Education

We all want physical fitness, and will pay just amount any amount of money and spend just about any amount of time to achieve it. We want to look our best, feel our best, and by all means, live as long as we possibly can.
To make all of this happen, we try to eat right, try to get as much fresh air and sunshine as possible, take our vitamins, and work our bodies as much as our bodies are willing to work.

The media keeps us well informed on the benefits of exercise, green tea, white tea, vitamins and herbs, walking….. But only recently has there been much focus on the importance of mental fitness. Yet, think about it - few things are as important as keeping our brains healthy and well-functioning.

The most important thing we can do for our bodies, physically, is to stay active. If we don’t stay physically active, our muscles will deteriorate and we’ll not only fail to get stronger, we’ll lose what strength and fitness we have. The same thing can be said of our mental fitness - it’s imperative that we stay mentally active.

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Below are a couple of articles that’ll occupy your brain cells between the Sunday paper and tonight’s “Amazing Race: All Stars!” Love that show - not only is it exciting, it actually makes geography interesting. Seriously, if you’ve never watched it with your family, I highly recommend it - it’s a great time PLUS you’ll learn more about the world around you. I promise.

Here are more opportunities to learn (I know I need all I can get!):

The Benefits of Taking a College Course Online

How Massage Alleviates Depression and Anxiety

What You Need to Know About Global Warming!

Live For the Journey, Not the Destination

Six Keys to Help You Learn Spanish Online

Remember, a day spent without learning something is a day wasted. If you only have time for one of the articles today - I’d recommend the Global Warming article(s) on Discovery.com (What You Need to Know About Global Warming). The information is somewhat unsettling and completely fascinating.

Make each brain cell work double,
~Joi

My cat and I were sorting through recipes this morning when we came across several newspaper clippings that had been around for quite a while. One was an Ann Landers column with a hard-hitting, dead-on poem by Charles Osgood. If you’ve seen it before, you can only benefit from reading it again - and if this is your first time reading it, I think it’s something you’ll enjoy.

I had cut it out years and years ago when my girls were in grade school and middle school and I could tell it made an impression on them. It did me, too - and it was a lasting one. While the poem’s main “character” is a student - the point is one we can all feel.

“There once was a pretty good student,
Who sat in a pretty good class
And was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass.

He wasn’t terrific at reading,
He wasn’t a whiz-bang at math,
But for him, education was leading
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn’t find school too exciting,
But he wanted to do pretty well,
And he did have some trouble with writing
And nobody had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine.
Five plus five didn’t always add up to 10,
A pretty good answer was nine.

The pretty good class that he sat in
Was part of a pretty good school.
And the student was not an exception,
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to
Was there in a pretty good town.
And nobody there seemed to notice
He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student in fact was
Part of a pretty good mob.
And the first time he knew what he lacked was
When he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that life could be tough.
And he soon had a sneaky suspicion
Pretty good might not be enough.

The pretty good town in our story
Was part of a pretty good state
Which had pretty good aspirations,
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
Which learned much too late,
If you want to be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

Make each moment count double,
Joi

(Reprinted in the Ann Landers column From “The Osgood File,” copyright 1986, CBS Inc.)

I know I’ve written about Write a Book Now.com on this blog before - but like all truly great things, it deserves a second mention. I’m really excited about the author, Steve Manning, and about his amazing program. In fact, attribute a great deal of my ability to write for 12 blogs and 14 websites to the information in Steve Manning’s program.

When I realized just how much I had bitten off of the blogosphere, I realized that I’d have to chew like I’d never chewed before….. or choke like a loser. The whole choking like a loser part didn’t appeal to me, so I started rounding up information to educate myself. Like the quote says, “Genius lights its own fire, but it is constantly collecting materials to keep alive the flame.”

This particular flame-feeding information was the deal maker. I printed out the PDF and quickly devoured the information - leaving many, many yellow-highlighted paragraphs in my wake. I actually started out reading it on the computer, but I kept reaching for my pen and paper so many times (to write down everything I was learning), I soon stopped reaching for them and just reached for the printer button. And that was the second above average decision I made that day.

