Interesting factoids, like how many Americans practice yoga, spread like wildfire across the Web and blogosphere. But getting any perspective on those factoids can be much harder to find, and in some cases, impossible.

This morning I uncovered a web-based information vortex when I tried to find out how many Americans currently practice yoga. I fell into a circular spiral, with no end point, and lost track of time while trying to find out more. I found numerous blogs and news articles published around the world in 2009, all citing a factoid released by the Yoga Journal based on a poll conducted by Roper Research:

A recent Roper poll, commissioned by Yoga Journal, found that 11 million Americans do yoga occasionally and 6 million perform it regularly.

Source: A January 2009 article published by Reuters. This article can be downloaded from Yoga Journal. More detailed information is not publicly available from Yoga Journal (at least not by online means).

None of the journalists or bloggers who refer to this factoid can explain what is meant by “regular” versus “occasional” practice. (The Reuters article released by Yoga Journal does not define these distinctions.)

What’s Interesting Is What They Don’t Say

Having found so many references to the same slim source, I find myself intensely curious about the questions that are not answered:

• Does the factoid refer only to Americans who live in the US, or does it include Canadians too?
• How many men practice yoga?
• How many people, by age group, practice yoga? Are people trending older or younger?
• How often do regular practitioners practice yoga, and why?
• How do occasional practitioners differ from regular practitioners?
• What factors might motivate someone to shift from occasional to regular practice?
• How many classes do regular practitioners take on a weekly or monthly basis?
• How often do regular yoga practitioners do their asanas at home versus in a class environment?
• Are occasional practitioners more likely to attend class, or follow a DVD at home, or run through their own set of asanas at home?
• How do their spending habits differ?
• Is yoga practice spread evenly across household income levels, or are there interesting patterns?
• What about educational levels?
• What are the regional variations? Coastal or urban dwellers versus “Heartland?”
• How many people teach yoga?
• What’s the (forgive the expression) “viral impact” of regular practitioners? How many newcomers become yoga practitioners as a result of referrals by friends?

You can comb through 3 pages of Google search results and find nothing beyond citations of the same factoid, with pointers to the same Reuters article and the same one-sentence factoid.

Nowhere is there any in-depth information about the actual poll: when it was conducted, how many people were surveyed, using what methodology, how statistically valid the sample is, etc., etc. There’s no information about the specific questions posed in the survey.

The final report from Roper is not readily available online, most likely because it was proprietary research for Yoga Journal, conducted for reasons that aren’t explained. (We can guess: for advertising rate cards.)

But it leaves us hungering for more… It would have been a real service to the yoga community for Yoga Journal to have shared deeper insights than the slim factoid that is currently circulating around the Internet. It’s hard to believe they would commission research from Roper simply to find out how many people practice yoga…

Perhaps the next time they commission research they’ll structure the deal to permit a broader sharing of results.

If you like diversity during your day, operating a small business out of your home can have its charms. Today has been one of those days that mixes business and pleasure in delightful ways.

While awaiting replies to outstanding client proposals, I’ve been able to juggle a variety of tasks:

• reaching out to former colleagues (and testing a new USB headset with Skype while doing so)
• answering questions of the loan processing agent who is helping with our refi
• updating LinkedIn contacts and some project wikis
• successfully installing Bootcamp to run Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro
• playing fetch with 2 kitties
• preparing Anadama bread so the smell of fresh-baked bread will greet my husband when he arrives home from work
• catching up on blogging, replying to comments, etc.

I also spent 45 minutes on the phone with a Mac specialist who’s a network geek. He was able to reconfigure my Apple Server to fix some DNS issues, and thanks to remote access, was able to do from his home office. Hooray!

So while I await follow-up on biz dev, I sit here at my office window enjoying the birds in the maple tree, the promise of spring flowers, and the purring kitty by my mouse pad. (There must be a reason they call it a “mouse.”)

It’s a lovely work-life balance.

As a busy yoga enthusiast, I sometimes wonder what would happen if yoga studios within a given metro area agreed to an “Open Table” model for class bookings. (Open Table is a centralized reservation service for restaurants that operates in major cities, including iPhone and other smartphone apps.)

In an ideal world I’d take 6-8 weekly classes in succession from the same teacher at the same studio, to benefit from her careful class planning and sequencing. But in 2 years of taking classes I’ve never been able to attend all 8 classes due to family or work-related schedule conflicts. As a result I’ve joined a second local studio to have an alternate place where I can take classes when I face a conflict with my primary studio. Each one uses MindBody for booking purposes, so I have two separate accounts now.

