C'mon Get Happy!

Research has shown that happiness is highly contagious.

Psychologies magazine reports that if you become happy, any friend who lives within a mile has a 25% of becoming happier, too. And a friend of that friend is 10% liklier to be happy.

Call it the ripple effect: you're happy and so are those in your circle.

Less Junk Mail?

Is it just me, or since the economy took a slide, are you getting less junk mail: solicitations, catalogs and the like?

Silver lining, I'd say.

Free Seminar. Plus, Hot Breakfast and a Free Book!

During an economic downturn, professionals in the training, development, organizational development and HR arenas are vulnerable.

Making it more critical than ever to link your value to the bottom line.

So if you live in Atlanta, you'll want to attend a free seminar sponsored by Fort Hill Company with Cal Wick, co-author of Getting Your Money's Worth from Training & Development, on Thursday, June 25 from 8:30-11:30 a.m.

Five reasons you'll want to attend:

* Hot breakfast
* A copy of the book (a $25 value)
* Access to a world-renowned thought leader during an interactive Q&A
* Networking opportunities
* Best practices insight
* Ammo to help you measure or program learning activities at your firm

Register here: http://atlanta25jun09-rss.eventbrite.com/

Transform Your Life in 10s.

Suzy Welch, former editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, claims you can transform your life by thinking in blocks of tens.

As in: how will a specific decision--take a new job, end a reltionship--impact your life in 10 minutes, months or years.

It's an interesting way to approach decision-making.

Learn more at http://www.suzywelch101010.com/.

Tools for Reinvention.

These days it seems everyone is thinking about Their Life, Version 2.0 (or 5.0, depending on age).

Routinely, folks ask me to help them polish their resumes, make a cyber introduction or brainstorm career possiblities.

And I'm happy to do it. Many people have lent me a hand over the years and believe in paying it foward.

But there are experts out there in the field of personal reinvention.

If now's the time for a change, check out http://www.reinvention-institute.com/ for inspiration.

Winning Similes and Metaphors.

Enjoy these examples from Sharp Objects, a dark novel by Gillian Flynn:

I fell asleep, accidentally and hard at nine o’clcok, woke to an angry sun at seven the next moring.

John’s face, despite a night of drinking and very little sleep, was like a petal.

My mother’s pigs were pricked with chemicals till they plumped and reddened like squirting cherries, till their legs couldn’t support their juicy girth.

Challenging Nonprofit Assumptions.

Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies has been called a "heretic" for challenging the status quo of the nonprofit world.

You decide if the fund-raising model of the past 50 years--direct mail--needs skewering.

The Nonprofit Technology Network,http://www.nten.org/taxonomy/term/960, features Rovner's latest "seven things everybody wants," which involve leveraging the internet for optimum engagement.

Quitting to Win.

The Dip: A little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (and When to Stick), a slim volume by Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo, argues that winners do, in fact, quit.

They just need to know when to throw in the proverbial towel.

In fact, winners, he says, quit fast, often and without guilt. And then they commit to conquering obstacles he identifies as Dips, Cul-de-Sacs and Cliffs.

Great, quick reading that will get you thinking and help you manuever the inevitable lulls in your career.

Hog Wild.

Celebrities Jeremy Irons, Lauren Hutton, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper--the iconic star of Easy Rider--are all members of the exclusive Guggenheim Motorcyle Club, founded by the museum's former director.

Less well-connected but no less complicated are the characters on FX's Sons of Anarchy, http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/#Nav/Homepage. The show features asphalt-peeling dialogue.

Glorious Language, Part 1.

Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of the hit indie film Juno has a couple of uber-colorful phrases in the May 15 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

I quote them here for your inspiration:

* Laurel Canyon, that picturesque gash of a neighborhood I like to call "Hollywood's cleavage."
* A pickle the size of a Wiffle bat.
* Ah, reality TV: where opportunists delight in exposing opportunism!

Eat These Websites.

Point your browser to these websites and commence drooling.

http://www.smittenkitchen.com/: Because the photos have been dubbed "food porn."

http://www.thisiswhyyourefat.com/: Because "totchos" are a just one creative, caloric culprit of cellulite.

http://www.artisanalfoods.com/: Because Chinese black rice and California wild black sage honey sound noir-ly delish.

www.jerky.com: Because you secretly crave Slim Jims, but alligator jerky sounds sort of... dangerous. In a palatable way.

