It’s so perfect that the Beatles chose Ringo Starr to sing that song because… well, his voice could have used a little help.

The truth is, we all need a little help from time to time, especially when the going gets tough. Well good news: our Supporters section is finally online, which means we can all get the help we need as we work towards our goals!

The next time you create your game plan, invite a friend or two to support you as you work towards your goals. If you’re invited to become a supporter by someone else, give it a try. It will only take a little time and it can make a big difference.

Every time your friend needs a little support, you’ll receive an email message. But you’re also free to send messages of encouragement, tips or advice at any time. Remember to be creative. Sometimes an image can say it all.

In the future, we’ll me adding more ways for members to support each other along the path to greater well-being.

Until then, good luck and have fun!

Kerry

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Claude: So, Michel. Tell us about San Francisco…

Michel: It was fantastic. We had several discussions with potential co-branding partners like NBC Universal and LaPoste.net–France’s national postal service. That one might sound a little strange but LaPoste.net is a giant portal and they’re always looking for valuable content. They’re also very interest in the well-being of their employees.

Claude: Any other interesting leads?

Michel: Oh yeah. We had a great talk with Freddy Mini, the CEO of Netvibes, who’s super interested in inpowr and has even agreed to become a member of our board!

…

Claude: Tell us about your strategy for developing inpowr…

Michel: Sure. Our strategy has four pillars: 1) Develop the potential of our platform and work towards maturity, as represented by lifelogs; 2) Develop mini versions of inpowr (like Slide) and distribute them as widely as possible across platforms like MySpace, Facebook, Netvibes, Viadeo, Orkut, Ning, etc.; 3) Develop a corporate version of our platform specifically for wellness programs within large corporations. That’s part of the whole movement towards Business 2.0 and; 4) Develop a version for a younger audience, say 8 to 15, that meets their specific needs better than our current platform.

Claude: You mentioned Ning. Tell us a little about the model of viral networks.

Michel: Our approach is similar to that of Ning. We don’t force members to invite other people to use the platform. They do it because they realize the benefits of building links to other people in the community. The nature of the platform encourages viral growth. Our Supporters section, is one obvious place that will happen and it should be online very soon.

Claude: Sounds like you have a pretty clear vision but I’m guessing it’s going to take some funding to get there. Can you tell us a bit about your revenue model?

Michel: Sure. We have four: Contextual advertising, Co-Branding, Licensing and Apps-sharing.

Claude: Right. That will help you keep inpowr going, but how will you fund the development of the platform in the short term?

Michel: Our goal is to become the hub of wellness in the next 18 months. that means THE platform for people seeking the tools, content and community they need to improve their well-being. To do that, we’re seeking $5 US.

Claude: Thanks for sharing, Michel. I look forward to the next installment!

Check out this video interview with Loic Lemeur on Seesmic.

The inpowr team.

The sun is out and and so are about 7,000 people from around the world, and they’re all here at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. In the words of Expo organizers at O’Reilly, here’s why:

“Web 2.0 technologies are empowering us in ways we could only have imagined even just a few years ago. We’re able to build more, connect more, have more fun, sell more stuff, share more than ever before—and do it all faster. But as the pace of change and innovation accelerates, separating signal from noise, useful from annoying, genuine from fluff becomes increasingly challenging.”

The inpowr team is psyched to be back in San Francisco, a year after we first launched at the Web 2.0 Expo Launch Pad. This time around, we’re here to tap the industry’s leading minds, share ideas, meet potential co-branding partners and hopefully drum up some funding for our next round of development, commercialization and marketing.

The bloggers are out in force too and there’s no shortage of updates and info on what’s going on here at the show.

Check out the Web 2.0 Blog, Venture Beat, or Tom Smoke’s Digital Finest for all the latest.

Stay tuned for new developments and enjoy this blast from the past:

The inpowr team

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The easy answer is that many areas in our lives are interrelated. For example: my level of energy and my eating habits are related. Those two might also be related to how I feel about my body.

Another reason is that sometimes when you work on one aspect of your life, you discover it has an impact on some other areas as well. If I lessen some of the worries in my life, I might find my mind is clearer at work and I do a better job.

The simple act of grouping the cards together in a way that’s meaningful to you is already a positive step in your life. You can further the process by choosing a goal to work on and planning the steps or actions you’ll take to help achieve your goal. Later on, you can see how your actions affected your well-being and draw your own conclusions about those relationships.

