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Have you ever run out of ideas about how to generate huge traffic to your site? This article highlights great tips for the purpose. So why don’t you read on?

Blogging
Yes, blogging is a good idea to promote traffic to your site. While you provide content in your niche on your blog, from time to time you can refer something reasonable to your site and provide that link to your site in your blog(s). Soon readers will direct themselves to your site and you will have considerable traffic.

Write a free eBook in your niche
Sending the free eBook to your subscribers in a newsletter.
You certainly have an email list, however, small or big. Send a valuable yet interesting up-to-date free eBook written in your niche to your subscribers. The end of the eBook should contain helpful links with content referring to your site, which helps to gain great traffic to your site.

Participating in Huge Giveaway Events
Giveaway Events are joint ventures (JV’s) on a large scale. You become a contributor to the JV event by providing your free product as a gift. Lots of contributors contribute their free gifts to the event. Their subscribers will have an eye for your product if it is well groomed and will subscribe. Your new subscribers will not only have the benefit of enjoying your free gift but will also visit the links leading to your site that you provide inside your gift.

Article Magic
Write relevant articles in your niche but do NOT provide any promotional content of your products or sites within the body of the article. Write on a suitable and valuable topic that is of good quality and is interesting to read as well. These articles do allow you to give promotional content within resource boxes of your article format. In here, provide short statements directing to links with helpful content (related to the article content) in your niche on your site(s).

Press Releases
Press Releases allow you to promote your published product, a book or eBook in most cases. So have a good quality book/eBook written down in your niche and get it published, providing all the information in the press release regarding publisher of your book/eBook, publish date, author, address etc including a short content about what the book/eBook is about and take the reader to visit links for the book/eBook for further information in addition to the little information you already provide in the press release. So you can see, in order for the reader to visit the links of your book/eBook, the press release should be written arousing interest and curiosity in the reader. Like before, while the book/eBook provides quality content in your niche, it should also contain links to valuable information on your site(s), which in turn, will take interested, hungry readers to your site(s), generating the traffic you need.

When prospective customers visit your website, you obviously want to obtain their information so you can build a relationship with them and provide them additional information about your products or services in the future. This process is where they OPT-IN, and it actually needs three elements.

The 3 Elements of the Complete Opt-in Process are:
Landing Page This is the 1st page users will see in the process. It will have a graphic of your lead magnet, a compelling headline, some benefit based bullets and of course – a place for people to enter their name and email address.
Thank You Page This is the page that users are taken to as soon as they successfully enter their name and email address. This is a tragically underutilized page by most.
Email Autoresponder This is tool that has the ability to automatically send out email.

We just asked for some contact information so we need a place to store it. YES, you need an email autoresponder and here’s why. If you don’t have an email autoresponder, you will physically have to email your lead magnet and all the follow-up to each person that requests your lead magnet. That would be a ridiculous waste of your time – it is extremely important that you sign up for an email autoresponder if you don’t already have one.

There are tons of options out there but the most popular ones are:
Aweber
Mailchimp
Infusionsoft

So here is what the entire process looks like when it’s all laid out, but let’s step through what happens in each phase of the process.

Step 1 -Your steady stream of perfect prospects hit your landing page and have two options – either they go away or they fill out the form.

If they go away… they got away and we’ll get them another day.
If they stay and fill out the form, 2 things can happen:
If the person submits an error like a bad email address, or forgetting their name an error will appear on that page and ask them to fix it.

If the data that was submitted is good – the web user will be automatically redirected to Step 2 – The Thank You Page.

This redirection from Landing page to thank you page happens almost instantaneously. I’m sure you all have seen this hundreds of times. At the same time that redirect is happening, the data from your landing page (name, email, etc) is ALSO being sent to your email autoresponder (Step 3).

Once somebody fills in your landing page form, they are redirected to the thank you page (usually to consume some more content) while at the same time their data is being sent to the email autoresponder.

Once the contact information is stored in your email autoresponder, you can then follow-up with you prospects and hopefully turn them into customers eventually.

For more great content and articles like this please visit http://www.blackdogmarketing.co

An all-encompassing content marketing strategy, white hat organic SEO practices, consistent link building efforts and solid social media marketing, well, this sure makes for a killer digital marketing strategy.

But hey, too much of it all, and you’re only doing what the rest of the world is doing. Today, let’s try and look through the things a little differently.

Let’s deal with a few questions first.

Do you remember when exactly was the last time you ran a competitive analysis? Don’t mind me asking it, but have you ever done it at all? If your answer is a big, naive no, then perhaps you don’t have any idea how your digital marketing strategy stands compared to your competitors.

Let me tell you a secret, peeping over your competitors can be an unexpectedly wonderful can massively help you find your own shortcomings and in the process, help you get better at the game. I’m sure you’ve heard this saying countless times before – keep your friends close, and your enemies, even closer. And in the realm of online marketing, this is one quote you need to live by.

See, every business that exists on this planet has at least a competitor who’s aiming for the bigger portion of the pie. So doesn’t it make sense to know how your competitors are sailing more smoothly than you when both of you are dealing in the same products or services. If you look at it closely, it’s quite a creative way to get a better understanding of your target audience. Once you’re familiar with the tactics, you can formulate some really killer strategies.

So here are some of the things your business competitors can teach you about digital marketing.

Target audience and traffic: I’m sure that you think that you have a fair idea of who your customers are and where they come from. But a simple analysis can determine whether any of your competitors is attracting more traffic than you or not. It they actually are, it would be a wise idea to go for the strategies they’re going for.