As I said, I didn’t buy the information for the purpose of writing a book - although I’ll let you in on a little secret, it has motivated me to do just that. I keep my black, white, and yellow copy on my desk and we have every intention of getting started after the first of the year.

If you’ve ever wanted to write a book (either fiction or non-fiction), but faced one of the following problems…

• You’re certain you don’t have the time
• You can’t think of a plot
• You’re afraid you don’t have enough words at your disposal
• You’re afraid of writer’s block
• You don’t know where to start
• You aren’t sure you can do it

….this information is ready to get you started. And it’ll help you write your book faster than you ever thought possible. In fact, everything’s at your disposal to propel you to write your book in 14 days!! Two weeks. If you have several ideas kicking around inside your head, do you realize how many books you could write within a year?! This time next year, you could be giving your loved ones Christmas gifts like they never expected!

I apologize for all of the exclamation points, when I’m excited, they flow like coffee in a dorm room.

Speaking of writing many, many books, I know you’ve heard of Mark Victor Hansen (he’s a co-author of the amazing Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as dozens of others). When he saw the information, he not only said it was some of the best stuff he’d ever used, he even asked the owner of the website to speak at his next seminar! And Mark is using this information to crank out still more books!

This stuff is so powerful that folks all around the world, even absolute novices, are using these techniques to write books faster than they ever thought possible. There’s even a free email course that gets you started FAST! So if writing a book has always been your goal, your dream, your desire, scoot over to Write a Book Now.com and have a look for yourself.

The information is more of a writing course - except it’s cheaper than what you’d have to pay at a University, and you get to stay in your nice, warm home….with coffee nearby and a highlighter in your hand. I fully, fully, fully encourage any and all writers and would-be writers to get this information. For what it’s worth, I recommend it 100 percent, without any reservation whatsoever.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

You’ve heard of “building a better mousetrap,” right? How about “raising a smarter child?” There are actually things a parent can do to affect their child’s intelligence. Doing the right things results in brighter children.

So what are the right things?

1. Allow your children to make their own mistakes. If we always do things for them, they’ll never learn to do them for themselves. All they learn is how to get out of doing it.

2. Be certain they get all of their daily vitamin, and that they eat a balanced diet. A healthy body promotes a healthy mind

3. Don’t downplay the importance of their opinions. Allow, and even encourage, them to not only think for themselves but to take pride in their opinions. If your daughter loves the music of Avril Lavigne, don’t criticize her or question her taste. It’s her taste, after all!

Be proud every single time your child voices an opinion. If he/she feels comfortable enough around you to voice what may be controversial opinions - it speaks volumes of your relationship. They feel secure around you and free to let down their guard. That’s, of course, how it should be. However, if all you ever do is criticize, it won’t continue for long.

4. Encourage more reading and less television. That one’s so obvious I almost didn’t include it! If your child doesn’t like reading, keep looking until you find an author they love. Read the same books they do and discuss the characters and stories. You’ll love the Harry Potter books!

5. Spend time with your child - play board games, watch the Discovery Channel, work puzzles, read /”act out” Shakespeare….. Make learning fun. When my daughters were really young, I taught them about Harriet Tubman and the Runaway Railroad using Barbies. It was almost as fun as our animated readings of Shakespeare. All four of us are drama queens, so it got pretty hammy. I owned Lady Macbeth and she knew it.

Of course, the most important thing is to raise healthy, happy, well-adjusted children. But who’s to say they can’t be sharp as well?

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

I sound like a broken record sometimes. This, I know. But it is of the utmost importance for us to stress education. Not only in our children - in ourselves as well. Our world is so fast-paced and tech-raced these days that little —alarmingly little— time is spent trying to stretch our minds.

I don’t have to tell you that this will lead to nothing good!

