In our life, we need to have our own dreams and goals (目标). Here are some ideas about life goals.

What are life goals? Life goals are what we want to reach, and they make our life much more meaningful. They’re personal plans but they can be different in many ways.

Why should we set goals in life? Lots of us have dreams. We know what makes us happy and what we would love to try. Setting goals is useful in making our dreams come true. First setting goals can guide our behavior (行为). Second, if we know what we want to be and want to do clearly, we can have the right direction in our life. We won’t run around like a headless chicken (无头苍蝇). Finally, setting goals can make us live more actively (积极地). People set life goals to live a happy and good life.

How can we set life goals? Here’s an example. Jamie wants to be a teacher. She sets a goal of being an English teacher two years later. It is not a simple goal like “helping my brother with his homework”. Although her goal is difficult to reach in a short time, she’ll try her best. Remember the more difficult your goal is, the more you’ll get.

Around you, is there someone you hate? Well, maybe you don’t really hate them. But you get really angry every time you think of them. If you don’t let this anger go, it can turn into bitterness.

Bitterness appears when we can’t forgive someone who has hurt us or made us angry. Someone might say or do something that hurts us.【小题1】Before long, a bitter feeling begins to grow. We may think we’re hurting that person by complaining him or her often, but we’re really only hurting ourselves.

Bitterness can lead to serious health problems and hurt our relationships with others. No one enjoys being around an angry person for very long. 【小题2】

Accept it

You many try everything you can do to avoid your anger. 【小题3】See your anger for what it is and quickly deal with it.

Stop making excuses for it

【小题4】You may think you’re right and the other person is wrong. You may even secretly enjoy making the other person look bad. But in the end, bitterness hurts you much more than the other person. The bitterness will hold you back, and the other person will go on with his or her life.

Forgive and forget it

【小题5】But you can decide to forgive the other person. Forget it and move on. You’ll enjoy better health and peace of mind.

Sometimes it seems that time is flying. Perhaps it doesn’t need to feel this way. Our experience of time can be possibly changed. By understanding the psychological（心理学的）processes behind our different experiences of time, we might be able to slow down time a little.

One basic law of psychological time is that time seems to slow down when we’re exposed（接触）to new environments and experiences. The law is caused by the relationship between our experience of time and the amount of information our minds process. The more information our minds take in, the slower time seems to pass.

It follows, then, that we have different experiences of time in different situations. In some situations, our life is full of new experiences. Our minds process a lot of information and time seems to slow down. In other situations, we have fewer new experiences and the world around us becomes more and more familiar（熟悉的）. We become insensitive to our experience, which means we process less information, and time seems to speed up.

How can we slow down time? Here are two suggestions.

Firstly, since we know that familiarity makes time pass faster, we can expose ourselves to as many new experiences as possible. We can give ourselves new challenges, meet new people, and expose our minds to new information, hobbies and skills. This will increase the amount of information our minds process and expand（增加） our experience of time.

Secondly, and perhaps most effectively, we can give our whole attention to an experience to what we are seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling or hearing. This means living through our senses rather than through our thoughts. For example, on the way home, focus your attention outside of yourself, instead of thinking about the problems you have to deal with. Look at the sky, or at the buildings you pass, traveling among them. This open attitude to your experiences helps take in more information and also has a time-expanding effect.

To a certain degree, we can understand and control our experience of time passing. It’s possible for us to slow down time by expanding our experience of time.