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A Holiday Gone Wrong

I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.

A curse is an evil spell, evil magic. When you curse something, you change something about it, and the curse must be broken to get it back to normal. For example, a witch or wizard might curse a prince so that he dies on his eighteenth birthday. To break the curse, the prince has to have true love’s kiss.

The famous floating shrine gate by Miyajima

Shinto is one of the religions in Japan. In Shinto, people believe that there are gods, or spirits, that live in many things, such as trees, stones and animals. Shrines are holy buildings, similar to churches. So a Shinto shrine is basically a church, but for Shintoism and not Christianity. Shinto shrines have big red gates outside, which are very famous outside of Japan. There is a beautiful Shinto shrine on an island called Miyajima, which ‘floats’ on the water at high tide. I’ve been there, and it’s pretty amazing!

Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia. Mecca contains Hajj, a holy place in Islam. Muslims are supposed to do a pilgrimage to Hajj at least once in their lives. This means that they should take a holy journey to Hajj. In English, we often use ‘Mecca’ to speak about Hajj. We also use ‘Mecca’ in a wider sense, to talk about a place that is special and important to visit for a certain group of people. For example, Disney World is a Mecca for many people who love Disney films. For me, the village mentioned in this story is a personal Mecca—it is a place I really want to visit.

Guts are your insides, the bits of your body below your stomach. When you eat food, it goes into your stomach. Then it goes into a long part of your body called your intestines—you have a small intestine and a large intestine. There is another part of your body called your liver, which removes poisons from the body. These are all your guts. Hopefully, you’ll never get to see your guts, because if you can see your guts then something horrible has happened!

A cicada is a type of insect that is found in warm countries. Cicadas have long wings that you can see through. Cicadas sit on trees and make a loud sound in the summer. This sound involves clicking and chirping. Cicadas live underground. At a certain age, they fly out and moult, lose their old skin, so that they can use their wings.

When you fly a long way, for example from the UK to Japan, you will probably have jet lag. Jet lag is when your body still thinks it’s the same time as at home, so you can’t get to sleep at a normal time in your new country. For example, if I leave the UK at 8am and fly 12 hours to Japan, it will be 12pm when I arrive. However, my body will think it’s 8pm, so at 2pm, I’ll be ready to go to bed. Jet lag is a serious problem for frequent travellers.

In many Asian countries, people usually do not eat with knives and forks, but instead chopsticks. Chopsticks are small wooden sticks that you hold in your hands and use to pick up food. If you’ve never used chopsticks before, they can be a bit hard to use, but some food is much better to eat with chopsticks, like sushi.

Incense are wooden sticks that you burn because they make a nice smell. Actually, incense comes from the gum of trees, or certain spices, but when you buy it it comes as a stick. Incense is particularly popular in India and Japan. Incense is traditionally burned as a part of Buddhist ceremonies. For example, in Japan, during Buddhist funerals, incense sticks are put in a bowl and burned.

A crow is a black bird with a big black nose. Crows are very intelligent. For example, they can tell each other about where to find food, and can learn to talk. Crows open their beaks to make a loud sound, [caws], which we call a caw. To be honest, crows are very similar to ravens. The main difference between ravens and crows is that ravens are a bit bigger.

When you do a series of things in a specific order and way, that’s a ritual. For example, your morning ritual might be to make coffee in a specific way and enjoy it while looking out of the window. Rituals are often an important part of religion. For example, marriage is an important ritual for many people, as you say things and do things in a very specific way.

A Holiday Gone Wrong

It had taken me a 12-hour flight and a four-hour bus journey, but I was finally here.

Shirakawa-go, a traditional Japanese village hidden among the mountains in the centre of Japan. It had peaceful rice fields, thick mountain forests and charming traditional houses, but I wasn’t here to get away from the fast pace of Tokyo.

No, I was here because of murder, madness and ancient curses.

That made it sound awfully dramatic. Really, I was here because of my favourite Japanese animated series, Higurashi no naku koro ni. The series was set in the village of Hinamizawa, but everything, from the old wooden houses, the Shinto shrine and the arrangement of trees and rivers was almost exactly identical to the village of Shirakawa-go.

This made it the perfect Mecca for fans of the series, but this wasn’t some cute, relaxed show about life in the countryside. It was a time-travelling psychological horror series with just as much blood and guts as cute girls and comedy scenes.

As I walked into the village, already sweating under the 35-degree weather, I heard the clicks and chirps of the cicadas. Normally, this would be a sign of lazy summer days, but to fans of the show, it had a completely different meaning. The title of the show meant ‘When the cicadas cry’, which had as much to do with the chirps of the insects as the cries of victims being murdered. I couldn’t help but shiver as I heard them, even though it was so hot I had a headache.

The cicadas’ chirping meant I had arrived.

Unfortunately, although reaching my very own Mecca had been such an important goal for me, I hadn’t planned things so well. I thought coming off season would mean cooler temperatures, but I’d managed to choose one of the hottest summers in recent history for Japan. Not only that, but without the usual number of tourists, many shops were closed, and I found myself with nothing to eat and drink but a bottle of water and a single onigiri, a rice ball.

I also hadn’t had the best luck on my trip so far. I’d stayed the first few nights in Tokyo, trying, unsuccessfully, to get over my jet lag. Instead, I’d just gotten sick off the heat and the sudden change in diet. Apparently, eating cheap ramen and Japanese sweets all day wasn’t good for your body.

But my worst mistake came on the first night, when I was still half-dead with jet lag, and I got a bowl of rice and meat in a restaurant. Halfway through eating my meal, I stuck my chopsticks into the rice to check my phone.

Only seconds later, an old woman walked up to me, shouting in fluent Japanese. I had been studying as hard as I could, but no textbook could prepare me to understand an angry old woman telling me I’d just done something extremely offensive. As I learned after getting help from Google Translate and apologising endlessly, chopsticks stuck in a bowl of rice looked very similar to incense sticks stuck in a bowl, a key part of a traditional Buddhist funeral. It was bad luck to do so, and I felt like an idiot tourist for days afterwards.

Still, it was all going to be worth it, because I was finally here, in Shirakawa-go. I wasted no time, and immediately started climbing the stone stairs up the hill. I passed by the Shinto shrine, an important location from the TV series. A group of crows was sitting outside, which was very suitable, because in a memorable—and horrible—scene in the show, one of the characters was found dead outside the shrine, crows eating her guts.

I decided to go into the shrine later. I wanted to get to the top of the hill before the midday sun beat down in full force. It wasn’t such a big climb, but in the heat it felt like Mt. Fuji, and my lungs were exploding by the time I got to the top. I barely stopped to rest, though. Looking out over the village, I compared the real life image to the animated shots I had seen so many times watching the show. I remembered everything that had happened here—all the fights, the tense conversations, the murders…

I hated looking like a tourist, but nobody was around, and I had to take something to remember this. So I leant back against the fence and took out my phone to take a picture of myself. It was hard to get myself and the whole view in shot, so I leant back further, and then—

I fell, landing in the grass and then rolling. I was so surprised I didn’t even cry out, but as I kept rolling, I picked up speed. I rolled over grass, then dirt and rocks, until I rolled right off a big rock.

I flew several feet into the air, still unable to scream, and I landed precisely on my right leg.

CRACK

Pain exploded through me, and now the screaming came. It felt like my leg had been torn apart, and when I looked down, I saw the white flash of bone. I immediately rolled over and threw up, which was worse, because it put more pressure on my leg.

I panted wildly, the smell of my breakfast—bread with sweet bean paste—attacking my nose. It smelled like blood.

Once I’d calmed down a bit, I looked around me. I had fallen far, so far that the top of the hill was just a distant dot above me. I was in the woods which climbed up one side of the hill, and everything was quieter than before. I couldn’t hear the crows, or the sound of human voices.

All I heard were the clicks and chirps of the cicadas.

Panic gripped me.

‘Help, help!’ I screamed. ‘Tasukete, tasukete!’

When I’d studied Japanese, I’d had no idea I would actually need that phrase, but it didn’t matter. I screamed for what felt like hours, but nobody came.

There was no doubt about it. I had broken my leg, and I needed to get to help.

I tried standing up on my left leg, but the hill was steep, and every time I tried to stand I fell over. I couldn’t lean on my right leg, which meant it was impossible to get enough balance. It didn’t help that I was sweating like a pig and shaking with panic.

I saw my phone a few feet away from me, and my brain started working again. Thank God, it hadn’t fallen far from me, and it didn’t look broken, either. If I could just get to it, I could call for help.

Crawling on my hands and knees, I made my way over to the phone. Every time a stick or a rock brushed against my broken leg, I gasped with pain, but finally, I made it to my phone.

And then I remembered something. I had a British phone, that worked on British telephone waves. Japan used a different system, meaning my phone was useless. I checked just to see if there were any Wifi networks nearby, but of course there weren’t.

I was going to have to get to help on my own.

Well, going down was easier than going up. I checked nothing had fallen out of my bag, took a big drink of water, and started moving down the hill.

As I passed through the trees, I remembered a scene from the show, Higurashi. One of the characters had gone mad, because of a disease that affected people in the village. He ran through the forest, holding a baseball bat, chasing after one of his friends with the intention of breaking her head open. I suddenly realised that I was completely unprotected here. If a crazy murderer, or even a wild animal, wanted to attack me, I could do nothing to stop them.

Suddenly, the TV show that had brought me here felt terrifyingly real.

I crawled faster, and eventually I made it out of the trees. I cried for help, but with the river nearby, nobody would hear it. After resting for a while, I kept going. By this point, it felt like my leg was on fire, and every movement drove the flames even higher. Part of me wanted to find a sharp rock and cut my leg off, and I wondered if the madness had taken me, too.

In the show, the villagers all spoke of ‘Oyashiro’s curse’. Oyashiro was the local god, who the villagers respected and feared. Each year, one person would die and another would disappear, and the people whispered that Oyashiro had taken them.

Had I become victim to Oyashiro’s curse? Had I offended him in some way, and now he was punishing me with a slow and cruel death? I had never believed in such things before, but now it was seeming more and more likely.

I passed by a traditional building, and it took me a moment to realise what it was. It was the ritual tool shed, exactly the same as how it looked in the show.

Inside, the villagers kept horrible devices to punish anyone who offended Oyashiro: machines to tear your nails out, beds to tie people to and stretch them out, and a sharp tool that was used every year in the town’s summer festival. In the modern day, it had acquired a much more innocent use, as part of a ritual dance, but in the village’s history, it was used to tear out people’s guts.

At one end of the room, a statue of Oyashiro looked down, judging all who entered. Even though I couldn’t see inside the shed, I felt his eyes burning through me.

No, I reminded myself. None of that was real! There was probably nothing like that inside. That was fiction, and this was reality. But still, as I crawled past the shed, inch by inch, I felt my guts itch, like they were trying to escape.

I left the ritual tool shed, and the cruel eyes of Oyashiro, but my journey wasn’t over yet. Now I came to the river, where, in the show, the village’s yearly festival took place.

Here, the villagers tore out cotton from old beds and sofas and threw it into the river. The innocent tradition had a much darker history, though. Thousands of years before, it wasn’t cotton, but a victim’s guts that were torn out and thrown into the river as an offering to Oyashiro.

Now that I was out in the open, away from the trees, I tried shouting for help again. I screamed until my body shook, to make sure I was heard over the sound of the river.

But still, nobody came. I hadn’t seen a single person since I climbed the hill. When had that been? It had probably only been a few hours, but it felt like decades of my life had passed, trapped in an endless punishment as I crawled through the trees.

I made the mistake of looking behind me, and saw a thin trail of blood on the ground, from where my broken leg had been. I hadn’t lost that much blood, but it was enough to make me want to throw up again, and I had to try hard to keep my food down.

Was this how I was going to die, as a stupid tourist abroad, falling down a cliff while trying to take a picture? I wouldn’t have minded it so much—there were far worse places to die. Except Shirakawa-go, my Mecca, this peaceful part of the past, was a living cemetery, where the bloody ghosts of a fictional TV show haunted me.

I didn’t think I could ever watch the show again after this. That was, if I survived this. The midday sun was beating cruelly on me now, and I had been stupid enough to crawl out of the shade, without the energy to return. If I didn’t get help soon, I would pass out and…

‘Young man, what are you doing? Oh! You’re hurt!’

I looked up, hardly able to believe it. I was hearing a human voice, an old man’s voice, and despite the awful situation, I was able to understand his Japanese.

I blinked, watching the figure slowly approach me, walking almost as slowly as I had crawled.

‘Tasukete…’ I murmured.

I was safe… wasn’t I? Or had this man come to end things? I couldn’t tell if he was holding a walking stick, or a weapon.

Not that it mattered. It was too late. My whole body was collapsing, and everything went black.

I woke up and saw a red sky. The clouds sat above me, and then they started moving quickly. I thought I must be dreaming, until I realised I was the one moving. I was lying down, being carried into an ambulance.

‘Oi, daijoubu? Are you OK?’

I looked to my left and saw one of the men in the ambulance. There was a woman to my right, putting something on my leg. Everything felt strange, like I was wrapped in cotton. I wondered if they had given me some drugs. In the series, one of the characters, an evil nurse, gave people a drug that made them go mad and kill themselves and others around them.

‘It’s OK,’ I said quietly. ‘I’m too tired to kill anyone.’

The ambulance workers looked very confused, but I was too tired to explain. To me, it made perfect sense.

‘I wonder if this is because of Oyashiro’s curse. Oyashiro-sama no tatari kana…’

The ambulance workers’ confusion turned to anger.

‘Young man,’ said the one on my left. ‘Don’t joke about that. Joudan janai zo.’

‘What, you really believe in that?’ I said.

The two workers looked at each other, then at me.

‘Stop talking,’ the right one said. ‘You should rest.’

They finished working on me, closed the doors, and we drove away.

Through the sound of the engine, I could hear something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. It wasn’t until we got to the hospital that I realised.

It was the cicadas’ cries.

Even inside, when they were treating my leg, I could hear it. It got louder and louder over the week, until I could hear it every minute of every day.

I didn’t tell anyone about it. Who would believe me? I just told myself that it was an unusually hot summer, and that there were more cicadas than usual.

It didn’t take me long to recover, and I was forced to end my holiday and go home early. Travelling around Japan with a broken leg wasn’t going to be any fun, and my mum insisted that I come home so she could look after me.

When I got onto the plane, I finally had a break from the cicadas. The engine was too loud to hear anything else. It would all be fine when I got home, I told myself.

But when I landed, the cicadas’ cries still rang in my ears. They followed me, day and night, and even in the comfort of my family home, I couldn’t sleep with them.

I tell you this, dear reader, as a warning. If you hear of a curse, a haunted place, or a god’s anger, do not ignore it. Sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction.

My leg has healed now, but I still hear the cicadas in my ear, day and night. And sometimes, in the dark of the night, I feel my guts itching.

Like they want to escape.

THE END

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Why Google Pulled Ads From Two Conservative Websites - Search Engine Journal Offensive content caused two websites to lose their advertising. This is what you should know so it doesn't happen to you.

Roger Montti Advertisement Two conservative sites had their AdSense ads pulled from their sites. Lost amid the cries of censorship was the real reason the ads were removed: Failure to understand Google’s terms and conditions they agreed to.

That failure led to content violations which caused their advertising to temporarily be removed by Google.

User Generated Content and Advertising User generated content (UGC) is content that is created by site visitors and not the website publisher themselves. On news sites this kind of content takes the form of comments.

News sites in the past focused on presenting current events. The Internet changed not only how content is consumed but it also changed what kind of content is consumed.

Publishers grew to understand that certain kinds of content that makes readers outraged or angry tend to attract more visitors.

Even mainstream news sites craft articles designed to provoke outrage in order to encourage social sharing and high readership.

The downside of that is that commenters are in an agitated state and that can lead to problematic comments being posted, including hate speech.

Why Advertising and User Generated Content Can be Problematic Google has been criticized in the past for showing advertising on pages that are advertisers might not want associated with their brands.

That’s why Google has policies that forbid showing advertising on pages that feature hate speech, speech of an erotic nature, and content that is graphic and violent.

Many brands do not want to be associated with offensive content.

Showing their ads on pages with offensive content sends the signal that the advertisers approve of and support that offensive content.

offensive content and advertisers Advertisers do not want their ads showing on the same pages as offensive content. Advertisers generally prefer that their content do not appear on pages with problematic content.

Publishers are obligated by their agreement to show Google AdSense ads to be mindful of that kind of negative content.

But that doesn’t always happen. Failure to understand AdSense policies is what caused The Federalist and Zero Hedge to become the object lessons of the day.

Google Did Not Ban the News Publishers The action Google took appears to be what Google calls a Publisher Restriction.

A Publisher Restriction is a TEMPORARY halt to ad serving until offensive content is removed.

The Publisher Restriction system gives publishers a notice that their ads have been temporarily suspended until the policy violation is corrected.

The intent of this system is to give publishers a chance to correct the issue and continue providing ad space that advertisers won’t be upset about.

This is meant to be a gentler approach than an outright lifetime ban.

What happened was not censorship. It was a failure by the publishers to be aware of the AdSense terms and conditions that they agreed to when signing up to show AdSense ads.

This kind of action happens to all kinds of sites. It has ZERO to do with politics and everything to do with violating Google’s policies against problematic content.

Any site that allows user generated content has to keep their comments in line with Google’s terms of service in exchange for the privilege to display AdSense ads.

The Federalist fixed the issue and had their advertising restored.

Google then issued a statement about content that is problematic:

How to Deal with User Generated Content There are several ways to deal with UGC. The first is to moderate content. One way to accomplish this is to either pay someone to moderate the commenting community or to enlist responsible users to become moderators.

A good way to prevent problematic UGC is to publish a content policy.

Adding a “Report a Thread” function gives users the ability to report problematic content.

Takeaway Being an online publisher means having to wear multiple hats. One of the hats is managing advertising on a website. And that means someone needs to be responsible for understanding Google’s AdSense Program Policies.

None of this would have happened had someone at the Federalist and Zero Hedge been on top of the issue of problematic content. All publishers are obligated to understand these policies in order to show advertising because it’s what they agreed to when they joined the AdSense program.

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Google Advises Against Using Nofollow Links When Migrating Sites Using nofollow links when migrating sites from one domain to another is not recommended, Google says.

Matt Southern Google’s team of webmaster trends analysts discuss the intricacies of nofollow links in the first episode of the company’s new podcast.