"After Watching That, I Feel Dirty."

That's what my pal Sherry said after the discouraging finale of the Celebrity Apprentice last night.

Our unsettling observations:

* There was an Insider/Outsider component. Joan Rivers is the ultimate insider.
* Annie Duke was composed while Joan was emotional. Seems we like our women unhinged.
* Annie was reasoned; Joan was reactionary. The audience roared for Joan's nasty put-downs of Annie.
* Annie, was the "invisisble" mother of 4, while Joan's daughter Melissa, was front-and-center with her fawning and freak antics.
* There was reverse ageism. Joan's stamina was repeatedly noted.
* There was more than a whiff of xenophobia as Joan's charity was positioned for Americans, while Annie's aids refugees.

So why does Sherry feel dirty? Why should we all?

Because Donald Trump declared Joan a "role model." And "honorable."

It is discouraging to see a female pioneer in the world of standup comedy diss another female pioneer in the male-dominated world of poker. Women are all too often still their own worst enemies.

More than dirty, I feel dejected.

Chin Up.

Back in December 2008, Entrepreneur Wil Schoter wrotes for the Atlanta Business Chronicle about how defeated bosses can potentially spread a deadly malaise to staffers.

Not that you have to be Pollyanna-ish. But leaders need to step up with optimism.

Check it his column at: http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/12/29/smallb2.html.

Caught the actor/author/Parkinson's Disease activist Michael J. Fox's special on optimism on ABC Thursday. Good stuff--literally.

For a second shot of upbeat, log onto: http://abc.go.com/specials/michaeljfox/index.

Nature Nurtures.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that a 20-minute walk in a park enhances cognitive performance, but walking in a city does not.

The study, reported in the May/June 2009 issue of Psychology Today, explains that unlike urban settings that require intense concentration, greenery, while stimulating, provides gentle concentration, giving our mental muscles a way to refresh.

So if you want to renew your energy, walk among trees.

Smarter After Surfing?

Can Google searches benefit your brain? The UCLA Center on Aging says yes.

Volunteer subjects aged 55-74 who regularly web-surfed underwent MRI scans. The results showed that specific brain regions were activated by online browsing in ways they weren't by reading.

Seems that frontal lobe stimulation--home to complex reasoning--is stronger when logging on.

Query on.

Apple Polishing.

The first full week in May is Teacher Appreciation Week.


I got to thinking about teachers when I received a graduation notice from one of my best friend's children.


So, a big shout-out to Mr. Michelob, the lone male teacher in my elementary school. He let me hang out in the "stacks," the bookcases heaving with volumes in the back of his classroom.


In lieu of recess, I happily read. And formed a life-long love of words and books and ideas.


Here's to you, Mr. Michelob.

Not Your Mama's Website.

Savvy Auntie, http://www.savvyauntie.com/, is the first (only?) site for aunts by relation or by choice: "cool aunts, great aunts, godmothers and all women who love kids."

The lighthearted, interactive site includes advice on supporting nieces and nephews through divorce, Mother's Day infertility blues and such dispatches as "Aunt and the City" and "Auntipedia."

"Oily Cocoa-Butter Narcissism."

That delicious phrase, describing actor Matthew McConaughey in his new movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, is taken from Owen Gleiberman's review in the May 8 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

And how's this for an editorial bulls-eye: "Dimpled vivacity," his characterization of McConaughey's co-star Jennifer Garner.

I'd call the writing "trenchant criticism." It's my must-read dose of weekly pop culture.

King of Seafood.

Gorged on fresh seafood in Gulf Shores at King Neptune's Restaurant. This family-run eatery--Al and Diane Sawyer and their son Tony are the affable proprietors--offers honest regional specialities including a refreshing, vinegar-spiked West Indies salad, briny, palm-sized raw oysters, spicy steamed Royal Red shrimp and cornmeal-crusted fried green tomatoes.

Walk off your excesses at nearby Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge amid white dunes.
http://www.kingneptuneseafoodrestaurant.com/