Are you smarter than a fourth-grader?

As we were leaving for school this morning, my daughter, Julia turns to me and says,

"My coconut shampoo is good luck. Usually I have a great life, but lately even more things have been going good than usual. You should really try it."

Lessons learned from Julia:
1. Life really is great. We live in a beautiful place, the weather is lovely, the fires have been put out, we have more than any reasonable person could ever want.
2. When you find something that makes your life better, share it.

This is not going to be one of those syrupy sweet essays on "reasons to be happy." I read an entire book on that topic when I was in the middle of Indiana with nothing to do (I believe those last two prepositional phrases are redundant). The book should have been titled, "Reasons to be happy if you have the IQ of a pineapple."

Julia's advice was as different from that book as the difference between telling someone to be happy by thinking of puppies and actually giving someone a puppy.

Having learned this from Julia this morning, here are some things on the Internet that improved my day today.

Good blogs.
I confess. I rarely read blogs. Most of them are about the boring lives of people I don't know.

"Today it rained. I walked the dog and then I ate an apple. Then Al Gore came over and beat me with a stick for wasting all the technology that went into the Internet on drivel like this. "


The Savvy Entrepreneur - is a welcome change. The recent posts on avoiding procrastination are highly recommended. I agree completely with her take on marketing as well. I get so tired of these small business sites that act as if the key to business success is scoring high on search engines. If you are interested in small business, this blog is worth a read.

Tom Peters - is my favorite management author of all time. His mantra of,

"If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, cut it out."

has been a guide for how I run my business and for every judo organization in which I have held office. The world is full of people who are afraid to take action because the guy sitting next to them might give them a dirty look. Tom Peters is a breath of fresh air.

Great sites
I yahoo everything. I have been on yahoo so long I actually have my first name as an email address DrAnnmaria@yahoo.com .

If you aren't a member, go to My Yahoo and sign up.

Perhaps some background is necessary. My life gives real meaning to the term "Road Warrior". Between travel to conduct evaluations, review grants, do on-site training and for judo camps, tournaments, clinics and meetings, my longest single stretch at home in the past 19 years has been for six weeks. I go through about a laptop a year. In addition, there are three desks and six computers in my house.

So... the services yahoo provides on-line, like bookmarks of your favorite sites, a notepad where you can keep your to-do list are indispensable to me. I never know which computer I will be using or what city I might be using it in. I can't decide if the notepad or calendar is my favorite. I do like the fact that the calendar emails me to remind me about meetings and sends a text message to my iPhone. I like the local Yahoos so I can look up wherever I am. There is website hosting, an HTML editor, you can customize your page (so at least one thing will be constant no matter where I am).

Unbelievably, all of this is free!

-----------------REQUIRED JUDO TIP ------------------------------
Build a bigger repertoire, both standing and on the mat. Most people do the same two or three techniques over and over. When you come to practice and there is only you, a child two-thirds your size, an old man twice your age and two yellow belts, pull out a crash pad and do every throw you know on each one of them. Do moving uchikomi on each of them and see what throws give you trouble. Try to analyze what you are doing wrong. Do randori with each of them and try those throws that you usually cannot get on others of your skill and size. Do the same with your matwork moves. Let them pin you and you escape. Do matwork starting from on your stomach or all fours and attack from there. When you have weaker opponents, use this as an opportunity to work on your weak points. If you use it to work on your strengths then you are just a bully, plus you will still have those chinks in your armor.