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With the economy of today there are many businesses that have seen the signs that there business is bound to fail if they don’t turn things around in a hurry. If you are in a quandary about what to do next you are not alone. Many in the same situation are wondering the exact same thing.

Some see the impending failure as inevitable while others are willing to accept the challenge and this is the way it has always been. The great depression of the 30s is a indicator of what can be accomplished when the chips are down. Many business failed and people actually took their lives because of their failing financial situations. Yet amidst the turmoil there were those that prospered and flourished. They amassed great fortunes with start up business in the middle of all the confusion.

After all what is a business? It is sales. The more sales you make the more money you take in. As long as the sales you make don’t cost more money than you get you’re in business. All you have to worry about then is the overhead. So to have a successful business you need to make enough sales to cover the overhead.

You have two ways of increasing your sales:

1. Increase the number of people to sell to
2. Increase the conversion rate of the customers you have

In an ideal world you would be able to accomplish both, but most of us don’t live in an ideal world. Since increasing the number of customers you have is not an easy prospect let’s consider your other option. Let’s try to convert more of the prospects you do have into paying customers.

Converting prospects into paying customers usually only means satisfying their need to solve a problem. When you can prove to them that what you are selling does this, then you have made a sale. I know that sounds awfully simple, but when you think about it, it is the truth.

It is in proving it that most businesses that are failing, fail. These businesses don’t understand how to get their prospects emotionally involved enough to make the purchase. This is where a professional copywriter comes into play. They simply know how to prime the prospect so they are ready to buy. It is with their words and imagery that they get the person to know that this is the solution they have been looking for and that it is the only product out there that will solve their problem.

If you have a business that is showing signs of failure then you need to start looking at ways to turn it around. Having someone write effective sales copy might just be the answer you’ve been looking for.

A lot of people are now getting into internet businesses and online marketing either to add extra income or eventually making it their primary source of income. Why? Because online marketing can provide better benefits!

First, you can contact and communicate with just about anybody in the world who has internet connection if you advertise your products online. That indicates a broader market reach for you, which can convert to larger profits. Second, setting up an internet based business needs only a portion of the cost required to set up an actual company establishment, which indicates lesser expenses for the business owner

Another thing that has drawn a lot of attention from people towards online marketing is the fact that you are not required to have your own product to begin. In online marketing, anyone can start generating profits online just by promoting, or even by just trying to sell other people’s items. Getting started with this type of marketing procedure is actually quite simple. All that you need to do is to set up a compliance agreement with an online merchant or vendor, and after everything is set up, one can instantly begin to generate profits by promoting the vendor’s or the store’s items.

Furthermore, the most popular and the fastest method of selling other people’s products and services on the internet is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in its basic definition, is a relationship between an internet merchant or store, who has items to sell, and his affiliates, who are willing to sell the vendor’s product on their website.

In a common affiliate marketing set up, the vendor provides his affiliates with advertisements, either banner or text type that directly links to his site. The affiliates will then get these ads placed on their site and they get compensated whenever visitors or product purchases directed to the vendor’s web page. Affiliates are often compensated on sales by commission, although other online product vendors would opt to pay a set fee for the affiliate’s compensation.

Getting started to make money online through affiliate marketing is fast and simple. You just need to sign up as an affiliate marketer to an affiliate program. Another option is to sign up as an affiliate on an affiliate network that hosts different affiliate programs. Signing up usually costs nothing, although some networks might require you to pay a small fee that may be the amount as a payment for the additional service those companies render like tools, webinars and training materials.

When you sign up with an affiliate program, you are usually required to fill up an information form about yourself. Some affiliate marketing programs may also need you to present the URL of your web page and describe its content. This will allow the retailers to verify that you actually have a web page with material that are relevant to their products. Some affiliate programs, however, does not require you to have a website. After filling out the form, you are then free to choose the affiliate programs you want to use.

After signing up with an affiliate program and becoming an affiliate, you are now ready to make money online by selling other people’s products. How do you make money? There are actually various ways for you to generate income as an affiliate marketer, and most of these ways depends on the type of affiliate program you’ve sign up for.

