#surely you must see that your physical presence can only detract

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

it might be a little callous of me to say but if your physical presence in the photo of your listing isn't at least arguably going to contribute meaningfully to the listing, why are you in the photo

I mean, some self awareness here, I realize in the abstract that there could be a lot of cases where it's ambiguous but the thing is, usually it's pretty clear whether the person should be in the photo or not

[printzonedubai]

How to Make the Most of Corporate Car Branding

Even though there are many new marketing strategies in Dubai, many corporations and businesses still favor and use vehicle branding. The reason is simple—corporate car branding requires less investment and generates greater output.

Now that every other corporate entity in Dubai is running after vehicle branding, how can you stand apart? We have discussed some ideas and tricks below that can make you stand apart from your competitors and get the most out of a corporate car branding service.

Tips for Effective Vehicle Branding for Corporates

Select High-Quality Materials

The materials used for automobile branding must be of high quality to last and be effective. Choose high-quality vinyl wraps or decals that can resist the environment as well as everyday wear and tear. Investing in long-lasting materials guarantees that your branding stays crisp and colorful.

Use Decals Smartly to Communicate Effectively

In the end, the main purpose of corporate car branding is to draw attention from potential clients and create an image. This can only be achieved through effective communication and the details you provide. Use decals, and make sure to add as few words as possible and only keep the necessary details and your information.

Use a Partial Vehicle Wrap to Save Money

Partial car wraps are an excellent option if you have a restricted budget, especially for new and growing enterprises. This does not imply that you would limit the impact of your presence and visibility on the road. This is another great strategy to get the most out of corporate vehicle branding by investing less.

Use Full-Vehicle Branding for a Strong Impression

Full vehicle branding may be a useful promotional technique for firms that are doing well and have a larger advertising budget. Using a powerful and appealing style of branding, you may enhance your business identity and improve sales. This new kind of advertising should be used by the delivery vehicles of online supermarkets and food producers.

Maximize Visibility with Strategic Placement

When you see a car pass by, which body part of the car do you look at first? The vehicle’s sides, rear, and hood are excellent places for visibility. Determine the best location for your branding pieces. Make sure your main message and contact details are legible from a distance.

Maintain Simplicity and Clarity

While it may be tempting to include as much information as possible, simplicity is essential in automotive branding. A crowded design might be confusing and difficult to understand. Stick to the essentials, such as your firm name, logo, slogan, and contact information.

Include High-Quality Imagery

If you decide to include photos or photographs, make sure they are high-resolution and professionally taken (such as photos of your office premises, and a professional atmosphere). Images that are grainy or pixelated might detract from the overall quality of your branding.

Include a Clear Call to Action

Encourage prospective consumers to act. A clear call to action inspires engagement and drives potential leads, whether it’s visiting your website, contacting a phone number, or visiting your physical location.

Corporate vehicle branding is an incredible and cost-effective option for marketing that requires fewer investments and has the capacity to generate greater outcomes. Moreover, you can use the above-mentioned tips and ideas to get the best results out of corporate car branding in Dubai.

[nicknellie]

Anonymous requested: Alex is meant to meet up with Willie for a date, he doesn’t go because he’s having a bad anxiety day and doesn’t feel up to it. When he’s stood up Willie is worried so goes to the studio looking for him. He comes across Alex having an anxiety spiral, hands shaking, not breathing right. So Willie helps him. After he’s calmed down Alex explains why he couldn’t meet up with him, Willie tells him it’s ok to stay in sometimes if you need to we can have a sofa date. They watch films.

This fic is out a hell of a lot sooner than I had planned because I wrote most of it while I was trying to combat my own anxiety by projecting onto Alex, and I actually really liked it, so I managed to get it done quickly. Anyway, thank you for the prompt, it was absolutely lovely and a joy to write!!

Sidenote: For the 5 senses exercise, I changed the order to better fit the fic. If you try it yourself, it should be See 5, Touch 4, Hear 3, Smell 2, Taste 1!

TW: anxiety, anxiety spiral/attack right from the beginning

To Keep the Dark at Bay

It came gradually. It was one of those panics that would sneak up on him and he wouldn’t realise how worried he was until it was far too late. Alex had been excited, he was always excited when it came to dates with Willie, but at some indeterminable point that excitement had been swapped out for anxiety and now it was too late to backtrack.

It came quickly. All of a sudden he found himself punching the palm of his hand with one tightly clenched fist, pacing back and forth across the length of the studio, coughing up breaths that he held too long or not long enough. He’d only been alone for five minutes; he had been hanging out with Julie and she had gone back up to the house when he was supposed to leave to meet Willie, but the moment she had gone he had broken.

It came painfully. His hands were aching, his legs were numb, his chest heaved, and his scalp throbbed where he had been yanking at his hair. Alex hated how his body did this to him, made him distract himself through pain and pain only, made him ache and hurt outside to detract from the ache and hurt inside.

And no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t make it stop.

Because the problem was this: the moment Alex tried to focus on any singular negative thought, another popped up like its demonic offspring. Usually he would try and lay the situation out in his mind, plain and simple so that he could sort through each thing as it came, but that day it simply made things worse.

He tried to breathe. It burned.

He tried to count to relax his mind. He lost track.

He tried to stand still. He almost lost his balance.

Dates with Willie weren’t supposed to cause him stress; they never had in the past, not even their very first one. It wasn’t as if he had been having a bad day before hand – no, he had been having a wonderful day. He and Julie had spent hours making friendship bracelets for each other, the rest of the band, and Willie and Flynn. They had talked about their love lives and gushed about Luke and Willie respectively; they had told each other stories from before they met, Alex reliving his best tales from the nineties, Julie telling him about when she, Carrie, and Flynn had been friends; they had shared advice, shared secrets, shared laughs and tears and hugs, and Alex hadn’t had such a nice time in as long as he could remember.

