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When you stay in a specific area to check out products/services on the internet, effortlessly, you wish to prefer local SERP’s shown in Google and other web search tools. Basically, local SEO is an arrangement of distinct standards and directions utilized by the digital marketing experts to improve websites for particular topographical areas.

For example- if you enhance your website for the local market, Google will show the website or its pages unmistakably to local visitors initially and after that to the guests living in remote zones. In the event that you run a nearby business in your local area, it is imperative to enhance your website for the neighborhood market. But, how will you do this? Let’s find out.

Put A Local Address on Your Website

Google uses your site’s details to show it in nearby indexed lists. In this way, while optimizing your site for a specific domain name, you ought to take after the Google’s rules for local SEO. As a matter of first importance, put a residential location your site which contains the physically obvious details with a live land phone/mobile number, and business E-mail ID. It tells Google and users about the precise location of your site and manages you appropriately.

Enhance Meta Information and Title Labels according to the Location

All SEO experts know the tremendous significance of Meta Information and Title Labels for SEO. Both of these let web indexes and visitors know the real features of this content. Along these lines, they become in a position to guess the sort of content beforehand. It encourages web indexes to show the content according to their legitimacy. While optimizing your site for local SERP’s, include title labels and meta portrayals for “keyword + your city/state/country. It empowers Google to show your site unmistakably for local query items and raise the volume of organic and natural traffic to the site from particular locations.

Keep the Language Preference in Mind

When you boost your website for local SERP’s, it becomes compulsory that you can keep the terminology preference of the general population (living in those territories) at heart. For example- if you are optimizing your website for a local area, write content in American English and enhance it perfectly for the neighborhood audience. Always remember that your website is viewed by all sorts of individuals. So, keep carefully the content language composition simple so far as possible. In cases like this, your Google considers your site content to be exceptionally helpful for the focused on a group of the targeted audience and show it or its pages in a local query.

Local Business Schema

By using Schema, you can certainly categorize the main important data on your site. In spite of the fact that Google is sufficiently shrewd to play out its obligations all alone yet its algorithm needs to drudge a ton to prohibit the most valid sites and website pages for the local query. Google’s work becomes easier if you add the relevant data to your site, such as phone number, metropolitan areas, etc. Adding scheme to pages is one such practice. It is determined by several factors, such as usage of the right web templates and the CMS with that you are functioning your website.

Add Google My Business to Your Website

Google My business is the genuine buddy of every one of those SEO experts who enhance sites for local SEO. To add this instrument to your site, simply follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Make a claim for local listing of your website,
2. Complete the confirmation process for your accounts,
3. Give the exact business subtle elements,
4. Links to your site,
5. Top quality pictures of your business.
6. When you finish this page, accumulate reviews from customers and set criteria for the local listing of your site or its pages. Google will show your site/its pages in local query items according to its settings.

Make Logins at Regular Intervals

Google has made it clear that it can terminate those accounts that do not have any activity for six months or even more. In this manner, you ought to log in your Google My Business account consistently. It will help your site to keep up its sound position in local listings.

Citations

The citation aspect is one of the main factors when you maximize your website for local SERP’s. It’s because Google employs a specific group of directories and list sites to acquire the info and put it to use to send your website. When your website exists on the Google My Business, but unavailable anywhere else on the Global Internet, so, Google may have a slim sense whether your website really is out there or not. So, get citations without the fail. It can help your website to get ranking well in local SERP’s prominently with low and high-performing keywords and key phrases under your market.

Unfortunately, this is not that doom and gloom article announcing that PPC and SEO are no more. Rather we’ll discuss how audio search has shaken things up for the digital marketers.

In the world of search, the voice is an emerging trend and of course something that should be kept an eye on.

Google algorithms change once or twice in a day. But rarely do we experience major ranking fluctuations in it. Those are the updates marketers are concerned about.

One such important trend that may rule the SEO is:

Voice Search on Mobile

Google and Siri might have come in the picture long ago, but it is now that this search has got the ball rolling. Initially, consumers were not at all thrilled with this technology. It was a fun voice recognition gimmick that everyone may want to have fun with. According to research performed in those initial years, 83% of iOS users stated that they didn’t use Siri at all. But today, Google and Siri are leading the way.

With adaption to this new search, you can think of it growing exclusively.

Are you ready to learn more about it?

What is VoiceSearch?

It can be termed as a speech recognition technology allowing a user to perform a search through voice command. It is a two-way communication that assists the users to complete their tasks in real time.

