Your professional network may be just as valuable a job hunting tool as your resume, but if you haven’t kept it up to date and you’re not in touch with the people you’re closest to, now’s the time to reach out. Use the “Layoff Test” to beef up your professional network and strengthen those bonds now, when you don’t need anything from them but their friendship.

Here’s the test: If you were laid off today, who would be the first ten people you’d reach out to for advice, or to catch up with? When is the last time you spoke with them? If you can’t even list ten people, much less remember the last time you caught up with some of the people you would normally call references, it’s time to start reaching out now, while you’re comfortably employed and don’t need anything in particular.

Ask them out to lunch to catch up, or see if they can grab coffee with you sometime, just to see how they’re doing, discuss your respective careers, and see if they need anything from you. Remember, a “professional network” is really just career code for “friends willing to help each other professionally,” so stay in touch and see if you can lend them a hand as well. After all, what goes around comes around.

LifeHacker

The DASH Method (short for Direction, Acceleration, Strength, and Health) was designed to help people who write—whether it’s technical writing, novelists, or bloggers—get things done faster and better, but the principles can be applied to almost any type of creative work. The end result is that you work smarter, and come away feeling better about what you do.

Direction

Direction implies that you always start work with your end-goal in mind and a plan for how you’ll get there.

Acceleration

Acceleration encourages you to remember that getting started is everything, and to keep working until you’re finished. Don’t get hung up on details, after all done is better than perfect.

Strength

Strength is less about training, but about bolstering your mental and physical strength by building the right environment for you to work, whether it’s a quiet space with no distractions or a buzzing space that makes you feel inspired.

Health

Finally, Health reminds you to take care of yourself, take breaks, and keep brainstorming so your creative juices are flowing.

All in all, the core tenets are things that ideally you work into your work routine already, but assembling them together into a package like this one may be just the reminder you need to apply them to every aspect of your work, whether you write for a living or not. Hit the link below for a much broader description of each point, along with some additional tips.

Martin Folwer Publication Date: September 25, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0321193687 | ISBN-13: 978-0321193681 | Edition: 3

Timeless: Reduce everything to its essence so that form harmonizes with function.

Overall

Graphical design notations have been with us for a while. For me, their primary value is in communication and understanding. A good diagram can often help communicate ideas about a design, particularly when you want to avoid a lot of details. Diagrams can also help you understand either a software system or a business process

Many people believe that in the future, graphical techniques will play a dominant role in software development.

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a family of graphical notations, backed by single meta-model, that help in describing and designing software systems, particularly software systems built using the object-oriented (OO) style.

The fundamental driver behind them all is that programming languages are not at a high enough level of abstraction to facilitate discussions about design.

The essence of sketching is selectivity.

(UML as blueprint is about completeness) In forward engineering, the idea is that blueprints are developed by a designer whose job is to build a detailed design for a programmer to code up. However, the creators of the UML see the diagrams as secondary; the essence of the UML is the meta-model. Diagrams are simply a presentation of the meta-model.

The UML, in its current state, defines a notation and a meta-model. The notation is the graphical stuff you see in models; it is the graphical syntax of the modeling language.

A language with prescriptive rules is controlled by an official body that states what is or isn’t legal in the language and what meaning you give to utterances in that language. A language with descriptive rules is one in which you understand its rules by looking at how people use the language in practice.

My attitude is that, for most people, the UML has descriptive rules.

The waterfall style breaks down a project based on activity. To build software, you have to do certain activities: requirements analysis, design, coding, and testing.

The iterative style breaks down a project by subsets of functionality. You might take a year and break it into 3-month iterations.

You may well not put the system into production at the end of each iteration, but the system should be of production quality.

Most writers on software process in the past few years, especially in the object-oriented community, dislike the waterfall approach. Of the many reasons for this, the most fundamental is that it’s very difficult to tell whether the project is truly on track with a waterfall process.

A common technique with iterations is to use time boxing. This forces an iteration to be a fixed length of time. A good rule of thumb is that the size of your unit test code should be about the same size as your production code.

Agile is an umbrella term that covers many processes that share a common set of values and principles as defined by the Manifesto of Agile Software Development (http://agileManifesto.org)

In terms of our discussion, agile processes are strongly adaptive in their nature. They are also very much people-oriented processes.

Agile processes tend to be low in ceremony. A high-ceremony, or heavyweight, process has a lot of documents and control points during the project.

