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There are many testing service providers catering premium quality test process consulting services and other testing parameters in an appropriate manner following test cycle standards. There are few phases to be followed while conducting test process consulting and in this post, the phases have been entailed in a brief manner.

• Initially, it is mandatory for the testing professionals to do thorough analysis and study of the documented and undocumented procedures and their respective implementations to acknowledge the positives and limitations of a specific testing framework.

• With all required and gathered knowledge, test experts used to collect information related to testing needs, processes, benefits and limitations of existing processes and system prerequisites.

• Analysis and evaluation has to be done at this stage to assess the latest and present testing methodologies to compare the actual performance with the potential one and to have a clear idea on the same.

• After analysis, it is needed to generate the variance and standard reports, cost and vulnerability analysis reports and risk benefit analysis reports.

• The robust yet scalable testing procedures defined as governed by industry’s best practices has to be standardized and consistent across all the testing pacts.

• The new defined testing process will be the outcome of the study, research and analysis conducted on the existing frameworks and methodologies. In fact, it is created considering the thorough evaluation of ROI of the business and industry on this front.

• Training session is conducted requiring knowledge transfer and guiding the team about the new standard process definition and specification, adopting testing framework methodology. The final product of the training session will be a training program at this stage.

• Then the stage of process implementation comes in which the testing professionals launch the new testing process as a prototype to magnify the success rate of the finished product tailored according to the measurement repository, process assets and recommended testing procedures.

• Different checks and audits were conducted to acknowledge the efficiency and performance of new procedures. The final end product of the audit will go through assessment criteria’s, spot check reports and non compliance reports.

• Final determination is carried on to measure the last run on the capabilities of the new testing procedure. At this stage, the test experts consolidate the information collected from every phase of the testing and shared with others as sign off.

In a shell, it is highly advised to start the software testing actions at the initial stage only in the entire software development process. It helps in analyzing and fixing the issues at early stage of development thus saving lot of time and effort at later stage. In addition, it is must for software developers and professionals to stay updated with the latest technological know-how’s to utilize the software tools for better and improved results.

Do you ever stop to consider what your customers or clients are saying about your business and your products or services? What are your potential customers thinking about the image you portray on the Internet? Are your business practices effecting your online reputation? Where and when are your clients talking about you? Developing an awareness of these issues may be your first steps forward to building a positive online reputation.

If your customers are already talking about your business online you may not think it’s important to consider your online reputation, let alone worry about managing it. This is comparable to discarding customer comment cards to the trash bin in a bricks & mortar store, which of course is ludicrous. It’s critical to remain actively engaged when it comes to your company’s online reputation.

Proactively monitoring how your business is regarded online, and being ready to take action if necessary will find you in a good position should you ever find yourself dealing with negative feedback or comments. Below are a few online reputation management tips to ensure you remain ahead of the game.

Be Aware

Above and beyond all else you must be aware of what people are posting about your business online. If you fail to keep in touch with what is being said about you there is no sure way of managing it. Browsing the Internet for your brand and setting up email alerts are just a couple of methods you can employ to ensure you know what is being said about your business. Setting up a Google alert will inform you via email when any new comment or post is made online.

Be Active

Being active in your online community through blogging or forums will help provide your brand with a positive image. When it comes to online activity, the more you engage with industry blogs and forums or related websites, the more positive results will occur relating to your brand. Actually participating in the online community helps create positive press that you can use online and in turn, contributes to a positive image for your business. The more positive feedback from a range of sources created, the better your online reputation and web presence will be.

The Social Media Advantage

Many companies and businesses are integrating social media as a form of communication and mode of customer support. Consumers are turning to social media sites such as Facebook and twitter more regularly as a way of reviewing their experiences, both positive and negative. When everything adds up, social media is a great way to interact with your followers and one of the easiest ways to get feedback on your products and services.

Customer Comments & Reviews

It’s likely that any potential new clients will explore the Internet in search of reviews of your business. By seeking reviews from your existing customers you are ensuring those messages online remain fresh and accurate. Sites such as ‘Google Places’ present 3rd party reviews and comments and provide a good source for feedback about your business.

