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One of the common questions among clients is how they can get more visitors on their websites. While the website doesn’t have anything wrong with it as it is professionally designed but the problem is that it is not promoted well enough to get more visitors.

If you want your audience to pay attention to your work, you need to earn it. You cannot expect your job to speak for itself and accept that marketing is a part of your job.

Here are four ways which you can use to attract the right kind of visitors to your website.

1. Create and amazing blog.

You must not only post here when you have a new client or something new to sell, but you must make a blog that can grab people’s attention by giving entertaining and useful material regularly.

You can write about

• How you made the product – with pictures and videos.

• From what you were inspired – your audience will like it if you like it as well.

• How your viewers can make a similar product to yours

• Also about any gadget that helped you made your work better.

Instead of writing your opinions in a long paragraph, you can:

• Devote an entire blog for ONE idea.

• Make a compelling headline.

• Give solid examples.

• Invite comments that end by a question.

Also, don’t forget to ask for subscriptions. Repeat visitors should be kept close. Therefore, people an email option when subscribing so it is much easier.

In addition, make sure you’re encouraging them to comment and like and share your content. Engagement is essential and it’s a great gauge for you to discover what content your readers are seeking the most. When done properly, this can also give you a big boost from an SEO perspective.

2. Give (some of) your best work for free.

Give people something valuable to share with their contacts.

• The first chapter of your novel

• A free report filled with important information

• High-resolution images

• A series of tutorials

Make sure whatever you give out, and it is valuable otherwise, no one would get excited about your products. Also, make sure you have plenty more in reserve for the people who want to buy from you.

3. Borrow someone else’s audience.

Write high-quality guest posts for famous blogs in your niche and get yourself on the radar so people want to reach to you. This could potentially get you hundreds of new subscribers without trying that hard.

4. Get your content into circulation.

Use social media platforms to circulate your content. Share other people’s content more than your own as it attracts more people’s attention.

SEO audits are not an oft-discussed subject but that doesn’t really mean that it’s less-practiced as well. However, if you didn’t have an idea prior to reading this post, let us tell you that SEO audit is a standard practice for websites. Those who are serious about their online marketing endeavors do invest in frequent audits. If you’re looking forward to make the most of your online SEO campaigns make sure you’re investing due time for these audits as well.

The Importance of SEO Audits

A credentialed SEO Company hired by you will definitely ask you to act in accordance. Kindly do not commit the mistake of avoiding this bit completely. Read on to find out about the fundamentals of the same.

Let us clarify from the very beginning that an SEO audit is not quite like a traditional audit. The latter is performed only for marketing purposes- a properly executed audit – right at the onset- would mean that you are that you have better knowledge about the performance of your website – its overall performance and the performance of the individual pages. Improved search engine rankings, needless to say, make for the only purpose behind these audits. They are performed before the beginning of a project and at the beginning of a fresh quarter.

No Overdoing it

Though it is important to invest time for these audits on a regular basis, experts clearly warn us against overdoing it – especially if it’s a small website that we are dealing with. Technical analysis, on page analysis, off page analysis and competitive (keyword) analysis are the vital parts of audits. Sites can be improved with well-placed audits. You are in a position to analyze a particular site from different angles – all with that one goal of realizing avenues of improvement. Here is a more detailed look.

Technical analysis entails checking whether the website is working properly or not. Accessibility and indexability are the cornerstones of SEO audits. Accessibility very simply refers to the search engines’ and the users’ ability to access your site. If your content cannot be accessed by others then there is no point of creating a website at the first place. A few attributes that you need to check without fail are:

· Robot.txt files

· Robots meta tags

· XML sitemaps

· Website speed

· Redirects

· Mobile responsiveness

Indexability is treated with paramount importance by search engines since it determines the visibility of your content. Once you have fixed your accessibility issues you’re ready to go on with the indexability bit.

On page analysis includes identifying conflicting blog topics – those that have nothing to do with the website itself, duplicate content, the attempt to rank same keywords on different pages, placement of proper URLs among others.

Not a lengthy process!