Content that matters: It’s a misconception that anything that’s original, it sells. Within an industry, there is only a limited type of content that gets shared. It could be anything – blog posts or weekly quizzes and surveys or Q&As. Perhaps your competitors know it better than you do.

You also get to know what doesn’t work: The best way to progress is actually to learn through others’ mistakes, don’t you think? Your competitors can also go wrong. So it’s a good idea to constantly monitor their marketing campaigns and learn what catches the eye and what just doesn’t work with the masses.

The key here is to learn from those who are better at this game. And once you’ve figured out the key players, you make their good moves better and avoid their failures.

Mistake #1: Using Outdated Tracking Code

When you create a new site design and don’t update your tracking code (especially if you’ve switched from Google Analytics to Google Tag Manager), you risk it being outdated. Always make sure you’re using the most up-to-date version of your tracking code as a precaution against these types of errors. The traffic will usually display inflated figures, but unless you look deeper, you won’t know where the duplicated traffic is coming from. Even then, it’s difficult to pinpoint. To find it, we’ll need to use a Google Chrome plugin. Make sure you’re not using any duplicate tracking codes by using the Google Tag Assistant Chrome extension. When you have several instances of the same tracking code enabled, this will appear as a red tag inside the extension.

Mistake #2: Ignoring Signs of Scraping

One potential cause of inflated data in your GA account is scraping. If your site was scraped but the Google Analytics tracking code was not removed, you might be getting traffic from a duplicate site in your GA. Investigate and inspect these domains for scraped content if you find a lot of traffic in Google Analytics data from one of these sites. This should immediately stand out to you. If you see a lot of your own content on the new site, double-check to make sure your tracking code wasn’t transferred over as well.

Mistake #3: Not Switching http:// to https:// in Your GA Admin Panel

If you’re migrating your website, make sure your admin panel is migrated from http:// to https:// as well. If you want to ensure that your traffic data is accurately tracked, you must get this right. You risk forgetting to include any of your reporting data in your Google Analytics monitoring if you don’t.

Mistake #4: Ignoring Spam/Bot Traffic

Spam and bot traffic are also issues you should be aware of. You may be affecting the accuracy of your Google Analytics monitoring if you neglect the possible effects of spam and bot traffic. When it comes to spam and bot traffic, this can result in traffic performance over-inflation and, as a result, inaccuracies in your data reporting. This occurs because spam and bot traffic are not regarded as reliable sources of traffic. If you believe your search traffic is growing but you base your decision on spam and bot traffic, you might be in for a world of disappointment. This is why it’s crucial to make sure that any SEO strategy decisions are focused on actual users and traffic, not spam or bots.

Mistake #5: Not Assessing Sampled Traffic vs. Unsampled Traffic

This could be an error in your data monitoring decision-making if your Google Analytics account relies on sampled traffic.

What is sampled traffic?

Unsampled and sampled modes are available in Google Analytics. Unsampled data processing means that Google Analytics is tracking all possible Google traffic and is not using sampled data processing.

Default reports are not subject to sampling. The following general sampling thresholds apply to ad hoc queries of your data:

Analytics Standard: 500k sessions at the property level for the date range you are using

Analytics 360: 100M sessions at the view level for the date range you are using

When you create a default report in Google Analytics, however, this data is not subject to the sampling listed above.

When you’re reporting, make sure you’re not relying on sampled data. And, if you’re relying on this information, you’re aware of the implications of the sampled data.

Mistake #6: Ignoring the Hostname in URLs

Google Analytics does not include the hostname in the URL by default. When dealing with several subdomains, this can be difficult because you never know where the traffic is coming from. Always make sure that you know 100% where the traffic is coming from. At least you will know 100% at all times what’s going on with the hostname in your URLs. Your local SEO company can help you do this and more seamlessly for you.

Getting your site to show up when someone searches for a term related to your site is key to getting tons of free traffic. In order to get your site to place higher in search engine results you’ll need to use several search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. There are quite a few different on sight and offsite strategies. Building backlinks is one of the most effective offsite ways. A backlink is any link to a site that is posted on another website.

There are many ways to build backlinks. Some will help your ranking others will hurt it. The best strategy is to get other people to do it for you. This is called organic link building. By creating content that they then share on social media or on their own sites. In order to accomplish this you’ll first want to research what keywords you want to rank for. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to do this. Creating content that is of the highest quality and relevant to your site is key.

There are many ways to get backlinks built automatically. Most are paid services some are free. Be weary of these as search engines will notice if thousands of links show up all at once and may penalize your sites rank. One way to get auto backlinks is to use article spinning software. This takes an article you wrote and rewrites it so that it is original. Then you can post similar but original articles to many sites or blogs. Search engines look at content and how unique it is when ranking a sites link. So posting a bunch of identical content is also bad.

Another good way is to join forums. Most will allow you to add a link to your signature. So every time you comment or write a post it will create a link. It’s best to find people asking questions that you know the answers to. By answering them you’ll also build a reputation that can benefit your brand.

Social media is one of the best ways to build backlinks along with your brand. Creating a viral video or post with your backlink attached is a very fast way to get backlinks. It is very difficult though. It takes many posts to learn what people will share. If you create a Facebook page with a group you can gain followers and engagement of your posts. They are more likely to get shared. All of the social sites are a good way to build backlinks and get traffic to your site.

Web 2.0 sites are another source. They are sites like Hubpages and Tumbler. Kind of a cross between a blog and a social site. They allow you to create content and add backlinks. One of the thing to look at when building links is the rank of the site that the link is on. The higher the rank the more it will effect your site’s rank.

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.