Whether or not you use a waterfall approach, you still do the activities of analysis, design, coding, and testing.

Use cases describe how people interact with the system.

An activity diagram, which can show the work flow of the organization, showing how software and human activities interact.

• Class diagrams from a software perspective. These show the classes in the software and how they interrelate.
• Sequence diagrams for common scenarios. A valuable approach is to pick the most important and interesting scenarios from the use cases and use CRC cards or sequence diagrams to figure out what happens in the software.
• Package diagrams to show the large-scale organization of the software.
• State diagrams for classes with complex life histories.
• Deployment diagrams to show the physical layout of the software.

One of my concerns with blueprints is my own observation that it’s very hard to get them right, even for a good designer.

I believe that detailed documentation should be generated from the code—like, for instance, JavaDoc. You should write additional documentation to highlight important concepts.

The class diagram should be supported by a handful of interaction diagrams that show the most important interactions in the system.

A class diagram describes the types of objects in the system and the various kinds of static relationships that exist among them.

The multiplicity of a property is an indication of how many objects may fill the property.

An important principle of using inheritance effectively is substitutability. I should be able to substitute a Corporate Customer within any code that requires a Customer, and everything should work fine.

Interaction diagrams describe how groups of objects collaborate in some behavior.

Despite this, object bigots like me strongly prefer distributed control. One of the main goals of good design is to localize the effects of change. Data and behavior that accesses that data often change together. So putting the data and the behavior that uses it together in one place is the first rule of object-oriented design.

If a caller sends a synchronous message, it must wait until the message is done, such as invoking a subroutine. If a caller sends an asynchronous message, it can continue processing and doesn’t have to wait for a response.

If you find that you need a modeling construct that isn’t in the UML but is similar to something that is, use the symbol of the existing UML construct but mark it with a keyword to show that you have something different.

A UML interface is a class that has only public operations, with no method bodies

Classification refers to the relationship between an object and its type.

The UML uses the generalization symbol to show generalization. If you need to show classification, use a dependency with the «instantiate» keyword.

Generalization sets are by default disjoint: Any instance of the supertype may be an instance of only one of the subtypes within that set.

Association classes allow you to add attributes, operations, and other features to associations.

Aggregation is the part-of relationship. It’s like saying that a car has an engine and wheels as its parts.

The general rule is that, although a class may be a component of many other classes, any instance must be a component of only one owner. The “no sharing” rule is the key to composition.

An abstract class is a class that cannot be directly instantiated.

A qualified association is the UML equivalent of a programming concept variously known as associative arrays, maps, hashes, and dictionaries.

An object diagram is a snapshot of the objects in a system at a point in time.

A package is a grouping construct that allows you to take any construct in the UML and group its elements together into higher-level units.

Artifacts, which are the physical manifestations of software: usually, files.

Use cases are a technique for capturing the functional requirements of a system. Use cases work by describing the typical interactions between the users of a system and the system itself, providing a narrative of how a system is used.

A scenario is a sequence of steps describing an interaction between a user and a system.

A use case is a set of scenarios tied together by a common user goal.

As well as the steps in the scenarios, you can add some other common information to a use case.
• A pre-condition describes what the system should ensure is true before the system allows the use case to begin. This is useful for telling the programmers what conditions they don’t have to check for in their code.
• A guarantee describes what the system will ensure at the end of the use case. Success guarantees hold after a successful scenario; minimal guarantees hold after any scenario.
• A trigger specifies the event that gets the use case started.

State machine diagrams are a familiar technique to describe the behavior of a system

The transition indicates a movement from one state to another.

Activity state: The ongoing activity is marked with the do/; hence the term do-activity.

The activity diagram allows whoever is doing the process to choose the order in which to do things.

UML 2 uses the terms flow and edge synonymously to describe the connections between two actions.

Interaction overview diagrams are a grafting together of activity diagrams and sequence diagrams.

Myth: “Objects are passed by reference, primitives are passed by value”

Some proponents of this then say, “Ah, except for immutable objects which are passed by value [etc]” which introduces loads of rules without really tackling how Java works. Fortunately the truth is much simpler:

Truth #1: Everything in Java is passed by value. Objects, however, are never passed at all.

That needs some explanation - after all, if we can’t pass objects, how can we do any work? The answer is that we pass references to objects. That sounds like it’s getting dangerously close to the myth, until you look at truth #2:

Truth #2: The values of variables are always primitives or references, never objects.

