Society tells us that we should count our blessings, focus on all that we have and feel grateful for what we’ve been given. But there is nothing wrong with “healthy discontent”. In fact, healthy discontent is what motivates us to improve ourselves and our circumstances. Without this feeling, life’s easier to stand still.

I always have a certain level of discomfort. That discomfort drives me to work hard at my job. I don’t just want to remain where I am. Professionally, I want to keep getting better. Likewise, I always have a certain amount of discontent with my home. That drives me to always try to improve it by making it look better.

My feelings of discontent with my job and my home don’t mean that I don’t appreciate them. It’s an incredible blessing to be able to work and be paid for one’s efforts. Similarly, if you live in a safe place, with running water, heating, and air conditioning, you are incredibly fortunate. These are not the things to be taken for granted. However, we should be striving (力争) to improve.

If you happen to be good at playing the piano, you should work to continually improve your skills. The same holds true for our personal development. If you have areas in your personality that need improvement, you should work on them, too.

For instance, I can be very impatient. As a result, I work hard to try to conquer that flaw (缺点) by keeping my impatience to myself. When we feel discontent with ourselves, we have to be honest with ourselves.

It’s easy to make excuses for our bad behavior, but we need to face our discontent and say to ourselves, “I need to work on this.” This week, consider whether you have healthy discontent in your life. Have you become so settled in your life that you don’t see regular improvement?

Do you have a character flaw that you wish you didn’t have? Don’t ignore these things. Instead, take steps to address your areas of discontent and keep improving your life every day. No matter how great we think things are going, there’s always room for improvement.

   Hundreds of people have formed impressions of you through that little device (装置) on your desk. And they’ve never actually ____ you. Everything they know about you ____ through this device, sometimes from hundreds of miles away. ____ they feel they can know you ____ from the sound of your voice. That’s how powerful the ____ is.

Powerful, yes, but not always ____. For years I dealt with my travel agent only by phone. Rani, my faceless agent whom I’d never met ____, got me rock-bottom prices on airfares, cars, and hotels. But her cold voice really ____ me. I sometimes wished to ____ another agent.

Rushing out ____ I called out over my shoulder, ＂By the way, what’s your name?＂ ＂I’m Rani,＂ she said.  I turned around and saw a ____ woman with a big smile on her face waving to wish me a safe trip. I was ____! Why had I thought she was cold? Rani was, well, so ____.

Sitting back in the car on the way to the airport, I figured it all out. Rani’s ____ — her warm smile, her nods, her ‘I’m here for you’ ____ — were all silent signals that didn’t travel through wires.

In our daily life, if we want to do our work good, we must learn what to work together with others. Working together can save us time and energy. Beside, we can learn much from our partners by working with them.

Work with those we like can be joy. We can share pleasure and sad with them. But it challenged us to work with people we dislike. In such situation, just pay attention on the work itself. Perhaps by working together for a long time, we’ll find it that they are easy to get along with.

   Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table, reading his book. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him in every way he could.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I try to read the book just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I understand as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the book do?”

The grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandpa laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned. Out of breath, he told his grandpa that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, so he went to get a bucket instead. The grandpa said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough.” The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandpa the basket was empty again. Out of breath, he said, “Grandpa, it’s useless!”

“So, you think it is useless?” the grandpa said, “Look at the basket.”

The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean.

“Grandson, that’s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you’ll be changed, inside and out.”

   At the very beginning of this school year, I got myself into a regretful situation. It was a Wednesday _____ and I went to see a friend to watch the sunrise before school. It was about 4:30 am and we were _____ outside next to my car. To our _____, someone in a neighbouring house was in his _____ and showed his headlights on us, yelling at us to _____. As we got into my car, he had called the policeman. Since I had my _____ for only about six months and not a full year, I was fined for _____ a passenger.

This was the first time that I had ever got _____ For about two months, I was _____ and had no one to ______. I kept everything to myself because I was not ______ talking about everything that had ______. I didn’t even talk to my head teacher and lied to him by saying everything was ______ But my attendance (出席) and ______ became terrible. I was among the top 30% of my class ______ my rank had dropped by about 6 marks. I was under lots of stress and lacked ______ to do well in school. My biology teacher noticed I didn’t try my best and talked with me. She made me ______ the last two months was not me.

Now, my working habits have been much better and I know what I want to do with my ______. I plan to take courses in graphic design (平面设计) in university because I can express my thoughts in a (n) ______ way. I’ll work to my fullest potential (潜力). This is what I ______ and I know that now.