A lot of affiliate programs pay their affiliates in either of three methods: pay-per-click (PPC), payper-sale (PPS), or pay-per-lead (PPL). In pay-per-click marketing, the affiliate is compensated whenever he directs traffic to the vendor’s site. PPS and PPL online marketing programs is different. In PPS, the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into a sale. In typical PPS online marketing program, the affiliate would usually get 15% to 20% commission for each conversion. Pay Per Lead works the same way, although affiliates are paid a fixed compensation whenever his referral converts into a lead for the vendor.

Some affiliate programs are two-tier, which means the affiliate is also allowed to refer other affiliates to the vendor. In such affiliate program, the affiliate would not only be paid for the visits or sales that he would redirect to the merchant’s site but also for the visits or sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his referral.

Another way of earning more profits with affiliate marketing is through residual affiliate programs. Residual marketing programs are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets compensated a number of times for as long as the vendor keeps the customer the affiliate has recommended to his site. One type of residual program gets the affiliate compensated a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the vendor’s site.

Another form of residual program gets the affiliate paid every month for as long as the merchant keeps the customer being referred.

With a lot of choices available and a lot of methods to generate income, affiliate marketing is simply the most popular and the easiest way to earn cash by selling other people’s products on the internet. As to how much cash an affiliate can generate from affiliate programs actually depends on the affiliate. A persevering and diligent affiliate would certainly get more from affiliate marketing compared to those who would simply sign up and forget about it later on.

When you make a new website, it is important to bring traffic to the website to expand your business and get leads. There are millions of websites over the internet, but most of them do not know how to make their new websites popular and bring lots of visitors to their site. Here are some of the steps that if followed will surely bring lots of traffic and also returning visitors to your website.

1. Good Layout And Design

The first step while building a website is it should have a good well balanced layout with proper colour combination. The website should be easily readable with easy navigation. People reject and close websites that look ugly and unattractive. The fonts used should be simple and of suitable size. We can take the example of Google as the most popular website being so simple yet so famous and popular. The website should also not be cluttered with empty spaces around.

2. PPC Advertising

Google AdWords is the most popular option if you want to bring paid traffic. PPC or pay-per click advertising can bring lots of traffic if you plan your advertising campaigns properly. Agreed, you will have to spend a little, but there are options in Google AdSense to limit the amount you spend daily according to your budget. Ads should be attractive with good and selected keywords and targeted demographically to get better results. This can bring you initial traffic as SEO takes time, sometimes months to bring traffic.

3. Quality Content

This is the most important factor if you want traffic through search engines like Google. There are lots of websites around having lots of pages but they do not rank higher in searches. This is because search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing lay more emphasis on quality and not quantity. So the content on all pages should be original and unique. It should not be copied from other websites. Search engines punish websites copying matters from others and degrade them. More emphasis is to be laid on title tag and header tag also.

4. SEO

SEO is the art of making your website rank higher for selected keywords through a set of rules that are to be implemented. SEO or search engine optimization will result in more organic traffic through various search engines. As most of the traffic a website gets is through SEO, this is the most important thing for a new website to become popular and get traffic. There are 2 things in SEO that are to be looked at:
1. On-page optimization: Things like your tiltle tag, H1 tag, use of selected and proper keywords are to be followed
2. Off-page optimization: This implies, you should have lots of incoming links from good ranked and similar category websites.

SEO is a very vast subject and there are many more things to do in both on-page and off-page optimization. If you cannot handle SEO yourself, it is advised to get the services of professional SEO experts. They review the entire site and recommend changes to be done and do the links posting with the help of their team.

5. Publicity

Now you will have to publicize your website through social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, Google+, etc. Also put links of these social websites on your website for people to follow. You can also use other social sites like Reddit, LinkedIn, stumble upon, etc. Post links of your website in articles, blogs, forums and all other websites accepting comments. You can use feedburner or any RSS for feeds which will bring returning visitors. It also includes sending email to your contacts and email marketing through databases.