This is probably the single most important point in learning Java properly.
It’s amazing how far you can actually get without knowing it, in fact - but vast numbers of things suddenly make sense when you grasp it.

Why is all this important?

When people hear the words “pass by reference”, they may understand different things by the words. There are some pretty specific definitions of what it should mean, however. Dale King sometimes quotes this one: “The lvalue of the formal parameter is set to the lvalue of the actual parameter.” (Dale’s formal analysis of this whole question can be found at the bottom of this page.) This would mean that if you wrote the following code:

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Object x = null;
giveMeAString(x);
System.out.println(x);

void giveMeAString(Object y) {
  y = "This is a string";
}

the result (if Java used pass-by-reference semantics) would be

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This is a string

instead of the actual result:

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null

Explaining the two truths above eliminates all of this confusion.

So what does passing a reference by value actually mean?

It means you can think of references how you think of primitives, to a large extent.

For instance, the equivalent to the above bit of code using primitives would be:

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int x = 0;
giveMeATen(x);
System.out.println(x);

void giveMeATen (int y) {
  y = 10;
}

The balloon analogy

I imagine every object as a helium balloon, every reference as a piece of string, and every variable as something which can hold onto a piece of string.

If the reference is a null reference, that’s like having a piece of string without anything attached to the end. If it’s a reference to a genuine object, it’s a piece of string tied onto the balloon representing that object. When a reference is copied (either for variable assignment or as part of a method call) it’s as if another piece of string is created attached to whatever the first piece of string is attached to. The actual piece of string the variable (if any) is holding onto doesn’t go anywhere - it’s only copied.

This analogy also explains garbage collection (apart from the java.lang.ref API, which does “odd” things :) - a balloon floats away unless it is tethered down to something. The balloons can have further holders on them (instance variables), but just because two balloons are holding onto each other doesn’t stop them from floating away. (Cyclic references are collected.) Any balloon representing an object which is in the middle of having a method invoked is tethered to the JVM. (Apologies for not being able to phrase that more succinctly - all I mean is that anything in an active thread’s stack isn’t garbage collected.)

December 11th, 2012 by Steve Pavlina

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2012/12/is-it-time-for-you-to-stop-dabbling-and-get-serious/

If you want to start on a serious career path, don’t even think about giving up during the first year. Very little happens during the first year in terms of results. Most businesses aren’t even profitable in their first 2 years; it takes them that long just to become sustainable, even for fairly small businesses.

So many would-be pro bloggers give up in their first 6 months. They get bored, lose interest, or get a “better” idea for some other venture. I see them change topics or URLs and start over once or twice a year. After five years of this kind of dabbling, they’ve still barely gotten anywhere. They keep erasing what little progress they’ve made, so they never have the chance to develop anything serious and enduring.

When it comes to building any sort of business, either online or offline, this dabbling approach is a bit ridiculous because the real payoff from business comes from consistency over a period of years. It takes time to build a following, attract customers, develop products and services, gain links and search engine placement, generate referrals, develop good business sense, acquire expertise, and figure out how to generate income from your work in ways that feel congruent to you.

It took 25 months from when I started blogging to pass $10K/month in income from it, which happened in 2006. In the first 6 months, however, my blog only made $167 total, mostly from Amazon’s affiliate program. If I gave up during that time and started over, I’d never have enjoyed the long-term benefits of this path. Most professional bloggers, however, give up well before they reach this point. They see weak financial results during their first year just as I did, but they conclude it’s not worth continuing if they haven’t made it sustainable by then.

In addition to earning abundant income from blogging (mostly from affiliate and joint-venture deals these days), blogging has also created opportunities in other areas, like speaking (I have talks coming up in Las Vegas, Rio, Germany, and Washington DC), getting a book published (ongoing royalties), coaching (started at $997 per coaching call, now at $4997 per call), free travel, amazing social connections, etc.

If you want to generate serious income and enjoy an abundant lifestyle, it’s crucial to get past the dabbling phase. For starters the incessant dabblers are perpetually broke. They keep giving up and changing their minds well before they’d otherwise begin reaping the long-term benefits of sustainability and growth. Before they even have a chance to experience serious results, they pull the plug.