Don’t be disheartened by average or poor reviews, this is a part of doing business and not everyone will see your products and services as ideal. Look into how old the comments are, they may no longer even be relevant to your business model.

You can promote and generate new customer reviews by distributing comment cards that include links to your business profile. Attach links to your profile in your regularly distributed material such as newsletters as well as on your website. Be cautious about requesting reviews, most business directories are clever enough to detect fraudulent reviews and typically will not support a business openly requesting reviews.

If you haven’t ever considered the need or importance of managing your online reputation we recommend you give this more thought. Engage and get involved with the ongoing management of your online reputation or seek professional guidance to do so. As consumers spend more money and time online, every snippet of information about your business becomes critical.

Even if you don’t offer products or services via the Internet, any potential customer will seek out more information about your business online. They will be looking for feedback from other customers and take note of their experiences with you. It’s important that you are aware of what is out there in cyberspace and the manner in which you react to that information. Never second-guess the importance of managing your online reputation.

What are your experiences with customer feedback? Have you had a bad review that you’ve had to manage and rectify? Let us know your experiences and help others avoid making similar mistakes.

Fraser is a Freelance Journalist, Author and CEO of Pro-Content Australia – providing professional online & offline content writing services worldwide.

Thank you for clicking on this article we are happy you came by today. What I would like to do is inform you on why you would want to track your advertising online. Traditional advertising such as newspapers, radio, and television have a setback in that you do not know the types of individuals you are sending your advertising out to. You can figure in the demographic realm that younger people might not be reading the newspaper but you can guess that they are watching TV. This can hamper your efforts in advertising because ad tracking in off-line businesses requires surveying people.

Online site promotion is a bit easier to track. However, you need to make sure that you use the data you collect with an ad tracker to better target the visitors that are coming to your website. Ad tracking is an important feature of website promotion because it allows you not only to track the date and time a person visits your site but it also allows you to track their IP address and the site they came from. This data can then be used to block out certain referring websites and countries you don’t want your promotions to be going to.

The whole purpose of ad tracking is not only to know how many people are visiting your site but who is visiting your site. The information is not perfect because you do not get the names, ages, or income of your visitors. However, you do get valuable demographic information like stated above that can help better your targeting of traffic to your site(s). It is important for us to realize what we are looking at in the data your ad tracking collects.

Again you will receive data in the form of date, time, your promotional link, visitors IP address, site your visitors came from, and how many times your promotional link has been visited. Using this information the right way can help you generate further qualified visitors in the future after you block out visitors coming from areas of the Internet or world that you do not want coming to your site.

Promoting your site without tracking your ads is not a smart way to making money online. You must know who your visitors are so that you are not spending money on unqualified traffic. Because great targeted traffic comes with effort in preventing unqualified users on to your site. The more qualified your visitor the more likely it will results in a sale.

It is common these days for internet marketers to utilize a variety of marketing gimmicks to promote a website’s products/services. Incidentally, one of the widespread and most commonly used marketing gimmicks is article marketing, which works wonders for a business to earn tremendous sales, visibility, traffic and what not. Unfortunately, however, some cunning online marketers have marred the significance of article marketing by using devious or black-hat techniques that although appear harmless apparently but deliver dangerous repercussion in the long run.

One extremely pervasive black-hat technique that has been in usage among a lot of dare-devil and cunning article marketers is article spinning software that have made a fuss on the internet for a long time. Not to mention, article marketing contributes massively to build a mass of backlinks. The caveat to keep in mind is that article marketing through article spinning software is considered as a black-hat technique that can take a toll on a website’s visibility, page rank, etc.

If you still cast doubt on whether using black-hat article marketing technique is dangerous or not, look at the following salient 7 reasons and conclude on your own:

1. Search Engines give attachment to unique, engaging and readable content

Whether it is Yahoo, Bing or Google, the leader of all search engines, invariably attach importance to fresh, engaging and readable content. Also, content that is loaded periodically often have the odds to get a higher ranking in search engine result pages.

2. Article spinning software typically generate scribbled copies

A major loophole with article spinning software is that these programs typically generate substandard quality content, which is even hard to read. Rather than using article spinning software, the better alternative to choose is to start creating articles manually using your creativity. Of course, creating content from scratch manually will take time as well as your skills and efforts, but in the long run of that all, suffice to say that you will find that is all worth considering.

