In the early 1980s, one of our neighbors asked my mom if she would make a few gift baskets for her to give as gifts for the holidays. My mom agreed and news of the unique gift baskets my mum was making spread like wildfire throughout the neighborhood. My mum was busy throughout the holiday season, so she asked a friend to help her. When the orders continued after the holiday season for baby gifts, birthday gifts and more, it occurred to them that maybe this job could be turned into a business and they did it.

    My mum went into her business because she had a creative idea. She got orders and filled orders. But there was no purpose and no real strategy(策略). In 1991, my mum' s partner got into financial trouble and there was not enough money to support either my mum or her partner.

    So if you are led by your creativity or enthusiasm, make sure you ask yourself what you want out of your business. If you don't set goals, how will you know what direction to go in? Do you want to create jobs and growth in the economy? Are you looking for a hobby? You can't keep scores if you don' t know what game you are playing.

    After my mom's partner gave up, she had to abandon(抛弃) her business to support herself. She swore（发誓）she would run a business again and do it differently the next time. However, there wasn't a "next time" for her. She passed away just after her 51st birthday. She never had someone tell her how important having a goal was. She never had an opportunity to be everything that she could be.

    There are no right or wrong goals, only the ones that matter to you. Set them so that you can make progress and achieve success, whatever that may mean to you.

    March 21 has been declared World Sleep Day, a time to recognize and celebrate the value of sleep. Many sleep experts hope it will be a wake-up call.

    According to a poll (民意调查) by the National Sleep Foundation, nearly 4 in 5 Americans don't get as much sleep as they should during the workweek. On average, adults are thought to need at least eight hours of sleep a night, although some can manage with less and some won't do well without more. But the survey found that, on weekdays, only 21% of Americans actually get a full eight hours of sleep, and another 21% get less than six hours.

    To many of us, the thought of spending more time sleeping is, well, a big yawn. On the other hand, the thought of being smarter, thinner, healthier and more cheerful has a certain appeal. And those are just a few of the advantages that can be ours if we consistently get enough sleep, researchers say. Also on the plus side: We're likely to have better skin, better memories, better judgment, and, oh, yes, longer lives.

    “When you lose even one hour of sleep for any reason, it influences your performance the next day,” says Dr. Alon Avidan, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center.

    A study published last year found the same to be true even of children. When kids aged 8 to 12 slept for just one hour less for four nights, they didn't function as well during the day.

    But sleeping has an image problem.“We see napping or sleeping as lazy,” says Jennifer Vriend, a clinical psychologist in Ottawa, Canada, and the leading author of the study with children.“We put so much emphasis on diet, nutrition and exercise. Sleep is in the back seat. In fact,”she adds,“no matter how much we work out, no matter how well we eat, we can't be in top physical shape unless we also get plenty of sleep.”

    A Harvard study of their graduates over thirty years found that there were only a small percentage (3%) of them who actually wrote down their goals-and these were the most successful! You can be certain that every one of those students had repeatedly heard the value of goal setting. Yet only 3% actually wrote down their goals consistently. Imagine what you can do if you both write down your goals and, then, focus on them consistently, until they are accomplished!

    What is it that causes the "New Year's Resolution Syndrome"? People make resolutions, work hard at them for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, and then forget them. Next year, they make the same New Year's resolutions. That is the syndrome. So why do so many people do it?

    They may be making goals that are too global, and too unrealistic. The elephant analogy (比喻) is still the best one I know of to illustrate good goal setting. "How do you eat an elephant? One spoonful at a time." So it is with goals. Make spoon size goals and accomplish them easily. Once you've mastered this, get a bigger spoon!

    You may have too many people in your life who consciously or subconsciously are unwilling or unable to support you to reach your goals. Surround yourself with people who want you to have what you want for yourself. Support each other and you'll all achieve your highest goals.

    We must be careful not to confuse busyness with progress. Be selective about how you use your time and what you focus on. Success often comes when you know what to leave out, rather than what to include in your life.

    Goal setting is like the pig and chicken who were out for a walk in town early one morning. The chicken became really excited when she saw a sign that said "Ham & Eggs, $2. 99". She said to the pig, "Look, we've got double billing again." The pig grunted and said, "That's all right for you to say. For you, it's all in a day's work. For me, it's total commitment." Goal setting is all in a day's work. Goal achievement is total commitment.