6. Regular updating

It is important to increase the number of pages and keep posting new content. It is also important to edit and bring continuous changes to the written matter on the older pages. This is necessary because Google and other search engines give less importance to pages that are old and stale without changes. Also websites that do not increase the number of pages with time are considered to be unupdated and degraded.

Local SEO Tips to Consider

Make sure you have a physical, brick and mortar address in your targeted town.

It is important to make sure you include a physical address in the location you wish to optimize for. In addition, this particular address where your property is situated has to be in the location or area you aim to target, or very close to it.

Make proper use of Google My Business.

Google has placed more importance on GMB; this means that any business information you include here is reflected on Google Maps and

Search. The customers’ job to find you becomes much easier this way, no matter what if they use a tablet, PC or smartphone.

In building or developing your Google my Business location for local SEO even further, make sure:

- To use complete, accurate, consistent and relevant information when filling out the Google My Business account;

- To list a GMB location which you can verify;

- To use the town and city that you want to rank for in the title of the landing page;

- That your product or products are in accordance with the main categories of GMB, and that they suit a wider search group.

See to it that the Name, Address and Phone Number (or NAP) on your site matches the NAP on GMB.

Besides your physical address, the NAP should be identical with your actual business name should be consistent wherever they appear online.

Actually, it is best to make use of an exact template for your NAP anywhere you use these details, whether on your site, GMB, other websites or directory listings.

Ensure that you have a map to your location included on your website.

Aside from adding contact info to your website, it is essential to include an actual map on your website, so that viewers can see your exact position. The code to include a map to your premises can be added on your website’s contact page.

Moreover, having some of the following information on your website, specifically in your contacts page, will be very useful:

Opening and closing hours of your store;

Directions to your premises from prominent landmarks;

Phone call links to call directly on mobile phones;

Social media links, but sharing options as well.

Starting from the next step, you should be knowledgeable about SEO. Otherwise, get some SEO training.

Make sure you create a new web page for every business location

If your business has several branches, see to it that each of them has a distinct web page, which is properly optimized for its specific location.

Use citations properly

It is very important for local SEO to get citations in major international, regional and local directories. Citations can help in building authority and integrity for your site, and above all, direct useful traffic to your page(s).

Additionally, if you do not have a website (which is a must nowadays), local listings give more visibility.

If you are taking citations into consideration, make sure that:

You have consistent citations;

You are using citations from trusted, respected websites;

You find ways to let your business get mentioned in various articles or blog posts in local newspapers;

You have lots of location-relevant and industry-relevant domains that cite your company in a positive way.

Digital marketing is all about making the client website or other web resources search-engine friendly. It is all about enhancing the ranking of client websites or other web resources in the various search engine results pages. If a website has enhanced ranking in a search engine result page, it implies that it attracts more and more web traffic. If the website is meant for commercial purposes, enhanced web traffic in it contributes to lead generation and sales. Thereby, through proper digital marketing of a web portal, one can ensure business profitability. Digital marketing is incomplete without search engine optimization or SEO. In this context, it is relevant to add that SEO is of two types and they are on-page and off-page. This blog is an honest attempt to discuss the various off-page optimization tactics that the web marketer must do to enhance the visibility of client websites.

Off-Page Optimization

As the name suggests, Off-page optimization has everything to do with optimizing a web resource like website, externally and this means that not focussing on internal work associated with the website. The seasoned web marketer can do such type of optimization by means of link-building. The concept of link-building is to pass the website link using blogs, articles, press releases, and other content posted on other websites. Then, optimizing the posts in a manner so that the contents along with the website link attracts more and more audience. This is important because of the enhanced chances of lead-generation and lead-conversions to sales.

Link-Building Strategies

Following is a list of link-building strategies that web-marketers usually follow:-

Write Blogs

Digital marketing professionals can write blogs relevant to the business, themselves, or with the help of professional content writers and post them in more than one blog posting website. When they do so they also pass the link to the client website. In this manner, the client website gains visibility in the various search engine results pages.