3. The diction may be different, but the essence and the quality are tainted

Most article spinning software will help you in making several different versions of an original article by replacing the original words with matching synonyms. This is seemingly a very easy way to give the mention of one thing in several different ways, which means the nitty-gritty is still the same, but the quality is still compromised heavily. Again, the recommendation is to choose to publish unique articles.

4. Article spinning is commonly reckoned as an unfair practice

According to webmasters and even search engines, article spinning is typically looked with askance and this is an absolute truth. These software tools will taint your online reputation and trustworthiness. That is why it is worth the consideration to avoid using such unethical tools. After all, building your reputation could take several months or years and you are very likely to mar it in a jiffy when your target readers come to learn that you have started posting duplicate content.

5. All search engines are designed to contradict spun articles

All search engines, in general, are designed to contradict article spinning committed by online marketers. Most importantly, Google’s latest Panda Update is attentive to substandard sites, for example, content farms that feature spun articles.

6. Article spinning restricts a writer’s creativity

Article spinning is proverbial for putting a check on a writer’s creativity – and, with said that, most decidedly, spinning an article will never make you a creative writer. Spinning articles is also a lax method of acquiring backlinks and will certainly backfire once search engines come to know about the use of “unethical” practices.

7. Spun articles are highly likely to saturate the market

An original content, which is spun can readily turn out multiple versions, but when it comes to reflecting different viewpoints, they fail miserably. Certainly, different versions of an original article can saturate the market. It will critically leverage the originality of content featured on your website/weblog and therefore prompt search engines to tag yours as a plagiarized version.

So now it is easy for you to conclude by yourself why rewriting an article is never worth the consideration but in fact it is worthy of creating articles manually using your creativity. On the other hand, if you are not good at writing, you can take help of professional writers working in a SEO company USA or India to deliver you creative and original articles.

SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) is a technique which is used by business, startups and website owners to rank their website on top of search engines and other popular web portals. The owner of a search engine like Google would certainly want the customers to find whatever they are looking for on the Google Search Results page itself, within the top three to four results that come up.

Let us go back in time when the Yahoo search engine used to be the most preferred and most widely used search engine, till the point came when the market acquisition was done by Google. Google had the brains and resources to optimize their products, make it simple. Yahoo had ads, emails and various other platforms and the options pertaining to them, while Google on the other hand has allocated the maximum space to the Google Search tab itself on a sole basis.

What is SEO?

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. If you want your content to be featured on YouTube, Facebook and other top sites, you can try out Search Engine Optimization. Most of the Content Creators, be it a website or a YouTube channel, they prioritize on fulfilling targets like an increase in audience population and ranking towards the top of that particular website where they feature. This requires them to use certain suitable keyword which makes them perfect for being targeted by the audience. However, it is not quite simple as that, the procedure is quite complicated. SEO involves some basic tips in order to make your page rank on top of the Google Search web page.

Types of SEO?

SEO can be categorized into two types: On Page Optimization and Off Page Optimization. On Page Optimization means what content your website actually has. What do you get if you actually look into it? Google is well-equipped with its own crawlers which enable them to identify all of your social media handles and make you come up in search results as per the quality of your content. Google does not think on its own-rather it acts like a bot. Being a digital marketer, you have to be able to understand your needs very clearly. One very important aspect here is keyword research.

Choose Keywords Carefully

Say, you as a business are offering a digital marketing course, then you have to choose your keywords accordingly so that your web page or product pops up on the search result web page when a consumer searches for the same. When you are making a website or anything on social media, you must make sure it has enough visibility among the audience you are targeting, by the usage of the right keywords.

When you search anything on Google, first of all the Google ads will pop up, which are paid and have a certain forced presence because they might not have the content which actually has the content to stand on top. Below the ads comes all the websites which are ranked according to their merit, as per SEO.

Plagiarism is strictly not allowed by Google who will detect immediately whether your content is copy-pasted from any other website. If such a case arises, your authenticity as a site is over-you should say goodbye to your chances of ever being ranked on the first page of the search results-leave alone being at the top. Keep the content original so that the people get value addition after reading that.

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.