One of the secrets(秘诀)of successful people is that they have good habits. The good habits help them to be successful. What are good habits? How can you get into good habits? Here is some advice for you.

First, everyone has his good points(优点).You should always look for the good points in people and learn from them.

Second, you should try to learn good new things every day. Reading a few pages of a book or newspaper every day also helps you.

Third, tell yourself you are good. When you get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror(镜子)and tell yourself you can do things well.

I think the last one is the most important. No matter what good habits you want to have, you should try to keep them，work hard everyday. Then you can live a successful and happy life.

  Like many people, I have no clear idea about heroes. Maybe sometimes we all wonder if we need a hero and what a hero really is.

   Although there are a lot of differences in cultures, heroes around the world have much in common. They all give us courage and make us want to learn from them.

   A hero has a special story to tell and people are interested in it. But a hero is not just the person with great fame (声誉).

   A hero has to experience life with new and further meaning. So if you want to live like a hero, you have to know what or whom you serve. If you serve only your own fame, you may be just famous persons instead of heroes.

   A hero considers more than common people. He is able to make people moved and create new chances.

   Without Gandhi, India might still be part of Britain, Without Martin Luther King. Americans might take different buses, eat in different restaurants, go for walks in different parks, and shop in different stores because of the different colors of their skin.

   There might be changes in society without a hero, but the speed of change would be quite slow. Thanks to heroes in history, they make the society develop so fast.

There are many things we need to know that we do not learn at school. For example, if we want to use our money wisely, we need to shop carefully. We need to know how to compare the prices of things in different shops. We need to be able to compare the quality of different brands. We need to know how to make a choice when we shop.

Knowing how to make such choices is a “life skill”, and we need these skills if we want to live useful and happy lives.

Some of these choices are small. For example, will I take an apple for lunch or a pear? Will I go to school by bus or on foot? Will I wear the red T-shirt or the blue one to the movies? Other choices are more important. For example, will I eat healthy food for lunch or will I eat junk food because it is tastier? Will I work hard in all my classes or will I only work hard in the classes I enjoy? We make choices like these every day.

We have to realize that the choices we make can affect the rest of our lives. Just as importantly, our choices can also affect other people. The next time you decide to waste time in class, play a joke on someone or talk loudly at the movies, think about this: who else does your choice affect?

You are driving alone in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1,An old lady who looks as if she is going to die.

2, An old friend who once saved your life.

3,The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be onepassengerin your car?

Think before you read on…

This is a question that was once actually used when you are looking for a job.

You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and you should save her first; Or you could take your old friend because he once saved your life and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect partner again.

The person who was chosen (out of 200 people) had no trouble coming up with his answer. He simply answered, “I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.”

Sometimes, we get more if we are able to give up our thought limitation(限制). Never forget to “Think Outside of the Box.”

A teacher sent four of his students to go to a small farm to see apple trees in different seasons. The first student went in winter, the second in spring, the third in summer, and the last in autumn.

   They pictured their feeling to the teacher. The first student said that there were no leaves on the trees. It made him very disappointed. The second student said his eyes were full of light green. It made him feel hopeful. The third one disagreed. "What are you talking about? How pretty the trees were! The sweet smell of the beautiful flowers spread here and there." The last one shook his head. He only saw a lot of apples on the beautiful trees.

   The teacher smiled and told his students none of them were wrong. They each just saw one season. He continued, "The trees are not the same in different seasons. You can't judge a tree by only one season."

   Everything has different sides in our life. Don't hurry to make a conclusion（结论） before seeing the whole of it.

Most people want to be happy, but few know how to find happiness. Money and success alone do not bring lasting happiness. Aristotle, a Greek thinker, said, “Happiness depends on ourselves.” In other words, we make our own happiness. Here are a few suggestions to help you be happier.

The first secret of happiness is to enjoy the simple things in life. Too often, we spend so much time thinking about the future — for example, getting into college or getting a good job — that we fail to enjoy the present. You should enjoy life’s simple pleasures, such as reading a good book, listening to your favorite music, or spending time with close friends. People who have several close friends often live happier and healthier lives.

Another secret to living a happy life is to be active, and have hobbies where you forget your problems and time. Many people experience dancing, or playing a sport, such as swimming. You can forget about your problems, and only think about the activity.

Finally, many people find happiness in helping others. Studies show that people feel good when they spend their time helping others. If you want to feel happier, do good things for someone. You can help a friend with his or her studies, go shopping to buy food for an elderly person, or simply help out around the house by washing the dishes.

There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured．The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts．

By contrast (对照) , the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way．The process is not the road itself, but the attitudes, feelings people have , and their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties．In this process, the journey never really ends；there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept．

In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first．How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is necessary for our ability to grow．Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, we tend to take more chances and be more open to unfamiliar experiences．Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and we think we are slow to adapt change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge．Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all．

These feelings of insecurity (不安全) and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow．If we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing．We become trapped inside a shell of our own making．

Cindy, Jerry and Mary are giving their opinions about a good friend.

Cindy: I think a good friend should be honest(诚实的). That’s more important than any other thing and is where a good friendship starts. If a friend isn’t honest, he may lose his friends’ trust.

Jerry: I think a good friend has to be generous. Here “generous” doesn’t mean he has to give his friends his lunch money or his clothes. It means he should share(分享) his ideas and feelings with his friends. In fact, his friends can know him better in this way.

Mary: In my opinion a good friend should understand(理解) his friends. When there’s something wrong between him and his friends, he must put himself in his friends’ place and think more for his friends.

When people become good at doing things they like to do, they have found themselves.

 Many young people are doing things they do not like; many other young people are doing something that they are not good at. Also many do not think they are good at anything and do not know what they would like to do. None of them are happy.

 It is impossible to decide whether one likes something until he has tried it. Trying something new is important.

 Give each idea a fair chance. If you have decided to try out something new and also have decided how long you will stick to (坚持) it, you can make a fair decision.

 The most important thing is not the final goal(目标) but the work which makes you reach the goal. Almost everybody would like to be highly skilled at something but it calls for a great deal of time and work.

  Finding oneself means not only discovering what one is good at and what one likes; it also means discovering what one is not good at and what one does not like.

 So trying something but failing also has its good side. It tells you that you are not fit for that special aim(目标) and should not regard(把...看作) it as your goal.