So why, he thought bitterly, was this happening now?

He wasn’t supposed to be here – he was supposed to be outside the Orpheum, where he had agreed to meet Willie for their date. In fact, if his watch was right, then he was supposed to have been there twenty minutes ago, which meant he had been in the studio, unable to face leaving, for at least half an hour.

He never worried about his dates with Willie. That was part of his boyfriend’s magic; whenever he was around, Alex was compelled to relax, as if it didn’t make sense to do anything else at all. But the thought of leaving the studio, of poofing to the Orpheum, of moving too far or going anywhere at all, made him feel sick to the pit of the stomach he didn’t have.

Alex barely registered the flash of lilac light and the noise that ghosts made when they poofed. If there was anything going on around him then he simply wasn’t aware of it at all. All that was going through his mind were flashing thoughts of indescribable worry, so he didn’t even notice that someone was talking to him until they touched his arm.

He jumped back, out of the way; being touched felt like being suffocated. But he finally stopped his pacing, stopped watching his feet and looked up to see Willie looking at him, expression neutral.

Alex hadn’t had time to think about what Willie would have been going through while this was happening to him. While Alex had been in the studio, Willie would have been waiting outside the Orpheum for him, probably worried sick. These were dangerous times – although Caleb hadn’t been seen or heard from in weeks, he could still be around any corner. As far as anybody knew, time spent apart was time spent in danger. Willie would have had no idea where Alex was, for all he knew he could have been captured by Caleb at last.

The thought made Alex’s jaw lock. Not the idea of being captured by Caleb, but the thought of worrying Willie. Because if Willie was worried for Alex’s safety while Alex was perfectly fine then he might get angry at Alex for worrying him unnecessarily, and if he was angry at Alex then he might not want to see him again, and if that happened then Alex would lose him forever and that was the last thing he wanted.

He tried to breathe again but couldn’t, and Willie was still watching him with that careful expression, like he was trying not to scare him off.

By some miracle, Alex found his voice. It was raspy and blunt and it hurt to talk, but he managed to say, “I’m sorry.”

And he was pacing again, hands threaded through his hair, yanking at it like he was trying to rip it out.

“Alex,” came Willie’s voice, distant. “Alex, can you hear me?”

Alex nodded, watching the ground as he walked, unable to look up.

“Alex.” Willie’s voice again. Clearer. Louder. Perhaps he was stood closer. “I need you to stop walking. Sit down on the couch. I’m right here.”

He did as Willie said, collapsing down onto the worn leather cushions. His legs simultaneously thanked him and protested, partially glad to be resting, partially restless for movement. He compromised, bouncing a leg up and down.

There was too much in the studio. Usually Alex kind of liked the disorder and the bright colours – it felt homely and inviting – but that day there was too much going on. So he covered his face with his hands, propped his elbows up on his legs, and blocked everything into darkness.

“Can I touch you?” Willie asked gently. His voice was crystal clear now, Alex could hear the words as if they were spoken directly into his ear. But he shook his head – if anything touched him then he was sure he would break.

While he couldn’t feel Willie physically, he felt his presence, and in some strange connection to normality, he felt it calm him that little bit.

“Alright,” said Willie softly, “no touching. That isn’t a problem. Alex, you need to breathe.”

That’s what he had been trying to do for nearly forty minutes, but he couldn’t. It wasn’t because ghosts didn’t have lungs, because the motions and the feelings could still be replicated. It was because every time he inhaled and tried to hold it, it slipped away from him like soap. He couldn’t hold on, he couldn’t calm down, he couldn’t do it because it hurt.

So he shook his head wildly.

Willie wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Breathe with me, Alex. I know it’s difficult, but you need to do it or this whole thing will go on for much longer.”

Again, he tried. For Willie. He breathed in and Willie counted along with him, but the breath sputtered out from him in a choked, dry sob.

“Sorry,” he whispered, unable to make himself any louder.

“It’s alright, Alex,” Willie assured him. “We’ll just try again. Breathe in…”

They tried again. Alex failed again. So Willie started them over. They kept going, persevering until Alex could breathe with the efficiency of a lifer. Eventually, his chest felt lighter, like Willie had pulled up the anchor that was weighing it down and Alex could almost set sail again.

But his hands, still covering his eyes, were shaking.

He could hear Willie moving about the studio, clearly looking for something. The shuffle of objects moving about wasn’t as unpleasant as it might have been ten minutes earlier.

After a minute or so, he sensed Willie come back, crouching down in front of him.

“You don’t have to open your eyes just yet,” he began, “but I want you to hold your hands out for me.”

Alex wasn’t sure he could. It felt as if his arms were stuck stiff, and if he forced himself to move his hands away from his eyes then… well, he wasn’t sure what would happen. But he couldn’t do it. So he sat still, not moving a muscle, shaking hands pressed to his face.

Willie asked again, “Can I touch you?”

How was Alex supposed to know? Maybe he was a little calmer, but he still felt detached and drawn and a hundred other emotions he couldn’t have named if he tried. He gave Willie a non-committal shrug.

Willie’s cold hand brushed Alex’s bare forearm. For a moment, he tensed, uncomfortable with the light touch, but as Willie wrapped his fingers around Alex’s arm a little tighter, he relaxed. Where the touch would have stung before, now it felt grounding. Rigid and secure, reliable.

He let Willie pull his left hand away from his face, and then his right, very slowly. He kept his eyes clamped shut, but left his hands outstretched. He felt Willie place something in his palm and turned it over in his fingers – he felt that it was one of Reggie’s many fidget toys, something Julie had suggested he get and that he had barely left alone since then. This must have been one of his spares.