Do you think that SEO auditing necessarily have to be an arduous process? Not really! There are a few SEO auditing tools that can be explored to get the job done faster.

ONE ~ Connect through Groups & Communities

First things first, you need to connect with online groups that are similar to your business. This allows you to see what your competitors are doing and what is working with customers looking for the services/products you provide. Though this is a vital step in your online business promotion, try not to push your business through these groups. You can include a link to your business’s website or blog at the end of your posts, but your primary goal is to connect not market.

TWO ~ Using Listing Services

Next, you need to make it easy for customers to find your business. Registering through listing services makes it easy for customers to find you using the search methods they are already familiar with. The three most notable choices are Bing, Yahoo! Local, and Google Places. Most businesses use these sites as they are popular across many users.

THREE ~ Optimizing the Search for Your Business

Along with getting your business name up where people are searching, you’ll need to optimize the way you word information. This optimization improves the likelihood that your business will pop up when that information is searched. This is called SEO and stands for Search Engine Optimization. There are many “how to” guides out there for more information on how to refine your SEO.

FOUR ~ Create a Blog and/or Website

A blog is a wonderful tool for customers to connect with your business and learn what it’s all about. This encourages them to stay with you over competitors as you can connect on a deeper level with your followers. Another amazing link a blog provides is allowing your customers to become email subscribers. This keeps your customers connected to your business and all the services/products you have to offer them.

FIVE ~ Social Media & Multimedia

Social media and multimedia are to a blog what SEO is to listing services. To get blog traffic, you need to post your content to social media sites so your customers can find you. Another benefit of the connections you generate through your online groups and communities is knowing what gets the most attention. Multimedia includes the use of videos to market your business. Online video marketing is actually one of the best ways to reach people as it requires very little work on their part to view. Video marketing is also a fun and simple way to reach your customers. Social media and multimedia are very important as many people are constantly connected to their social feeds.

Though it seems hectic, it is not impossible or as difficult as it appears to promote your business online. You just need to know where to start when aiming to develop your business online. If you use these easy methods, you are sure to reach the masses and increase your business. So, show the world the wonderful services your business has to offer. Bring your business to the people and the people will come to you!

SEO is the most important aspect for any website. In this article I will elaborate on the importance of SEO in website development and what SEO factors to consider while developing / designing a website.

1. FAST LOADING TIMES – The most important factor and Google recognizes it. It does not penalizes websites that are slow, but it rewards websites that are fast. Make sure your code is manageable and your client side is rendered fast.

2. SEO Friendly Content – Keep a mixture of images, text and animations. Google loves rich content. Gone are the days, when search engines preferred text. These days, Google will giveyou preference if your content has a video embedded in it. Rich content ranks faster these days.

3. SEO FRIENDLY URLS – Query parameters are good for development but bad for SEO, make sure you have the option of writing a keyword rich URL for that is a ranking factor in Google search result pages.

4. TITLE TAGS, META TAGS, META DESCRIPTION – If you can use a plugin that’s good, but if you have a custom stack development, be aware of these field. Provide provisions on every page to put in these fields.

5. H1, h2 tags – These tags help search engines understand the topic of the underlying content. Google still uses H1 tags to determine relevance. Use these tags to defined your content. Be careful there should be only 1 h1 tag on your page.

6. SITEMAP XML – an XML sitemap is to be submitted to Google webmasters account for faster indexing of your website pages. Make a provision to auto generate or manually generate these sitemaps for fasting indexing by search engine bots.

7. ROBOTS.txt – This file contains an important declaration. It tells the bots about pages that you want indexed when a search engine bot comes looking. It is upto search engines to honor requests mentioned in ROBOTS.txt

8. REMOVE DUMP TEXT / PAGES – Do remember to delete pages, that you used while making the website. This might include images, lorem ipsum passages. Stuffing your website with dump text is not going to help at all.

9. Image ALT Tags – A search engine bot cannot ready your image, but it can only read the alt text of your image. Make provision in your website code to put alt – tags for it is one of the most important factors in SEO.