The podcast brings together Google’s John Mueller, Martin Splitt, and Gary Illyes to discuss topics related to search and share information about upcoming projects.

In episode one of ‘Search Off the Record,’ Google reveals the one situation where using nofollow links may do more harm than good.

Illyes kicks things off with a conversation on changes to nofollow links that may be rolling out at some point in the future.

Changes to Nofollow Links Site owners and SEOs want to know when Google’s big changes to nofollow links will be rolling out.

Back in September 2019, Google announced plans to treat the nofollow attribute as a hint rather than a directive.

That change was supposed to have been fully rolled out by March 2020, but it appears Google is running behind schedule.

There is nothing new to announce regarding the nofollow attribute being treated as a hint.

However, Illyes discussed even more changes to nofollow that are being worked on, and advised when nofollow is not the best solution.

Don’t Use Nofollow When Migrating Sites As Gary Illyes explains, using nofollow links should be avoided when migrating sites from one domain to another.

Specifically, when it comes to linking from an old site to a new site, it would be more helpful for site owners if Google could follow those links.

Illyes suggests Google is working on changes which may address this problem in the future. For now, at least, the best solution is to use ordinary links.

“We are working on a few things that I think will be helpful for the web and, also, probably helpful for webmasters…

Like you have those sites that can, for example, redirect to a new site when they move and they just leave up a link saying “visit us on our new site.”

Often those links are nofollowed. It would be very helpful, for example, for us to follow those links and essentially help webmasters have their new site discovered much faster.”

Upcoming Changes to the Nofollow Attribute Illyes shared some information about further changes that may or may not be coming to the nofollow attribute.

Google is trying to determine whether the nofollow attribute can be used as a way to discover malicious sites.

“We are also thinking about, well, other things. I really don’t want to name those things because they actually might not happen at all. And it might just turn out bad.

But if you think about it, those nofollow links could be very, very helpful for discovering malicious sites for example. The ones that force downloads and whatnot, or spam even.

I think nofollow links could be helpful [in those cases], but I just don’t have anything yet to say about how we use them.”

Illyes was careful not to reveal too much, as these changes might not happen, but he confirmed they’re being worked on.

There are currently three projects Illyes is personally involved in to determine if nofollow would be useful for discovering malicious sites.

After the discussion on nofollow links, the podcast covered topics such as the new Core Web Vitals, the challenges of working from home, and more.

To listen to the full 30-minute episode, download “Search Off the Record” by searching for it in your favorite podcast app.

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What Is Better for Product Pages & SEO: Content or Backlinks?

Ever heard of the phrase "content is king"? In this column, someone wants to know which is more important: backlinks or quality content? Easy answer!

Adam Riemer This week’s Ask an SEO question comes from Andrzej in Poland. He writes:

“I work in an online store selling art supplies and I’m standing at a crossroads deciding what to do with product descriptions (which at the moment are in many cases below standards – sometimes just one sentence). I see two options:

Create a separate platform that will aggregate information about these products along with tests (links to YT videos, blogs etc.) and customer reviews found on the web (links to pages with opinions, aggregate numbers, sentiment analysis, common pros and cons etc.). Then make link from those pages to appropriate product pages in the actual store. Forget the new platform and focus on making descriptions in the store as good as possible but without all the bells and whistles (no tests, reviews, text mining analysis – all those outgoing links would be too harmful to conversion). So I believe the question is: From [an] SEO perspective, is it better to have good, appropriately long product descriptions in a store (without any links to product pages from other websites) or short/mediocre product descriptions in store and links from other domain filled with the best content possible (but with no domain authority as of now)?

Please, take into account that in comparison to the store, such a platform would have much bigger potential to be linked to from other websites, blogs etc. and possibly rank high in Google.”

Great question!

Instead of thinking about it from an SEO standpoint, think about your customers and also think about why someone would give a backlink to a product page at an art store.

Backlinks do not naturally occur to product pages unless it is a hot topic product and you are the manufacturer.

The only other time is if it’s the most in-demand product in the world “hand sanitizer” or “This year’s big Christmas toy that is sold out.”

Then you’ll find lists giving backlinks directly to the product page in product roundups.

But before we jump into why user-friendly content is more important than backlinks for product pages, let’s talk about common myths like word counts and long descriptions meaning better SEO.

Word Counts & Long Descriptions Do Not Impact Your Rankings If someone tells you they do, they either do not know what they’re doing, or they have not actually asked what type of page you have.

The studies that show longer word counts bring more traffic and longer time on page are skewed.

They are not taking your specific problem into account. The study may be including detailed instruction pages, medical journals, and resource papers or documents Resource pages may get read longer because they must provide a full education, same with how-to pages, the person is on the page and watching the video because they need to complete a project. This equals a longer time on site. Your product pages should not have long times. Long times during a checkout means you are not providing the customer with the answer that your site has their solution or you have a confusing checkout process.

The relevance of the copy to the search query is what matters.

If the query you are trying to rank for takes 50 words to give the best experience, then it is 50 words, don’t make it 1,000 to meet some rumor from a “guru” or an “expert”.

Also, make sure you display the 50 words in the best format including tables and bullet lists, paragraphs, and video.

Bonus Tip Now ensure you have:

Lastly, check your site structure including breadcrumbs, internal links, navigation, and your sitemap.

These are all important for products you want to rank in search engines.

Above is what matters when you want to rank a product page.

Not a minimum amount of words.

Now, Let’s Go Into Your Question… If a customer makes it to your product page, you now have the chance to make a sale.

Think about what will give them the best experience.

(Please remember I’m leaving out technical aspects, the page’s design, helpful vs. non-used images, trust factors, and conversion tricks.)

The answer is your copy!

Focus on your end-user, not links to pages that are not link-worthy for the reasons above.

Product page copy should be about the end-user.

Talk about the supplies and how they will benefit them.

What types of art can the supply on the page be used for? Are there creative ways this supply can be used that the potential shopper hasn’t thought of? What does the customer need to know about the supply’s compatibility with other mediums or techniques? Is there a shelf life for the product? This is what matters!

If the product is chalk…

Can it work on brick, paper, and canvas? Will it stain clothing and is it safe for kids? Does it have toxic materials and do you need gloves when using it? How can you make it stick permanently to the medium and not blend when it comes into contact with other surfaces?

Think about the needs of your customers and then begin building your content.

Step 1: Writing the Product Description Here’s an example of a good product description.

Are you looking for chalk that your kids can have fun with drawing on the sidewalk and that you can use in the studio? You’re in the right place! XY brand will let you create A and B types of work while not staining your kids clothing if they decide to take it for a test run when you’re not looking.

XY chalk can be cleaned off of hardwood and tile by using a blue widget. 12 and 34 fixatives are perfect for making it a permanent feature on its own, and you can combine it with purple widgets so it doesn’t run when combined with paints and for 123 projects. This makes XY chalk the most versatile and perfect for all of your most important projects.

Have questions about XY chalk? Look below to find the answers!

Step 2: Provide Answers Finding questions people are asking is easy and can bring you new traffic and sales.

The first two tools I use are AnswerThePublic and search engines.

Type the main phrase like “chalk” into the box on answerthepublic.com or open an incognito window in your browser and type “chalk” into your preferred search engine.

AnswerThePublic gives you a huge selection of questions when it finished compiling your query.

When you type the word or phrase into a search engine, the search engine provides you with auto-suggestions as you’re typing. These could each be a good question for the page FAQ.

Depending on the modifiers you use, the search results will also have “people also ask” in them.

Use these on your product page but only if the questions are directly relevant to your product and not other products.

If they are relevant to other products you’ll want to use them on a category page instead.

Step 3: Format & Publish Now, it’s time to look at the text and format everything properly.

If you’re comparing chalk types or kits, an HTML table might be the best option. If you have a list of colors included, an unordered bullet list could be the best solution. If it is how to use the chalk to perform a task, ordered lists could work.

Basically, you do not always want to use a paragraph. It may not be the best user experience.

When you do the above you create an amazing experience for your end-user and this in turn makes your product pages great for SEO.

It has nothing to do with word counts.

It is all about the experience and making sure it is a complete one.

From there you can get more advanced with site structure, code, image compression, etc.

But this post is about the text itself so I’m leaving that out.

I hope this helps!

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Snapchat Launches Ads Certification Program As Snapchat's platform and advertising ability grows, the platform announced this week they have launched Focus, a certification program for advertisers.

Susan Wenograd Snapchat has announced the launch of Focus, their new module-based training for advertisers and brands. Dubbed as the place for “everything you need to know about Snapchat ads,” the addition comes amidst a growth push for both users and app abilities.

“Our new learning portal, Snap Focus, is our most up-to-date resource and destination to learn about the latest and greatest from Snapchat and the community who uses it. This will help advertisers and agencies master our platform and stay on top of everything Snapchat advertising has to offer.” – Snapchat Announcement

Focus Areas of Training When you login, you are taken to the main dashboard, which lists the 6 main course areas and additional resources. Users can access it as a drop-down in the Resources section, or by visiting focus.snapchat.com.

Snapchat Launches Ads Certification Program The six courses are grouped as follows:

Intro to Snapchat: What Snapchat is, how the camera works, and how people watch content The Snapchat Generation: The “why” of Snapchat, and details about user values and behaviors Advertising on Snapchat: How to get results, brand safety, and measure outcomes Getting Started on Ads Manager: Campaigns, Ad sets, how to design and publish ads Creative Best Practices: Details around best practices, collection ads, filters, and lenses Measure and Optimize Campaigns: Optimizations, insights, and reporting options Snapchat Launches Ads Certification Program Courses are laid out with visual examples, screenshots, and text.

Should Advertisers Bother With Focus Training? While the content is fairly basic, it’s a good place to start if you’ve never used Snap ads.

As a smaller piece of the advertising pie with a very defined demographic, Snap Ads tend to not get as much coverage and training as the 800lb gorillas like Facebook or Google.

If you’re already using Snap Ads, it may give you some things to consider that you hadn’t yet, and expand your testing.

The certification itself probably means very little at the present time, so this would be more for your own knowledge than street cred by being certified.

Why Should Advertisers Pay Attention? It does signal that Snap is slowly and steadily pushing to get more ad dollars. As the younger demographics continue to abandon Facebook and older demographics start embracing Instagram, Snapchat has maintained its small but mighty hold on the younger demographic.

It’s also posting stronger numbers, aided even moreso by the need for people to connect more during quarantine amidst Covid-19.

At Snap’s Partner Summit, they shared stats behind the growth they’re seeing:

170m users are using augmented reality (called “AR”) on Snapchat daily, a large three-year growth trend versus the 55m number in 2017. 40% increase year over year in consumption of “Discover” content Multiple new features including voice command for filters, Local lenses, expansion of Lens types to add identification abilities for things like plant types and dog breeds, Places listings on maps, and much more. Snapchat reaches 90% of the 13 to 24-year-old population in the US, with the average user spending over 30 minutes a day on the platform. They also point out that Gen Z and millenials have over $1 trillion in buying power and these age groups are finding the brands they are likely to stick with for many years to come.

This is in addition to the ad platform’s growth, which includes recent roll out worldwide of dynamic ads commercials on their original programming.

Snap’s statement about the release of Snap Focus can be read here.

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Google Warning on Guest Posting For Links - Search Engine Journal Google's John Mueller said guest posting for links results in unnatural links. Says Google already devalues them.

Roger Montti Google’s John Mueller stated on Twitter that Google not only frowns on guest posting for links but has been devaluing them for the past several years.

He also said that Google has years of data for training algorithms to catch and devalue guest post links so that they don’t help a site rank better.

Google Is Not Penalizing for Guest Posts John Mueller’s comments were limited to explaining what’s wrong with guest posts and how it’s easy for Google to devalue guest article links so that they don’t help a site rank.

Google has in the past given warnings about certain techniques prior to cracking down on them. But that’s not the case with guest posts.

Mueller’s comments about guest post link building are a continuation of the discussion that began with his warnings about SEMRush’s guest article link building outreach service.

The SEMRush service promised to match publishers to high quality sites that would publish a guest article written by SEMRush. Mueller called it out as an unnatural links scheme and SEMRush stopped offering the service.

Someone on Twitter speculated as to whether penalties were coming.

John Mueller tweeted that there was nothing different on the way:

“….there are new people starting on SEO all the time (yay!), but it’s all years old in the meantime & nothing has changed there at all. Unless this storm in a teacup triggers a lot of people to start, I don’t see a need for the webspam team to jump in.”

He then followed up with this observation:

“The other thing is that because this is so old, we have a lot of training data for our algorithms. I wouldn’t be surprised if the largest part of those links are just ignored automatically. If all that work is for ignored links, why not just do something useful instead?”

Why Guest Posting is Problematic Former Google engineer Matt Cutts wrote a blog post in 2014 announcing that guest posting for links was over. I took him at his word because Matt has always offered truthful advice.

The SEO community at large however forgot his warning. After a few years so-called white hat SEOs were advising how to use black hat scraping software to extract email addresses from websites and how to dump that data into email spam software to automate the guest article outreach process.

I remember reading a guest post about how to automate guest posts that used the author’s website as an example. What made that article over the top was that the example site didn’t rank for it’s keywords.

While the irony of guest posting about guest posting might have been lost on the author, the fact that their technique wasn’t working also went unnoticed.

The reason guest posting is problematic for SEOs is that in general, guest posting has not worked for ranking purposes for years.

What I’ve been telling clients is that the value of guest posting is for brand building. There is a lot of value in it for that purpose.

Google’s John Mueller said that the reason guest posting for links is problematic for Google is that it results in unnatural links.

“The part that’s problematic is the links — if you’re providing the content/the links, then those links shouldn’t be passing signals & should have the rel-sponsored / rel-nofollow attached. It’s fine to see it as a way of reaching a broader audience.”

He further explained:

“Essentially if the link is within the guest post, it should be nofollow, even if it’s a “natural” link you’re adding there.

FWIW none of this is new, and I’m not aware of any plans to ramp up manual reviews of this. We catch most of these algorithmically anyway.”

Links in Author Bylines are Also Problematic Someone asked Mueller about links in the byline:

And John Mueller responded:

“Yes, even there.”

How Does Google Identify Guest Posts? Someone asked Mueller about how Google identifies guest posts.

John Mueller answered that it’s easy to identify guest post articles:

“Usually it’s pretty obvious.”

That may be true for articles that are clearly labeled as guest posts.

It’s less obvious for articles that are not labeled as sponsored and are published as normald articles.

And while it may be tempting to build links from unlabeled guest posts, it may not be legal according to the US government guidelines about native advertising. Native advertising are promotional articles that are paid for and published in a way that makes it look like a regular article.

According to the FTC Guidelines:

“A basic truth-in-advertising principle is that it’s deceptive to mislead consumers about the commercial nature of content. Advertisements or promotional messages are deceptive if they convey to consumers expressly or by implication that they’re independent, impartial, or from a source other than the sponsoring advertiser – in other words, that they’re something other than ads. “

Publishers may be obligated to label native advertising as advertisements or else face the possibility of legal action against them by the United States government.

Takeaway There is literally nothing to disagree with. Mueller wasn’t stating an opinion, he was saving the SEO community from wasting time and money trying to rank with a technique that largely does not work.

The best reaction is the pragmatic response of using that information to do something better that will help you rank.

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The Leadership Vacuum of Search Engine Marketing We need a person or group within the SEO industry who can get us all rowing the boat in the same direction. So who wants to step up?

Tony Wright All politics are personal.

Whether you lean left or right, at the end of the day the politics that affect your life are the ones you should care about the most.

I’ve long been an advocate for our industry to get more involved in working to shape the laws that govern the ecosystem that provides us with our livelihoods.

As an industry, despite some valiant efforts, we have failed to create a united front that protects us from legislation passed by bureaucrats that think the internet is a “series of tubes”

Legislation is constantly being proposed by politicians who have no understanding of the ramifications these laws will have on our industry, our companies, and our clients.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other social media platforms spend literally millions of dollars each year lobbying lawmakers, trying to influence legislation that could potentially upend their entire business models.

In the search industry, we lament our lawmakers’ lack of basic understanding of how the internet works – all the while sitting back and watching as the corporations that help feed our families react to potential legislation in sometimes draconian actions that have decimated specific industries.

Executive Orders Before we talk about some of the measures that Google and others have taken that have harmed legitimate industries, let’s look at the latest shot across the bow to our livelihood.

On May 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to re-define a section of the long-standing Communications Decency Act (CDA) passed in 1996.

Section 230 of the CDA protects social media and other user-generated content providers from liability resulting from what is posted by their users.

Without these protections, it is safe to assume that Twitter, Facebook, and even Google would not exist as they do today.

In fact, section 230 of the CDA has repeatedly been referred to as “the 26 words that created the internet”

Trump’s executive order appears to have no teeth, however, his public spats with social media giants aren’t over, by a long shot.

Section 230 I’ve served as an expert witness several times on issues related to section 230 of the CDA.

I’ll be the first to admit that I think the law needs to be re-examined.

Shielding UGC publishers from litigation create a nightmare for many small businesses that have been defamed by competitors, disgruntled employees, and even run-of-the-mill trolls.

There is a fine line between a UGC publisher creating an environment where comments and reviews are perceived as tacitly endorsed by an authoritative source such as Google, even if as search marketers when know this editorializing is far more algorithmic than editorial.

But, by dismantling section 230, we run the risk of decimating the internet landscape as we know it – including and especially Google.

There are no easy answers on this one.

But I believe that people who understand how Google works – and don’t have a vested interest in Google’s financial statements – should be providing guidance to our lawmakers.

Our industry isn’t doing that.

Online Advertising’s Industry Wasteland There are many legitimate industries that are not allowed to advertise on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms.

Google’s advertising policy page lists many categories of businesses that are either banned or restricted from advertising on the Google Ads platform.

Twitter and Facebook both have similar lists.

Everything from healthcare to financial services has pockets of their industries that are affected.

These businesses are left with SEO being one of their only options.

Anyone who has performed SEO in one of these “banned” categories knows they quickly become the “wild west”, where Google’s rules and terms of service mean very little, no matter how the algorithm attempts to improve.

To my knowledge, none of the major search engines or social media platforms have ever reached out to the search and social media industry to ask what businesses should be able to advertise and what business should not.

One prominent example of what I consider to be an overreach by Google is the advertising restrictions placed on drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities.

You can find these restrictions here.

I don’t know anyone that would say that there is not a societal need for these facilities.

But I also understand why Google took this stand.

Frankly, Google couldn’t tell the legitimate offers from the scammers.