From a busy student’s perspective, it would be really great if I could book classes using a centralized reservation system that showed me all the classes available today (or at later dates) within, say, a 20-mile radius. For each class on offer I’d want to see information about the yoga style or tradition, the teacher, the relative difficulty of the class, prerequisites (if any), time, location, pricing, etc. Like the Open Table restaurant model it would be nice to see something comparable to menus and photographs of the venue, if it’s a studio I’m unfamiliar with. I’d also want to be able to filter the class listings by teacher name, yoga tradition (such as Anusara), difficulty level, etc.

This raises a larger question of the business model. Would I pay the central booking service, and have it disburse funds to the studio? (My personal preference as a student.) Would there be a finder’s fee paid by the booking service to the studio, with students paying for the class directly to the studio? I don’t know. Certainly from the student’s perspective, being able to book and pay online in a single transaction is the most convenient approach.

What I do know is, I’d take more classes if such a booking system were available, one that allowed me to book and take classes on the spur of the moment, as time permits. Such an approach could be financially beneficial to the studio owners, if they could fill up more classes… They might even offer specials on classes that are generally sparsely attended.

Perhaps this is something that Mindbody could explore.

We’re in the midst of refinancing our home, to take advantage of the current attractive rates. It’s been an eye-opening experience to see how the process has evolved since we last refinanced 5-8 years ago.

The lenders’ reliance upon web-based data collection services has certainly eased our burden, and saved us time in supplying the needed information. Interactions with the loan processing agent take place by phone (or less satisfactorily, via an online document tracking mechanism.) We deliver follow-up documents to the loan processing agent by scanning and emailing them, or rarely, by faxing them. (I believe the lender’s interactions with our insurance agents are still via fax…)

The last time we did this, faxing was the primary data delivery channel. This time, faxing is a hassle, as we no longer have a dedicated fax line, and the fax machine is connected to a phone line on an exceptional basis only. Scanning is more reassuring because we know what the document looks like before it gets sent.

The other huge benefit to this more technology-savvy process is its speed: it took less than a week to go from the decision, over breakfast on Saturday, to explore refi rates to the point at which we had received conditional approval in writing and a locked-in rate. The appraiser showed up 2 days later.

To our surprise our current lender did not offer an attractive refi package, despite our stellar track record at making payments; their rate schedule on what constitutes “conforming loan amounts” by county is years out of date. So they’re losing our business.

It’s a brave new world out there, for those lucky enough to qualify for refinancing. The rates are certainly attractive.

I wish some agency that specializes in intelligent database mining and direct marketing would help my local phone company stop wasting trees on fruitless direct mail pieces.

Here’s the deal: my recycle bin now contains somewhere between 5 and 10 pieces of unopened direct mail offers from Qwest, addressed to my home address and home-based office (2 different accounts from their POV). All of these pieces have been delivered within the past 2 days.

All tout some variation of their so-called high-speed Internet service. Or service bundles based on high-speed Internet bandwidth. Meanwhile, Qwest can only deliver 256K of bandwidth to this location — a situation that has not changed in >10 years.

Living in the Northwest as I do, where the swaths of clear-cut forest are painfully visible, receiving so many useless direct mail pieces is offensive. It makes me sick to think of how many trees are being cut down to produce paper that will be wasted so fruitlessly.

I wish someone at Qwest (or their agency) would figure out how to link their service capabilities database (NOC operations side of the house) with their prospecting databases. This may be politically difficult, given internal silos, but surely it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to develop this data mining and targeting strategy. They could fund it by the improvement in their conversion ratios, by the savings generated from not sending offers that are 100% guaranteed to fail.

If they had a more intelligent data mining and targeting strategy, they would know that this address (and others like mine) should be eliminated from their prospect database until they can radically increase bandwidth delivery to these locations.

Right now, based on actual bandwidth to my office, they are so far from being competitive that it’s laughable — and it tarnishes their brand when they make claims that they cannot deliver on. As a result of these poor marketing practices, whenever I see a direct mail offer from Qwest, my first reaction is “stupid” and “wasteful” — “not sustainable.” They’ve trained me not to open their mailings. Do they even care about their brand?

They send me dozens of useless direct mail pieces every month, not to mention many telemarketing calls that I no longer answer. (I’ve probably told their CSRs a dozen times that until they can deliver >10-15 MB to this location, they have zero chance of persuading me to switch carriers.) What a waste of resources.

Will someone please help this marketing department evolve from the Stone Age?