Alex felt it all over, settling for fiddling with a tiny joystick on it, moving his thumb in repetitive circular motions. Willie’s hand came to rest on his arm again, cold and callused, grounding.

“Keep doing that,” Willie said. “Good. We’re going to try something, alright? I want you to tell me five things you can hear right now.”

Taking a deep breath, Alex listened, and rattled off a slow but steady list to Willie. “Wind. Birds. Cars. Ray’s lawnmower. Your breathing.”

“Great,” Willie said. “Now four things you can feel. Things that are touching you, or just any sort of sensation.”

“The fidget toy. My bracelets. My hat is too tight on my head. Your hand on my arm.”

Alex felt his muscles begin to relax just that little bit, and he could hear Willie’s smile when he spoke. “Amazing. You’re doing so well. Now I want you to tell me three things that you can smell.”

Ordinarily, Alex wouldn’t have noticed any particular smell in the studio, but he made himself focus and connect and said with a little more confidence, “Freshly mowed grass. Wood, lots of wood. You, your natural scent.”

He might have been embarrassed about ending with that another time, but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel that way right then.

“Perfect. Here’s a trickier one – two things you can taste.”

Scrunching his nose in concentration, Alex paid attention to himself. “Blood. I think I was biting my tongue. And salt. That’s probably the tears.”

Willie squeezed his forearm, a gentle reassurance. “Good job. This is the last one, but it’s going to be the hardest one because I need you to open your eyes. Alex?”

He did. Seeing everything felt almost blinding, but he kept his eyes open.

Ever so quietly, Willie gave him one last instruction. “What’s one thing you can see?”

“You,” Alex replied.

Willie beamed. “Are you feeling any better?”

In response, Alex threw his arms around Willie’s neck, throwing them both off balance and sending them flailing to the floor. Alex scrambled off of Willie, apologising profusely for landing atop him in a rather inelegant manner, but Willie just laughed it off. He took Alex’s hand, pulled them both up, and sat them back on the couch.

“So,” Willie said, almost conversationally, “what was that about?”

Alex gave a noise that was some strange mix of a laugh, a sob, and a sigh. “I really don’t know. I was just thinking about leaving to go and meet you, but I couldn’t make myself leave, and I don’t even know why. Then I got more worried because I was going to ruin our date because I was keeping you waiting and that just made it all even more difficult and– and I’m going to stop before I get lost again.”

Willie’s expression was unreadable again. He was looking at Alex almost like he was a puzzle he was close to cracking but couldn’t find the final clue for. If anyone else had looked at him that way, Alex might have felt insulted, but when Willie did it he felt important and cared for. He felt loved.

But Willie still hadn’t said anything so Alex broke the silence with, “I’m sorry I ruined today.”

Shaking his head, Willie returned, “You don’t need to apologise. I saw you just then, man, you weren’t in any fit state to go anywhere. You know, not every date has to be a date.”

Alex quirked an eyebrow, asking a silent question.

Smiling like he was proud of himself for coming up with the idea, Willie elaborated, “I’m serious, dude. We can go on dates without going on dates. If one of us doesn’t feel up to going somewhere, we can just chill here – I mean, we have an eternity, it’s not like we’re in any rush. I’m just saying, we don’t always have to do things to be together; it’s the together part that matters. And if I’m honest, sitting here for the rest of the day, watching movies with you sounds way better than anything I could have planned.”

A small smile crept its way onto Alex’s face. Sometimes he didn’t understand how he’d been lucky enough to have Willie skateboard his way into his afterlife. The fact that anyone could be so understanding, so reliable, so perceptive and resourceful was unbelievable to him, but there Willie was in all his glory, beaming at him with the brightness of the sun.

Alex put Reggie’s fidget toy down and took Willie’s hand, threading their fingers together. He smiled at Willie, gentle, tired.

“Are you sure?” he checked. “It’s really okay?”

“Of course it is,” Willie replied, covering their clasped hands with his other. “Hotdog, if you don’t want to do something then I will never force you into it.”

“I’d never do that to you either,” Alex said sombrely. Sometimes he worried that he – well, that both of them – lost sight of the fact that they were both in this relationship. Sure, Alex tended to worry more often and more severely, but Willie wasn’t without his issues, and Alex wanted to ensure that he never felt uncomfortable. He wanted to make sure that he was as present for Willie as Willie was for him.

Willie grinned. “I know. Right – shall we get on with our stay-at-home date?”

“Yes,” Alex returned, smiling as he got up to locate the old TV the Molinas kept in the studio, the one he and all his friends had spent countless nights in front of, watching reruns of classic gameshows, or having movie marathons.

He and Willie set it up together, pressed play on the DVD player, and snuggled beneath a blanket that Willie had dragged off the back of the sofa. Alex folded himself to Willie, resting his head on his chest as the opening credits of Mamma Mia started rolling, listening for a heartbeat though he knew there would be none.

And at last he felt relaxed.

[mylordshesacactus]

1, 3, 15 and 23 for the askmeme?

What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?

Hmm. See, I feel like it’s fairly self-evident from my writing what themes I care about and want to explore, and since 99% of that writing is already embarrassingly niche, it goes without saying that I don’t think those themes get enough love XD

Found family is, thankfully, a very popular trope. The slightly more niche themes that I enjoy exploring are...hmm. How to phrase this.

The (inherent eroticism of the) loyal lieutenant trope; that not only is it okay to not want to lead, but that people can want to be a natural second-in-command without feeling resentful or having that itch of ambition. That being the loyal, quiet support and standing back and watching someone you trust implicitly lead can be what you aspired to in the first place.

The idea of kindness and respect being about what the other person needs to feel safe, not what feels right to do.