Users nowadays expect a prompt and direct answer when they perform any search. And it is an ideal. In fact, if you dig a little deep in the context of voice queries, you will find it totally different from the specific keyword text search in the search engine.

Voice Search Gaining Popularity

Voice recognition is obviously nothing new, but to date, the practical application remained limited to shouting with anger at a phone to make it understand things or to bring it in exercise to create humor.

However, changing search trends have shown that practical voice interaction is finally a real thing.

It may be hyped as the “coming” technology, but the fact is that 40% of the users have made it today’s technology. Every adult user performs a voice search at least once in a day.

Remaining 60% started using it in the past year, and 40% in the past six months only. With these statistics, we can have an idea that “coming” technology has arrived.

So why are smart speakers and voice-activated search engines gaining such a momentum? Voice has become the opening door for innovation as it provides an appealing and personal and really natural means of interaction. Just think of playing music, ordering a pizza, getting breaking news and in fact turning on your light just through your voice. This is enough to explain why 40% of users have replaced their textual search with voice search seamlessly.

This is one of the massively growing markets and it won’t be wrong to say that Amazon Echo and Google Home are leading the show.

It started with Siri back in 2010 and ever since it started gaining success in the digital world, the market boomed up with the software offering a refined voice search facility. Today we have a big list of voice recognition systems:

Siri (2010)
Amazon Alexa (2014)
Microsoft Cortana (2015)
Google Assistant, Amazon Echo (2016)
Alibaba AliGenie, Samsung Bixby (2017)

Every year this voice search worked on the systems and headed towards success. And eventually, it has grounded its reputation in the market. Today the biggest reason behind the increasing rate of voice searches is a better voice recognition system.

Before getting in how voice searches impact SEO and digital marketing, let’s pay a look at related statistics:

46% of voice search users think of a local business daily
58% of the consumers used voice search to find local business information during last year
27% visit a local business website through voice search
76% of smart home speaker users search for local businesses once in a week with around 53% performing daily searches
The voice recognition market will hit $601 million industry by 2019

Impact on SEO

If voice search is the future, is it leaving any impact on SEO? Well, the answer to this is “Yes, it is”.

With a conventional search, a user types a question, or some keywords more commonly like “CA coaching Classes” or “Indian Cuisines”. With this you see a list of relevant sites helping you out. SEO here plays the role of bringing your site to the top of the list for such relevant searches.

And when a user asks the same to his or her digital assistant, two things come to a picture. Firstly, the search becomes more journalistic and secondly you won’t see any big list of results to choose from. It gives a very clear answer to a clear query.

However, this does not mean that SEO is no longer playing any role in it. In contrast to this, when a search gives just one answer, it makes the optimization even more critical. This is to make sure that your business is chosen from among so many. But with this, it is not like you need to determine a new pattern that is voice search.

Marketers just need to ensure that all the content is conversational and natural. This will help meet the Q and A pattern of voice search. There are a lot of tools like Schema Markup to make sure that Google has got most of the details of your business. Blogs were and will always be an important method to make your voice search successful. So, it is important to remember that voice search is equal to mobile search and portraying a mobile-friendly website is thus more crucial than ever.

Since voice search is the next big thing, brands will rapidly catch up with it. And obviously, these should! In fact, all the massive tech players have started to invest in personal assistant and voice. So, the question is:

Why is Voice Search an Important thing for the Brands?

Since the voice recognition system is working wonderfully in all the areas, how brands could be expected to stay at bay from such advancement. Voice searches will shortly take away all the search methods. And here are the top reasons why it is important for huge brands:

a. Natural Speed -

The fact is, there is no other platform as fast as this voice search system. You just say out and have the concise results among you. For brands, it is one of the most required assets. You execute a command and your task is done there and then. You do not have to spend time looking for the alphabet on a keyboard and then enter your query.

b. Enhanced productivity -

Speaking is faster than typing. Rather than using a touchscreen or keyboard to get an answer to your query if you switch to speech, you will save a significant amount of time. And when you save time, you ultimately increase your productivity.

c.Time is Money – Save it

Since the frequency of speech is faster than writing words, it saves plenty of time. And when your consumers get their work done in seconds, you will be their only choice. When brands partner with the voice search, they are likely to stay above their competitors.

d. Massive Access -

One of the best things about voice recognition systems is these can be accessed by one and all. Like most of the users skip using search engine systems because they do not know the language to type in. However, everybody knows the art of speaking. And because voice searches are available in almost all the languages, the reach maximizes to infinity. This factor certainly increases the consumer ratio.

e. Increased Brand Attention with User Attention -

Are you a brand more concerned about your consumer’s comfort, their requirements, and tastes? Well, if yes, you can be the next big player. More you will take care of your consumer’s ease; more will be the user attention. So, it is better you step into the voice ecosystem as soon as possible.