Write Articles

Web marketing professionals can write articles relevant to the business and post them in various articles posting websites. Common article posting websites include EzineArticles, article base. The SEO professionals also pass the link to the client’s website along with the posts. This increases the visibility of the client web portal.

Do Blog Commenting

If you are pondering on increasing the visibility of your website then you can visit relevant websites online, check relevant blog posts, and do blog commenting. While passing blog comments make sure that you pass the links of your client web portal.

Post Forums

There are a number of forum posting websites available online. As a seasoned digital marketer you can register with some of the forum posting sites and post forum contents along with the link to the client website. In this manner, you can attempt to increase the visibility of your client website.

Questions and Answers

There are a number of questions and answers sites and you can post questions, answers on relevant topics, pass the link to your client website along with the answers.

Social Bookmarking

There is a popular social bookmarking website available online. These include Twitter, Stumble Upon, Dribble, Reddit, Digg, and many more. As a digital marketing professional, you can post on social bookmarking sites and do search engine optimization activities.

Post in Social Media Websites

There are a number of social media websites online and they include Facebook, LinkedIn, to name a few. You can post content on these websites. While posting contents you can pass the link to your client website. This enhances the visibility of your client’s website.

This blog focuses on few Off-page SEO practices. Apart from those discussed above, there is available a wide variety of other Off-page optimization strategies that the seasoned digital marketer uses to enhance the visibility of the client website or web-resources.

Our businesses also differ in terms of interface with clients. If you do “business to business” transactions, the number of people you interact with on a daily basis may differ from someone whose business relies on interacting with consumers. Appointments may be more practical in some instances than others. You have to tailor-make how you manage access to your particular situation if you are to eliminate distractions. Having said that it is important to note that some people do not mind spending the whole day at the office entertaining friends, visitors, and casual acquaintances dropping into the office whenever they feel like it. Do not be that kind of person. It sets the wrong kind of example to junior staff and can harm one’s productivity because these people take up time that you do not have and besides you want to cultivate a professional environment.

The demands of the day are enough to fill the eight working hours available unless if you tend to stay back and play catch up. How do you stay competitive in the market if there is no separation between work and play? Anybody serious about success and achieving effective results will put boundaries that are clear so that there is no confusion. Entrepreneurs are more susceptible to this especially when the workplace is easily accessible. The fact that you are your own boss even puts more responsibility on you to maintain self-discipline and self – management. I have written a whole book called, “Achieve More through Self – Leadership. In it I walk you through the practicalities of how you can get better results through managing self.

Appointments are an important way of not only managing time but managing life. They help you become more structured and productive. Some people seem not to be able to honour their appointments. I once attended a job interview that was supposed to start at 10:30am. By 11:30am there had been no communication about what was happening or when the supposed job interview was going to take place. I decided at the point that this company was probably not good enough for me to join because if you don’t respect people’s time you probably do not respect them.

You may be saying appointments are just not for me yet you never rock up at the doctor, dentist, lawyer or hairstylist without an appointment. Why is that the case? Because you simply won’t see the dentist without an appointment. They have given you conditions acceptable to them. We tell the world around us how to treat us by what we allow.

Some people are always available when you want to see them. If you are always free to see people at short notice, you are probably not that organized. The one who owns a diary will manage the one who doesn’t own one. Why? Because the one without the diary is always available, even though he is very likely to forget important meetings, dates and engagements because of a lack of organization. I used to have a boss who kept a diary and whatever you promised to do in the line of work, he would write down, including the day and time you said he would have it by. You would of-course forget because you didn’t record it like he did and when the time to deliver comes, guess who would be found wanting. It was then that I decided that I do not commit to an action that I am not willing to write down because, what’s written gets done!