So they outsourced the verification function to a company called Legitscript – but most of the facilities affected aren’t even eligible for Legitscript’s services.

This leaves many smaller sober houses and rehabilitation centers without many options.

They are forced to participate in highly competitive, and in many cases, highly risky SEO programs that may or may not bear any fruit.

Leadership Vacuum Our industry has, for some time, experienced a leadership vacuum.

The recent demise of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), which was folded into the Digital Analytics Association was the last breath of our industry leadership.

SEOs can’t agree on who should lead us, much less the path we need to take moving forward.

In our current state, the SEO industry is at the whim of others who may not have our best interest at heart.

Google will continue to dictate what it deems best for the industry, which in many cases, is not what is best for those who practice search engine marketing.

Where are the leaders?

Where are those that will step up, take the hard hits it takes to unify the industry, and get us a seat at the big boys’ table where the discussions that really matter are taking place?

I don’t believe that the leaders aren’t out there.

Our industry is full of tribes.

The tribes are tight-knit groups that help each other, care for each other, and freely share their knowledge – in most cases, without worry about competitive concerns.

But when it comes to making meaningful strides toward influencing policy or bettering the industry, we argue like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

I see everyday people in our industry with polar opposite political views helping each other with technical SEO issues.

I know that the industry can work together to create a better experience for both practitioners and consumers alike.

But we need a uniter.

We need a person or group who can get us all rowing the boat in the same direction.

Once we have that, I believe that there is no limit to what we can do.

So who wants to step up?

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How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign Launching a Google Ads remarketing campaign? The success comes within the setup. Discover the five crucial steps to complete your campaign.

Brooke Osmundson Remarketing is a wonderful concept.

When remarketing campaigns are executed with thoughtfulness and intent, incremental conversions and sales can be fruitful.

It is a chance to re-engage your target audience and get a second chance at their attention.

To launch an effective Google Ads remarketing campaign, the success comes within the setup.

Below are the five crucial steps to complete your campaign.

1. Ensure Proper Tagging Is In Place In order for a remarketing to serve impressions, it is vital that the proper tracking is on a website.

Most websites will use either Google Analytics or Google Ads tracking, I recommend having both sources as options.

Google Ads Tag If your Google Ads account is starting from scratch, a Global Site Tag will need to be implemented.

To find this specific to your account, navigate to: Tools & Settings > Audience Manager > Audience Sources.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing CampaignHow to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign

Depending on your relationship with the account, select one of the 3 options for the Tag setup. The most important part of the step is the placement of the tag.

Per Google’s instructions, the tag must be placed between the tags of every page of your website.

Google Analytics Tag Google Analytics tracking is required before being able to create any remarketing list within the platform.

To find the tracking code, navigate to Admin > Property View > Tracking Info > Tracking Code.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign Checking for Tag Implementation The easiest way to check if tags have been implemented properly is to download the “Tag Assistant” extension in a Chrome browser.

Navigate to your website and run the Tag Assistant. If implemented correctly, the results should look similar to this.

The green happy face means that the tags are in the proper place.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign 2. Create Intentional Remarketing Lists Now that you have ensured tracking is in place, it’s time to create intentional remarketing lists.

Intention is extremely important when crafting remarketing audiences.

If you simply targeted “All Visitors” to your website, you’re doing it wrong.

Google Analytics and Google Ads provide an immense amount of options to segment your site viewers as granular as you want.

Keep in mind, a list that is too narrow will have a hard time serving.

The key is to find a balance of audience size and their intent.

Google Analytics Lists My personal preference is to create remarketing ads in Google Analytics.

Because there is onsite behavior data to layer onto lists, it gives more options to qualify that audience.

To create an audience in Google Analytics, navigate to: Admin > Property View > Audience Definitions > Audiences.

Note: This is under the assumption that a user has already linked the proper Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts for data sharing.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign Now, it’s time to get creative.

The key is to create multiple remarketing lists based on the categorization of your website.

A few starter ideas to consider when creating a remarketing list portfolio:

Category page viewers. Purchasers/Leads (to exclude in campaigns). All Qualified site traffic (determined by time on site, whatever amount is considered above average for your business). Quality Blog Viewers (determined by time on site, whatever amount is considered above average for your business). Cart Viewers. In this example, I want to create a remarketing list of anyone who visited a specific landing page but stayed on the site for at least 10 seconds.

Navigate to Advanced > Conditions.

The two key pieces of information to input would be “page” AND “session duration” (not “OR”).

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign Once completed, don’t forget to choose your audience destinations.

Always be sure to choose the Google Ads account for the list to import.

By doing so, the list can be used for Remarketing campaign purposes.

Google Ads Lists To create lists in Google Ads, navigate to Tools & Settings > Audience Manager > Audience Lists.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign There are five different types of remarketing lists available to create:

This article gives a more in-depth breakdown of how to create effective YouTube remarketing lists.

Depending on the goal, create your necessary remarketing lists and choose a list duration. The maximum duration a user can stay in a list is 540 days.

The benefit of Google Ads remarketing lists is that they give the option of pre-populating the list with users in the past 30 days. Google Analytics does not offer retroactive audience filling.

1. Determine Proper Assets The most popular remarketing campaign type is within the Google Display Network (GDN). However, there are Remarketing Search campaigns.

Before creating the proper assets, ask these questions first:

What is the user being asked to do? What should the message consist of? Does the landing page experience match the ad messaging? There are key components to consider when creating remarketing assets. Below are some of them:

Static image formats Responsive image formats Headlines and descriptions (if using responsive format) Landing page experience The full list of uploaded display ad specifications for Google Ads can be found here.

It is important to note that if using the Responsive Ad format, images must be ratio based and are not the same as static image requirements.

1. Create a Remarketing Campaign Remarketing campaigns can be built in either Google Ads interface or Google Ads Editor.

Start with the campaign name, budget, and settings. If you’re creating multiple remarketing campaigns, keep track by putting the audience name in the campaign.

The campaign settings can make or break performance. When they are not properly managed or maintained, expect some volatility in performance. These include:

When adding audiences to a remarketing campaign, choose the “Targeting” setting instead of “Observation”.

By keeping it at “Observation” mode, audience targeting is not narrowed at all.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign When selecting a bid strategy, be sure to select one based on your goals.

For example, if you are to use “Target CPA” and set the bid too low, Google will throttle impressions and the campaign will be at risk to serve.

Lastly, be competitive with bids because the targeted audiences have already been introduced to your brand.

The next setting, “Targeting Expansion,” is one that Google has conveniently hidden within the Ad Group settings.

Always set this to zero in a remarketing campaign.

If you went through the trouble of creating a targeted list, why on earth would Google want us to expand to lookalike users in the same campaign?

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign The default setting is “People in, or who show interest, in your targeted locations”.

While this is the recommended setting according to Google, I recommend changing to “in or regularly in targeted location.” By changing it to the middle selection below, it allows for narrower targeting.

How to Launch Your First Google Ads Remarketing Campaign Lastly, frequency cap settings are still important because seeing the same ad multiple times per day creates a bad user experience.

Be sure to set frequency caps at a moderate level per user.

1. Analyze, Refine & Optimize You’ve officially launched your first remarketing campaign!

That’s all there is, right?

Wrong.

It is important to keep a pulse on campaign performance early on. Some of the key items to watch for in the early days include:

Ensure audience size is large enough to show impressions. Placements (where ads are showing). After a few weeks of data (give or take, depending on the audience size), there should be enough information to start making optimizations based on performance.

The goal is to continually refine.

Remarketing campaigns are not a “set and forget” strategy.

Pulling It All Together Pulling off a remarketing campaign requires the areas of technology, audiences, messaging, and settings to come together.

Without even one of these areas present, a campaign cannot truly live up to its potential.

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Google: Rankings for New Sites Could Fluctuate For Up to a Year Google says it’s normal to see search rankings for new sites fluctuate heavily within the first year.

Matt Southern Google’s John Mueller recently advised that it could take up to a year for the search engine to figure out where to rank new sites.

During that time there is likely to be some significant fluctuations in search rankings.

That’s completely normal, Mueller says, and not necessarily related to anything a site is doing right or wrong.

This topic came up during a Google Webmaster Central hangout held on June 12. A concerned site owner asked a question about their 8-month-old website, which was apparently ranking well up until a month ago.

The site owner notes their rankings drop coincided with a negative SEO attack by a competitor which resulted in over 1,500 spammy backlinks.

Now the site is nowhere to be found in search results and the site owner wants to know how to recover their rankings. How do they proceed from here?

John Mueller’s Response In response, Mueller informs the webmaster their site is still considered very fresh. Compared to the history of the internet, 8 months is not a long span of time.

Google’s algorithms are still trying to figure out how the website should be ranked amongst all other content on the web. This process could take up to a year before rankings level off.

“I think if your website is just, let’s say, a couple of months old, maybe 8 months, maybe a year, then that’s still very fresh with regards to the rest of the internet. So that’s kind of a time where our algorithms are still trying to figure out how and where we should show your website in the search results overall.

So that’s something where it would be normal to see some kind of fluctuations around how it’s being shown in search. Sometimes things go up for a while, sometimes they go down for a while. And then, I’d say over the course of a year, things settle down in kind of a stable state.

So that’s something where I wouldn’t necessarily worry too much about this particular situation. I’d continue working on your website, and over time that’s something that should be reflected in search overall.”

What about the spammy backlinks?

The site owner directs Mueller’s attention back to the spammy links and asks if they could be negatively impacting rankings.

Mueller confirms, as has he has stated before, that Google’s algorithms ignore those types of links.

“That’s something that we see all the time. It’s really easy for people to run a script and to drop thousands and millions of links on the internet and we ignore that. That’s something where people get really busy, and they do all this crazy stuff, but our algorithms have seen it so often they’re used to just ignoring it…”

Further, anchor text doesn’t matter in these cases. It also doesn’t matter whether the links are nofollow or not. Google ignores all of it.

“This kind of thing is really easy where you can take 5 dollars and send it to someone and they’ll put thousands of links up on the web. People have been doing this for years and years.”

Lastly, the site owner asks if the spammy links show be disavowed as a precautionary measure.

“I don’t think you need to. I don’t think that would change anything. I would just completely ignore it.

If your competitor is focused on building bad links for your website then at least they’re not making a better website for themselves.”

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How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19 Take a look at how you can leverage your Google My Business listing and Google reviews to keep your business in touch with customers amid the pandemic.

Let Us Respond This post was sponsored by LetUsRespond.com. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.

The global shutdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profoundly negative economic impact on businesses of all sizes and industries.

According to Facebook’s State of Small Business Report, the industries that have seen the biggest impact due to the novel coronavirus are hotels, cafes, and restaurants, with service-based businesses trailing close behind.

These industries largely rely on activities that have been restricted as a result of the pandemic – like traveling and socializing.

How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19 But with online tools like Google My Business (GMB) and Google reviews, businesses are able to keep their customers informed and stay in front of them despite stay-at-home restrictions.

Even with many countries opening back up, it’s more important than ever to keep your customers updated about your business and what you’re doing to keep your employees and customers safe.

In this guide, we’re taking a look at how you can leverage your GMB listing and Google reviews amid the coronavirus pandemic.

What Is Google My Business? Google My Business is a tool that helps businesses connect to customers and grow their presence online.

It’s the go-to place for customers to learn about your business, including your contact information, your location, your website, and more.

Google My Business is one of the best ways of gaining local visibility on Google, regardless of your current website strategy. Users can also leave reviews via Google reviews, which is tied to a Google My Business account.

However, the way people are using Google My Business listings has changed since the pandemic.

No longer are people using this tool to look for businesses in their area to visit; rather, they are looking for other information like updated delivery or pickup options and adjusted hours of operation.

This behavior change is why it’s critical for businesses to optimize their Google My Business listing and monitor their Google reviews if they don’t already.

How Businesses Can Optimize Their Google My Business Listings & Google Reviews During COVID-19? Customers have questions, concerns, and opinions about the changes brought about by COVID-19. As a result, many turn to Google to express their thoughts.

With as many as 76% of customers trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations, a pandemic is no time to let your reviews fall by the wayside.

Replying to Google reviews in a timely manner is always a best practice from a customer experience perspective, but it’s especially critical during these times.

What’s more, a report from Replypro found that as a result of COVID-19, chain locations are seeing a significant decline in ratings. This is due to complaints about cleanliness, wait times, and deliveries.

Most notably, positive reviews have seen a decline as well, which means negative reviews hold more weight. Therefore, leaving reviews or messages untouched can have a detrimental impact on your business.

Responding to reviews is not only an important part of the customer experience creating a customer-centered experience and maintaining your online reputation, but it also has an impact on your local search ranking.

In other words, even if your website or social media marketing strategy has been placed on the backburner due to the pandemic, responding to Google reviews can ensure customers can find you, thanks to its ranking factor properties.

How to Adapt Your Google My Business Listing We know how important it is to maintain your Google My Business listing and respond to Google reviews, but what are the best ways to ensure you’re managing each in the best way?

Let’s take a look at a few ways you can maximize your Google My Business account and keep up with your Google reviews.

Ensure Your Company Information Is Always Current Keeping your Google My Business information up to date is a vital part of optimizing your listing.

Informing customers about any changes you’ve made to your business operations is imperative to maintaining consistent sales.

Though communities are rallying around their local businesses, people won’t be able to find you (or purchase from you) if your information is outdated.

Operational information that should always be up to date can include:

Hours of operation Delays or out-of-stock items Temporary closures Gift card availability Updated contact information (designated phone number for pickup, etc.) If you run a restaurant or storefront, Google My Business allows you to update your listing to specify your service options, like pickup or delivery.

When customers navigate to your GMB listing, they will see this information clearly on the listing.

For restaurants and other food establishments, attribute options include dine-in, takeaway, and delivery. For retailers, attribute options include pickup, delivery, curbside pickup, or in-store shopping.

How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19 This helps customers understand their options and can help them make a decision on whether to make a purchase.

Dedicate Time to Monitoring & Responding to Google Reviews With COVID-19, people are likely to have more questions about your policies, your hours, any discounts you may be running, and more.

Plus, according to a report from American Express, 7 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great customer service.

A great way to reply to customers as quickly as possible is through the messaging tab within Google My Business. This feature is especially helpful if it’s after hours or if you aren’t able to answer the phone.

You can set an automated welcome message that customers will instantly get after they message you. This is a great feature if you are unable to respond right away.

How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19 However, if you find it difficult to keep up with the volume of messages, questions, and reviews you receive, hiring a dedicated online review response team may be the best option.

We’ll touch more on the benefits of outsourcing your review management later in this article.

For Businesses With Multiple Locations, Look for Ways to Streamline It goes without saying that for businesses with multiple locations, you’re sure to experience an uptick in the number of reviews and messages you receive.

Trying to respond to reviews across multiple Google My Business listings can be exhausting for several reasons:

Daily monitoring of each Google My Business listing. Maintaining consistency across each location. Keeping each Google My Business listing updated as things change. This can be overwhelming, especially to business owners who are trying to maintain safe daily operations.

The best way to approach managing reviews for multi-location businesses is to streamline your efforts.

Simplifying your online review management could look like this:

Prepare a series of canned responses to your most-asked questions; that way, you have quality responses at the ready each time a customer writes a review or sends you a message. Carve out time each day to respond to customer messages and reviews, so you don’t have to worry about an influx of messages or reviews piling up. Create an FAQ page on your website that includes your most common questions; direct customers to that page when necessary. Consider Hiring an Online Review Response Team Managing customer questions and messages can be overwhelming, especially during a pandemic.

Hiring an online review response team takes the pressure off you and your staff to reply to customers not only within a time frame but also with consistent language.

How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19 An online review response team can help in various ways, including the following:

Respond to all customer reviews and messages across multiple business listings in a timely way. Ensure all responses are on-brand and consistent across locations. Flag important messages that may require an additional response from a business owner. Identify ways to improve your customer experience in terms of Google My Business or Google reviews. An online review response team can help you manage your Google reviews so you can get back to what you do best – running your business.

The Importance of Responding to Google Reviews Responding to your Google reviews and maintaining your Google My Business listing helps get your business in front of your customers despite COVID-19.

Responding to reviews shows that your business is customer-centric and that you care about your customers’ experience from start to finish.

It’s important to keep your listing accurate, but it’s equally as important to reply to customer questions, messages, and reviews in a timely fashion.

Outsourcing this portion of your customer experience could be the best – and most stress-free – approach, especially in times of high emotion and uncertainty.

Looking for help managing your Google reviews?

LetUsRespond.com takes the stress out of online review management.

Book a demo with our team today and learn how we can do the heavy lifting for you.

How to Boost Business With Google Reviews in the Age of COVID-19

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Google Search Console Adds Report for Recipe Structured Data Google Search Console Adds New Data for Recipe Structured Data Google is updating the Search Console Performance Report with data related to the performance of recipe rich results.

Those who are using recipe markup on their website will find the new set of data under the ‘Search Appearance’ tab in the Performance Report section.

With this data, site owners can better understand the impact of recipe rich results with metrics such as total clicks, impressions, average click-through rate, and average position.

These metrics can be further segmented by device, geography and queries.

All of this data can be used together to optimize recipe pages for greater performance in search results.

For example, a site owner may discover one of their best recipe pages isn’t actually getting served as a rich result very often.

Perhaps the markup is 100% valid but Google isn’t rendering a rich result for the page on a consistent basis.

This can be determined by comparing clicks on rich results against overall traffic numbers. The page could be generating a healthy amount of traffic, but not frequently being served as a rich result.

Remember, just because a page is eligible to be served as a rich result doesn’t mean it always will be.

Should a site owner discover some of their best pages aren’t being served as rich results, they can at least use that information to make adjustments if they want to.

Previously, this data wasn’t as accessible. Site owners could monitor traffic for recipe pages in Google Analytics, but they still didn’t have data related specifically to rich results performance.

Now, site owners utilizing recipe structured data have an efficient way of checking how often the pages are being displayed as rich results, how often they’re getting clicked on, and more.

This update is available in Search Console now for all sites using recipe structured data.

Google Search Console Adds New Data for Recipe Structured Data More About Recipe Structured Data Recipe structured data can be used to communicate specific information to Google about preparation time, cooking time, nutrition information, reviewer ratings, and so on.

Google uses this information to better understand the recipe and present it to users in the form of a rich result. Recipe rich results can appear in Google search results and Google Images.

Structured data is not a ranking factor in and of itself. However, rich results generated from structured data could make the difference between searchers clicking on one page over another.