The truth is that you can generate serious income from just about any form of creative work — writing, audio, video, art, music, programming, design, etc. Others who came before you have already made millions from these paths. But most of them didn’t get very far in their first 6-12 months. It’s the ones who stuck with it for 5+ years that are reaping the biggest benefits. They’re builders, not dabblers.

A pattern I’ve noticed in my most successful friends in business is that at some point they made the decision to get serious about their work. They decided to stop dabbling, stop drifting, and stop coasting. They committed to a particular path and doubled down on it, intending to stick with it for years so they could really master it. Consequently, those same people are enjoying serious results. Meanwhile, the dabblers are still looking for that next Get Rich Quick idea that can grant similar results within a matter of months.

If you ask your friends what kind of work you’ll be doing 5 years from now, what will they say? If you’re not sure, go ask some of them. If they give you answers you don’t like, or if their answers are inconsistent, why is that? Are you broadcasting that you’re a dabbler? Do you have a history of dabbling? Are you being wishy washy and noncommittal? If you think you’re committed, but the people around you don’t perceive that commitment, you’re probably not committed.

If you’re on a strong and successful path, the people in your life will likely be able to predict what field you’ll be in 5 years from now. It will be the field you’re committed to right now.

If you want to build up some abundant income streams and enjoy the long-term benefits of stick-to-itiveness, pick an interest that you expect you’ll still be passionate about 5 years from now. I picked personal growth since I’d already been passionate about this field for more than a decade before I started blogging, so I had good cause to believe I’d still be into it 5 years later. It’s now 8+ years since I started blogging, and I’m still passionate about personal growth. I still love the work I do and have no desire to quit and switch to something else. The specific details of my interests change from year to year, but my core passion remains largely the same. If I’d made a less conscious choice or more impulsive choice 8 years ago, I might very well have dumped it within the first year.

Don’t overplay today’s fleeting interests when you think about making a serious commitment to a career path. Look instead to the interests you had 5 years ago that you’re still seriously interested in today. Chances are you’ll still be maintaining those interests 5 years from now. If you’re going to have these interests anyway, why not bet bigger on them and commit yourself to mastery?

Doing something for a long time isn’t the same thing as committing to mastery. I’ve been into disc golf for about as long as I’ve been into personal growth (20+ years), but I never committed to improving disc golf. I never got serious about it. Even though I play disc golf most weekends with friends, I’m probably no better at it than I was 5 years ago. My skills hit a plateau, and I’ve stayed there for years. For me disc golf is a hobby I enjoy for fun, and I haven’t cared to improve at it thus far.

If you’re okay being no better off in your career 5 years from now, then there’s no need to commit to mastery. Keep dabbling, or keep doing what you’re doing without making a serious commitment. But if it’s not very palatable to you to stagnate, or if you desire much stronger results 5 years from now, then it’s time to think about getting serious.

If you want to dabble for the sake of exploration, that’s fine. But don’t pretend you’ve chosen a career path. You’ll only look foolish when every 6 months you’re telling your friends that your career path has changed yet again. Know that you’re exploring, and do it to learn. Then when you’re ready to get serious, commit to building something that endures, and don’t even think about quitting during the first year.

Rule of thumb: If you can’t make a serious 5-year commitment to a given career path, it’s not your path.

Memory is key

According to a new study, how hungry you are may be less influenced by how much you ate earlier but rather by how much you remember eating. To keep yourself from eating too often and too much, consider the practice of mindful eating—paying more attention while eating.

In the study published in the PLOS ONE journal, University of Bristol gave 100 volunteers lunch with either a small or large portion of tomato soup as an appetizer. The bowls had a secret tube that refilled or drained the soup without the participants knowing, so half of them ended up eating more or less than what their eyes told them they were eating. Predictably, right after the meal, the participants’ hunger levels were tied to how much of the soup they actually ate. But two to three hours later, how much they thought they had eaten mattered more: Those who believed they had a larger portion (regardless of actually eating that much or not) said they felt less hungry for another meal than the group who thought they had the smaller portion. According to the researchers, memory can have a bigger influence on appetite than the actual meal size.

How to apply this to real life? Time suggests focusing on our food more and avoiding distractions while eating:

“Take three seconds to look closely at what you are eating,” she says. “Think for a moment about the words that spring to mind: small, large, filling, etc.,” [clinical psychologist Susan Albers] says. “Taking a moment to consciously and thoughtfully encode this meal into your memory will make it more likely that you will remember what you’ve eaten later.”

