The Tangible Tangerine

How Many New Friends Will I Make Today? Have you noticed a growing trend in recent years that it has become a common courtesy to text or message someone (even your closest family members) to schedule time for simple chit-chat, even if there is no business agenda on tap? I've probably said this in a previous post, but it's so important that I need to say it again for myself as well as you:  There is nothing more important in life than relationships.  You are a product of the company you keep, so choose them wisely.  If you find yourself approaching every new relationship thinking in the back of your mind: "What can this person do for me?" or "What or how much can I extract here," you're going to have a miserable time trying to enjoy the company of others in any situation. Social media has blurred the way we interact with others in real life. So if you're in the midst of taking a personal inventory of the people you care about m...

Defining Productivity  Drawing distinctions between actual productivity and a sense of productivity can be extremely challenging. Each varies greatly from person to person - business to business.  In business and life, your own definition of what "is" or "isn't" a good use of time will differ greatly with your team.  Huge deals fall through the cracks, and what you believed to be months (maybe years) of planning, strategy, and execution - in hindsight can seem like nothing more than time wasted. Sometimes the best we can do is to learn from our mistakes and move forward. So how do successful people define productivity for themselves? What metrics are involved in prioritizing what needs to get done first on any given day? Businessdictionary.com defines productivity as a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs. Productivity is computed by dividing average output per perio...

Work, Jobs, Employment & Wealth I've never liked the term "livable wages." That phrase is the embodiment of modern-day slavery. To me anyway, it sounds like shackle-verbiage. Or just simply eeking through day to day by skin of teeth. Just taking what "they" give you. Keeping your mouth shut. Personally? I'm gonna have to pass on that drivel like a salad that just doesn't look right in a buffet. No - we were created to live abundantly happy lives, and aside from lottery winners, individuals who legally amass a fortune do so by no secret formula, but by taking part in the reality that is Compound Interest. Simply put, millionaires diversify their investments and "live" if you will, off of the interest it generates. Yes. They've employed money. It's almost as if they put work hats and overalls on walking, talking, hundred-dollar bills to execute effective return - monthly, quarterly, yearly etc ... These folks underst...

Top 5 Reasons Your Blog Doesn't Get ANY Traffic Whoever said that blogging is the easiest way to create passive income hasn't done their homework.  Here are the top five reasons you are spinning your wheels with blog monetization: 5. Your content isn't keyword focused Google doesn't view websites the way that people do. Can you write in a natural, conversational way about a certain topic while making sure you strategically insert rich keywords and phrases that relate to your niche? For instance, if you sell autographed baseballs on your website but also do affiliate marketing, writing content that promotes sporting goods for a commission, there are different methods you are going to want to implement for each initiative. Search terms, "baseball for sale" is going to populate completely different results than "baseballs for sale." What's fascinating is that one single letter (the letter "s") in two very similar phrases are ...

Health & Wellness in Modern Times What’s the best you could hope for in life?  What is the greatest existence you could even begin to dream about right now? It could be a gorgeous home or family.  Maybe it’s unlimited earning potential or complete and total financial freedom from a career path you thought would be rewarding on every conceivable level, but in all actuality makes you physically ill.   I don’t know what that is — only YOU do!  But I do know this to be empirically true beyond a shadow of any doubt whatsoever:   Unless you work-out daily, consistently, and dynamically, you will never even begin to know or understand what that is.  You can be skinny as a rail and live a sedentary, boring life. You can also be morbidly obese, sitting on more money than a King or Queen, wondering why you seem to only be able to accomplish fantasizing about looking spectacular in the trendiest threads money c...

The Waffle House Might Be A Writer’s 24-Hour Best Friend I’ve always loved the Waffle House . They remind me of long drives to Florida on the way to visit family, perking up to see that bright beacon of light on a dark highway before sun-up, knowing my early morning hunger would soon be vanquished in a good way. Their menu is so simple, but employees of this American institution will always tell you they have an element of pride in preparing short-order comfort food, keeping you energized in a way fast-food restaurants can’t pull off. Maybe it’s the fact that even though their service is speedy as McDonald's or Taco Bell , it’s still a sit-down establishment, harkening memories of meals around the table. Since I’ve become a professional writer, I’ve grown to love the Waffle House even more. While it’s true that writers need quiet and solitude to flesh out their work, there is something that is inspiring about all the sounds of a kitchen, the coming and going of r...

Cigarette Controversy  Yes, I Am A Smoker.  I Consume Tobacco!: And Why It's O.K.   I enjoy cigarettes. Do I advocate smoking? Absolutely not. It's all so debatable, and a real fire-starter for conversation and controversy all the way down to the filter. Most people don't look cool enough to be pinching a the brand new  Chesterfield  reboot - which tastes similar to a  Marlboro , but who am I to judge? Take it all with a grain of salt. I pick 'em up and put them down over the years, and much like driving a car, I fully understand the health implications, risks, and benefits of partaking. For some people, cigarettes are nothing more than an addiction, and that's all they'll ever be. To them, it's not an enjoyable substance by any stretch of the imagination, and the enjoyment thereof becomes an infringement on the clean air of those who don't smoke. The psychology of all of it in certain contexts is downright amusing, probab...