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Google Ads' Policy Crackdowns Continue Google Ads’ Policy Crackdowns Continue It’s been a busy few weeks for Google Ads and their policy updates. Today, two more are added to the list: account pausing for violations and additions to their Misrepresentation policy.

Account Pausing Due to Violation The statement is somewhat vague, and oddly lumped in with an update about the identity verification program. This is curious, given the policy language, which is “we may temporarily pause accounts to conduct investigations if we identify potentially harmful advertiser behavior. Paused accounts cannot run any ads.”

It notes the same action will be taken for accounts that do not complete the identify verification process.

Google has announced the same day that identity verification is rolling out to 4 new countries: Canada, India, Russia and Ukraine.

Misrepresentation Policy Also announced today are interesting updates to their policies surrounding “misrepresentation.”

Starting in July, there will be a “Clickbait Ads” policy. It will specifically address instances of sensationalized text and imagery that’s forces the viewer to click on the ad in order to understand its context. Ads participating in that type of behavior will not be allowed to run.

What does this mean, exactly? Here is how Google defines these types of ads:

Clickbait text and imagery:

Claims of secret or scandal revelations Language that implies the click will give context (i.e. “click here to find out” or other similar phrases) Imagery featuring altered body parts, mugshots and disaster photos Before and after imagery of the human body Negative life events to evoke emotion that causes action:

Events can include things like accidents, illnesses, bankruptcy, arrests, etc Ads using imagery to provoke fear or shock Google does not provide specifics on how these items will be identified, whether by AI or human.

Who Will This Affect? Quite a few industries, especially those that sell to solve the types of problems outlined above. Law firms, bail bonds, diet pills, exercise equipment, and many others may be relying on messaging that will now violate these rules.

Some of these are crossovers with Facebook ad violations, so in those instances advertisers may be ready with alternate creative messaging already.

For those who are not, they have only a few weeks to figure out alternative creative treatments.

What’s With All the Policy Updates? While there’s been no formal statement or lawsuit that would seem to point to all these policy updates, it’s hard to ignore how many there have been.

Just last week, Google followed suit with Facebook’s previous mandate about targeting capabilities for housing, credit, and employment advertisers.

Google also recently announced a business identify verification requirement, so all advertisers will need to submit identity proof. That verification time was shortened less than a month ago.

The environment has been ripe for policy updates with the scramble to address restrictions made with Covid-19. Stories are still popping up of ads showing misinformation on platforms, along with recent discovery of Google Ads serving advertiser display creative on sites with untruths.

Some of it also may have to do with Google’s push to try and start dominating more in the TV landscape, and its latest foray into grabbing some of the top of funnel paid social budget that gets eaten by Facebook and Instagram. Facebook has taken its lumps with its privacy and targeting concerns, and no doubt Google has been paying attention.

The latest policy updates cited here are located on their policy updates page.

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Google Chrome to Hide Parts of URLs in Future Update Future versions of the Google Chrome browser will only show a website’s domain name in the address bar.

Matt Southern ADVERTISEMENT Google is working on ways to hide parts of a website’s URL in the address bar, showing only the domain name.

This update could be coming as early as the next version of Chrome (version 85), according to documents discovered by Android Police.

The documents reveal details about experimental features in a pre-release version of Chrome that modify the appearance and behavior of the browser’s address bar.

An experimental feature is referred to, in Chrome developer terms, as a “flag.”

The main flag found by Android Police is called “Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query and Ref.” This feature makes the Chrome browser hide all parts of a URL except the domain name.

The other flags discovered are all related to the main one one. They reveal new ways in which the address bar can be interacted with in future versions of Chrome.

Users will be able to hover over the address bar to show the full URL path, which is a slight update from having to click on the address bar to see the full URL.

Another feature being worked on will have Chrome hide the entire address bar when a user begins interacting with the page.

Further evidence that these features are being worked on can be seen in a Chromium bug tracker page where developers log the issues they’ve run into while working on the features so far.

Why Hide the Full URL Path? This change is a fairly significant shift away from what users are accustomed to seeing when browsing with Chrome on a desktop computer.

Currently, Chrome displays most of a web page’s URL path. Although it does hide the prefixes such as ‘HTTP/HTTPS’ and ‘www.’

Soon, that will be reduced even further to only displaying the domain name and domain extension.

Here are some possible reasons why Google might be doing this.

Security In the past, a Google software engineer stated that showing full URLs in the address bar may actually make it more difficult to determine if a site is legitimate.

The reasoning is that showing a full URL may detract from the most important part of the URL – the domain name – which is crucial to knowing how secure the site is.

Consistency It’s not uncommon for current versions of today’s web browsers to hide full URL paths. Google may be working on this update to bring its browser more in line with the look and feel of others.

Safari, for example, hides full URL paths but it doesn’t go as far as to hide the full address bar when a user begins interacting with a page.

Full URLs are not quite as accessible on Safari, however, as users have to click on the address bar to reveal it in full. In Chrome 85, users will be able to hover over the address bar to see the full version.

Google hasn’t publicly acknowledged this particular update coming to Chrome 85. Perhaps a statement will be made when it officially rolls out.

Would be interesting to hear the company’s take on why it’s dropping the focus on full URL paths.

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How to Use Google My Business to Boost Your Content & SEO Leverage Google My Business to give your content (and SEO) a boost. Here are tips, tools and information on verifying and promoting your business with GMB.

Sarah Allworth Knowing how to use Google My Business is standard for every digital marketer, right?

Actually… no.

While there are plenty of lengthy-but-vague help docs out there, finding answers to specific problems can be challenging.

To take some of the leg-work out, we’ve created a handy worksheet and chart tool to determine your eligibility, and to help understand what to do if you have multiple listings or service area businesses (SABs).

We’ll also help you understand how posting content to your Google My Business listing can support your business in a number of ways.

Find out:

How does Google My Business fit into my content strategy? Why should I care about Google My Business? Does Google My Business help me with SEO? How does a content marketing platform help me manage Google My Business? Tools:

Google My Business verification troubleshooting guide. Guide to Google My Business Optimization.

Why Should I Include Google My Business in My Content Distribution Strategy? As content marketers, we often fail to acknowledge a significant part of our responsibility is to ensure our intended audience actually becomes exposed to our content.

One way to do this is to update your Google My Business listing weekly as a channel to share your current content.

Content particularly relevant to Google My Business is locally-focused content (for example, events or specials.)

Why Do I Need Google My Business? Did you know, on average, businesses receive 943 Search views and 317 Maps views each month?

This data, from a 2019 BrightLocal study of 45,000 anonymous local business listings, shows there is a great opportunity to get more views, clicks, and actions as a result of your localized content.

Reasons why a Google My Business Listing is Useful. To see the proof, you can check out Google My Business Insights to gather data on how many people viewed your listing, saw your post, clicked on it, and engaged.

However, Google My Business Insights may not always be accurate.

Consider using Google tracked links in your posts to more accurately report clicks and engagements right in Google Analytics.

Google My Business helps digital marketers get views on their content without having to wait for Google to rank it in the top ten search engine results.

The benefits of posting on Google My Business go beyond acquiring views and clicks on your latest content.

Regular posting can earn you a coveted spot in the local 3-pack, which is the top 3 business listings for relevant search terms, and this placement alone is a valid reason to add a new post at least every 7 days.

Creative Google My Business Content. Additionally, the same BrightLocal study also revealed a typical business receives up to 59 actions per month on Google My Business.

These actions can be clicks through to your website, requests for directions, or phone calls.

The majority of actions are in the form of clicks, but unless your Google My Business listing is optimized, you could be missing out on actual phone calls or in-store visits.

Yikes!

Your posts on Google My Business signals to Google indicating your business is the right one to display for related searches locally.

Reviews on Google My Business are critical.

They effectively represent your customers’ confirmation your business is reputable, especially when you take the time to respond to each one; positive or negative.

In fact, a prompt, empathetic, and helpful response to a negative review can be more valuable than a positive review.

We all make mistakes.

Consumers appreciate those businesses willing to accept and fix them in a timely fashion.

An important point, and perhaps the most important of all, your posts show potential customers what’s new with your business at exactly the right time – when they are looking for it.

A 2019 study from Ben Fisher reported only 17% of the businesses reviewed had a post within the last 7 days.

So, more than 80% of businesses did not have anything new to share with searchers who are actively looking for their businesses.

Inconceivable!

Troubleshooting Guide for Google My Business What Kind of Content Should I Be Creating for Google My Business? Keep Your Listing Complete & Accurate Before you create any content, ensure your GMB listing is complete (address, telephone number, business hours, business overview, products/services, etc.) and accurate (links to your website, social accounts, other relevant sources of information.)

This may seem basic, but far too many small businesses neglect the details and Google is all about details.

Share Offers & Specials You can experiment with creating content specifically for your Google My Business listing.

It’s important to remember the intent of the person viewing your listing is likely more transactional.

This means you can take a more direct sales approach: offers, specials, or what sets your business apart from your competitors.

Post Encouraging Content If your business sees customers at its location, you can describe the experience you want your customers to have when they arrive.

Videos, photos, and even introductions to the team members they will meet are all great ways to encourage customers to visit you.

Make your Google My Business page inviting for your customers. Think “Daily Specials,” “Seasonal Offerings,” or even weather-related: “Our Patio is Open!”

Create a Media-Rich Listing Invest in working with a Google-certified 360 virtual tour professional to add videos to your verified listing, or create your own video to introduce yourself and your business.

(Be sure to also upload this to YouTube and optimize your channel for the best results; another important topic on its own.)

Introduce Photos Your shop, office, or business photos should be used as your cover image.

Try including photos of your work or featuring your products.

Share projects you are proud of or which have garnered a special review.

In fact, many of your contributions to Google My Business should come in the form of photos.

There’s compelling evidence that businesses with 100+ photos in their Google My Business listing get more clicks.

Answer Questions Check to see what questions potential customers are asking about your business and answer them in a blog post shared on your listing.

Does Google My Business Actually Contribute to SEO? Yes, it does – at least locally. It can help in a few ways.

Not only does a verified and optimized Google My Business profile stand a better chance of being in the local 3-pack, putting your presence at the top of search results, it can also indirectly help your website rank.

It does this by providing social signals to Google, by driving traffic to your website, and by providing social proof in the form of reviews.

Google says local search results are based on “relevance, distance, and prominence.”

Relevance: How well a listing matches the intent of the searcher. Distance: Google pairs searchers with verified businesses in close proximity. Prominence: How well-known your business is. Can a Content Marketing Platform Help Me Manage My Google My Business Listing Better? A content marketing platform can help you manage all of your content better.

It brings planning and clarity to your content calendar and ensures you stay on top of creating regular posts within Google My Business, which is an easily forgotten task.

Having a content marketing platform brings structure and focus to your content marketing plan and helps you to draw upon the expertise of multiple team members with features to make collaboration easy.

A content marketing platform gives you a process to work from and analytics to help you to better understand how your activities are working.

If you can identify activities that are making a positive impact, then you can use these ideas for future content items.

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How to Use Search Trend Data to Drive Cross-Over Content Ideation - Search Engine Journal Nadya Khoja This was supposed to be the content marketing year for your business.

Your team had meticulous plans for generating content and improving revenue.

Then COVID-19 happened and all those plans seemed to have come to naught.

But wait.

Don’t give up just yet.

Your strategies and keyword research may no longer be relevant to the current pandemic market, but there is still room for adaptation.

Despite how dire the situation might seem, I can tell you that there is a way to use the changing search trends of the pandemic age to ideate and execute new content.

If you’re wondering how that’s possible, let me guide you through the process below.

Repositioning Marketing Strategies First and foremost, marketers need to know that following the strategies that worked in 2019 – or even in January-February of 2020 – isn’t going to cut it.

The world has changed too much for that. And it’s going to keep changing.

Businesses have already begun to update their crisis communication plans but this is going to be an ongoing process.

COVID-19 isn’t going away very soon – we will be feeling its lasting impact on the economy and the way we work well into 2021 and beyond.

This is why collating data and using it to propel your content marketing needs to be a priority.

I mean, when was the last time finance and investments saw a 280% increase in search popularity?

Finance and investments search trends The data we acquire during this period is going to inform the gaps in the market that your business can enter or expand in.

And by understanding the data we have, we can better place the company as a positive resource for clients and customers.

Audience needs are changing and your marketing strategy needs to change accordingly. You have to pivot your strategies toward empathy.

What does that mean and how can you implement it?

That is what I will be explaining in this guide.

The frameworks I have designed will show you how to use search trend data so you can create the content that your audience needs right now.

You can use a number of digital marketing tools to mine the information I will be talking about.

1. Search for Market Gaps One of the most all-encompassing fallouts of the pandemic has been the rise in remote work.

And because of the number of people working at home, there has been a resultant increase in how many people are using the internet.

With nowhere else to go to entertain ourselves, we are all spending our time online for work, leisure, and to update ourselves on the latest news.

People are spending more time on streaming sites and on networking apps to stay in touch with their friends and family.

That is a critical piece of data for you – your audience is now wholly and completely online, especially on social media.

You don’t need to look for them because you know where they are.

Now that you know where they are, you need to analyze how and why they are using the online tools available to them.

Take a look at this graphic from Microsoft Advertising.

What do you see?

Search industry landscape You can see that searches for certain industries have been impacted dramatically.

Travel and autos have fallen – likely because nobody is going anywhere. On the other hand, tech and entertainment are seeing increases, for obvious reasons.

But while searches for specific travel-related and automotive-related terms will have decreased, by widening your search, you can still find ways to utilize topics in those industries.

For instance, people aren’t looking for auto insurance now – they aren’t using their cars as much, so they don’t want to increase their premiums.

But what they will be searching for are ways to maintain their car when it’s not in use – car covers, seat liners, oils and varnishes for their engines and paint job.

When the shutdowns have impacted your business, it can seem disheartening to look at the popularity of your search terms drop.

However, with a bit of creativity, you can find the areas where related searches are spiking so you can re-enter the market through those terms.

You will find that people aren’t leaving entire industries behind – they’re just looking for new items and services within that industry.

Those are the areas that you now need to focus on when creating your content – look at the new keywords trends in your industry, suss out the patterns, and build your content.

1. Analyze Search Trends What we have found above is that not only does data exist within industries affected by COVID-19, but that there are ways to infer ideas from that data.

Let’s delve deeper into how that inference can work for you.

Some of the biggest hit industries during lockdown have been restaurant businesses.

People aren’t able to go to restaurants during the lockdown, and that has impacted popular search terms that the industry would have relied on.

Here’s what we found when we looked into search trends in the live entertainment and restaurant industry:

Live entertainment and restaurants search trends January and February – pre-crisis months – saw an increase in these areas because people were regularly going out.

March saw a significant decrease following the announcement of the lockdowns, and April saw that number drop even further.

If we dive deeper into specific search terms within the industry, the picture becomes clearer.

Take a look at the search trends we examined for the term “best restaurants near me”:

SEO-Trends-SEO-Data-to-Fuel-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy14 The 45% drop in 2020 is in stark contrast to the term’s popularity in 2019 when the world wasn’t in crisis.

But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t interested in restaurants at all.

It isn’t possible for most people to cook every single meal – they still want restaurant-quality food even at home.

So, what are they searching for to alleviate this concern?

They are looking for food deliveries and pick-ups.

Look at the search trend comparison we made for “best restaurants near me” versus “food delivery” over the last few months:

SEO-Trends-SEO-Data-to-Fuel-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy15 What can we infer from the above search trend data?

That people are open to looking for alternatives – restaurants are still relevant but the search terms directly related to them have changed.

This means that restaurants now need to create content that moves away from terms related to geographic location and more towards food delivery and pick up.

1. Pivot for Customers Let’s step away from the service industry and look at a product-based industry such as gaming.

Look at the popularity of the search terms for Nintendo Switch in the March-May 2020 period, as compared to last year.

Search trend nintendo switch v lite The spike is huge, rivaling the trends we would see during December’s holiday rush.

Since people are spending more time indoors, they are looking for products to keep themselves engaged and entertained. Hence the need for a gaming console.

Here’s what we can tell from the increased popularity of this search term:

People want more access to in-home entertainment than before. Because they are self-isolating, they have more time to indulge in leisure activities. Gaming consoles are selling out fast, leading to a shortage of supply. Once you make these inferences, you can adapt your content structure – what can your product do for your customers at this moment?

If you are an entertainment-based business, here are some marketing tips to use the search trend data to your advantage:

You can create content about entertainment options for your audience. You can create entertaining pieces for your audience. You can share alternatives for people who can no longer purchase a Nintendo Switch. But knowing how to adapt to the changing circumstances we face now doesn’t mean that your job is done.

The times will continue to change and you need to be able to grow despite the changes. Let me explain how.

1. Content Ideation Framework The examples I have shared with you make sense in their own right – but can you apply them to your niche brand?

Brainstorming content ideas is always a challenge but I have been using a content strategy framework that has worked for me for years.

The framework I am talking about is GRAP.

what-is-grap-framework Let me break down each point for you.

Goals The overarching goal of your content strategy will have changed due to the pandemic. This affects the way you create marketing materials.

Is your goal during this period to sell products or services? Or is it to increase brand awareness?

You need to have a definitive destination in mind for your strategy before you start using search trends to create content.

Research Even when you’re searching for trends in your industry, it’s important to research why and how your audience is using those terms.

Understanding the consumer behavior behind an action will make it easier to create impactful content.

Authority Here’s a question that your audience asks every time they come across content online:

Who are you and why should I read your content instead of someone else’s?

Have you created content in the same area before? Are your SERP results strong? Do Google, Moz, and Ahrefs value your content contributions? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you are probably an authority in your field and will be able to create content that will generate interest and value.

Promotion Developing great content isn’t the same as it being seen.

If your SEO and SERP are strong, that means you are doing something right in the promotion department.

But let’s go back to the beginning of this exercise – where did we say your audience is spending their time during this pandemic?

Online.

There is a lot of content online already, with more being created on a daily basis during this crisis.

If you want to be seen, you need to improve the way you promote your content. Here are some general guidelines for doing that:

Don’t be afraid to promote far and wide and on as many channels as possible. Link build with purpose – this improves your SERP. Engage on social media – don’t just post and leave.

Once you get a handle on the GRAP framework, you will be better positioned to generate more content ideas.

1. Cross-Over Content Ideation What is cross-over content ideation?

It’s taking a content idea and altering it to suit a situation.