    Next month, I'm traveling to a remote area of Central Africa and my aim is to know enough Lingala — one of the local languages — to have a conversation. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage this — until I discovered a way to learn all the vocabulary I'm going to need. Thanks to Memrise, the app I'm using, it feels just like a game.

    "People often stop learning things because they feel they're not making progress or because it all feels like too much hard work," says Ed Cooke, one of the people who created Memrise. "We're trying to create a form of learning experience that is fun and is something you'd want to do instead of watching TV."

    Memrise gives you a few new words to learn and these are "seeds" which you plant in your "greenhouse". When you practice the words, you "water your plants". When the app believes that you have really remembered a word, it moves the word to your "garden". And if you forget to log on (登录), the app sends you emails that remind you to "water your plants".

    The app uses two principles about learning. The first is that people remember things better when they link them to a picture in their mind. Memrise translates words into your own language, but it also encourages you to use "mems". For example, I memorized "motele", the Lingala word for "engine", using a mem I created — I imagined an old engine in a motel (汽车旅馆) room.

    The second principle is that we need to stop after studying words and then repeat them again later, leaving time between study sessions. Memrise helps you with this, because it's the kind of app you only use for five or ten minutes a day.

    I've learnt hundreds of Lingala words with Memrise. I know this won't make me a fluent speaker, but I hope I'll be able to do more than just smile when I meet people in Congo. Now, I need to go and water my Vocabulary!

    We love the sea. We swim into it, live near it, build beside it, and even imagine about living under the sea. But we're terrified of it, too. For much of our history, we have turned to "hard engineering" to control the marine (海洋) environment and manage its influence on us. We build dams, sea walls and channels. But all these efforts seem to fail. The sea has a habit of taking back its own. And we suffer.

    Johnston, a marine ecologist, is advocating for "blue engineering" ­ the marine version of the "green engineering" movement on land that has seen nations like Singapore building the walls and roofs of the concrete jungle with plant life.

    We are expanding further into the marine environment. This practice does harm lo marine ecosystems. We're loving the sea to death, but we've not been thinking about design of structures (建筑物) with respect to ecology. Some coastal structures create shade, which reduces the growth of seaweed. Bright lights at night contuse species such as turtles. That's why blue engineering comes in.

    Throughout the world people are starting to turn things around. Researchers with the World Harbour Project are creating tiles (瓦片) similar to the natural structures found on rocky shores with 3D printing technology. These make more attractive homes for marine creatures. Researchers are also actively seeding these tiles with local seaweeds and creatures such as the Sydney rock oyster, which is particularly good at improving water quality. Twelve harbours around the world are taking part in this marine tile experiment, each working with their own unique marine life.

    It's a far cry from, he days when huge number, of old tyres were thrown, into the sea to build "artificial reef" (礁石). Those clumsy early attempts are now costing millions to remove, showing just how far we have yet to go in understanding how best to co-habit with the underwater world.

    Facebook says it is working on technology to allow us to control computers directly with our brains. It is developing "silent speech "software to allow people to type at a rate of 100 words per minute, it says. The project, in its early stages, will require new technology to detect brainwaves without needing invasive operation. "We are not talking about monitoring your random thoughts," assured Facebook's Regina Dugan. "You have many thoughts, and you choose to share some of them. We're talking about monitoring those words. A silent speech interface（界面）-one with all the speed and flexibility（灵活）of voice. "

    Ms Dugan is the company's head of Building 8, the firm's hardware research lab. The company said it intends to build both the hardware and software to achieve its goal, and has employed a team of more than 60 scientists and academics to work on the project.

    On his Facebook page, Mark Zuckerberg added, "Our brains produce enough data to stream four HD（高清）movies every second. The problem is that the best way we have to get information out into the world-speech-can only send about the same amount of data as a 1980s modem. We're working on a system that will let you type straight from your brain about five times faster than you can type on your phone today. Finally, we want to turn it into a wearable technology that can be produced in quantity. "

    Technology is going to have to get a lot more advanced before we can share a pure thought or feeling. but this is a first step. Other ideas detailed at the company's developers conference in San Jose included work to allow people to "hear" through skin. The system, comparable to Braille, uses pressure points on the skin to pass information. "One day, not so far away, it may be possible for me to think in Chinese, and you to feel it instantly in Spanish,"Ms Dugan said.