The bright, dramatic, larger-than-life fantasy realm is primarily populated by ordinary people. This does not have to be a “deconstruction” or “commentary” on fantasy tropes or on the larger-than-life canon characters; they can and should coexist, because they’re part of the same world.

Asskicking =/= authority. Authority =/= leadership. Leadership in its purest form is soft-spoken and sure, with nothing to prove and no need to posture. Authority only requires certainty that the people under your command can be trusted to do their jobs. Leadership requires certainty that the people under your command can be trusted, fully and completely.

Animals Don’t Work Like That, Actually

Canine Body Language Is Completely Different From That, Actually, You’re Thinking Of Cats.

Loyalty requires you to challenge the people you love outright. Anyone worthy of real loyalty might be angry at first, but will ultimately trust you more as a result.

True love means trusting one another to do the right thing, and knowing for a fact that the other person will not betray their greater responsibilities for your sake no matter how much it hurts them. Anything less is not love; it’s selfish obsession.

What loves do you tend to write about?

Oops I kind of gave that one away with #1 huh. Well, a quick summary then: Agape, philia, storge, pragma, are going to feature most heavily. 

Which isn’t to say there’s less of eros. And if you’ve read my smut you know I LOVE playfulness in sex and romantic relationships; all intense passion is exhausting, you should be able to laugh together, and honestly it’s healthy to still have the hallmarks of ludus show up sometimes. Especially when my faves have such fucking awful lives, letting them just kind of...be grinning, giggly young women who like each other a lot is nice.

Mania (as in, the term for obsessive love in the Greek tradition and not like, the psychological condition) is such an intensely terrifying and deeply unpleasant force--writing it makes me feel so dirty--that it doesn’t show up very often if at all. It’s always an antagonist, if it does, because it’s so incompatible with love.

And all my fanfic faves are like no philautia we hate ourselves like wlws.

What physical quirks do your characters tend to have?

Oooo, I LIKE this one.

This is pretty clearly OCs, since with fanfic characters I at least TRY to just accurately recreate what their physical quirks onscreen seem to be. So, my OCs...

One linguistic quirk that I like to give to OCs is an oddly specific one--you can get a LOT of characterization into a small package by creating characters who are extremely laconic--writing their dialogue by trying to get across their idea in as few words as you possibly can, and using body language for the rest. The most recent version of this is my WoW character Talet, who I actually write as mostly nonverbal. In her case, this is the result of long-term isolation and partially due to trauma; she can and does speak, but she communicates mostly through lupine nonverbal signals to the point where her ward (officially her “apprentice” but in practice, her adopted daughter) openly describes herself as Talet’s “translator”.

I also have a weakness for characters with extremely still body language; not necessarily stiff or tense, just....still. No fidgeting or wasted movement. And for characters who can be described as soft-spoken--often as surprisingly soft-spoken, like my blunt and impolite mule handler with a low, rough voice...who has a completely contradictory tone, very gentle, very calm. Only with her beasts, of course. Or trauma victims. Or children. Or--

Do you prefer reading series or standalone novels and does that reflect on how you write?

Oh that’s also a good one. I like both! Honestly, SHOCKING information from a fanfic author--I love stories that set up a unique and interesting universe with like...rules? Especially when that universe feels bigger than the one story we get to see in it. 

And I’m a sucker for the IDEA of spinoffs, I’d normally adore big sprawling universes that allow for lots of stories to be told in the same basic world. It’s a shame that expanded universes get so bloated and that the writing gets so bad--and I think a major failing of that format is that they so quickly lose sight of the POINT of an expanded universe and try to make every goddamn thing interconnected. The whole POINT is that you can just....read or watch the stories that appeal to you, and while knowing other stories might enrich that experience not knowing them doesn’t detract from it.

(Discworld. The perfect model for how to do this is Discworld. Not interested in the Watch? Cool, here’s a pile of books about other characters. Not interested in Granny Weatherwax? Cool, have fun being wrong but also have fun reading all these witch-free books while doing it. Not interested in Death? Tough shit and have I got news for you about the degree to which not being interested in Death affects its presence in your life, but you don’t have to read books ABOUT Death.)

However, I do have a firm policy about series, and ESPECIALLY about the first book in a series: Cliffhangers are cheating, and they’re weak writing, and they’re only allowed if they’re setting up the actual finale. 

(It’s a mark in Rise Of Kyoshi’s favor that I didn’t....entirely....mind the cliffhanger because the rest of the book was so good. And since the Kyoshi novels are a duology, it’s TECHNICALLY allowable)

You CANNOT use a cliffhanger at the end of your first book. That’s a horrible sign in the author’s faith in their own story. If this is your FIRST IMPRESSION, and you don’t think the story you told is good enough, you don’t think your world and your characters are compelling enough, to get me to come back without straight up leaving the story unfinished in order to make me come back if I want to find out basic information?

Cool. You’re probably right. I don’t care anymore.

Your first installment HAS to stand on its own. The penultimate book can end on a cliffhanger if you really must, because at that stage in the plot it’s normal to assume there’s lots of things happening quickly, and it feels like less of a cheap trick; if I got four books into a five-book series, or two-thirds of the way through a trilogy, I was probably already planning to come back for the finale. But the first installment has to tell its own story, whole and entire, or I’m probably not gonna care enough to stick around.

Open endings are not the same as cliffhangers. Open endings are great.

So, yeah. A well-written standalone novel and a well-written series are basically the same, and the initial book in a series at least should also serve as a well-written standalone novel in the first place!

[shoury01]

BEHAVIOURAL LESSONS FROM THE WORK-FROM-HOME ERA

It is safe to assume that an overwhelming majority of the population has now participated in a videoconference. People who may not have even known how to start one six months ago now use them daily—and it is all beginning to feel normal. The technologies that we have all come to rely on have so seamlessly infiltrated our lives that it is easy to overlook their impact. But when we consider the repercussions of remote working, we will see that these platforms have taught us more than just how to use them. They have made us better leaders, collaborators, employees, and employers. Here are some lessons we did not realize we learned from the tools we use to work from home.