You must have read about the many companies that pivoted their product development strategies for the coronavirus.

Companies that were creating chemicals, trackers, or fashion accessories have pivoted to making hand sanitizers, proximity detectors, and surgical masks.

These businesses realized that their original products would not be useful in the crisis situation so they crossed over to building items that would be necessary for the community.

By pivoting in this way, these businesses managed to save themselves – quite the feat at a time when so many businesses are having to close down.

And you can follow their example.

Start by using Google Keyword Planner and following these steps:

Plug in a search term you usually associate with your brand. Don’t be alarmed when you see that it has fallen in the search trends. Look at the related keywords – specifically the ones trending since March 2020. These are the crossover content keywords that you should be aiming for. For example, in the travel industry, we looked at luggage-related keywords like “carry on bag”. This is what we found:

SEO-Trends-SEO-Data-to-Fuel-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy6 Unsurprisingly, with so few people traveling anywhere, the need for luggage has dipped dramatically.

At the same time, when we looked into home decor and organization, we found a massive spike in the pandemic period:

SEO-Trends-SEO-Data-to-Fuel-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy18 Here’s a closer look at the keyword associated with home decor and DIY:

SEO-Trends-SEO-Data-to-Fuel-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy19 There are a lot of related keywords and they are all trending.

Right there you have your keywords to start building your content.

Start by creating titles that are optimized for the keywords becoming popular within this sphere.

Design pieces that specifically answer questions your audience may have – this makes it easier for them to find you.

Don’t limit your content streams – aim to create blogs, vlogs, social posts, charts, graphs, and infographics – so you can reach people where they are.

Closing Thoughts Everything around us is changing – being adaptable to those changes is what will separate the innovative businesses from everyone else.

But adaptation without reason won’t make an impact.

You need to analyze the search trends that are impacting your company to drive cross-over content ideation and generate revenue.

To recap, this is how to do it:

Search for market gaps. Analyze search trends. Pivot to customer needs. Adapt to the content framework. Generate ideas for crossover content. Marketers have the tools available to them to influence the audience and drive a new narrative.

By using data and brainstorming new insights from what you find, you can thrive even in this crisis environment.

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How to Get Results on Social Media Without a Million-Dollar Budget

Avoiding direct response advertising can help you get greater results. Follow this four-step strategy to better engage with your social media audience.

Gary Henderson Our consumers have learned what inadequate social media efforts look like, and they’re tired of direct response advertising.

People are tired of businesses marketing to them on social media only to sell them new products and services that they don’t want or need.

This direct type of social media advertising is burning people out.

It’s turning people away from our businesses and brands because we are not taking the time to meet our consumers where they are.

Businesses are trying hard to speed up the selling process that they forget about the customer and what the customer wants and needs.

Here’s an example to explain what I mean.

If you are at an in-person networking event, you wouldn’t walk up to someone you’ve never met and say,

“Hi, my name is John, could you give me your email address so I can send you my lead magnet?”

or…..

“Hi, my name is John, do you want to learn how to run better Facebook ads for your business? Give me your email address, and I”ll give you my lead magnet.”

This is a conversation most people would not be comfortable having.

But, this is exactly what we are doing to people online.

We are having premature conversations online with strangers who don’t even know who we are.

That’s why our ads aren’t working, and that’s why marketers and business owners are burning through audiences so quickly.

That’s why our businesses get a bad reputation because we aren’t putting our consumers first online.

When we take what we usually do, and we put our consumers first, we build their product awareness.

We go through the buyer journey through pieces of content rather than give me your email, then we can finally build good relationships with our customers.

It’s time to give people a new and better approach that speaks to them exactly where they are in their buyer journey.

So, check out this four-step social media strategy to engage and get results with an audience on social media without a million-dollar budget.

Step 1: Map & Plan Where You Want People to Go The first step in getting results on social media is to map and envision where you want your ideal consumer to go.

Make sure to personalize this for your social media advertising so the consumer will flow through the buying process smoothly.

If you are unsure how to determine your next conversion point you could ask yourself the following questions:

What journey or path are you trying to take your ideal consumer on? How do you want them to think or feel about your business? What action do you want them to take? Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Do you want them to buy your product? What exactly do you want them to do? These are all questions to help you better understand how to be clear on your expectations and know exactly what steps you want your audience to take.

And then, once you understand what path you want people to take, you will learn how to properly serve your ideal consumer through their actions and buying patterns.

Now that you understand where your audience is going, it’s time to move to the next step and create content for your people on social media.

Step 2: Create a Piece of Content Create a Piece of Content For the second step, it’s time to create a piece of content that you can show to your ideal audience on Facebook or Instagram.

The content you create could be a video, blog post, or any form of content that will get them to take the first desired step in your process that we talked about before.

When creating content for your audience on social media, it’s important to remember to create content that intrigues your audience enough to make them want to learn more about you.

Another critical thing to remember is to make sure the content you create is for where your consumer is at today and for what they are thinking about today.

The goal is to create social media content that showcases your business, product, or service in the way you want your ideal consumer to see it, but it has to be super relevant to where they are at that moment.

Here’s an example to better explain what I mean.

If I want someone to dine inside my restaurant after the quarantine, I may want to create a Facebook video on what the safest precautions are for restaurants since businesses are starting to open back up.

The purpose of this first video is to ultimately meet your ideal consumer where they are in their journey and in their process.

This is to warm them up to you and to make them aware that you exist and could be an option for them.

Then, you would create another video or a different piece of content to move those people along further into the buying process, which leads to the next step.

Step 3: Build a Custom Audience For this step, build a custom audience on Facebook of the people who engaged with your first video or the first piece of content.

This is where you want to take the people who just engaged with your video or piece of content and move them forward in the buyers’ journey or to the next conversion point.

These are now hot leads who are closer to purchasing with you.

Here is an example to better explain.

If the first piece of content you created was a video, take that audience who watched 50-75% of the video and push them to take the next desired action.

If they are ready, this could even be a purchase.

The goal is to serve the audience with a new piece of relevant content until they feel comfortable enough to purchase with you.

This could be as easy as creating another video; it’s whatever they need.

And by meeting people where they are at and serving them in the way they need on social media, it will drastically drive your advertising costs down, among many other benefits – especially when using social media ads to target your ideal target audience on Facebook or Instagram.

Facebook and Instagram want to keep people on their social media platforms so that they can continue to get their ad revenue and continue to get the user’s time.

You also drastically increase your ROI because you are only going to serve your direct response ad to the people already engaged in the product, program, or service.

Step 4: Get Those People to Take the Next Step Studies say it typically takes a person around seven touches with a business before they make a purchase.

So, the goal for the final step is to get the people from the custom audience you created to take the next step in your social media strategy or to make a purchase.

This is where you can create specific content for each step in their buyer journey that caters to their wants and needs.

Once you do this, you will start to see a pattern in how many pieces of content your target audience will need before they make a purchase with you.

Wrapping Up

R3MAT Method

These are all steps we can take to avoid direct response advertising on social media. We have to stop flooding people with our new offers, deals, and products when they don’t even know who we are.

We have to learn the patterns of our ideal people and serve them in the way they need and at the time they need it.

You have to show the right message to the right person at the right time with the right expectations or as we like to call it the #R3MAT Method.

Once you do this you will begin to build better relationships with your ideal consumer and ultimately create a better consumer at the end of the day that will have a higher lifetime value.

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Choose Mission Over Maintenance

Becoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 1d



“One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something.” —Henry David Thoreau

We only get one life. And with it, we are wise to choose mission over maintenance.

We end our lives most fulfilled when we seek to discover our purpose and then focus our energy on it.

Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

And I have begun to recognize the third most important day is the day we throw off everything that keeps us from fulfilling that purpose—the moment we choose mission over maintenance.

One effective way to remove distraction and aim attention at our mission is to reduce the physical possessions in our lives. Our possessions, you see, steal our energy. They require maintenance.

When we own more than we need, we begin wasting our finite resources maintaining our stuff:

We clean them.

We categorize them.

We organize them.

We rearrange them.

We lose them.

We spend hours trying to find them.

We move them in and out of storage.

We work extra hours to make the payments on them.

This is time we can never get back. This is life wasted. This is sacrificing mission for maintenance.

But the distraction of possessions is bigger than merely cleaning them.

Physical possessions can take a toll on our lives before we even own them! We obsess over buying them, we spend hours researching and comparison shopping, and we go out of our way to find the best deal on them. (The average American spends almost 10 hours per month shopping, yet many of us complain we don’t have time for important activities.)

On the other end of the consumerism cycle, we spend time trying to sell our unneeded possessions, posting them on Facebook Marketplace, or driving them to local donation centers. Again, the more we own, the more of our lives we waste maintaining our stuff.

Beyond the physical demands of extra possessions, they also draw up emotional reserves. Cluttered spaces distract our minds and weigh heavily on us.

These items take energy from us and our greater pursuits. Consumerism causes burdens in many areas of our lives: financial, relational, spiritual, and can also impact our health because of undue pressure.

And I haven’t begun to mention how much wasted energy goes into comparing our possessions to the possessions of those around us.

But there is a better way to live. An intentional, minimalist approach to life provides the mind with the ability to support our mission.

Minimalism paves the way to less stress, more time, more focus, and more fulfillment and happiness.

A minimalist home and life is significantly less stressful. There are less items demanding our care and attention—less time maintaining our stuff and more time pursuing our mission.

Owning and caring for fewer possessions provides opportunity for clarity. When we align ourselves with the counter-cultural approach of minimalism, we free ourselves from the constant tugging of the pursuit of more.

Living with less offers more time and energy to spend on your chosen mission. Suddenly, we can pursue the careers we most desire. We can create solutions to our most heartfelt problems in life. We have more time to spend on meaningful priorities.

Personally, my greatest priorities are faith, family, friends, and impact. My chosen mission is to pursue the promotion of minimalism. Collecting things I don’t need takes me away from those greater pursuits by requiring my attention.

By choosing to own less, I reduce the amount of time spent maintaining possessions and utilize that energy to fuel my mission. You can too.

Too many of us waste our lives maintaining possessions rather than pursuing mission and passion. Choose the wiser route: Mission over Maintenance.

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2 Quick Stories that Will Change the Way You Show Up in Your Relationships

This morning, I shared two quick stories on Zoom with a small group of digital Think Better, Live Better conference attendees. “I appreciate the perspective, and the invitation to change how I show up in my relationships,” one attendee replied. A dozen others said they agreed. So, I figured I’d share these stories with you in hopes that you find value in them too. Try to read each one slowly and thoughtfully. Take the little lessons to heart. See how doing so changes how you show up in your interactions and conversations with others today…

Story #1 — True, Good, and Useful

A couple thousand years ago in ancient Greece, the great philosopher Socrates was strolling contemplatively around a community garden when a neighbor walked up to him and said, “You’re never in a million years going to believe what I just heard about our mutual friend…”

“Wait,” Socrates interrupted, putting his hand up in the air. “Before you continue with this story, your words must pass the triple filter test?”

“The what?”

“The triple filter test,” Socrates said.

The neighbor just stared at him with a blank expression.

Socrates continued, “The first filter is Truth. Are you absolutely sure the story you are about to tell me is true?”

“Well, no,” the neighbor said, “I literally just heard it from someone else I know.”

“Ah-ha…” Socrates quickly replied, “then let’s move on to the second filter. Is what you are about to share Good in any way, shape or form?”

“No… no,” the neighbor said, “This story is actually quite…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Socrates interrupted him again, “Ahh… so it may not be true and it is definitely not good.”

“That’s right,” the neighbor assured him.

“Well, you may still be able to save yourself,” Socrates said. “Is anything about the story you want to share Useful?”

The neighbor stared blankly again for a moment and then said, “No, I suppose it’s not really…”

“So, you want to tell me something that may not be true, is definitely not good, and is not useful to know?” Socrates asked. The neighbor looked down at the ground and nodded. “Well, you have no good reason to tell me this story, and you have no good reason to believe it yourself,” Socrates added, as the neighbor dolefully walked away.

. . .

In many ways, not too much has changed since ancient Greece, especially when it comes to the stories we tell ourselves and drama we perpetuate…

Every single day, we invest valuable time and energy into drama and hearsay. Many of us plug into social media first thing in the morning for reasons that have zero to do with what is true for us, good for us, and useful for those around us. Instead, we do it mostly as a default nervous reaction.

In an expansive universe in which there are abundant opportunities to discover what’s true, what’s good, and what’s useful, when we do the opposite, we know it. And while making that compromise — with lots of mind-numbing gossip — is tolerable for a little while, eventually it isn’t anymore. Our negligence catches up to us, and we begin to feel pain.

Don’t fall into the trap today. Instead take Socrates’ advice: simply focus on what is true, good, and useful. It worked well for Socrates a couple thousand years ago, and I assure you it continues to work well for many people today.

Story #2 — How to Love

You’d like Michelle a lot. Most people do. She’s the kind of person who listens when you talk, who smiles often, and who says things that make the people around her smile. She’s incredibly intelligent, but in a way that makes others feel comfortable. It’s the way she expresses herself in simple terms you can understand — almost like she’s articulating the thoughts you already have in your head, but haven’t quite found the right words to say aloud.

And it doesn’t matter who you are either. Michelle always has a way of relating to you. Because, in a way, she’s been there with you all along. She can think like you, so she understands you. It’s truly a special gift. So many of us have limitations in our perceptions. We understand the soldiers but not the politics governing the wars. We understand the people who go to the movies but not the ones who attend rodeos. But somehow, Michelle gets all of us. Again, it’s her gift.

If she hasn’t actually been to the rodeo you’re talking about — or any rodeo at all for that matter — she’ll be honest about it, but she’ll make you feel as if she was right there with you when you attended. And once you return home after spending a night with Michelle, you’ll catch yourself smiling and thinking about how there needs to be more people like her in the world. Because if there were, there would be far less to worry about.

Michelle passed away recently. I don’t really want to discuss the details right now, because honestly, they aren’t relevant. It could have been a car accident. It could have been old age. We are often far too concerned with how people died, rather than how they lived. And I want you to know how Michelle lived. She told stories — lots of stories that contained beautiful, subtle insights and wisdom about our lives and the world around us. And today, I want to share with you the last story she told me before she died:

“One Sunday morning when I was a little girl, my father surprised me and took me to the fishing docks. But instead of fishing, like all the other little girls and boys were doing with their parents, we sat down on the end of one of the docks and watched all the other children fish. For over an hour, we sat there and watched until we left without ever casting a single fishing line into the water.

I was simultaneously sad and angry. On the drive home I told my father that I’d never forgive him for being so mean to me. He looked at me, smiled and said, “I love you, Michelle.” When I didn’t respond, he asked, “Did you notice how happy all the other little girls and boys were? Did you see their smiles? Could you feel the happiness in their hearts?” After a moment of silence I quickly snapped, “I don’t really care! I just want to go fishing like everyone else!” My father took a deep breath and kept driving.

We went back to the fishing docks dozens of Sunday mornings throughout my childhood. And each time we saw dozens of other little girls and boys jumping and laughing and celebrating as they reeled in fish. But we still never cast a single fishing line into the water. We just sat there on the end of that same dock and watched. And my father never explained why. But he didn’t need to. Because years later, after I entered adulthood, and found myself volunteering at a local homeless shelter, I suddenly realized that those mornings spent sitting on that dock was where I learned how to love.”

. . .

Michelle’s last story continues to make me think…

Too often we pass people in a hurry, without caring or thinking twice.

Or we judge those who aren’t moving at our pace.

And rarely do we ever stop. Just to witness. Or to listen. Or to love.

Because we forget, or perhaps never learned, that every passing face represents a story just as captivating, complicated and worthy as our own. Everyone has gone through something that has inadvertently changed them and forced them to struggle, adapt and grow. Everyone’s smile has been earned. Everyone we meet has fought hard, and continues to fight in some way. And to them, their issues are equally as significant and worthwhile as whatever we’re going through.

Pausing from time to time to appreciate all the human beings around us opens our minds. Sharing in their happiness (or their frustrations) opens our hearts. When we take time to pause — to truly witness and listen, instead of bypassing or judging too quickly — we can learn so much… about ourselves, about each other, and about real love.

Now, it’s your turn…

Above all, I hope the short stories above remind you that being kind to everyone — even someone you disagree with, dislike, or don’t even know — doesn’t mean you’re fake. It means you’re mature enough to control your emotions and channel them effectively.

So, be kind today. 🙂

And also remind yourself that people are generally kinder when they are happier, which says a whole lot about the people you meet who aren’t so kind to you.

Truly, let’s do our best to take it all to heart. Or, as Marc so eloquently stated in his most recent blog post…

Be a blessing.

Be a friend.

Encourage someone.

Take time to care.

Let your words heal, and not wound.

You have the power to improve someone else’s day, perhaps even their whole life, simply by giving them your sincere presence, compassion and kindness today.

Do it!

…

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The Red Mountain

OK, I’ll just explain some words that are in today’s story.

A weapon is a thing you use to hurt or kill someone. Swords, knives, guns and bows and arrows are all weapons. Now, people usually use guns and knives, but most people don’t have a weapon. I don’t have any! In the United Kingdom, it is illegal, against the law, to have certain weapons, for example, guns and certain knives.

When you want to hurt someone, you might fight them. You might fight them with a weapon, or you can just use your hands. You might even fight them with words—an argument. Children sometimes throw food at each other—a food fight. A war is basically a big fight.

Someone who is heartless does not have a heart. Basically, they are very cold and not kind, and you do not want to be friends with a heartless person.

Marry means to get married to someone. So when you want to get married to someone, you might go down on one knee and ask them, ‘Will you marry me?’ In the old days, mothers often wanted to marry their daughters to rich men.

The son of a king is the prince. It is very important who a prince gets married to. The daughter of a king is the princess. It is also very important who she gets married to.

Weak means not strong. So you might be weak because you are ill, because you never do exercise, or because you don’t eat enough food.



A tower in Worcestershire, UK, by Saffron Blaze under CC BY-SA 3.0

A tower is a tall, round building. Sometimes it is part of a building. For example, castles have round towers on the sides. Sometimes a tower is the whole building. For example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris is very famous. It is nice to go on the top of a tower because you can see very far.



A knight on a horse

A knight is a person from the Middle Ages who worked for a lord or a king. Knights wear heavy armour, clothes that protect them, they ride horses, and they fight for their lord or king. Knights fight using swords and shields. Sometimes, there are big competitions called jousts where knights ride horses and fight with long weapons called lances. In fairy tales, a knight often comes and rescues princesses.