10. BLOG – Google loves a website that is fresh. Fresh content is ranked higher than stale ones. By maintaining a blog, not only you can build a community of followers, but it helps a lot in website SEO. Make a provision for blog on your website.

Digital marketing services are the latest way of marketing. They provide a 360-degree view of the marketing sphere and can help you to ensure that you reach your goals.

Digital Marketing is a tricky area, where you need to take into account many factors in order to succeed. That’s why it’s important to hire a company that has expertise in this field and can help you plan your strategy for lead generation.

One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is lead generation, which is why it needs careful planning and implementation.

How to create Strategies for Leads Generation

Digital marketing services are a type of service that typically offers a selection of digital marketing options, such as email marketing, social media advertising, pay-per-click advertising, and search engine optimization.

A successful strategy for lead generation is one that offers an ROI to the client and the provider. The provider should be able to get a return on their investment by getting the desired level of sales or leads from the client. The client needs to be able to get sufficient data on which they can base their campaign decision-making process.

Identify your customers

In today’s digital world, customers are no longer satisfied with a one-way conversation. They want to be active participants in the way your business runs. In order to meet their expectations, you need to identify your customers and understand what they want from your company.

The first step is understanding who your customers are and their needs. After that, create a dialogue with them by providing them with what they want and need from your company. If you do this, they will likely become a happy customer who will continue to use your services for a long time because now they feel like part of the team.

Decide your budget

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a company for your marketing needs is how much you are willing to spend. Marketing services can range anywhere from $25 per hour for digital marketing services to much more than that?

There are three main factors that affect cost: the time spent on certain tasks; what will be delivered; and the number of assets the company has at its disposal. When it comes down to it, you want to compare apples with apples when comparing what will be delivered and how many assets are used by different companies in order to get a true comparison of what is possible for your budget.

Use right platform

As a business owner, you should always choose the right platform for lead generation. The digital marketing services that you choose to use should be a perfect fit for your company and your needs.

You can generate leads from social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, and many other sources. Each of these channels has advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of before making any decisions.

Hire good company

Digital marketing services are essential to the success of any company. They are important for businesses of all sizes, from startups to multinationals.

One such service that digital agencies provide is SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is a huge part of digital marketing as it helps companies rank higher in SERPs (search engine result pages) and attract more customers.

Digital agencies also provide other services such as social media marketing, content management, and design, web development, and app development.

Target your customers

These days, it’s not just about the product. If a company doesn’t have a digital strategy, they are going to lose a lot of potential customers.

What is the value of a company without reaching its customers? Without identifying your target audience and targeting them, you can’t sell your products and services effectively. The first step to solving this issue is knowing who your customer is. There are three different types of people that you might need to sell to:

Prepare your strategy

The first thing that you have to do is to figure out what your marketing goals are. Then you have to set up a strategy for reaching these goals.

The marketing strategy needs to be well-defined and focused on the needs of the business. It has to be feasible, achievable, and sustainable for future development.

Strategies should have a clear focus on ROI, KPIs, and conversion rates. For example, setting up a Facebook page with the objective of increasing website traffic over the next year is not enough if you don’t know how it will happen or if it’s realistic.

A digital marketing services company can help you with this process by providing high-quality digital marketing plans with step-by-step instructions for execution at reasonable costs.

Increase your growth

Digital marketing services have the potential to help you grow your business.

Digital marketing services have been in demand in recent years with a huge increase in usage and revenue.

This has been a result of the fact that people are increasingly turning to digital channels for shopping, banking, and other services. It’s also because of the increased competition from traditional media outlets such as TV, print publications, and radio.

This is why it’s important for businesses to invest in digital marketing services from an experienced company like ours. We’ll work on strategies and campaigns that will help you reach new audiences and gain more sales leads.

Monetarize your customers

Digital marketing services are in demand in this age of digital transformation. As customers are getting digital savvy, marketers need to find new ways to bring them back into the store or stay in contact with them. The rise of social media platforms has led to a huge increase in customer awareness. Digital marketing strategies have become important for businesses looking to retain customers and create loyal customers.

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.