Lesson 01- Transparency is not so frightening after all: . . . .. . . . . . . 

Many of us who came of age in the business world between the 1980s and the 2010s have an innate fear of letting a client see anything before it is “ready.” As businesses, we are entrusted to lead projects that constitute millions of dollars in revenue, which has led to the belief that if work is shared with a client before it’s “perfect,” then that trust will be lost. However, after five months of remote work during the most unpredictable time in most of our lives, it’s clear that nothing is perfect and the notion that we need to pretend it is has no place in our minds. Being open and vulnerable in business isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Lesson 02- Our significance is no longer tied to our location: . . . .. . . . . . . 

Good talent is expensive. You get what you pay for, and the best talent in the world is either totally undiscovered or very successful (hence the high cost). Employers did not know what they could not see, so if you were not directly in front of them, they had no idea you existed. The global pandemic has completely changed that.

With budgets being slashed, offices closed, companies shuttering, and the gig economy being revitalized, we have all been forced to realize that remote work works. The past notions of “oh, they work in a metro/ tier 1 city, so they must be good” are gone, and as people across the country were able to refine their work-from-home setups and became familiar, even comfortable, with Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, etc., the playing field was levelled. The migration of talent and remote work reckoning will afford talented creators and businesspeople from across the globe more opportunities and shake businesses clean of the attitude that someone is less valuable if they are not in a big city. After all, in today’s world, if you have tech tools, Wi-Fi, and talent, you can get the job done.

Lesson 03- Our collaboration skills might want improvement: . . . .. . . . . . .

Between zoom, slack, chat, messenger, texting, and a good old-fashioned conference call or two, there are endless channels for socially distanced conversations to take place. But collaboration is something entirely different, and it is important to remember that talking is not co-thinking, and co-thinking is what gets things done. Energy, attitude, and personality cannot be ‘remoted’ through even the best fiber optic lines. (**quoted - Jerry Sinefield).

Every video call platform has managed to make it more obvious than ever how often team members speak over one another. It is an honest mistake, but even the slightest lag has taught many of us to wait our turn, take a second, and make sure we are not infringing on someone’s time to speak. This small change many have unconsciously implemented has made all the things that feed innovative thinking that much better.

The truth is that as humans, we adapt. Sometimes it happens so quietly that we don’t even notice. So, the next time we notice ourselves waiting our turn to speak, being more vulnerable with a client or co-worker, or not second-guessing our value, we can say a silent “thank you” to all of our work-from-home technology for helping us make positive changes from our couch.

Behaviors That Bring More Focus

Focus seems to be the key. It’s hard to imagine achieving anything of value without given it due attention. And whether it’s in relation to family life, work or study, more focus enables more effective setting and achievement of goals. But while most of us can appreciate the benefits of focus, the path to becoming more focused is often elusive. This is especially the case in our modern world: where gadgets, social media and around-the-clock coverage of world events (and non-events) often serve to distract us.

One solution could be to simply avoid the same things highly focused people avoid. Study after study of highly focused (and not-so-focused) people has given us a good idea of the do’s and don’ts of maintaining attention and getting the job done. Here are some behaviors of focused people:

They do not focus their attention on being focused: . . . . . .. . It might seem counterintuitive, but recent research suggests the best way to gain and keep focus is not to try. In other words, maintaining focus could best be undertaken as a defensive sport. Allowing even 200 milliseconds of mental distraction (around 1/5th of second, i.e., the blink of the eye) can disturb our focus for up to 40 minutes. Getting distracted depletes both our physical energy and our brain power. For example, it uses up vital thinking resources and pushes us more quickly towards mental overload—a state wherein we are less able to make decisions. By contrast, placing effort on getting rid of random distractions regains our focus and preserves our scarce, mental reserves.

They reframe dull work to be interesting: . . . . . . . . . We are only focused when we’re interested in the topic. It is no surprise that if the task at hand is incredibly boring, we lose focus quickly. Nonetheless, seldom in life do we get to work things that are always interesting and engaging. For that reason, highly focused people reframe whatever work or tasks they have, to make them more “interesting”. For example, signing a bunch of documents might be reframed as a chance to reflect on the beauty (or ugliness) of your signature. Reading an exceptionally long and poorly structured client brief might allow thoughts of copyediting.

They never begin something without clear, realistic goals. :. . . . . . . . Goal setting is an entire sub-field of management behavioral science. One of its many insights is that setting clear goals increases productivity. However, the mechanism by which goals appear to boost productivity relates to focus: clear goals give a person an object of focus and helps them mark progress. And that leads to something else. The goal-setting literature says our objectives should be challenging; however, they should also be realistic. Goals that are set too high or too low undermines focus and, as a result, productivity.

They chase those goals with flexibility and agility: . . . . . . . .. At the same time, highly focused people do some things that seem counterintuitive. For example, they set goals but do not set rigid ways of achieving them. As a result, high focused people leave themselves open to exploiting opportunities that arise along the way. These opportunities might make their existing goals easer to reach or change them altogether. When people set out with a rigid plan of action towards achieving goals, they are mostly asking “how” and not “why”. Yet. while seemingly harmless, this subtle distinction reduces focus dramatically. For example, as we become bogged down in the details of pursuing a specific action plan, subconsciously, we get lured off-topic by distractions. Part of that might stem from frustrations in not responding to what is happening then and there. By contrast, asking “why” opens the doorway to accepting alternative approaches and revising what we are doing based upon new data. By doing all that, it helps us maintain focus out of maintained interest and engagement.