When someone is fearless, they have no fear. They are afraid of nothing. Maybe you watch a horror film with your friends and they are all afraid but you aren’t—then you’re the fearless friend.

When you look like something, you look the same as something. When I was a child, I had thick brown hair and black glasses, and everyone said that I looked like Harry Potter. Now I have long hair and nice glasses, and I don’t look like Harry Potter—I look much better.

OK, so listen and enjoy!

The Red Mountain

Once, there was a horrible king. He loved killing people. If someone bothered him, he said, ‘Fight me!’ and made the person fight him. He always won the fight, and the floors of the castle always had blood on them. Everyone was afraid of him. His family was afraid of him, his friends were afraid of him, and the people of his country were afraid of him. When the King was not there, they called him King Heartless, but if someone said that name when the King was there, he fought them and killed them.

King Heartless had become king after his brother died. His brother’s wife, the Queen, was alone, and the man came and spoke to her.

‘You will marry me,’ he said.

‘My husband has just died. How can I marry you?’

‘If you do not marry me, I will kill you.’

‘But then the country will have no queen! My daughter is not ready to be queen.’

‘So, marry me!’

Finally, she agreed to marry King Heartless. She was afraid of being killed, but really, it was the only thing she could do. She loved her daughter too much, and she knew that King Heartless would be horrible to her if she was not there. So they got married.

The Queen’s daughter, who she had with her first husband, was called Moonlight, and she was as beautiful as the light of the moon. All the princes of the all the other countries wanted to marry her. Everyone spoke about how beautiful she was, and they wanted her to be happy.

But King Heartless did not want Moonlight to be happy. Over the years, he started hating the girl. Everyone was afraid of him, but everyone loved her. Because people were so afraid of him, nobody said bad things to the King anymore. He could never fight and kill people, because everyone did what he said. So over time he grew weak, and his hate of Moonlight grew bigger and bigger.

King Heartless began to be afraid of Princess Moonlight. She was an adult now, and she was ready to get married. If she married a strong man and had a child, he could come and kill the King. He had to make sure that no prince would come and take away his country.

So King Heartless sent Moonlight and her mother on a ‘holiday’. But really, it was not a holiday. As they travelled, the King’s men jumped on them, and they took the Princess and the Queen to a tall tower in the forest. They threw them in the tower and shut the door.

‘Help, help!’ said the Queen. They hit the door again and again. But it did not matter. There was only one key to open the door, and King Heartless always carried it with him. The door was too hard to break, and there was only one window in the tower, at the top. If they jumped out, they would die.

‘Now they cannot fight me,’ said the King.

Over the years, the King thought about killing the Queen and the Princess, but they were not making problems, so he decided not to. In the tower, they had food and books, and wasn’t that enough for anyone? He left them there, and told the people of his country that they had died. He paid men to stand outside the tower, but it was boring work, so the men left their job and didn’t tell the King. It didn’t matter, because nobody went into that part of the forest.

So the King sat alone in his castle. Nobody wanted to speak to him, because they were afraid of him, and nobody wanted to marry him, because he was heartless. He grew old and sad.

One day, a knight was travelling through the forest. He was lost, and he came to a tall tower. He heard two women talking inside.

‘Don’t cry again, Mother, please. One day, the King will die. Someone will find us, and we will be free.’

‘I don’t believe it… How long have we lived here? We will die in this tower, my love.’

‘You have to believe, Mother. Someone will find us!’

The knight knocked on the door of the tower. ‘Hello?’

The two women stopped talking. For a minute, there was no sound. Then the younger woman spoke.

‘Who is there?’

‘I am a knight. I got lost in the woods. Who are you?’

The two women spoke quietly to each other, and then the younger answered. ‘I am Princess Moonlight, and I am here with my mother.’

‘Princess Moonlight! But the King said you were both dead!’

‘No!’ said the older woman. The two women moved to the window . ‘He is a horrible man. He was afraid that my daughter would marry a prince and that he would kill him. He put us in this tower so that we cannot do anything.’

‘I will free you!’ said the knight.

‘You cannot!’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘The door is too strong. We have tried, but it will not break.’

‘There is no door that does not break,’ said the knight.

He tried breaking the door with his weapon, but it was too hard. They were right.

‘Can you jump down?’ he said.

‘It is too far!’ said the Princess. ‘We have thought about it, but we would die.’

‘Hmm. I have an idea!’

The knight went and found a tree. He pulled it out and took it to the tower.

‘Climb down the tree!’ he said.

So the Queen and the Princess climbed down the tree and out of the tower.

‘Oh, thank you, thank you!’ said the Queen, crying.

Princess Moonlight jumped up and kissed the knight. Then she went red.

‘Sorry! I have been up there a long time.’

‘No, I liked it. I am not a prince, but I am strong, as you can see, and I am afraid of nobody. I will look after you always. Princess Moonlight, will you marry me?’

The Princess laughed. ‘Yes, yes, you are the man of my dreams!’

So the Princess, the Queen and the Fearless Knight went and found a place to live. They went to the home of the Queen’s mother, an old castle. They lived quietly there, and for many years, King Heartless did not know what had happened.

But one day, one of his men came with news from the forest: the Princess and Queen were not in the tower.

‘What?! Are they dead?’

‘No, they live! They are in the castle of the Queen’s family, near the mountain to the south. The Princess has married a “Fearless Knight”.’

The King was very angry. ‘Is he a king?’

‘No, but he is the strongest knight in the country, and he is afraid of nobody. I hear that the Princess and the knight have just had a child.’

‘No!’ shouted the King. ‘I will not have this!’

King Heartless did not sleep that night. He thought and thought about what to do. The next day, he spoke to his men.

‘Take a message to the castle of this “Fearless Knight”. Tell them I am sorry about what I did to the Princess and the Queen. Tell them I want to be friends with them again. Tell them I want to meet my grandson.’

So the King’s man went and took his message to the old castle. Princess Moonlight did not believe it.

‘It cannot be true! He never loved me or you. He says that he wants to be friends “again”. We were never friends before!’

‘My love, what if he has changed? It has been such a long time.’

‘How can you say that, Mother? You never wanted to marry him.’

‘I know, but in that tower I learned something. We cannot always think about the past and the future. He is saying sorry. We must listen.’

‘Fine, Mother, I will do it for you. But he cannot bring any weapons.’

So they sent a message to the King, asking him to come to the castle. The King did as they asked, coming without weapons and only a few men. But he did bring lots of presents, for Moonlight and for his grandson.

It looked like the message was real. The King was kind, and it looked like he had really changed. Princess Moonlight could not believe it, but she was happy to see that he had really changed.

Finally, the Fearless Knight and Princess Moonlight said, ‘We want you to live here with us. You are all alone in that old castle. Come and live with your family!’

The King said, ‘Ah, yes! It will be so lovely. I can play with my grandson every day.’

So they lived together happily, and every day the King played games with his grandson. It looked like the King had really changed, and everyone was happy.

But one night, when everyone was sleeping, the King went into the room of the little Prince.

‘Wake up!’ he said quietly.

‘Huh? Grandpa? What’s happening?’

‘Shh! Don’t wake up the others. Be quiet and come with me.’

‘Where are we going, Grandpa?’ asked the child, following the King.

‘I said be quiet! We are going to play a new game. It’s going to be really fun, OK? It will be a surprise for your mother and father.’

‘What kind of surprise?’

‘Oh, you will see. Now, close your eyes and follow me. Don’t open your eyes until I say you can.’

So the little Prince closed his eyes and followed his grandfather. They walked and walked and walked. They walked out of the castle and into the forest. The Prince didn’t know where they were going, but his grandfather had told him to not open his eyes, so he did as he was told.

‘Why are we in the forest?’ he said.

‘It is a game! We are going to go somewhere, and then your mother and father will have to find you. It will be very fun, believe me.’

‘But how will she find me?’

‘Don’t worry, my child.’

But it was hard to walk with his eyes closed, and the Prince fell down. He opened his eyes, and saw that they were on the top of a high mountain. He had never been so high up before.

‘Grandpa, I’m afraid! Why are we climbing this mountain? We could fall off.’

‘I know!’ shouted the King, and laughed. ‘That’s the game!’

Then he picked up the Prince and threw him off the mountain. The Prince screamed and fell down.

THUMP.

The King looked down at the Prince. He sniffed. ‘Ah, blood! I love blood. Now nobody will take my country away from me! Good night, Little Prince!’ And he laughed and laughed and laughed.

In the morning, the knight and the Princess woke up and saw that the sky was red, and that there was a strange light coming from the mountain near the castle.

‘What’s happening?’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘Where is my son?’

They went together to the mountain. The whole mountain was red, red like blood.

‘What is happening?!’ said the Princess. ‘This is all so strange!’

And then they looked down and saw their son.

Princess Moonlight screamed.

‘My son!’

She knew immediately who had done this: King Heartless. They went and took their son’s body back to the castle.

‘The King,’ said Princess Moonlight. ‘He is probably already running back to his castle. My love—’

‘I know what I need to do,’ said the Fearless Knight.

He took a horse and went into the forest. It did not take long to find the King. King Heartless laughed when he saw the knight.

‘How fearless are you now, oh Fearless Knight? Your son is dead!’

‘And soon you will be, too!’

The two fought, but King Heartless was old and weak. The knight quickly won the fight, and he stood ready to kill the King.

‘Please, please don’t kill me!’ said the King. ‘I am just an old man!’

‘How many people have you killed? You have killed old men and young women. You took their lives, and now I will take yours.’

So the knight killed King Heartless and came home.

After that day, the mountain was always red, red with the blood of the little Prince who had died there. Even now, people call it Croda Rossa, which means Red Mountain in Italian.

THE END

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Where Do We Get the Saying About 'Red Skies at Night'? (And Is It True?)

We say red skies at night are a sailor's delight because the way clouds reflect red light in some parts of the world really does foretell good weather.

My investigation into the phrase “red skies at night, sailor’s delight” started with this question from Thomas last week:

Hi, Mignon. My name is Thomas, from Indianapolis, and I've been reading about the Sahara dust plume that's heading for U.S. on the tradewinds, and I read that supposedly it is going to cause a whole bunch of fantastic sunsets, and also that when the Sahara dust gets in the atmosphere, it suppresses the formation of tropical storms and hurricanes. And I was wondering if that might be the origin to the old saying “red sky at night, sailor’s delight” and if not, do you know where that comes from or what it dates to? Thanks so much, I love the podcast.

It’s a great question, Thomas.

The massive Saharan dust plume you were asking about has now reached some southern parts of the United States, and it’s mostly gone, but a smaller second plume is on its way.

These plumes aren’t a new phenomenon—they happen all the time when wind blows across the huge deserts in North Africa, and they aren’t just limited to the U.S. either, the dust also makes it to parts of Europe—but according to National Geographic, the plume that wafted over regions from Puerto Rico to Texas last week was the biggest plume since people started recording the size by satellite in 1979.

Since they aren’t new, it’s a reasonable question to wonder if they are the source of the saying “Red skies at night, sailor’s delight. Red skies in the morning, sailor take warning,” but I don’t think so. I believe that regular weather is more likely to be the source because even though the dust storms are common, clouds also cause red skies, and they are much more common.

The ‘Red Skies” Saying Is Old

The concept of red skies at night being a harbinger of good weather is old. For example, the wonderful site “The Phrase Finder” traces written mentions back to one of my favorite old sources, the Wyclif bible, published in 1395.

And at least in England, where the concept and phrase originated, red skies are actually quite predictive of the weather. They may not rival modern weather prediction, but in the 1300s, they were useful. It works because most storms in the U.K. come from the west. 

Why Red Light Means Clouds

 .

Clouds reflect all the colors of light from the sun, but because of the way different colors of light travel through the atmosphere, red light is much better at reaching distant clouds than the other colors. So clouds end up reflecting a lot of red light, especially early and late in the day because that’s when the light has to travel the farthest through the atmosphere to reach the clouds, so as it’s making its way through all that atmosphere, the other colors of light are getting filtered out, and the red light is just powering through. You can think of clouds at sunrise and sunset as red light reflectors.

So if you’re in the U.K. and you’re seeing a red sky at night, it means the clouds have already passed you by. They’re east of you, reflecting red light back from the setting sun in the west. You don’t have to worry about approaching storms. Storms come from the west, and the west is clear.

But if you see a red sky in the morning, it means clouds are to the west, probably heading toward you, because they’re reflecting red light from the sun rising in the east. You may not be able to see those western clouds that are heading toward you because of the curvature of the earth, but the red light tells you they’re out there doing their reflective thing.

Red Skies at Night, Shepherd’s Delight

And here’s an interesting final note: I’ve only heard the version as “red skies at night, sailor’s delight,” but multiple sources also say that there’s a now less common version, that may have been the first version, that says “red skies at night, shepherd’s delight,” presumably because shepherds cared a lot about the weather too. For example, in Shakespeare’s “Venus & Adonis,” Shakespeare wrote about a “red morn” bringing sorrow to both seamen and shepherds.



So that’s the origin of the “red skies at night, sailor’s delight” saying. It actually does a decent job of predicting the weather in some parts of the world because of the way clouds reflect red light in the atmosphere.

Thanks for the question, Thomas.

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The Musicians of Bremen Once there was a donkey who lived with a farmer. The donkey was very old. Before, he had worked every day in the fields and carried many heavy things. Now he was old, and he found it hard to carry heavy things. One day, the donkey was carrying a very heavy bag of food and fell down. ‘Now this is bad,’ said the farmer. ‘I need a strong animal who can work for me. If the donkey can’t carry things, I don’t need him. I will have to kill him tonight.’ The donkey heard this and was very afraid. He didn’t want to die! But what could he do? If he went to another farm, they would not want him, because he could not work. But the donkey had heard of a city called Bremen. In Bremen, there were lots of musicians, and if you played good music, you lived well. ‘I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar,’ said the donkey. ‘I think I would play it very well.’ He did not have a guitar, but that did not matter. So the donkey left his master and started going to Bremen. The road to Bremen was long. After walking for an hour, the donkey saw a dog on the road. The dog looked old and sad, and had lots of grey hairs. ‘Why are you so sad, old boy?’ said the donkey. ‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I ran through the forest and killed pigs, but now I am old, and the pigs are too fast for me.’ ‘Don’t worry, old boy!’ said the donkey. ‘I’m going to Bremen to become a musician. I’m going to play the guitar. Come with me!’ ‘Wow!’ said the dog. ‘I have always wanted to learn to play the drum. Yes, I’ll go with you to Bremen!’ So the donkey and the dog started going to Bremen. The road to Bremen was long. After walking for two hours, they saw a cat on the road. The cat looked old and sad, and had lots of grey hairs. ‘Why are you so sad, you old cat?’ said the donkey. ‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I killed all the mice in the house, but now I am old, and the mice are too fast for me.’ ‘Don’t worry, you old cat!’ said the donkey. ‘We’re going to Bremen to become musicians. I’m going to play the guitar, and the dog is going to play the drum. Come with us!’ ‘Wow!’ said the cat. ‘I have always wanted to learn to play the violin. Yes, I’ll go with you to Bremen!’ So the donkey, the dog and the cat started going to Bremen. The road to Bremen was long. After walking for three hours, they saw a chicken on the road. The chicken looked old and sad. ‘Why are you so sad, Mr. Chicken?’ said the donkey. ‘My master wants to kill me! Before, I cried every morning at the same time. But now I am old, and some days, I forget to cry in the morning.’ ‘Don’t worry, Mr. Chicken!’ said the donkey. ‘We’re going to Bremen to become musicians. I’m going to play the guitar, the dog is going to play the drum, and the cat is going to play the violin. Come with us!’ ‘Wow!’ said the chicken. ‘I love singing! Yes, I’ll go with you to Bremen.’ So the donkey, the dog, the cat and the chicken started going to Bremen. The road to Bremen was long, so night came, and they decided to sleep inside a forest. The donkey, dog and cat lay down by a tree, and the chicken flew into the tree. They had no food, and they were very hungry, and it was cold. ‘I see something!’ said the chicken. ‘There is a house in the forest, and there is light inside. Do you think they have comfortable beds and food?’ ‘I think they might!’ said the donkey. ‘Let’s go.’ So they went to the house and looked inside. Inside, there were five men. These men were very bad men—they were thieves. They liked to steal from people. But the musicians were not interested in the thieves, because in the house there was a table, and on the table there was lots of food and drink: bread, cheese, nuts, cake, wine and beer. And in the corner, there were comfortable beds. ‘Wow!’ said the donkey. ‘We must get inside and eat all that lovely food and sleep in those comfortable beds.’ ‘But what can we do?’ said the cat. ‘Hmm,’ said the dog. ‘Usually, if you play music, people give you money and food, right?’ ‘Right!’ said the chicken. ‘Let’s give them a show.’ So the dog jumped on the donkey’s back, the cat jumped on the dog’s back, and the chicken flew onto the cat’s back. ‘Ready?’ said the donkey. ‘One, two, three!’ The animals jumped through the window. The donkey ‘played the guitar’, the dog ‘played the drum’, the cat ‘played the violin’, and the chicken ‘sang’. But really, the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat meowed, and the chicken cried. The thieves were very afraid, and thought it was a monster. They ran outside and through the forest. ‘Hooray!’ said the donkey. ‘Our first show went very well!’ They ate all the lovely food and drank all of the beer and wine, and then went to sleep in the comfortable beds. The thieves ran and ran, but then the leader of the thieves said, ‘Stop! That was no monster. I don’t believe that monsters exist. And that is our house! I will go back and kill them.’ So the leader of the thieves went back to the house and very quietly went inside. It was dark, and the musicians were all sleeping. But then the leader of the thieves put his foot on the cat. ‘MEOW!’ screamed the cat. She jumped up and scratched the thief’s leg. ‘OW!’ screamed the thief. He fell on the dog. ‘WOOF WOOF!’ cried the dog. He bit the thief on the leg. ‘Augh!’ screamed the thief. He ran outside and ran into the donkey. ‘HEE-HAW!’ cried the donkey, and kicked the thief in the stomach. Finally, the chicken woke up and flew onto the thief’s head. ‘Buck-caw!’ The leader of the thieves screamed and ran away. ‘It is a monster, it is a monster!’ he cried. ‘I will never come back to this forest again!’ So the musicians went back to their home and slept. In the morning, they spoke. ‘Shall we go to Bremen, then?’ said the dog. ‘I don’t know,’ said the cat. ‘It is such a long way, and we have no musical instruments.’ ‘I don’t need a musical instrument,’ said the chicken. ‘I can sing.’ ‘Maybe we don’t need to go to Bremen,’ said the donkey. ‘We have a nice little house here, and we can probably find food in the forest.’ And it was true. They were very happy in their little house, and they found nuts and fruits in the forest to eat. So in the end, the musicians of Bremen never actually went to Bremen, but that does not matter, because they were the best of friends. THE END

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The Musical Forest

Once upon a time, there was a forest far away from the rest of humankind. In this forest, there lived mice, birds, rabbits and so on, but this was no ordinary forest.