Check out the following findings of a recent Geography Survey:

• Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana on a map.
• Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.
• Two-thirds didn’t know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.
• Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.
• Forty-seven percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
• Seventy-five percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
• Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.
• Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.
• Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

Check out a really good CNN article dealing with our collective lack of geography skills.

I’m off to borrow my daughter’s Geography book. I didn’t get all of the ones above correct and I’m not feeling too good about that!

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

We’re all incredibly interested in strengthening our minds, right? Right! To that end, I found a really interesting article that clues us in on the kinds of foods we should be keeping company with. A few of them were pretty expected, but some were surprises - of the pleasant variety. Check them out.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

Do you have a book inside of you (fiction or non-fiction) that’s dying to get out, but you just can’t get it started?

• …..or don’t have the time
• ….. or can’t think of a plot
• …..or have writer’s block
• …..or don’t think you have anything important to say
• …..or don’t think you have the writing talent
• …..or have something else that’s stopping you?

If you recognize yourself in any of the bullet points above (omg, I love bullet points), I have a web site that has an author that has a book - and they’re all specially designed to help you write your book faster than you ever thought possible. In fact, there’s information there that will lead you to write your book in 14 days!! Do you know how many books you could write in a year?!

I’m sure I’ve told you before, I have 12 blogs, 14 websites, 3 newsletters, and write countless online articles. Before I even began the blogs and newsletters, my work days were completely full. We wanted to launch a blog network and I knew that’d be a lot….make that A LOT….. of extra work. As much as I was committed to making the family business successful, I was more committed to the family. I wasn’t about to compromise any of my time gardening, cooking, baking, walking, doing yoga, playing tennis with my girls, watching baseball, or hanging out with my cats! My family, our hobbies and fun make up my life and I just refused to cut in on any of it.

Dilemna! I needed the day to cough up extra hours for me. I made the proposal, but it balked. Then, my husband (who must subscribe to every newsletter ever known to man or womankind) showed me an e-mail praising a book by Steve Manning. Then he showed me a introduction written by the author and asked if I wanted the book. I loved Steve’s mindset as well as his writing, so I said that I’d love to have it.

Was the book beneficial to me? Yes! Not necessarily because I’m able to maintain all of these blogs, websites, articles and newsletters….but because I’m able to do so within the same time frame I once did half as much work. I’m also now working on a book! I’m actually going to re-read Steve’s book for some refresher points, so I can get my book finished sooner.

Know this: I would never, never recommend anything to you without loving it….not just liking it….but loving it! I think of my readers as my friends, and a bad referral or recommendation might cost me a buddy or two - nothing in the world is worth that! Plus, I want to have a good reputation….I’m actually aiming for spotless, here, so I’m extremely cautious.

But more than anything, I want to be helpful to others - I want to serve some sort of a purpose with all the words that these fingers tap out each day! I want the words to all come together and make a difference in someone’s life. That’s the #1 reason I sit down at my computer each day!

Anyway, there’s my recommendation - for what it’s worth. However, I have one better than my own. I know you’ve heard of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books - they must be upwards of a gazillion now.

Mark Victor Hansen (co-author of the series and many, many others) is also a fan of Steve’s. In fact, when he saw the information, he not only said it was some of the best stuff he’d ever used, he even asked the owner of the website to speak at his next seminar! And Mark is using this information to crank out still more books!

So, if one of your dreams is to write a book, please do yourself an elephantine, enormous, extensive, gargantuan, and big fat favor and visit the website below. There’s even a free email course that gets you started FAST - Are you ready to Write a Book NOW?!

Make each moment count double,
~Joi

Below is a link to a very interesting article on Power Learning. That’s a concept I can get behind!

Make each moment count double,
Joi

I found a website that’s deliciously entertaining yet very educational as well. How Stuff Works is the ultimate overachieving website - it attempts to explain the way the world, and everything in it, works. That’s all.

It’s really a great site. Check it out, you’ll love that you did.

Make each moment count double,
~Joi