Seattle is well known for lots of things. Besides the rainy climate, dead rock stars, environmental activists, micro-brews and mediocre sports teams, we’re home to more than our share of global brands — Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft and Boeing among others. Innovation and creativity thrive here. Perhaps fueled by all those lattes we drink. Not to mention the big minds and free spirits who choose to live here.

Less well known (except among book publishers and authors), Seattleites read more books per capita than people in almost any other city in the US. So it’s not surprising that established or aspiring authors visit Seattle to pitch their latest books. We enthusiastically support an ecosystem of independent booksellers, as well as one of the most active public library systems in the nation.

Last night Daniel Pink, prolific author, came to town to promote his latest book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I loved his prior book, A Whole New Mind, so I persuaded 3 friends to join me for Pink’s presentation. Little did I know that the experience would be more about promotion and less about substance.

Our reputation for rain, lattes, and liberal attitudes was clearly top-of-mind for Daniel Pink. He quickly shed his formal navy suit jacket when he realized he was the only guy in the auditorium wearing a suit. (It reminded me that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a guy in a suit and tie in Seattle.)

Sadly, Pink committed the classic sin of underestimating his audience by talking down to those well-read, if casually dressed Seattleites. He put more emphasis on entertainment value than content in the substance of his remarks — clearly his goal was to persuade us to buy his new book rather than educate us. So Pink’s attempted low-brow humor — frequent apologies for using big words like “fiduciary responsibility” or “cognitive work” — kind of missed the mark. I don’t know — maybe that goes over well in the Heartland, but not here.

During the drive home one of my friends, a retired restaurateur, complained that his 60-minute speech felt more like “an outline” than a solid presentation. Hmm, I said. So this morning I compared his 18-minute presentation in London at TED to his hour-long pitch in Seattle last night. And she was absolutely right: he delivered more substance in 18 minutes to those Londoners than he did to his book loving audience in Seattle.

During the Q&A session it became clear that the Seattle audience was full of educators, entrepreneurs, local government officials, business managers, execs, retirees, and out-of-work talent looking for jobs. So we probably understood his vocabulary and allusions.

Another social sin was Microsoft-bashing (a hometown sport, but not one people welcome when outsiders do it). I sat next to a friend who is a director-level exec at Microsoft, and she had just blogged favorably about Drive. Her wince when Pink knocked “Microsofties” was pained. [Disclosure: as a former Apple employee who has never worked at Microsoft, I enjoy the bashing but recognize that it can be provocative to a Seattle audience.]

So, my advice to presenters and book promoters: know your audience.

Every now and then you come across a gem to share broadly with others: What Matters Now, a compilation of great ideas by brilliant thinkers and change agents. Agent provocateur Seth Godin has produced this compilation and offers it as a free downloadable ebook from his blog. He encourages like-minded folk who are sick and tired of the status quo to do likewise.

Each of these big thinkers has offered up pearls of wisdom from their life’s experience or their professional adventures — and some of their notions will resonate for days after in your mind. It’s easy to consume: one big idea per page.

For example, consider this gem from Daniel Pink under the heading “Autonomy.”

Pink writes that “management isn’t natural” if you want people to engage their hearts, minds and creative passions at work. Management is great for ensuring compliance, but not for eliciting break-through ideas or world-changing products. I love Pink’s quote in What Matters Now:

If we want engagement, and the mediocrity-busting results it produces, we have to make sure people have autonomy over the four most important aspects of their work:

• Task — what they do
• Time — when they do it
• Technique — how they do it
• Team — whom they do it with

After a decade of truly spectacular underachievement, what we need now is less management and more freedom — fewer individual automatons and more autonomous individuals.

Daniel Pink’s musings on the sources of motivation help me to understand why I find life as an independent consultant vastly more rewarding than climbing the corporate ladder inside a traditional enterprise.

Pink’s insights also explain why my husbands and friends (all trapped within management-dominated enterprises) complain so often, and so bitterly, about their jobs. No doubt their frustration is caused by lack of control over 1 or more of the 4 items cited by Pink. I can offer advice on how to improve their situations, but if they’re tightly controlled by managers or constrained by their understanding of  “the system” — the way things work here — they can see no light at the end of their personal tunnels as long as they continue to work for those enterprises. And that’s a crying shame, because these are brilliant, talented, caring and experienced people at the height of their careers.

Unlike them I chose to exit the corporate job environment 15 years ago. As an independent consultant, I can control or influence all 4 of those aspects of my work, so what I do professionally is meaningful and intrinsically motivating; offers opportunities for out-of-the-box thinking and resourceful problem solving; and allows me to make lasting contributions to my clients in ways they find distinctive and memorable. Thanks to Daniel Pink, now I understand why.