You may be saying, “what if my business feeds off the “walk-ins? The fact that your business relies on walk – in customers should not be an excuse for disorder. Sometimes those who drop in unannounced may indeed be potential customers, suppliers, cold-calling salespeople, and even worthwhile business contacts. There is nothing wrong if the call is beneficial to you and your business but I believe there must be a structure and way of doing things that follows certain pre-set principles. I remember seeing a poster in an office that said “if you don’t have anything to do please don’t do it here”. It’s humorous yes, but true. Appointments help to structure your day and helps you allocate time to what’s important. This means you can focus on your most important asset: the paying customer. There is nothing as bad as walking into a place wanting to do business and staff are inattentive because there is just a demand on their time. I am more understanding if the personnel are not busy entertaining social visits at work.

In conclusion, you know your business situation better than any of us. All we can do is make recommendations that will enable efficiency that leads to growth. Some of you may actually need a personal assistant who will put order in your office and focus on the things you are not willing to do that will enable to focus on the highly value things you ought to do such as running a business.

Do you think successful people are just plain lucky?

Successful people did not become successful because they were lucky.

They did not achieve success by accident. Being at the right place at the right time, meeting relevant people, reading the appropriate book, did not come about accidentally or by luck.

Luck is brought about by Labour Under Correct Knowledge.

Successful people prepared themselves. Instead of giving up on anything they started and wanted to achieve they got stronger by learning more.

Success is a methodical, orderly and deliberate process of deciding what you want to do with your life, what are the steps that you need to undertake to get you there, and lastly what you will do once you get there.

One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect to success, is the ability to visualise your successful outcome and stay focused on it until you achieve it.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited.” – Albert Einstein

Successful people understood the potential power behind knowledge, yet they also understood that, for them to close the gap between where they are and where they wanted to be, they would have to piece together the enigma that is most often referred to as “life”.

They had to build a picture, a vision, of success in their mind, and then go about taking action on creating that envisioned life.

In much the same way, you have to be serious about your present and future, you need to have the knowledge that is required so you, too, may close the gap: you need to be and remain determined to devote yourself to taking massive action to build your business of succeeding in life.

You, too, will need to see the end, your dream and destiny that you desire in your mind’s eye. It is up to you to take the necessary and relevant action to make it all happen. It’s just like going to the doctor with a particular health problem.

The doctor may prescribe a medication for you to take four times a day, yet he cannot be there with you to ensure that you are taking the medication.

It comes back to deciding to be responsible for your life.

Have you noticed how it all stems from that one attitude? Being responsible for your own life.

Your success, your being responsible 100% for you to live your dream life starts here.

When you accept 100% responsibility for yourself and your current life situation, you will have the power to move towards those things you truly desire in life: which is success in all areas of your life.

This life-changing article is about possibilities and opportunities, knowledge and tools. It will help expose your unique course in life.

It will inspire, support and motivate you to excel, to do what successful people do, to have all that successful people have, and to become a shining example of a successful person.

Here, you’re not being told what you couldn’t do, instead you are being told to shoot for the stars. And above all, you are being shown how to shoot for those stars.

“A person is what he thinks about all day long.” – Emerson

Interesting thought, wouldn’t you think? So much so, it’s worth repeating: “A person is what he thinks about all day long.”

Success and happiness cannot happen if you possess the same old thoughts and beliefs.

If you do not change your mind, if you do not get rid of the unsupportive thoughts and beliefs, you will inevitably remain stuck in your old ways. Not much, if anything, will change.

Let’s give you a quick overview on how change comes about:

Your BEHAVIOUR, how you act (or perhaps do not act), controls your success or failure. Your ability to attain high levels of success is dependent upon your actions and behaviours. Your results are the outcome of your behaviour. Now let’s consider where your behaviours come from and what controls them?

Your FEELINGS command your behaviour. Every action that you take is first filtered through your feelings that reside in your subconscious mind. How you feel about something determines what you do and how well you do it. So where do your feelings come from?

Your ATTITUDES create and influence your feelings. Your attitude is your perspective from which you view life. Whatever attitude you have about anything will affect how you feel, which, in turn, affects how you act. Where do your attitudes come from?