Keeping your eyes on your food is also important to prevent eating too much in one sitting. The New York Times has a great article on mindful eating if you’re interested in putting this into practice yourself.

It’s late on a Friday afternoon. You’ve already spent hours on a mind-twisting task. But before you can turn in for the evening you have another demanding project that requires your attention.

It’s going to take some serious willpower to stay focused. Will you power through? Or will you stagger to the weekend? The answer depends on how you think about your state of mind in this kind of situation

Perhaps you think of willpower like fuel in a car – your reserves are already running low and the last project is going to drain you further. Or maybe you see willpower as sustained by a challenge - you’re feeling fatigued but you know engaging with the last project will recharge you.

Ongoing research by psychologists suggests that these two perspectives on willpower are self-fulfilling. Just thinking that willpower is a limited resource makes it more likely that you’ll feel depleted after a demanding task. However, if you see challenges as motivation, you are more likely to perform as if your willpower is unlimited.

Veronika Job at the University of Zurich and her colleagues at Stanford University tested this by asking 60 students whether willpower is a limited resource that’s depleted by effort, or if it’s potentially unlimited and recharged by a challenge. Next, the students were given two taxing mental tasks in succession. The first was an awkward editing task, the second involved naming the actual color of color words while ignoring their meaning (e.g. the word “green” written in red).

If you see challenges as motivation, you are more likely to perform as if your willpower is unlimited.

For students who believed that willpower is a limited resource, giving them an extra tricky editing task left them frazzled for the color-naming challenge and their performance suffered as a result. It was a different story for the students who saw their willpower as unlimited. They performed just as well on the color-naming challenge regardless of whether the editing task was made extra difficult or not. In other words, whatever the students believed about willpower ended up coming true.

Of course, a problem with this study is that it’s possible the students who saw willpower as unlimited really did have a lot of willpower. Fortunately there’s evidence that suggests it’s easy to optimize our mindset, with potential benefits for our performance. For a study published this year, instead of measuring students’ beliefs about willpower, Job and her co-workers at Stanford instead tried seeing how easy it is to influence those beliefs.

There’s evidence that suggests it’s easy to optimize our mindset.

The researchers found that having the students think about willpower as fueled by challenge – they exposed them to a series of statements like “it is energizing to be fully absorbed with a demanding mental task” – was enough to help boost their performance. When they undertook an arduous 20-minute memory challenge on a computer, rather than getting mentally fatigued, their performance kept getting better. Other students exposed to statements about willpower being limited only showed improvement through half the task, after which they zoned out. In other words, how we think about willpower seems highly suggestible, which then affects our performance.

Taken together, this research shows how important our attitudes about willpower are for the way we perform, and why it is vital to get in the right mindset before undertaking a piece of demanding work. The next time you’re confronted by a daunting task late in the day, remind yourself that mental perseverance is often a case of “mind over mind.” If you see it as a draining chore, it’s likely you really will act as though mentally exhausted. But if you see the work as a challenge that will engage your mind, you’ll find that you rise to the occasion..

“Inspiration isn’t something you can schedule, harness, or control. Inspiration is more like food poisoning: it sprays out uncontrollablly when you need it the least.” - The Oatmeal

That’s why we sleep with notebooks by our beds, after all. We often think best when we’re not trying to think, like while dreaming or standing in the shower. But that’s kind of what makes inspiration great: it’s a surprise.

Between work, classes, and socializing, life can get pretty hectic. In response, we often rely on caffeinated drinks to keep us going. Sure, everyone knows that caffeine can give you a much-needed jolt, but at what cost? It can also cause headaches, breakouts, and mood swings, just to name a few negative side effects. The good news: there are better, healthier ways to get energy without all that caffeine clogging your system.

Have a Protein-Filled Snack

Feeling drowsy? Nosh on a protein-packed snack. This is a simple but effective way to keep yourself going throughout the day. Think crunchy apple slices with creamy peanut butter, turkey roll-ups with string cheese, or almonds and dried fruit. If you’re crunched for time, pick up a smoothie with a protein boost—most places offer free “boosts.” Jamba Juice has a great energy one that has B vitamins in it to help physical and mental stamina. Bonus: it helps your metabolism too!