They use diversions strategically: . . . . . .. .. Diversions are not always bad. While it’s important to distinguish random distractions from those related to our undertakings, there’s even an important place for random distractions in maintaining focus. Brief, strategically timed distractions—often at various intervals while doing our work—helps us “bounce back” into focus. For example, highly focused people might walk outside to observe the hustle and bustle of city streets or go for a walk in nature or even have an irrelevant conversation as a bounce back strategy. The only caveat is if the distraction involves electronic devices—which, for other reasons—can operate on our brains through visual channels and detract from focus.

They prioritize the mind-soul-body connection:. . . . . . . .. Highly focused people understand that their physical, emotional, and even spiritual condition can influence their abilities to maintain attention. Sufficient sleep is important for maintaining focus, even though many believe “all-nighters” or crunching for deadlines are effective ways to work and focus. Highly saturated foods lead to poor focus, and even a slight amount of dehydration kills our attention and leaves our brains foggy.

Having aggressive emotions (such as produced by an argument or by reading a politically-explosive news article) can affect our abilities to reason for some moments after the event—apart from depleting our mental reserves as they arise. The many ancient practices of meditation and prayer offer different ways of gathering focus.

They never befriend their electronic gadgets:. . . . . . . .. Science shows that our devices distract our attention and deplete our focus substantially. That might seem obvious, when considering email or chats, but even the mere presence of a mobile phone near us, impairs our ability to focus. Studies have shown that our grey matter is pivotal in enabling us to switch tasks and regain focus, as well as process information, build memories and other vital functions. Not only is multi-tasking across electronic media distracting, it could progressively impair our abilities to focus over the longer term by affecting our grey matter.

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

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SEO 101: Why is My Website Not Showing in Google Search?

Why Your Site Doesn’t Show Up in Google Search

Is your site not showing up in Google search results?

Test if your site has been indexed by searching for its exact URL or domain name with no other words (ex: http://ift.tt/pjifv8).

How to Test Googles Search Index

If your site isn’t appearing in Google search results, or it’s performing more poorly than it once did, check your sites search performance in Google.

Why Search Ranking Matters

The vast majority of people don’t click past the first page of search results. According to this study, the top listing in Google’s organic search results receives 33 percent of the traffic, compared to 18 percent for the second position, and the traffic only degrades from there.

So it’s not enough for your site to simply be indexed by Google, Bing, andYahoo.

Why Sites Don’t Rank in Search Results

Google is tricky. Here’s what may be preventing your site from showing up in search results:

Google has not indexed your website yet (too new)

Your website isn’t optimized for search engine crawling

Your keyword market is very competitive

Your website has “no index” tags

Your website has been penalized and removed from Google

Below are common reasons (in detail) why your site (WordPress, Wix, andSquarespace) isn’t ranking, and how to appear on Google search:

1. Google has not indexed your website yet

Sometimes it can take a week or more for a search engine to update search results. This is because your website is new and doesn’t have any inbound links.

First, create an account on Google webmaster tools. When you register and point Google to your sitemap.xml URL you can request them to re-crawl your URLs. However, there are so many requests that the feature doesn’t always work immediately (especially if you have a new or large site).

If you don’t want to create a Google Webmaster Tools account, try this link to add your url to google: http://ift.tt/1frlH0h

Google doesn’t add all submitted URLs to their index, and they can’t makepredictions or guarantees about when or if submitted URLs will appear in their index. But if your new website is crawled, it usually takes another week or two for it to be pushed out to the index.

2. Your website is too new

Did you just build and launch your new website? Typically it can take up to four weeks for it to begin to show up in search engine results. While we might be accustomed to getting things online quickly, search engine indexes can be rather slow. So sit tight, wait and learn more about search engine algorithms before you get too nervous.

3. Your website has “no index” tags

You can use custom code to tell search engines not to index your site or specific pages. If you or someone who designed your site added this code, that would explain why it’s not appearing in search results.

4. Your website isn’t optimized for search engine crawling

Once you submit your website to a search engine, a spider is sent to your site to crawl it for content. These spiders don’t view your site like a visitor would.

They scan your site for meta content, keyword saturation, relevant content, and many other factors.

Therefore, you need to consider what content search engines actually see on your Web pages.

5. Your keyword market is very competitive

Search engines help millions of users across the world navigate the internet and find specific content amid the billions of websites.

Make sure you are targeting a less competitive keyword market, so you can gain the attention of your consumer.

6. Not all keywords are equal

It’s easy to rank for irrelevant keywords in search engines. It’s hard to rank for keywords that are profitable for your business.

The difficulty is two fold, one determining the most profitable keyword for your business, and two having the knowledge to move you to Page 1 ranking.

7. Your website has been removed from Google

Google may temporarily or permanently remove sites from its index and search results if it believes it is obligated to do so by law, if the sites do not meet Google’s quality guidelines, or for other reasons, such as if the sites detract from users’ ability to locate relevant information.

Here are the different ways Google may remove your site from search results:

Deindexed – When your domain is completely removed from Google. Also known as Banned.

Penalized – When your domain or page still exists but none of your pages can be found through very direct search queries. This penalty can be automatic through the Google algorithm or manually applied by a Google Quality Engineer.

Sandboxed – Your domain or page wasn’t Deindexed or Penalized, but the traffic you were getting from Google suddenly drops dramatically.

If your site is blocked from our index because it violates our quality guidelines, Google may alert you about this using Search Console.

If you receive a notification that your site violates our quality guidelines, you can modify your site so that it meets these guidelines, thensubmit your site for reconsideration.

You are blocking search engines from crawling your site

WordPress comes with a built-in feature that allows you to instruct search engines not to index your site. This feature is automatically enabled when you launch a new WordPress website. So you must manually disable it. All you need to do is visit Settings » Reading and check the box next to Search Engine Visibility option.