Your BELIEFS create, control and influence your attitudes. What you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it, which will create your feelings, and then which will direct your behaviour and action. Belief patterns are so powerful that two people who are in the same situation could perceive things completely differently. It only requires us to believe what we see and how we see it. We all have thousands of beliefs – big and small. And where do your beliefs come from?

Your THOUGHTS create, control and influence your beliefs. Your thoughts are real and are immensely powerful. Everything you accept from the outside world and everything you feed yourself from within is a product of your thoughts. Everything starts as a thought.

So, it goes without saying you need to learn to control your thoughts. And when you do, you will automatically control your beliefs, your attitudes, your feelings and, consequently, your behaviour and actions.

The big secret to success:

Learn to control your thoughts and you will influence your behaviours and actions. It’s all a mind-set. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Success is predictable and is not achieved by accident.

Have the mind-set of the successful people and you will achieve success. Believe and it is yours!

“There is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” – Joel Osteen

Science of success experts have concluded that the brain is a goal-setting organism.

That is fantastic news for us: for whatever goal we give to our subconscious mind, it will work for us day and night, 24/7, to achieve it for us; to make it a reality.

The principal breakthrough that scientists made was that we do not need to waste our precious time and effort trying to change old thoughts and behaviours: we just simply create new ones.

And the other discovery they made was that we can continue to create new thoughts, new memories, new behaviours, new skills, and learn new things for as long as we are alive on this earth.

Now, with the new discoveries in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to achieve and succeed literally has no limits.

Our brain has the capacity to continually learn during our entire lifetime.

Our brain can form new thoughts, can have new memories, and can learn new things by the millions, no matter what your age is. By the millions.

That’s how many new things we can learn, that’s how many new skills we can learn, that’s how many new thoughts we can have, that’s how many new behaviours we can adopt.

This is encouraging because there is no limit on your capacity to achieve new things.

No limits whatsoever for the human brain to learn, memorise, develop, achieve and perform at higher levels than ever imagined. It makes no difference what your age is: you are capable of learning anything new that you want to learn.

That adds to what we spoke of earlier: no more excuses.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Your brain has the capacity to achieve way beyond what was ever thought possible. So now is the time to break out of your limited thinking and start dreaming big and imagining unlimited possibilities.

Becoming successful is not impossible.

It is a choice you make through a decision. Every day, step-by-step, you may climb the mountain of success if you’ve decided to do so, if you’re committed to accomplish what the others think impossible.

Design your future now.

Prepare to receive what you desire.

Thanks to the phenomenal advances made in cognitive science and the development of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), personal change, personal transformation, has come a very long way.

In fact, personal growth is no longer a mystery.

NLP has brought to light that change, transformation and growth can be fast, reliable, and even fun. It has shown us that we do not need to spend thousands of hours slaving away to increase our creative-thinking abilities.

By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you can come up with to expedite your success.

It can allow you to achieve something you seek within days and months as opposed to years and decades. That’s the power of the progress science has made on how the brain works, and also how you can have your mind to be your best ally in achieving anything you want.

Learn to live as you like by no longer living as you dislike.

Are you ready to get on the road to success and fulfilment?

Bear in mind, much like everything else in life, success requires practice and massive, consistent action.

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin C Bliss

Do you feel as if you’ve outgrown your circle of friends? Perhaps you do not feel safe or understood any longer. There may be fewer and fewer things you can share with people in your habitual circle, and it leaves you feeling lonely or isolated. If so, you are not alone. Welcome to one of the core dynamics of continuous growth!

As we continue to evolve, many of us struggle with a sense of not quite fitting in with our traditional community or tribe: we may have expanded or changed beyond the borders of tribal norms, and no longer find the same sense of belonging there. Other members may have tightened the tribal rules to foster a sense of security. As a result, we may feel a sense of disconnection or alienation.

In truth, each one of us belongs to many tribes simultaneously: there is your original tribe – the family you were born into – and then there are all the communities of choice you have joined: your work tribe, your social circles, your faith-based community, your neighborhood, and more. These communities are not static; they are in continuous flux because they consist of individuals who are in continuous states of change. When there is a lot of change happening in either the individual or the community, a sense of dissonance results.