Pop a B Vitamin

Vitamin B deficiency has been linked to low energy levels, among other things. In fact, mood changes, poor concentration, anxiety, and depression can all be signs of a vitamin B deficiency. So if you’re feeling tired regularly, try popping a B-complex vitamin. Most grocers and health food stores carry a variety of brands that you can choose from. Another option is to take a multivitamin, which will help ensure that you’re not deficient in other minerals or nutrients. For the best results, take your multivitamin during a meal—preferably breakfast. According to NutriHealth, the nutrients are better absorbed when mixed with the healthy fat in your food.

Try a Quick Workout

When you’re tired, hitting the gym is the last thing you want to do. But studies show that a short sweat session can kick up your energy levels for the rest of the day. According to Fitness Magazine, you don’t need to pound the treadmill for an hour—a quick jog around the block will do. Feeling unmotivated? Pop in some headphones, cue up your favorite upbeat tunes, and hit the pavement! If you want to stay in your room, a quick set of 25 jumping jacks can help give you a boost.

Take A Cold Shower

Hot showers are the best for relaxing and winding down. But if your goal is to do the opposite, consider changing the temperature. Cold water stimulates your system and speeds up circulation, resulting in a more alert you. Don’t want to give up the soothing heat completely? Try taking a regular shower, then cooling it down for the last 5 minutes or so. It’ll still do wonders for your mental awareness. Really not into the cold shower thing? Splash cold water on your face for a midday refresher.

Eat Smaller, More Frequent Meals

According to Terri Fant-Franklin, a nutritionist at Kaiser Permanente, changing your eating habits can greatly increase your energy levels. “Having smaller, more frequent meals will keep your calorie flow at a more even pace which helps with energy,” Fant-Franklin says. Heavy meals often leave us feeling drowsy, while smaller portions can have the opposite effect. Try to avoid sugary drinks, which are often loaded with caffeine and additives. Chances are, you’ll end up crashing later.

Go To Sleep 20 Minutes Earlier

It’s easy to procrastinate during the day and put off projects until the wee hours of the night. But this pushes your bedtime back later and later. Before you know it, you wake up on four hours’ worth of sleep, tired and cranky. Let’s just say that this situation is less than ideal. But there’s a simple and effective way to change your habits. Instead of being unrealistic and wishing you could sleep through that 7AM alarm, take action the night before. Aim to hit the sack 20-30 minutes earlier and chances are, you’ll end up getting significantly more sleep.

Take a Walk

Taking a brisk stroll has similar effects to working out. According to WebMD, moving your body (even at a slow pace) will have you feeling more alert in just minutes. Since the weather has cooled down, the chilly winter air will also help wake up your senses. Worried you’ll get bored? Grab your camera and snap photos of the beautiful fall foliage you see along the way. You can also incorporate this tip into your daily routine by walking instead of taking the bus or driving. Bonus: a leisurely walk is great for clearing up brain fog, which can result from hours spent at a desk or too much computer time. So next time you need a break from doing work or studying, head outside.

Get A (Reflexology) Massage

In the practice of reflexology, your hands and feet are filled with pressure points that relate to specific areas of the body. For example, the top part of your thumbs correlates with your pituitary gland. Massages generally leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, but reflexology takes things one step further and pinpoints specific areas that need work. According to The American Reflexology Certification Board, the practice helps restore balance to the body. Try making an appointment with a specialist or give yourself a quick massage (or recruit a friend to) for a DIY midday pick-me-up. Apply pressure to the different areas on your hands and feet, alternating to stimulate multiple organs. It’ll double as a mental break, preparing you for the rest of your busy day!

Talk It Out

Next time you’re feeling down and tired, try talking to a friend. Studies show that chatting can help make you feel more alert. Being socially disconnected can trickle into other areas of your life, resulting in negative thoughts and lower levels of productivity. Catching up on gossip will pique your interest and keep you going. Friends too busy to talk? Calling someone works too. Dial your mom’s cell and catch up on the latest family news.

Meditate

The mind is a powerful tool. It’s been proven that visualization exercises can help bring you closer to achieving your goals. A recent Miller-McCune article discusses the many benefits of meditation. Next time you’re feeling zapped for energy, try this simple exercise: sit on a chair with your back straight and your hands on your knees. Close your eyes and envision yourself feeling positive and energized. Take deep breaths and keep your posture strong. Before long, you’ll have an increased sense of mental and physical awareness.