How to Start in the Voice Search? -

With so many different platforms to operate and perform your voice search on, you may get confused about operating it. Well, there is a very simple solution to it. Voice searches are far easier.

Voice Search Anywhere -

No matter you are sitting inside your cabin or traveling out, speak out your query loudly and get back a relevant answer to it.

Simply tap the mic on the Google search bar and start speaking. This works on Android, iOS, windows and chrome browsers for mobile phones, laptops, and desktops.

For example: Say something like, “Who designed Eiffel Tower?”
It is easy and displays very relevant answers to your queries.

Apart from this Siri works well if you are an Apple device user, Google voice search goes well for the Android devices and Microsoft’s Cortana is useful when it comes to your PC and smartphone using their app.

Tips for optimizing for Voice Search

1. Page Speed -

Page speed plays a vital role in voice search SEO. According to Backlinko, an average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds which is certainly 52% fast if compared to an average page.

2. Answer Length -

Google looks concise and to the point answers for search results. A standard voice search result is just 29 words in length.

3.Reliable Domains -

Reliable domains are likely to produce voice search results extensively more than non-reliable domains.

4. Social Sharing -

Content that has a higher level of social engagement perform better in voice search.

5. Simplicity of Language -

Simple and easy to read content is easily optimized by the voice search engine. An average Google voice search result is written at a 9th-grade level.

6. The featured Snippet -

If your business appears in featured snippet it helps you a great degree to rank in voice search. 40.7% of the voice search answers come from a featured snippet.

Different Optimization Strategies of different Voice Search Engines -

*Google Assistant – Focus on a local pack and featured snippet. Together with this, Google play optimization is also taken into consideration to offer relevant results.

*Alexa – Pays attention to Bing places, featured snippets and Yelp.

*Cortana – Do better optimization for Microsoft App store

Siri – Optimize according to Google Assistant and also develop Siri compatible applications.

Bing Plays a Key Role -

We can see in all the four voice search processes, three of them Apple’s Siri, Cortana, and Alexa take in Bing search for basic information rescue. Facebook is also joining the league and Google obviously powers its very own Google Assistant.

In fact, voice searches may become a standard very soon. According to 2016 data, Bing represented that 25% of the searches conducted via windows 10 taskbar were all voice based. And if we talk about this number in 2018, it must have increased a great degree, considering the popularity of voice searches.

No matter the search engine you give value to, there are two main areas to pay attention to local listings and featured snippets.

On-Site SEO Optimization is Vital -

Despite all these strategies, old SEO is obviously the king. You cannot skip doing SEO optimization like interpreting page content, make users understand about your webpage, answer relevant queries and find out if your page is well optimized to rank on the search engine. Page authority has got a big role to get the featured snippets.

Is this the end for search? -

The most important question that strikes is: if this is the end for search or if old SEO will be dead soon? Well, voice search has been here than you probably think of it. It dates back to 2002. It is just that it became getting popularity with a rise in the use of smartphones. The digital assistants like Siri and Cortana grew increasingly. But SEO did not go out in any case.

Speech search is simply an additional interface and is not expected to replace old SEO in any case. This may change the technique or add some tasks to SEO optimization but won’t kill the good old SEO of course.

The key aim is to design a channel strategy and a perfect method for researching typed and voiced opportunity as a part of the entire process.

There are certain tips that you can use to stand out in the influx of searches. These will hit the airwaves soon and will help you rank in the first voice environment.

Google is just making a move to mobile marketing and sound search but that does not mean the end of desktop search obviously.

voice-enabled may complement what is already in place. Marketers will now pay attention to mobile, desktop and voice. And when there are lots of search engines handy to users, it increases the Google reputation undoubtedly.

Wrapping Up -

Since this search is garnering a great chunk of the overall daily internet searches, it is important for all the businesses to optimize their respective business websites for audio search. It is just the right approach required to perk up the internet traffic for already existing keywords while establishing new key phrases making your products, content, and services easily visible on search engines.

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.