How are we to deal with this? First, it is important to recognize that tribal allegiances were historically forged for survival. They were adapted over the course of centuries to ensure the safety and survival of the group. Survival required that individuation be sacrificed for the trade-off of security.

In modern society, the tables are flipped. Whether we enjoy it or not, change is essential for survival at every level of being. The pace of change is driven by technological advances and happens with increasing rapidity: sociologists estimate that more change has taken place in society over the course of the past 100 years, than in the totality of the previous 6,000 years. Individual adaptation now is a requirement for survival, and the pace of individual change does not always match the pace at which our various tribal communities evolve. The resulting dissonance can cause intense friction and pain.

Dissonance also results from confusion between the concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘community.’ We tend to equate one with the other, when they really relate to different qualities. Connection relates to connectivity: the objective physical technology or media that enables us to build community, but which does not represent the quality of that community. Connectivity simply offers the opportunity to connect with others through internet, texting, phone calls, or any other social networking options.

Community is the result of building relationship through meaningful interaction over time. There is no shortcut; it is a process that develops when bonds of trust and intimacy are nurtured and honored.

And here lies a caveat: When we confuse connectivity with community, we depersonalize the sacred nature of true community and start relating to people as objects. Instead of developing intimacy over time, we collect friends on social network sites or try to buy people’s allegiance. Yet friending is simply an act of connecting; it does not create intimacy.

In fact, social experiments indicate that technologically dominated connectivity results in alienation and social collapse over time. In a groundbreaking social experiment conducted by Josh Harris, one of the founders of social networking on the internet, he found that the more people’s private lives were exposed by 24/7 technology, the more their sense of intimacy and relationship deteriorated until the community collapsed in violence and self-destructive behavior.

It is time to revisit our concepts of community so we can create tribes that offer a true sense of intimacy and belonging.

In his 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychologist M. Scott Peck described several core characteristics of true community. Beyond the obvious components of inclusivity, commitment and participatory consensus, Peck pointed out the quality of embracing diversity through realism. When each member contributes their unique viewpoint from a place of humility and goodwill, the community benefits from a broader perspective in which to better grasp the full context of a situation. In other words, mutual tolerance helps members to embrace one another’s different viewpoints as an integral part of the whole, instead of imposing a forced compliance to groupthink or cohesion.

In an environment like this, members experience and express compassion and respect for one another. They allow others to share their vulnerability, to learn and grow, and to express who they truly are. When conflict arises, they learn to resolve it with wisdom and grace. Members listen to and respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and commit to find solutions together rather than to fight against each other. Indeed, the true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. The source of this spirit may be seen as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.

Does this description of community sound spiritual to you? It is indeed, because Spirit is the common denominator among all of us, regardless of how separate we feel from others.

As human beings, we often experience a socio-economic sense of separation from others because of different opinions, beliefs, expectations, language, culture, or interests, since each one of us expresses these in a way uniquely different from anyone else. And still, we continue to differentiate! In this ongoing process, we continue to evolve or devolve in response to life. A community that felt like a good fit last year may no longer work today; the places where we felt embraced, now may suffocate us. Over the course of a lifetime, we can expect to outgrow and change allegiances to many of the tribal communities we once belonged to.

And yet, when we transcend the layers of physical appearance, mental beliefs and socio-economic conditioning, we find in the presence of Spirit a common denominator in everyone around us. Perhaps it is time to expand our tribal definitions to embrace a spiritual community that includes all of mankind as children of God.

Mother Teresa admonished her nuns to see Jesus in every leper they encountered, to find His presence as they looked into the eyes of the homeless. When we can look past the issues that divide us to find omnipresent Divinity in each other, we will uncover the foundations of true community.

Spiritual community transcends all socio-economic borders, beliefs and backgrounds. It is inclusive because it operates on voluntary self-responsibility and mutual compassion, and its doors are open to everyone.