10 Ways To Get Energy Without Caffeine | Her Campus

◎彭明辉（台湾清华大学）

许多同学应该都还记得联考前夕的焦虑：差一分可能要掉好几个志愿，甚至于一生的命运从此改观！到了大四，这种焦虑可能更强烈而复杂：到底要先当兵，就业，还是先考研究所？

我就经常碰到学生充满焦虑的问我这些问题。可是，这些焦虑实在是莫须有的！生命是一种长期而持续的累积过程，绝不会因为单一的事件而毁了一个人的一生，也不会因为单一的事件而救了一个人的一生。属于我们该得的，迟早会得到；属于我们不该得的，即使侥幸巧取也不可能长久保有。如果我们看清这个事实，许多所谓” 人生的重大抉择 “ 就可以淡然处之，根本无需焦虑。而所谓”人生的困境”，也往往当下就变得无足挂齿。

我自己就是一个活生生的例子。从一进大学就决定不再念研究所，所以，大学四年的时间多半在念人文科学的东西。毕业后工作了几年，才决定要念研究所。硕士毕业后，立下决心：从此不再为文凭而念书。谁知道，世事难料，当了五年讲师后，我又被时势所迫，整装出国念博士。

出国时，一位大学同学笑我：全班最晚念博士的都要回国了，你现在才要出去？两年后我从剑桥回来，觉得人生际遇无常，莫此为甚：一个从大一就决定再也不钻营学位的人，竟然连硕士和博士都拿到了！属于我们该得的，哪样曾经少过？而人生中该得与不该得的究竟有多少，我们又何曾知晓？从此我对际遇一事不能不更加淡然。当讲师期间，有些态度较极端的学生会当面表现出他们的不屑；从剑桥回来时，却被学生当做不得了的事看待。这种表面上的大起大落，其实都是好事者之言，完全看不到事实的真相。

从表面上看来，两年就拿到剑桥博士，这好像很了不起。但是，在这” 两年”之前我已经花整整一年，将研究主题有关的论文全部看完，并找出研究方向；而之前更已花三年时间做控制方面的研究，并且在国际著名的学术期刊中发表论文。而从硕士毕业到拿博士，期间七年的时间我从不停止过研究与自修。所以，这个博士其实是累积了七年的成果（或者，只算我花在控制学门的时间，也至少有五年），根本也没什么好惊讶的。

常人不从长期而持续的累积过程来看待生命因积蓄而有的成果，老爱在表面上以断裂而孤立的事件夸大议论，因此每每在平淡无奇的事件上强做悲喜。可是对我来讲，当讲师期间被学生瞧不起，以及剑桥刚回来时被同学夸大本事，都只是表象。

事实是：我只在乎每天二十四小时点点滴滴的累积。拿硕士或博士只是特定时刻里这些成果累积的外在展示而已，人生命中真实的累积从不曾因这些事件而终止或加添。常有学生满怀忧虑的问我：” 老师，我很想先当完兵，工作一两年再考研究所。这样好吗？”很好，这样子有机会先用实务来印证学理，你念研究所时会比别人了解自己要的是什么。

“可是，我怕当完兵又工作后，会失去斗志，因此考不上研究所。”
“那你就先考研究所好了。”
“可是，假如我先念研究所，我怕自己又会像念大学时一样茫然，因此念的不甘不愿的。”
“那你还是先去工作好了！”
“可是。。。。。。。”

我完全可以体会到他们的焦虑，可是却无法压抑住对于这种话的感慨。其实，说穿了他所需要的就是两年研究所加两年工作，以便加深知识的深广度和获取实务经验。先工作或先升学，表面上大相迳庭，其实骨子里的差别根本可以忽略。在” 朝三暮四”这个成语故事里，主人原本喂养猴子的橡实是”早上四颗下午三颗”，后来改为”朝三暮四”，猴子就不高兴而坚持改回到”朝四暮三” 。其实，先工作或先升学，期间差异就有如”朝三暮四”与”朝四暮三”，原不值得计较。但是，我们经常看不到这种生命过程中长远而持续的累积，老爱将一时际遇中的小差别夸大到攸关生死的地步。