The King of the Forest was a stag, who had wandered there after being thrown out from his family. Growing up, he was a weak, sad child, and when his horns emerged they were bent and broken. His family rejected him, sending him away from their home to find his own way in life. So he found a forest where the animals appreciated him, and soon he was so popular that they made him king.

The King was truly happy there, but in the night he heard strange noises. It was music, but not sweet melodies played by loving hands, but the sad, twisted notes of misery. He could not figure out where the music was coming from, so one night he decided to follow it, and came across a trumpet thrown outside in the dirt.

‘Why are you crying?’ said the King, because such a sad melody could only mean tears.

‘My musician abandoned me, after twenty years of playing. He bought a newer model. Now I will be taken away and melted down, or given to some horrible child who won’t play me properly.’

The stag smiled. ‘I know a place where you can live happily.’

And so began the stag’s mission: to rescue the abandoned instruments of humankind. For many decades, he gave them a home in the forest, and they found a family in each other. But something was still missing: people to play them; and the animals of the forest could not do this. So the King of the Forest travelled far and wide, until he found a lonely old man who made wooden puppets. He loved his puppets so much that they came to life. But the old man was sad, because with his death the puppets would have nowhere to go.

‘I know a place for your puppets,’ said the King of the Forest, ‘where they will have a purpose and joy in life.’

And so the old man died happy, and the puppets all came to the forest. They made homes in the trees, and every day they danced around and played music on the instruments. At first, it was a horrible racket of untrained hands and ugly notes, but over time they became skilled in playing them, and eventually they formed a lively orchestra.

The forest became known as the Musical Forest, and its melodies could be heard for miles around. The animals gathered around every evening to hear the orchestra play, and the air was filled with joy and beauty.

But one day, something broke the magic.

On a certain morning, the stag woke up to find a magnificent house beside the forest, where there had been only fields before. None of the animals or puppets knew where it had come from, so the King of the Forest went to find out.

He went and knocked on the door with his horns, and it opened to reveal an angry man with a thick white beard and long green clothes.

‘What do you want?’ snapped the man.

‘I am the King of the Musical Forest. I welcome you in peace. I must say, I did not know humans could build so quickly.’

The man smiled cruelly. ‘I am no ordinary human. I am a wizard. I brought my house here with magic. Was it you making all that racket last night?’

The King of the Forest felt a strong dislike of this wizard. ‘The forest is the home of many musicians. We have an orchestra. But tell me, what are you doing here?’

‘I’m on holiday. Although with all that racket it’s not going to be very relaxing!’

‘You brought your house with you on holiday?’

‘I’m a wizard!’ he snapped. ‘It’s very easy for me. Now, I am very busy relaxing. Good day.’

And the wizard slammed the door in the King’s face.

The King went back to the forest and tried to forget about the wizard, but the strange man stayed in his mind. Throughout the day, huge clouds of smoke came out of the chimney of the wizard’s house, changing from grey to green to blue to purple. When the puppets started practising, loud explosions and sounds came from the house, making it hard to concentrate. But not once did the strange man go outside, not even into the garden.

That night, all the animals in the forest came together for a concert. The puppets played a range of mysterious, romantic music, and for a while, the King managed to forget about the wizard.

But just when the concert was reaching the end, the man in green appeared from the trees. The King tensed up, but the wizard merely leant against a tree and observed the orchestra quietly. Then, without warning, he frowned and waved his hands in the air. Suddenly, the puppets all froze and the music stopped.

All the animals cried out in fear.

‘What do you want?!’ shouted the King.

‘I want…’ But the wizard stopped. He was staring at a particular puppet holding a harp, and he seemed so full of rage that he could not speak.

The King could not allow this man to put the Musical Forest in danger. While the wizard was distracted, he ran at him with his twisted horns. But just before he reached him, the harp jumped out of the puppet’s hands and flew towards the wizard.

The King was shocked, and came to a stop. The wizard hadn’t moved a muscle, so the harp must have moved on her own.

‘No!’ said the wizard, shaking his head. ‘Leave me alone!’

And with that, he ran away into the forest. The puppets and instruments remained frozen, apart from the harp.

‘He was my first owner,’ she said quietly. ‘He was a terrible musician. He dreamed and dreamed about becoming a world-class player and playing in a huge concert hall. He loved music, but he hated making mistakes. Whenever he made one, he got mad at himself. Eventually, it was too much for him, and one day he put me in a cupboard…’

‘I remember,’ said the King. He had come to rescue her, but the harp had never talked about what had happened. ‘Was he so angry back then?’

‘No. But it does not surprise me. He was always much better at magic than music, but magic is dangerous. He controlled the music, but the magic always controlled him. I should think he is a very different person now.’

The King frowned. ‘And now he has cast this spell on all our musicians. Without them, the forest will be quiet and sad.’

‘I have an idea of what we can do.’

The next day, the King went to the wizard’s house. He knocked on the door, and the wizard cried out, ‘Go away!’ His throat was dry, as if he had been crying or drinking.

‘Please come out!’ said the King. ‘I want to show you something.’

‘No!’

So the King hit the door with his horns until it broke open. Then he ran inside and dragged the wizard out by his coat. The man kicked and screamed. He waved his hand at the stag and said twisted words in languages unknown to the King, but they had no effect. His magic had left him.

‘Where are you taking me? I’ll put a spell on you, you horrible creature!’

‘No you won’t,’ said the King, ‘or you’ll never see your harp again.’

The wizard went quiet, but he stood up and started walking. The King took him to a clearing in the forest. There, the harp was waiting.

Suddenly, the wizard’s calm disappeared.

‘Are you just here to criticise me? I know I should have looked after you better, but it was no use! I was the worst musician in the world.’

‘It doesn’t matter if you were the worst musician in the world or the best,’ replied the harp. ‘You played me with love. Don’t you want to play our song again?’

‘No!’ he cried out.

‘Then why are you here?’ said the stag. ‘You could have left last night.’

The wizard went bright red. ‘I’ll burn this whole forest down! I’ll put a spell so deep on this land that NOBODY will play music on it ever again!’

‘No, you won’t,’ said the harp. ‘Now sit down and play me.’

The wizard bit his lip, as if weighing up the two options, and then sat down and picked up the harp. But the moment he put his hands to it, they started to shake.

‘Easy now. You can do it,’ said the harp.

Slowly, the wizard began to play. It was clearly a melody he knew well, so well that he still remembered it even after all these years. But after just a few notes, he made a mistake, and dropped the harp as if it had burned him.

‘I can’t do this!’

The King smiled and said, ‘Every wrong note is an opportunity. Do you think it was easy for the puppets, when they first came here? They don’t have fingers like you do. Do you think it was easy for the instruments, who were so used to being played by humans? We all had to learn, but you have heard how beautiful the result is.’

The wizard didn’t seem convinced by this. He started walking away.

‘Hey!’ said the harp. ‘Every note I make is perfect. Don’t you remember? You used to play all my strings one by one, just to hear the different sounds. You loved all of them equally.’

The wizard stopped. He moved his fingers, and it looked like he was about to cast a spell, but then the stag realised what he was doing: he was remembering playing the strings.

Without a word, the wizard went and sat down again to play. It took him a while to get into it, and with every mistake he almost gave up, but when he finally did, he transformed. His frown turned into the happy smile of a lover. His hands turned from hard old trees to beautiful silk dancers. His eyes shone brighter than all the stars in the night, and indeed, by the time he finished playing it was dark.

The music wasn’t spectacular. How could it be, after so many years out of practice? In fact, it was pretty awful. But it didn’t matter, because the wizard’s heart was in it.

‘Oh!’ he said, looking up at the sky. ‘How long was I playing?’

The King laughed. ‘Just long enough. Now, would you like to come and play with the others?’

‘You would let me? But I can’t play like them…’

‘Time will tell.’

They walked through the forest to where all the puppets were frozen. The wizard went red again, clearly having forgotten about his spell. He clicked his fingers and undid it, and all the puppets started moving again.

‘I’m sorry, everyone,’ said the wizard. ‘I acted in anger last night. No, not anger. Fear. I was afraid of all your beautiful music, because it reminded me of how I abandoned mine. Would it… be OK if I played with you?’

‘Of course!’

‘Why not?’

‘Join us!’

So the wizard sat down with them and they started to play. The next day, the wizard came back to play again, and the next, and the next. At first, he went red every time he made a mistake, and stopped playing, but with the encouragement of the puppets and the instruments, he grew more and more confident. Eventually, they were able to put on a concert together, and the forest had never heard such beautiful music.

At the end of the concert, the King said to him, ‘And how long do you think your holiday will last?’

The wizard laughed and said, ‘Life is a holiday!’

And so the Musical Forest sang once more. And if any monsters, wizards or instrument-sellers came to try and disrupt its harmony, the wizard cast a spell on them and sent them away.

So they lived happily, and musically, ever after.

THE END

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Minimalism Helped Me Find My Purpose, Passion and Self.

Note: This is a guest post from Jessica Malone of Nacho Average Fro.



26 seems a bit early for a life crisis, nevertheless that’s when my journey began.

By the world’s standards, I had it made. I went to college, graduated top of my class, snagged a job at a Fortune 10 company, built a healthy 401K, traveled the world, and collected lots and lots of stuff.

I was living “the good life;” and yet I was miserable.

While I was acquiring all the material and experiential things, I lost my sense of self. I didn’t really know who I was. I only knew what I thought was expected of me.  

Summa Cum Laude graduate, Fortune 10 employee, world traveler, top performing sales professional—these were my parents’ dreams for me. As great as they were, they left me unfulfilled. 

At the crux of my clutter lay the same theme: I never believed I was enough. 

I’d risked my health, my self-esteem, and my sanity to attempt to fill a void. At age 14, my parents announced their divorce. At 26, I realized I was still mad. Not because they divorced, but because I couldn’t make it stop. I wasn’t enough to hold it all together. For 12 years, I carried that burden and built a life I hoped would overcome it.

I traveled in hopes of impressing others.

I over-worked in hopes of receiving the praise I’d grown accustomed to. 

I rented a 2 bedroom apartment in hopes of creating space for the family I desired.

But tourism quickly became escapism, the apartment became overwhelming, and the work became stressful and debilitating. I woke to panic attacks, ate and slept my way into 35 more pounds, and lived in fear. Fear of facing the aftermath of my parents’ divorce, a job I couldn’t stand, a city I didn’t enjoy, and the loneliness I felt because I moved so often. 

Minimalism changed that.

As I cleared the television, glassware for a party of 12, and books I’d never read, I saw all the effort I’d put into living a life that wasn’t authentic to me. In the newfound silence, I was forced to think for myself. I began to explore, to play, and to follow my gut. In the process, I built a blog, a conference, and a coaching business.

As I cleared my calendar, I realized that I was running from my past and the present life I now disdained. Decluttering put me in my place.

I learned that while I love travel, new cultures, and experiencing life in new ways, I can’t do it at the expense of my healing. Today, I live out of a van and travel full-time in pursuit of my dreams. But only after choosing to address my greatest fears and learning to believe in myself and my power.

As I cleared the subscriptions, bar tabs, drive-thru expenses, and debt in my finances, I realized just how much I’d given away in the pursuit of “having it all.”

Creating space allowed me to define my goals and align my money accordingly. In doing so, I fueled my dreams. I quit my job in pursuit of entrepreneurship, self-funded my conference 2 years in a row, and built the van of my dreams while continuing to be debt free.  

Clearing the space taught me how to recognize what I love, what I fear, and who I am. While I’ve cleared a lot of stuff, it was never really about that. It was always about what the stuff represents. Minimalism helped me find my purpose, passion, and self. 

For that, I am grateful.

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2 Hard Things You Need to Do to Be at Peace Today



The goal is to change your response to what you can’t control. To grow so strong on the inside that nothing on the outside can affect your inner wellness without your conscious permission.

“Tough times don’t last—tough people do.” Repeat that to yourself as often as you need to in the days and weeks ahead, as the world gradually comes to grips with the hard reality of COVID-19.

There’s a saying in Tibetan philosophy, “Tragedy should be used as a source of strength.” My grandmother always repeated this line to me when I was growing up. Every time I dealt with some kind of unexpected struggle, she would graciously remind me that it was helping me grow, so long as I was willing to open my mind to it. Over the years I have learned just how right she was, and how relevant her wisdom is for all of us right now.

Remind yourself that the mind is our biggest battleground. It’s the place where the strongest conflict resides. And with COVID-19 occupying so much of our present attention, we need now more than ever to keep ourselves in check.

In the game of life, we all receive a unique set of unexpected limitations and variables in the field of play. The question is: How will you respond to the hand you’ve been dealt? You can either focus on the lack thereof or empower yourself to play the game sensibly and resourcefully, making the very best of every outcome as it arises, even when it’s heartbreaking and hard to accept.

Obviously, with the COVID-19 virus spreading rapidly around the world right now, we are all facing a tough reality. We are occupying an uncertain moment in time, on the cusp of a seemingly historic event. And while human lives are the primary concern, it’s also wise to consider the impact it may have on your mental health—to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself.

Thinking Better in Tough Times

Thinking better is all about learning to respond effectively. When you can’t control what’s happening in the world around you, you must challenge yourself to control the way you respond to what’s happening. Because that’s where your power is!

Of course, that’s much easier said than done, for all of us.

So, let’s practice together.

We can do hard things!

We can make better choices…

We can choose how we spend our time in the days and weeks ahead. We can choose gratitude and grace. We can choose whom we socialize with—and perhaps more importantly, whom we don’t (social distancing). We can choose to love and appreciate the people in our lives for exactly who they are. We can choose to love and appreciate ourselves, too. We can choose how we’re going to respond to life’s surprises and struggles (COVID-19 being one of them), and whether we will see them as curses or opportunities for personal growth.

And, perhaps most importantly, we can choose to think better about our present circumstances, and let go of what we can’t control, so we can consciously make the best of what’s ahead of us.

When we think better, we live better, and peace becomes us.

Let’s not try to just “be positive” right now. Let’s not try to fake it. Instead, let’s simply open our minds to the unknowns in front of us. Here’s how:

You might be surprised by how often you subconsciously resist life.

If you evaluate your body and posture right now, I bet you can find some kind of tension. For me, it’s often in my neck, but sometimes it’s in my back and shoulders.

Where does this tension we feel come from? We’re resisting something – perhaps we’re annoyed by someone, frustrated at life, overwhelmed by all our obligations, or just bored. And our mental resistance creates a tension in our bodies and unhappiness in our lives. Therefore, Marc and I often recommend this simple strategy to our course students who are struggling to relieve themselves of their resistance and tension:

Locate the tension in your body right now.

Notice what you’re resisting and tensing up against – it might be a situation or person you’re dealing with or avoiding.

Relax the tense area of your body – deep breath and a quick stretch often helps.

Face the same situation or person, but with a relaxed body and mind.

Repeat this practice as often as needed today. Face the day with less tension and more presence. Change your mode of being from one of struggle and resistance to one of peace and acceptance.

Imagine you had a ripe, juicy tangerine sitting on the table in front of you. You pick it up eagerly, take a bite, and begin to taste it.

You already know how a ripe, juicy tangerine should taste, and so when this one is a bit tarter than expected, you make a face, feel a sense of disappointment, and swallow it, feeling cheated out of the experience you expected.

Or perhaps the tangerine tastes completely normal— nothing special at all. So, you swallow it without even pausing to appreciate its flavor as you move on to the next unworthy bite, and the next.

In the first scenario, the tangerine let you down because it didn’t meet your expectations. In the second, it was too plain because it met your expectations to a T.

Do you see the irony here?

It’s either not good or not good enough. This is how many of us live our lives . . . unhappily and unsuccessfully. It’s why so many of us feel let down, disappointed, and unexcited about almost everything.

Because nothing really meets our expectations.

Now, imagine you try this instead: remove your expectations of how the tangerine “should” taste. You don’t know, and you don’t expect to know, because you haven’t even tried it yet. Instead, you’re genuinely curious, impartial, and open to a variety of possible flavors. You taste it, and you truly pay attention. You notice the juiciness, the texture of the pulp, the simultaneously tangy, tart, and sweet flavors swirling around on your tongue, and all the other complex sensations that arise in your awareness as you chew. You didn’t know how this tangerine would taste, but now you realize it’s different from the rest, and it’s remarkable in its own way. It’s a totally new experience—a worthwhile experience—because you’ve never tasted this tangerine before.

Mindfulness experts often refer to this as “beginner’s mind,” but really, it’s just the result of a mind-set free of needless, stifling expectations.

The tangerine, of course, can be substituted for almost anything in your life: any event, any situation, any relationship, any person, any thought at all that enters your mind. If you approach any of these with expectations of “how it should be” or “how it has to be” in order to be good enough for you, they will almost always disappoint you in some way, or be too plain and unexciting to even remember. And you’ll just move on to the next disappointment or unworthy life experience, and the next, and the next, and so on and so forth, until you’ve lived the vast majority of your life stuck in an endless cycle of experiences you barely like or barely even notice.

A Moment of Opportunity for Us

The bottom line is that every situation imaginable has hidden beauty in it if we are willing to open up to it. For example, in the past, even as Marc and I have coped with the death of loved ones, we’ve discovered opportunities for us to appreciate life more, to appreciate the lives of those we’ve lost, and to appreciate the priceless time we had with our loved ones.

We do our best to embody this same mindset in every difficult life situation we encounter. When we get ill, it’s a chance for us to rest. When some unforeseeable event—like COVID-19—postpones one of our business projects, we spend more time with family. When our son, Mac, throws a temper tantrum, we see that he’s expressing himself, asserting his individuality and being human.

We choose to find beauty even when it’s buried beneath struggles and pain. And you can do the same in the days and weeks ahead.

Again, we can practice together.

This is truly a moment opportunity for us.

The floor is yours…

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7 Difficult Things You Should Start Doing for the People Around You



We are all in this together, so always be kinder than necessary. What goes around comes around. No one has ever made themselves strong by showing how small someone else is. Everyone you meet is learning something, is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something. Know this. And be extra kind today.