Building this type of community takes time: time to listen, to hear, to respond and to participate. Take a few moments to read the description of spiritual community again. Then, make time in your life to foster that type of connection with people who matter to you. You are one of the architects of community in your life, and you can participate in building a tribe where you belong.

What would happen to you if your home life was more organized than it is right now? Can work-life balance be achieved? What are the tools at our disposal? Could scheduling appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize?

What is the challenge we face? I sometimes find that time spent at home can be the busiest time, especially in the times we live in. Imagine someone working from home, home-schooling children, and sometimes even doing a side hustle. Imagine also the full-time home-based entrepreneur. How do they manage to do all they need to do in a day?. We are living in a time when many entrepreneurs and even company employees have adopted work- at – home culture. This comes with its challenges as the lines become blurred between home and work. These blurred lines and constraints on the limited resource called time result in over-worked, under-rested, burnt-out individuals. Whilst good time management has been encouraged and indeed, embraced in the workplace, I believe more needs to be done in changing the mindset for the elusive work-life balance to be achieved.

What are the tools at our disposal? To manage time effectively at home, there are many interventions one can employ including setting goals for the day, prioritizing wisely, setting a time limit for every task, organizing oneself, and instituting the discipline of appointments. Yes, an appointment at home! We can spend time pontificating on the pros and cons of each intervention, however, I believe we need to focus on appointments and see how this can powerfully change the course of one’s day regardless of whether it’s a workday or weekend. Life is busy as it is without any intrusions. The question is how do you handle the one who announces that they are at the gate. These can be friends, neighbors, a salesman of some product you do not even need. I am not promoting regimentation here but rather a culture of filling your day with what’s important. Everything that we succeed at is because we carefully plan and execute it. I am a firm believer that you cannot manage time if you do not manage yourself thus I implore you to incorporate planning and appointments into your repertoire. I am not talking about something I do not do. I have to achieve many things in a day therefore I set appointments with my work, others, and myself.

Could scheduling appointments and keeping them on the home front help us save time and prioritize? Whereas we have established that it is a normal business practice to set appointments and keep them, we need to abandon the liberal open-door policy of allowing all and sundry to have access to us as and when they please on the home front. Please understand where I am coming from. We each have greatness within us but for us to achieve it we need to culture great habits. Employing the use of appointments at home and seeing only those people you had agreed to see removes non-essential encounters especially during the most productive hours. I know this will vary with culture, geographical region, or even level of affluence, whether you live in a low density or high-density residential area, but doesn’t negate the need to be organized and effective. Controlling access determines how organized you are and how well you will work and rest when the time for scheduled rest comes.

What do we need to do differently? We need to be disciplined and diligent, learn to say no, now is not a good time, let’s make an appointment for next week. What are the benefits of this approach? You are not always fire-fighting to meet deadlines, You are not always tired because you have not taken time out to rest. You have set aside enough time to spend with your loved ones or a loved one. If you are a busy person, I am sure you appreciate what I am saying. Whether it’s time to work uninterrupted, family time, or “me-time”, it takes some kind of order to enjoy it.

I am not saying that those that come unannounced are bad people. No, not at all, they probably are people you enjoy spending time with. Nevertheless, there must be prior communication so that you can attend to your visitor(s) when it is convenient for both you and them. It can be quite disrupting and a whole day can just pass by without achieving anything that you had planned to do.

As we grow older we begin to appreciate that rest and recovery need to be scheduled. The fact that I am relaxing doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do. One therefore cannot assume that just because you are at home you are available. Maybe you have scheduled that time to rest. That is important. You need to make an appointment with yourself, spouses need to also set aside time for each other. Parents need to schedule a time to spend with their children. When you have some sort of order in your life you determine who sees you and who you see. It also means that your relationships will be healthy and that makes you a happier person.

In conclusion, I believe that the work-life balance can be achieved. There are many tools at our disposal just like it is in the workplace.I believe we could do more and be happier if we are disciplined enough to make only the commitments we can keep.I am certain that setting appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize.