Remember how long you have been putting off things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods, and yet not use it. You must now at last perceive that you are part of the universe, and that the universe’s existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds from your mind, it will go and you will go, and it will never return. Every moment you should think steadily as a Roman and as a man to do what he must in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and a feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give yourself relief from all other thoughts. And you will give yourself relief, if you live your every act in life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason , and all hypocrisy, and self-love , and discontent with the portion which has been given to you. You see how few the things are, of which if a man has hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things. Do wrong to yourself, do wrong to yourself, your soul; but you will no longer have the opportunity of honoring yourself. Every man’s life is sufficient. But yours is nearly finished, and although your soul should revere itself it also places its happiness in the souls of others.
Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader (Harris Classics) (pp. 20-21). Kindle Edition.
My friend RJ is always good for an epiphany or two every time we talk. Yesterday he introduced me to Edith Eva Eger, author of The Choice. She says:
I am Dr. Edith Eva Eger. Since my childhood days in Hungary, friends and family have called me Edie. We lived a ‘normal life’, a happy life, uneventful in its quiet bliss. Then it was slowly, yet suddenly, all taken away, altering the course of my life forever.
Edith Eva Eger
Hear her talk about her choice…
Now that you’ve been introduced to Edith, how will you respond?
Disregard the religiosity at the end if you will, but this video makes an interesting point. If Joshua Chamberlain were not the man he was would the world be the same? i.e. could Hitler have won, etc.?
There are differing perceptions about what happened to Hernán Cortés’s ships. Some think that he burned the vessels, and others believe he beached them.[10] The notion that he burned his ships did not become accepted until 250 years later.[10] However, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, while attending an expedition with Cortés, gives reason to believe that Cortés ran them ashore.[10] In a letter to King Charles, Cortés states that his ships were incapable of sailing, telling his men the reason was shipworm.[10] However, after establishing the town of Vera Cruz, five Aztec emissaries arrived which made Cortés anxious to visit Tenochtitlán.[11] Therefore, he destroyed all of his ships but one, which he sent back to Spain for King Charles.[10] The fear of his men returning to Cuba, rather than embarking on the journey to the Aztec Empire, made him decide to demolish his ships.[12] They no longer had an option but to accompany him on this journey. This decision brought about severe consequences because Cortés had trapped himself in Mexico.
I saw Paul in concert in Green Bay, WI, earlier this year. I have been a fan all my life but had never seen him in person. When he hit that classic chord from Hard Day’s Night to open the concert, I wept. Just found this little gem. Enjoy…
I am a huge fan of productivity thoughts, tools and tactics and I firmly believe that no matter what business you are in, you can benefit from some intentional thinking in this area. All of us have more things to do than time to do it in and could benefit from a tool that would help us to organize our thoughts and tasks in a more systematic way.
I have been interested in this space since the early 90’s when the company I worked for at the time implemented the Franklin Planner as a means of increasing or enhancing productivity. Franklin Planner was a great way to start but organizing things according to their methodology was as cumbersome as the mass of binders that we had to carry around in order to manage our days.
Almost 20 years ago David Allen came on the scene with his radical ‘Getting Things Done’ approach to time and task management. His ‘mind like water’ approach is perfect for a time when to-do lists must be more flexible while recognizing the context of tasks as well. I have taken his approach to productivity to heart for almost half of my business life and thought of you who know me have heard me talk about it at least once, if not more! What I have never really found is a way to implement his thinking in a way that incorporates the best of software tools, the cloud and a platform independent approach that met my needs. Until now, that is. The tool I want to tell you about is called Priority Matrix from Appfluence.
Priority Matrix is platform independent, based in the cloud, freemium software that integrates with any email platform you’re using including Office 365, Outlook, G Suites and Gmail and it does it seamlessly and elegantly.
Here’s a brief overview:
Overview
Additional Examples…
It’s even available for smartphones!
You can find many more of these examples on their YouTube channel here.
This solution hits all my high notes around thoughts, tools, tactics and timing in the productivity space and it meets all my criteria for an effective solution. It is simple, it is powerful, it is platform independent, it is freemium and therefore it is effective. If you’d like to talk about how this applies to you, please use the contact form below!
Supplemental articles
“Benjamin Franklin didn't become one of history's greatest inventors just by sitting around. His daily schedule was pretty intense. This meticulous and rigorous routine may seem impossible to follow, but it could mean a serious productivity boost” https://t.co/Fv8oqua50lpic.twitter.com/M4eNqOExkj
These thoughts were assembled with care for the important people in my life. If you’re getting this link, it’s because you and your productivity and happiness are very important to me! I hope it benefits you…
This is the start of a series on Search Engine Marketing for small business owners.
“Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising.[1] SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.[2]”
Wikipedia
SEO takes more time than money and PPC takes more money than time. Each business owner must decide which asset — time or money — is more valuable to them and decide the appropriate mix. SEM takes longer to ‘kick in’ but longer to taper off while PPC starts immediately when you start paying and stops immediately when you stop paying.
Time and money for small business owners
If you think of SEO and PPC as an investment portfolio, this classic strategy may apply: “Here is an imperfect but workable rule of thumb: If you are investing mainly for retirement, you should “own your age” in bonds. So for example, a 30-year-old would have 30% of her portfolio in bonds, and 70% in stocks.” The lesson I extract? Have more SEO than PPC.
My standard advice to small business owners is to focus on SEO which tends to work better over time and perhaps add a little PPC to get a campaign going until SEO starts to kick in. If that makes sense to you as a small business owner, the single most important thing to do is establish a Google My Business entry for your location.
Quick, flashy marketing overview
If you still need help, please use the contact form below to ask questions or connect.
Bright, Shiny Objects! 
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