最讽刺的是：当我们面对两个可能的方案，而焦虑的不知何所抉择时，通常表示这两个方案可能一样好，或者一样坏，因而实际上选择哪个都一样，唯一的差别只是先后之序而已。而且，愈是让我们焦虑得厉害的，其实差别越小，愈不值得焦虑。反而真正有明显的好坏差别时，我们轻易的就知道该怎么做了。可是我们却经常看不到长远的将来，短视的盯著两案短期内的得失：想选甲案，就舍不得乙案的好处；想选乙案，又舍不得甲案的好处。如果看得够远，人生长则八，九十，短则五，六十年，先做哪一件事又有什么关系？甚至当完兵又工作后，再花一整年准备研究所，又有什么了不起？当然，有些人还是会忧虑说：” 我当完兵又工作后，会不会因为家累或记忆力衰退而比较难考上研究所？”

我只能这样回答：”一个人考不上研究所，只有两个可能：或者他不够聪明，或者他的确够聪明。不够聪明而考不上，那也没什么好抱怨的。假如你够聪明，还考不上研究所，那只能说你的决心不够强。假如你是决心不够强，就表示你生命中还有其他的可能性，其重要程度并不下于硕士学位，而你舍不得丢下他。既然如此，考不上研究所也无须感到遗憾。不是吗？”

人生的路这么多，为什么要老斤斤计较著一个可能性？我高中最要好的朋友，一生背运：高中考两次，高一念两次，大学又考两次，甚至连机车驾照都考两次。毕业后，他告诉自己：我没有人脉，也没有学历，只能靠加倍的诚恳和努力。现在，他自己拥有一家公司，年收入数千万。

一个人在升学过程中不顺利，而在事业上顺利，这是常见的事。有才华的人，不会因为被名校拒绝而连带失去他的才华，只不过要另外找适合他表现的场所而已。反过来，一个人在升学过程中太顺利，也难免因而放不下身段去创业，而只能乖乖领薪水过活。福祸如何，谁能全面知晓？

我们又有什么好得意？又有什么好忧虑？人生的得与失，有时候怎么也说不清楚，有时候却再简单不过了：我们得到平日累积的成果，而失去我们不曾努力累积的！所以重要的不是和别人比成就，而是努力去做自己想做的。功不唐捐，最后该得到的不会少你一分，不该得到的也不会多你一分。

好像是前年的时候，我在往艺术中心的路上遇到一位高中同学。他在南加大当电机系的副教授，被清华电机聘回来开短期课程。从高中时代他就很用功，以第一志愿上台大电机后，四年都拿书卷奖，相信他在专业上的研究也已卓然有成。回想高中入学时，我们两个人的智力测验成绩分居全学年第一，第二名。可是从高一我就不曾放弃自己喜欢的文学，音乐，书法，艺术和哲学，而他却始终不曾分心，因此两个人在学术上的差距只会愈来愈远。反过来说，这十几二十年我在人文领域所获得的满足，恐怕已远非他所能理解的了。我太太问过我，如果我肯全心专注于一个研究领域，是不是至少会赶上这位同学的成就？我不这样想，两个不同性情的人，注定要走两条不同的路。不该得的东西，我们注定是得不到的，随随便便拿两个人来比，只看到他所得到的，却看不到他所失去的，这有什么意义？

有次清华电台访问我：”老师你如何面对你人生中的困境？”我当场愣在那里，怎么样都想不出我这一生什么时候有过困境！后来仔细回想，才发现：我不是没有过困境，而是被常人当作” 困境”的境遇，我都当作一时的际遇，不曾在意过而已。刚服完兵役时，长子已出生却还找不到工作。我曾焦虑过，却又觉得迟早会有工作，报酬也不至于低的离谱，不曾太放在心上。念硕士期间，家计全靠太太的薪水，省吃俭用，对我而言又算不上困境。一来，精神上我过的很充实，二来我知道这一切是为了让自己有机会转行去教书( 做自己想做的事)。三十一岁才要出国，而同学正要回系上任教，我很紧张(不知道剑桥要求的有多严)，却不曾丧气。因为，我知道自己过去一直很努力，也有很满意的心得和成果，只不过别人看不到而已。我没有过困境，因为我从不在乎外在的得失，也不武断的和别人比高下，而只在乎自己内在真实的累积。

我没有过困境，因为我确实了解到：生命是一种长期而持续的累积过程，绝不会因为单一的事件而有剧烈的起伏。同时我也相信：属于我们该得的，迟早会得到；属于我们不该得的，即使一分也不可能加增。假如你可以持有相同的信念，那么人生于你也会是宽广而长远，没有什么了不得的” 困境”，也没有什么好焦虑的了。