And thanks to Seth Godin for sharing these contributions from such brilliant thinkers. What a gift to all would-be change agents for 2010!

Reflecting back on 2009 and looking ahead to 2010, I came across a great quote that got me thinking:

You are the same today as you are going to be five years from now, except for two things: the people with whom you associate and the books you read.

— Source: Charles Jones, cited in Attracting Perfect Customers

What a wonderful thought. It’s an inspiration for being more mindful in 2010.

What You Choose to Read

You have lots of control over what you choose to read. Are you reading the materials that are most nourishing for what you need right now, in your personal life or to take your career where you want it to lead?

I’m a voracious reader, as my friends and family know. But do I always take enough time before diving into a book or magazine, or a blog, to consider why I’m reading this one instead of something else? If I thought about its impact 5 years hence, would I choose differently?

The People in Your Circle

I’m blessed with a terrific spouse, a wonderful circle of friends, and a large and loving family. Holiday times like this provide ample opportunities to remember such blessings, and say thanks.

But as I think about the quote from above, I’m interested in creative ways to expand my circle of friends and associates. Yes, social network tools are one path for doing that, but I prize more experiential ways to meet people, via thoughtful exchanges by phone or face-to-face.

Food for thought: Following a trade show a few months ago, my husband shared his boss’ game plan when attending events or conferences: he takes time to identify the most interesting or smartest person he encountered that day, and invite him or her to dinner or coffee. That’s an approach I’d like to put into practice in 2010. It sounds like a fabulous way to meet people who can spark whole new ideas or opportunities.

For 2010, I’m looking forward to meeting new people from whom to learn and expand my horizons, so I in turn can make a greater contribution to friends and family, clients and the larger community.

It’s that time of year again, time to review what worked (and what didn’t) in 2009, imagine new possibilities, dream, and set intentions for the coming year. I’ve been enjoying the process of setting some actionable goals for 2010, while identifying some larger aspirations that I’d like to translate into action.

To prepare my plan for 2010 I’ve been reading a bunch of books, magazines and online resources.

The challenge, of course, is how to make sure you follow through on the New Year’s resolutions, once past the early enthusiasm and first few weeks of good intentions…

At the advice of friends, I’ve decided to experiment with a new online service that helps people plan and track progress on their life’s goals.

I’ve subscribed to the online service called Mindbloom, to see if its playful technology-assisted approach can help keep me on track… The UI is fun and very easy to learn. Each of the leaves in the tree illustrated here represents a goal, a source of inspiration, and a set of planned actions with target follow-through dates. The founders believe that you can accomplish big goals by breaking them down into smaller actions, things you can accomplish on a day-by-day basis.

So far the service looks promising, although I’ve encountered a number of bugs. The service is very new, so it’s clear the software is still in the shake-down phase, the functionality stripped to the core essentials.

My cats like the sound track, a bird tweeting in the background, but after the first few encounters, I find it cloying and annoying. It’s now turned off.

There’s a conflict between a number of the service’s assumptions and my desires; at present there’s no way to make my personal preferences override Mindbloom’s defaults, so I’m not yet convinced I’ll stick with the service.

But for now, I’m hopeful that the Mindbloom approach will be more fruitful than endless cascades of to-do lists and Post-It notes, followed by forgetfulness, distractions and then regrets. I’ll give it a shot, and see if my track record for completed New Year’s resolutions in 2010 improves as a result.

It will be interesting to see if Mindbloom can function as a virtual “personal coach” to keep me on track, and gently prompt me to make good on my intentions. If so, 2010 will prove to be a way better year than 2009 has been. And that will be great for me, my family, my friends and my business.

This year a significant proportion of the greeting cards we’ve received have been assembled from digital content created by our family members and friends. Most of these cards feature family photos and/or snapshots of peak moments throughout the year; a few are totally handmade, artsy, often collages with no digital elements.

What strikes me is the way the popularity of user-created content in online and social networking arenas may be subtly influencing how people prefer to communicate these days via holiday greeting cards.

Clearly, it takes more effort to produce personalized cards than simply buying and signing mass-market cards from Hallmark. Given how busy most people are during the holiday season, you have to assume the trend toward self-made cards and letters reflects fundamental human needs to connect on a deeper level, to find outlets for creative expression, share funny moments, and so on.

We’ve really enjoyed this outpouring of personalized greeting cards this year. And wish we had reciprocated in a similar fashion…