How to Get Your Website To Show Up on Google

You want your website to rank on the first page (which typically has 10 website listings). Depending on your business, you will need to employsearch engine optimization and SEO strategies to improve your ranking.

1. Conduct a thorough SEO audit

To ensure greater success in the future, now is the time to conduct an SEO audit of your website. This will give you a clear view of where you stand in regards to:

On-site optimization

Off-site optimization

Keyword selection

And that is just the start. Learn how to do a manual audit here: http://ift.tt/2CBrlkV

2. Add keywords to your website content

Keywords can be a single word or a short phrase of up to four or five words. These should be terms that are relevant to your site and which people are likely to use when they search Google.

Obviously they need to be relevant to what your site is about.

3. Use meta-tags to add more keyword

Meta-tags are hidden code — visitors to your website don’t see them, but the Google search engine “bots” that scan your site will pick them up.

You can add these meta-tags to your site yourself if you have a web design program or if you know how to do HTML coding.

4. Find keywords that aren’t overly competitive

We suggest you use Google’s free Keyword Planner to figure this out.

This keyword research tool lets you gauge the popularity of particular search terms, as well as the level of competition you face by using them.

Highly competitive keywords can have tens of thousands of websites fighting over them, so you are less likely to wind up on page one of Google if you pick these.

5. Seek out backlinks

Web pages that contain links back to your site: A big factor for search engines is quality organic backlinks. It’s what search engines are looking for.

If you have multiple websites linking back to your website, Google gives your page higher credibility and search ranking.

6. Create a listing for your site on Google My Business

This tip is for brick and mortar businesses with physical locations.

Google My Business links your site to a map listing, so when people look for your business or search using keywords linked to your business, they will find a Google map listing and can click through to your website for more information.

7. Have content that is relevant to your business

Use articles or other material that is specific to the products and services you are providing. Don’t use filler that is only loosely related.

Google’s algorithm ranks sites with original, relevant content more highly than those with content repeated elsewhere.

8. Analyze your technical SEO

My free SEO report is a great resource to baseline specific URL search engine performance. We also give you a long check list of ways you can improve your websites SEO on your own.

Bonus tip: SEO Maintenance

Once you’ve optimized your website to get to that crucial first page of Google, you can’t stop, SEO always needs to be managed.

As soon as you’ve climbed to page one ranking, your competitors will be after you with their own SEO strategies, seeking to knock you off the top.

Or customers might start searching with different keywords.

The bottom line: Your website will need continual SEO review to maintain your search engine ranking.

Conclusion

It’s very important for business owners to learn about SEO, and improve their online presence. In fact, 63% of Americans access the mobile web each day, and that number is on the rise.

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2CGqeAo via IFTTT

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4 Secrets of Success From a High School Senior Who Got Into 5 Ivy League Schools

Choosing the right college is one of the biggest decisions you will have to make, and many hardworking students dream of getting into competitive, Ivy League schools.

There are several steps to getting into a prestigious college, and personal essays are a critical part of the application process. Figuring out a way to stand out from the crowd of thousands of applicants every year can be daunting, but one Concord High School senior did just that.

With an out-of-the-box approach to the essay portion of her college applications, Brittany Stinson was able to achieve the rare feat of getting into six of the top colleges in the country.

So, which schools was she able to get into with her powerhouse application?

The five Ivy League schools that sent her acceptance letters included:

Yale

Columbia

The University of Pennsylvania

Dartmouth

Cornell

To top off her incredible accomplishment, Brittany was also accepted into Stanford University. While not an Ivy League school, Stanford has the lowest rate of admission for any school on the list at a 4.69% acceptance rate.

While Brittany’s accomplishments may not be the typical experience, her unique approach to her admissions essay is something that every high school student should take into consideration. With a little creativity and determination, you too can stand out from the crowd and make your voice heard in the sea of competitive college applications.

What Can You Learn From Brittany Stinson’s Powerful Essay?

The following statement was the essay prompt that resulted in Brittany’s outstanding essay: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

Most students reading this prompt would generally fall back on a retelling of a dramatic or emotional event that changed an aspect of their lives. While this type of response can have a deep impact on admissions officers if told correctly, Brittany had a different approach. Below is the verbatim response that she gave for the aforementioned prompt:

Managing to break free from my mother’s grasp, I charged. With arms flailing and chubby legs fluttering beneath me, I was the ferocious two­ year old rampaging through Costco on a Saturday morning. My mother’s eyes widened in horror as I jettisoned my churro; the cinnamon­-sugar rocket gracefully sliced its way through the air while I continued my spree. I sprinted through the aisles, looking up in awe at the massive bulk products that towered over me. Overcome with wonder, I wanted to touch and taste, to stick my head into industrial­-sized freezers, to explore every crevice. I was a conquistador, but rather than searching the land for El Dorado, I scoured aisles for free samples. Before inevitably being whisked away into a shopping cart, I scaled a mountain of plush toys and surveyed the expanse that lay before me: the kingdom of Costco.

Notorious for its oversized portions and dollar- ­fifty hot dog combo, Costco is the apex of consumerism. From the days spent being toted around in a shopping cart to when I was finally tall enough to reach lofty sample trays, Costco has endured a steady presence throughout my life. As a veteran Costco shopper, I navigate the aisles of foodstuffs, thrusting the majority of my weight upon a generously filled shopping cart whose enormity juxtaposes my small frame. Over time, I’ve developed a habit of observing fellow patrons tote their carts piled with frozen burritos, cheese puffs, tubs of ice cream, and weight­loss supplements. Perusing the aisles gave me time to ponder. Who needs three pounds of sour cream? Was cultured yogurt any more well-­mannered than its uncultured counterpart? Costco gave birth to my unfettered curiosity.

