help to improve both our environment and our lives.
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