Here’s a concrete example of what I’m describing. When you visit the Community section, you’ll see all 36 areas of life ranked by their current level of well-being in the inpowr community.

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When you click on a “related goals” link, you’ll see the goals people were working on that had an impact on that particular area of life. To an outsider, the link between the two might seem a little weird… Hmmm. She was working on her relationship with her mom but she feels better about her surroundings. This is where it gets fun. Dig a little.

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Click on the “Testimonials” link and you’ll be able to read personal insights and conclusions from inpowr members and you can go back and track their progress from day to day. There’s a wealth of learning in the collective experiences of humanity and we’re finally starting to harness it.

I heartily encourage everyone to share as much of their experiences as they feel comfortable with. The more we share, the more we can all learn from one another.

We’re all individuals but we’re a lot like the various aspects of our lives: intimately interrelated.

Have fun!

Kerry

1) motivating, interesting or fun so that you feel like doing it on a daily basis. Feel free to experiment. One way to help achieve your goals is to link them to an action that gives you genuine pleasure.

2) clear: the actions that you choose should be concrete and tangible; try to avoid things that are too vague, abstract or metaphysical. For example: instead of saying “do more exercise; you could say “do 20 minutes of riding each day.”

3) realistic: it’s a good idea to start with simple actions that can be easily integrated into your daily routine. Try to avoid having too many things on your plate all at once.

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The first part of the Community section is online now. It’s a great place to start when you want to see what other people are doing to achieve their goals!

Good luck and Have fun!

Speaking of fun: inpowr has a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=inpowr&init=q
So join the group and be part of the dialogue.

The inpowr team

inpowr was designed to help users learn from one another by harnessing the collective experiences of the community. And I’m super happy to announce that the first part of the Community section is now online to help us all do just that. Here’s how it works.

The first page lists all 36 areas of life ranked by their impact on the well-being of community members. The area at the top of the page––in this case Reasoning–is the area in which users are currently experiencing the highest overall level of well-being. The lower down you go on the list, the lower the average current level of well-being. If you click on the blue “related goals” link, you’ll see all the goals people are working on within that area of life.

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In the very near future, you’ll also have access to testimonials from other inpowr members; tips on books, videos, techniques and other cool things that have helped them along the way; and links to a host of professional services related to that specific goal.

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Another great function that will be available soon: when you click on a specific goal or action, you’ll be taken to the profile page of that member (provided he or she chose to share). Once you’re on that member’s profile page, you can write them a message of support or encouragement, ask a question, share your own experiences or even ask them to help you with your own goals.

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As I write this post, we have 3659 betatesters who are working on a total of 5700 goals. We’ve only just begun and already there’s an incredible bank of human experiences available for each of us to draw upon. What’s great, is that more and more people are choosing to share their experiences. Imagine what we’d learn from one another if we kept everything bottled up for ourselves.

Now imagine what we can learn from one another if we open up and share!

Kerry Fleming

The problem is that as the year wears on, the decision becomes less and less firm. We lose our resolve. It’s a classic. We’ve all been there.

Truth be told, good habits are hard to form. And bad ones are hard to break. There are lots of explanations as to why it’s so hard. Most of them relate to behavior patterns, cognitive associations and sometimes plain laziness. One group of researchers at MIT in Boston point to neural activity patterns. Whatever the explanation, one thing is clear: we all need a little help.

Lois Nightingale, PhD, has a great list of straightforward tips and tools to help people initiate changes in their lives and turn those changes into lasting habits. Check out her site. It’s definitely worth a read.

inpowr wasn’t developed specifically to help people break old habits or develop new ones, but it certainly is an excellent platform to help you along the way. By creating your game plan and confirming your actions on a daily basis, you keep your resolution clearly in mind. As you strive to maintain your commitment you can jot down your thoughts and feelings about the things that help you and the obstacles you encounter along the way.

In the near future, we’ll be adding the Community section––which will help you find out how other people have achieved success; and the Supporters section––so you can enlist the help of friends and family when the going gets rough (as it inevitably does).

Some people give up at the first sign of weakness. “You see, I knew I couldn’t do it.”
I think there’s a more positive message to give yourself:
I don’t have to be perfect, I only have to improve… little by little.

On behalf of everyone at inpowr, I wish you health, happiness, love and strength in 2008.

May the holidays bring peace and happiness to you, your family and friends
and may the New Year be a source of well-being.