While enjoying an obligatory hot dog, I did not find myself thinking about the ‘all beef’ goodness that Costco boasted. I instead considered finitudes and infinitudes, unimagined uses for tubs of sour cream, the projectile motion of said tub when launched from an eighty foot shelf or maybe when pushed from a speedy cart by a scrawny seventeen year old. I contemplated the philosophical: If there exists a thirty­-three ounce jar of Nutella, do we really have free will? I experienced a harsh physics lesson while observing a shopper who had no evident familiarity of inertia’s workings. With a cart filled to overflowing, she made her way towards the sloped exit, continuing to push and push while steadily losing control until the cart escaped her and went crashing into a concrete column, 52” plasma screen TV and all. Purchasing the yuletide hickory smoked ham inevitably led to a conversation between my father and me about Andrew Jackson’s controversiality. There was no questioning Old Hickory’s dedication; he was steadfast in his beliefs and pursuits – qualities I am compelled to admire, yet his morals were crooked. We both found the ham to be more likeable–and tender.

I adopted my exploratory skills, fine tuned by Costco, towards my intellectual endeavors. Just as I sampled buffalo­-chicken dip or chocolate truffles, I probed the realms of history, dance and biology, all in pursuit of the ideal cart–one overflowing with theoretical situations and notions both silly and serious. I sampled calculus, cross-­country running, scientific research, all of which are now household favorites. With cart in hand, I do what scares me; I absorb the warehouse that is the world. Whether it be through attempting aerial yoga, learning how to chart black-body radiation using astronomical software, or dancing in front of hundreds of people, I am compelled to try any activity that interests me in the slightest.

My intense desire to know, to explore beyond the bounds of rational thought; this is what defines me. Costco fuels my insatiability and cultivates curiosity within me at a cellular level. Encoded to immerse myself in the unknown, I find it difficult to complacently accept the “what”; I want to hunt for the “whys” and dissect the “hows”. In essence, I subsist on discovery.

If that took a turn you weren’t expecting and grabbed your attention, you’re not the only one! Her innovative approach to describing her character strengths stood out enough to beat out thousands of other students applying to these prestigious schools.

So, how was she able to accomplish such an impressive feat? What can you take from her unique approach to craft your own home-run college essay?

Let’s go over four secrets to success that any high school student can use to follow Brittany’s refreshing example.

Secrets for Getting Your College Essay Noticed

1. Make a Plan Before you Begin

One of the first steps you need to take when writing an application essay is to understand the technical requirements of the prompt, such as maximum word count. From there, you need to get a clear idea of exactly what you want to say to your potential school.

During an interview following her success, Brittany described her process for planning out her essay by stating, “I really tried to think of my defining qualities, and narrowed it down to one or two qualities I wanted to convey to admissions officers.”

After determining the goal of your essay, the next step is to find your voice and decide how you want to convey that message. Will you take a humorous approach like Brittany? Can you draw a deep connection between your message and the future you see for yourself at your potential school? However you decide to approach it, the most important thing is to be sure that your voice is truly you.

2. Think Outside the Box

After reading through Brittany’s essay, what stands out the most is the way she used humor to draw in her audience and make her point. Thinking outside the box in this way is necessary to make an impact on admissions officers who read thousands of these essays every year. The key is finding the right tools to use in your essay to enhance what you are trying to say, not detract from it.

Remember that these colleges are looking for students that exemplify strong character traits that complement the values and mission of the school. While Brittany’s essay used a playful touch to make her point, it still came back to a focus on her curiosity, self-awareness, and critical thinking ability – all traits that are highly desirable in the student body of a prestigious school.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Show Your Personality

When asked how she chose the specific topic for her essay, Brittany stated, “Before I even started writing an essay, I read a quote from an admissions officer that said if your essay is on the ground and there is no name on it and one of your friends picks it up, they should know that you wrote it.”

Injecting your authentic self into your application is necessary to catch the eye of an admissions officer, but it has to be done in a way that is true to your personality. If you are not naturally a comedic, playful person, it will come off as inauthentic if you attempt to write an essay similar to Brittany’s. For the strongest application, you must embrace the uniqueness of your personality and then relate that back to your experience.

4. Back-Up Your Story with Experience

The essay is only one part of your application, although there’s no question that it has the potential to make a significant impact on your acceptance to the school. However, talking up your strong character traits isn’t enough on its own – you also have to prove that you walk your talk!

A strong GPA, high test scores, community involvement, and leadership experience all are looked at during the college application process. While Brittany’s essay is credited for her success in getting into so many top-level schools, she also had an impressive high school resume to back that up.

How to Get Into Your College of Choice

Getting into your school of choice is a journey that begins well before your senior year of high school.

As Brittany Stinson’s success shows, with a dedicated, long-term approach to your ultimate educational goals, anything is possible. There are several lessons that we can take away from Brittany’s innovative approach to the college essay process, but it all comes down to embracing the unique aspects of who you are and what you can share with the world.

Throughout the course of her high school years, Brittany scored extremely high on standardized testing, took several AP classes, was involved in her community, and participated in competitive STEM programs. Combined with her unique application essay, she had a very well-rounded application that was sure to leave a solid first impression.

If your goal is to attend an Ivy League or top-ranked college, small steps towards your goal can quickly add up. Be involved in your school, focus on your strengths, and take note of the secrets discussed above that helped Brittany break down the barriers and reach her well-earned success.

The post 4 Secrets of Success From a High School Senior Who Got Into 5 Ivy League Schools appeared first on My College Guide.

from My College Guide http://mycollegeguide.org/blog/2017/02/get-into-5-ivy-league-schools/