In other words, don’t just preach online.

Actually do the difficult things, too.

Be compassionate in whatever way you can.

Be a beacon of hope to people you pass on the street.

Embody what you preach.

Many of the kindest gestures you’ll ever make, and the most important things you’ll ever do, won’t come easy and will never be seen publicly.

Do them anyway…

1. Start being a source of sincere support.

The closest thing to being cared for is to care for others. Again, we are all in this together and we should treat each other as such. The very demons that torment each of us, torment others all over the world. It is our challenges and troubles that connect us at the deepest level.

If you think about the people who have had the greatest positive effect on your life—the ones who truly made a difference—you will likely realize that they aren’t the ones that tried to give you all the answers or solve all your problems. They’re the ones who sat silently with you when you needed a moment to think, who lent you a shoulder when you needed to cry, and who tolerated not having all the answers, but stood beside you anyway. Be this person for those around you every chance you get.

1. Start going out of your way to show respect.

Life’s greatest privilege is to become who you truly are. You have to dare to be yourself, one hundred percent, however anxious or odd that self may prove to be. The people who support you in doing so are extraordinary. Appreciate these people and their kindness, and pay it forward when you’re able.

Never bully someone into silence. Never victimize others for being different. Accept no one’s close-minded definition of another person. Let people define themselves. You have the ability to show people how awesome they are, just the way they are. So act on this ability without hesitation; and don’t forget to show yourself the same courtesy.

Ultimately, how far you go in life depends on your willingness to be helpful to the young, respectful to the aged, tender with the hurt, supportive of the striving, and patient with those who are weaker or stronger than the majority.

1. Start leading with the truth.

Trust is the bedrock of all healthy communication, and when trust is broken it takes a long time and commitment on the part of both parties involved to repair it and heal. The key thing to remember here is that secrets can be just as deceitful as openly telling a lie.

All too often, Angel and I will hear a course student or a Think Better, Live Better attendee say something like, “I didn’t tell him but I didn’t lie about it, either.” This statement is a contradiction, as omissions are lies. If you’re covering up your tracks or withholding the truth in any way, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out and trust in the relationship completely breaks down. So speak the truth openly and kindly, always.

1. Start communicating clearly, without needless drama.

Frequent name-calling, threats, eye-rolling, belittling, mockery, hostile teasing, etc. In whatever form, gestures like these are poisonous to a relationship because they convey hate. And it’s virtually impossible to resolve an interpersonal dispute of any kind when the other person is constantly receiving the message that you hate them.

Also, keep in mind that if someone makes a mistake and you choose to forgive them, your actions must reinforce your words. In other words, let bygones be bygones. Don’t use their past wrongdoings to justify your present righteousness. When you constantly use someone’s past wrongdoings to make yourself seem “better” than them (“I’m better than you because, unlike you, I didn’t do XYZ in the past.”), it’s a lose-lose situation.

Replace your negative thoughts with positive communication! Because the truth is, if you’re throwing hateful gestures at a person instead of communicating with them, there’s a good chance they don’t even know why you’re being so mean.

And remember, the single greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. When we hear only what we want to hear, we’re not really listening. We must listen to what we don’t want to hear too. Because that’s how we grow stronger, together.

1. Start tuning in, especially when you feel like tuning out.

In other words, no more silent treatments of any kind!

Tuning out, ignoring, disengaging, refusing to acknowledge, etc. All variations of the silent treatment don’t just remove the other person from the argument you’re having with them, it ends up removing them, emotionally, from the relationship you have with them, and the understanding you hope to reach.

When you’re ignoring someone, you’re really teaching them to live without you—to ignore you right back. If that’s what you want, be clear about it. And if not, tune back in!

1. Start giving people your undivided attention while you’re with them.

You don’t have to tell people that you care, just show them. In your relationships and interactions with others, nothing you can give is more appreciated than your sincere, focused attention. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results is the ultimate compliment. It is indeed the most valued gesture you can make to another human being.

When we pay attention to each other we breathe new life into each other. With frequent attention and affection our relationships flourish, and we as individuals grow wiser and stronger. We help heal each other’s wounds and support each other’s growth. So give someone the gift of YOU—your time, undivided attention and kindness.

1. Start giving more recognition and praise (in public).

Give genuine praise whenever possible. Doing so can be difficult, yet it’s a mighty act of service. Start noticing what you like about others and speak up. Having an appreciation for how amazing the people around you are is extremely rewarding. It’s an investment in them that doesn’t cost you a thing, and the returns can be astounding. Not only will they feel empowered, but also what goes around comes around, and sooner or later the people you’re cheering for will start cheering for you too.

Finally, be sure to follow this rule: “Praise in public, penalize in private.” Never publicly ridicule someone when you have the option not to. If you don’t understand someone, ask questions. If you don’t agree with them, respectfully tell them. But don’t judge them behind their back to everyone else.

Now, it’s your turn…

Remembering all of the aforementioned—and living accordingly—of course, is sometimes much easier said than done. But please commit yourself to practicing. Commit yourself to doing the difficult things.

Above all, don’t stop learning. Don’t stop investing in yourself. Study. Read. Watch. Engage deeply with people, including those who think differently. Ask questions. Listen closely. And don’t just grow in knowledge. Be a person who gives back. Use what you’re learning to make a difference.

The bottom line is that this day will never come again…

Be a blessing.

Be a friend.

Encourage someone.

Take time to care.

Let your words heal, and not wound.

You have the power to improve someone else’s day, perhaps even their whole life, simply by giving them your sincere presence, compassion and kindness today.

Do it!

…

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How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar

If you’re a social media manager, you need to plan out your entire month of posts. Never leave it to the last minute, trying to come up with new and exciting post ideas day by day.

By creating a social media content calendar, you ensure that all of your posts adhere to your content strategy.

But creating a social media content calendar takes skill and know-how. You need to understand what a social media calendar is, why it’s useful, and how you can go about making one.

What is a Social Media Content Calendar?

If you’re a social media content manager, the first thing that you need to know about your content calendar is that it is an incredibly helpful tool that will let you plan out your social postings on a monthly basis.

Here’s an example of a social media content calendar:



If you’re not already using a social media management tool, then a social media content calendar is usually an excel file, with various tabs assigned to different social platforms. Remember, the posting requirements differ based on the platform you’re using. Facebook has different restrictions than Twitter. Twitter restrictions will be different from Instagram, and so on.

One of the best features of a social media content calendar is that it can help you keep track of themed days of the month.

That can mean two different things.

You can create your own themed days, like Inspirational Mondays or Workspace Wednesdays. It’s a great idea to have these days because you can create a hashtag around them and see if they catch fire.

The other meaning behind themed days of the month is national days. Every day of the year is “National (Something) Day.” There’s everything from National Bunny Day to National Bread Day. Creating social media content based around these holidays can generate interest. Keeping track of them in your content calendar is a great way to plan around them.



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The social media content calendar helps you plan out your content and schedule ahead of time using a system. It can also help you keep track of the images you’re going to share, organizing them week by week and day by day.

Download Our Social Media Calendar Template

Enter your email and instantly get a weekly social media content calendar template.

Why Should You Use a Social Media Content Calendar?

Every business that wants to maximize their social media presence should be using a social media content calendar. There’s a reason that 92% of content marketing professionals use social calendars.

A social media content calendar can help you address the challenge of declining organic social media reach in two primary ways.

If you’ve tried to create a social media presence for your business, there’s one thing you probably noticed straight away…

Social media sites are crowded.

Every business is trying to get a piece of the social media pie. That’s because social media is the ideal marketing hunting ground. Practically every demographic has some kind of social media presence, from teens to senior citizens and everyone in between.

Because of this, the social media platforms themselves have seen dollar signs where business marketing is concerned. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t make any money if your organic post goes viral. Facebook and other social media giants want you to pay to boost your posts and purchase ads. That’s how they make their money.



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This was confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in 2018, when he publicly stated that Facebook users would be seeing fewer organic posts from businesses and brands.

One of the only ways to get noticed with organic posting is to approach your social media strategy with a plan.

And a content calendar helps you keep track of that plan.

The social media calendar will help you keep to schedule, a crucial element if you’re looking to make a splash in the social media world. Remember, the more consistently you post, the better your exposure will be. Customers get used to regular postings, and will seek you out in time.

But in order to establish that routine, you have to post on a regular basis.

And you need to plan out your content platform by platform.

You need to keep track of what you are posting and where. The calendar represents an easy record that you can go back and look through.

This record also helps you figure out how you’re doing in terms of social content. If you have a huge influx of comments and follows, you’ll want to remember what you did in order to duplicate your results.

The calendar can help you determine where these spikes occurred and what content was going on each platform.

It’s also important to keep track of the time that you’re posting, and check your results. Remember, different platforms experience high traffic at different times. That means all of your posts should not go out at the same time across every channel.

Finally, another great benefit of a social media content calendar is that it can be easily shared with team members for convenient collaboration.

Download Our Social Media Calendar Template

Enter your email and instantly get a weekly social media content calendar template.

Creating a Social Media Content Calendar

Creating a social media content calendar takes a lot of effort. There are a number of steps you’ll have to take before you write the first line of content. There’s a massive amount of work that goes into creating the perfect social media strategy. Your calendar is just one part of that overall project.

Let’s look at the steps needed to make a social media content calendar one at a time and see where to begin.

Step 1: Information Gathering

You could consider the information-gathering stage of your social media content strategy to be an audit of your current social media needs.

In order to improve, you first have to figure out where you are, where you’ve been, and what’s preventing you from getting to where you want to be.

The first step to a good social media audit is determining which platforms you’re currently using and what level of success you’re seeing for all of them. You should take the time to review your results for at least the last six months and use them to rank all of your social media platforms in terms of success.

When you see all of this laid out before you, there’s a decision to be made. Moving forward, you need to decide if you’re going to eliminate anything from your lineup. For example, if you’re seeing no movement from Google+ whatsoever, try to figure out why that is. Are you not posting enough? Are you posting the wrong content? Are you posting at the wrong times?

Or is your audience not on that platform in large numbers?



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If you find that no matter what you do, Google+ just isn’t going to deliver, then it might be time to shut down your Google+ account, or at least put less effort into it.

It’s important to feed the strong, so if you’re getting a lot of interaction on Instagram, that’s where more of your effort (and by extension, marketing budget) should be going.

When you look at all of your social media accounts side by side, you should be contrasting and comparing them to one another.

Are these accounts uniform in terms of branding?

You need to present a united front when it comes to marketing. If your Twitter account looks wildly different from your Facebook, particularly your profile and header images, that could be jarring for potential customers. You want all of your branding to blend. That includes your social media sites and your website.

Do you have access to every account?

Sometimes when an account is neglected for a long period of time, an organization could misplace the login information. It’s important that you don’t have any duplicate pages sitting out there with outdated information. If customers were to search for your business and find that page, it makes you look bad.

When auditing your social media, you also need to figure out what kind of audience you’re reaching (if any) and what kind of audience you want to reach.

You should have a good handle on your ideal customer. Are you creating content specifically with them in mind?

Information on your demographic should be included in the social media content calendar. You can set that up as a static reminder in the heading of your document. That way you never forget who you’re speaking to when creating content.

Step 2: Demographic Study

When creating social media content to go in your calendar, there are a few key questions that you need to ask.

Who are your customers?

What do they want?

Once you understand the demographics you serve, you’ll be able to create better content that is geared specifically toward their interests. Once you’ve done that, it should be a simple matter to get them to participate in discussions.

Does your existing demo differ platform by platform? You need to figure out where the eyes of your audience are. Once you know that, put more effort into placing your content there. Don’t expect your customers to come to you. You have to go to them.

All of the content in your calendar should be tailored to each platform that you’re posting on. This is not a one size fits all approach. Content created for Twitter will differ from content created for Facebook.

Once you know what your audience is looking for and where they are looking, you can create tabs in your calendar file for each specific social media site.

Step 3: Create a regular schedule

The purpose of your social media calendar is to keep your posting to a schedule. Before you can start filling out content, you first have to decide what that schedule is.

How often are you going to post? That’s a question that can only be answered by understanding your audience. You don’t want to annoy them by popping up in their feed too often.

What time will you post?

As we mentioned above, this should differ on each platform, but (in general) here’s a good place to start:



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Step 4: Decide on Your Content Voice

What kind of content do you want to share? Should it be serious? Silly? Both? If you’re going to create both, what is the ratio you’re going for?

You also need to decide if you’re going to be creating posts that are designed more for engagement, and how often you are going to “shill” your products or services, if ever.

If your demographic seems open to creating user-generated content, you should invite that. Set up themed days for them to participate in. Try something like “Furry Friend Fridays,” where your Fans or Followers can post pictures of their pets.

Step 5: Create a Database of Content

Collect a library of useful articles, images, and concepts to share with your audience. Keep them in a folder and be ready to pop them into the calendar at a moment’s notice.

When you list this content, make sure that you mark any time-specific information. You don’t want to sit on a good article only to have so much time pass that it’s no longer relevant.

Step 6: Add the Content

Once you know when to post and what you’re going to post, it’s time to input all of that information into your calendar. You should have a set time where you do this every month.

For example, you could take the last week of the month to create a calendar for the next month. This ensures that you won’t forget to create the content and have to scramble to be ready for the month ahead.

Consistency is important in your preparation as well as your posting.

Step 8: Share Your Calendar

Make sure that you’re sharing your calendar with your supervisors and colleagues. That presents an opportunity to get feedback from the rest of your team.

Make adjustments to your content strategy based on calendar feedback. Sometimes it’s hard to critique yourself, and the people you work with might see things from a different perspective. Ask the sales team for advice. They speak with your audience on a more frequent basis and should have a good handle on what they’re looking for.

Helpful Tools

If you need a helping hand in getting started with your social media calendar, there are a number of online tools that you can turn to that will help you get moving in the right direction.

You’re going to want to use a pre-made template for your first calendar.

Here is a list of four templates that could help you get started.

Hubspot Template

com Template

SmartSheet Templates

Small Biz Trends Template

In Conclusion

All up and coming social media content managers need to develop a system.

And the most effective and widely-used system in play is a social media content calendar.

By inputting all of your social information ahead of time and keeping it organized, you’ll start seeing increased engagement and higher levels of brand awareness in no time.

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7 Reasons Why You’ll Love Apartment Living

Lately I’ve been happily fielding a not-so-surprising question: “Why are you raising your family in a 1,000-square-foot apartment?”

Well, actually, the question usually sounds more like, “Aren’t you looking for a house?”

While we certainly could be house hunting if we wanted, the truth is, we don’t have the desire. We did the live-in-a-house thing for three years before moving to our current apartment. And we aren’t in a hurry to get back to that lifestyle.

Yes, we realize it’s a bit countercultural. In the US, 80% of the population prefer to live in a single family home, while only 70% actually do.  Meanwhile, apartment and condo living is preferred by only 8% of the population, yet 17% of Americans do live in an apartment or condo.

In European countries, however, apartment living is more common. In Spain, for example, 65% of the population live in apartments.

Clearly, choosing an apartment over a home is not the “American norm.” So why do we love being in that 8%? What’s the draw to apartment living? I think many people don’t even stop to consider the benefits.

Here are 7 reasons why we love apartment living and you will too:

1. Simplicity

Apartment living is a simpler way of living, which translates to a happier, lower-stress life. A simpler lifestyle provides the space to figure out what matters most and the freedom to focus on these things.

Some people may love fixing up their home, and that’s great. But if that’s not how you feel called to spend your gift of time, then apartment living will free you from those obligations that come with owning a house.

Instead of spending your weekends on home maintenance projects or mowing a yard, you can take your kids to the park and the pool. You can relax more and even nap more (yes!) without thinking about things that need done around the house.

This is not lazy living, just the opposite. It’s intentional living that focuses on what you believe matters.

1. Less stuff

A smaller space simply can’t fit a lot of material things in it. It’s minimalist by design. This reality forces you to edit your life constantly by making decisions about what stays in your home.

If you let clutter pile up, you quickly lose living space. In a smaller space, you’re not tempted to buy more furniture or other “toys” because you just don’t have a spot for them. When new things do come into your home, other things have to leave. You quickly learn the feel of “enough” in your home and become motivated to maintain this balance.

1. Connection

Connections thrive in smaller spaces. These connections could be within your family, your faith, or even to yourself. With less home to care for, family time, prayer, and self-care can become a daily theme, not a side note.

An apartment’s smaller space allows families to be more present for one another. This leads to more connection and more shared experiences.

You will talk more, play more, and do more together because you’re closer together in proximity (although apartments are still big enough to allow breathing room when needed).

1. Community

Apartment complexes come with a built-in community. Many have weekly activities or a clubhouse where people often meet. This can be beneficial, especially for stay-at-home-moms (or those of us who work from home).

A face-to-face, adult conversation is always easy to find, which can be a very welcome thing during a day spent taking care of kiddos and a home.

Feelings of social isolation are hard to come by in apartment complexes. Befriending elderly neighbors can be especially rewarding. The memories they share are almost always about family and experiences—not stuff. Hearing stories from their lives will remind you to slow down and keep a big-picture perspective on life.

1. Financial flexibility

Apartment living helps shape your spending around the lifestyle you feel most called to. If your family values relationships, traveling, health, and generosity, but your finances are going toward home projects and repairs, then you won’t be able to focus as much on those values.

Consider if the trade-offs make sense. Instead of saving up for a new roof, you could travel to see family out of state multiple times a year. Instead of redoing your flooring, you could have frequent nights out with your loved one. Instead of repairing your basement’s foundation, you could invest in your health by eating organic, real foods. Instead of renovating your kitchen, you could donate to a cause you’re passionate about.

1. Contentment

Happiness is found in being true to yourself and your values—not someone else’s. Studies also show time and time again that more possessions don’t ultimately make us happier. Although many people may pursue the “American Dream” (a bigger home, more stuff), they don’t report being any happier for it.

Raising your family in an apartment also instills this in your children. As your children observe your family’s lifestyle, they will realize that you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing or live the way everyone else is living to be happy.

1. A tidy home

Any living space requires upkeep. Apartments, by design, are easy to keep tidy. Less space means less to clean in less time. When cleaning doesn’t seem overwhelming, you’ll be more motivated to do it. And the peace that comes from a clean, uncluttered living space will motivate you to maintain this feel in your home.

Home maintenance systems are also easy to implement. Consider laundry, for example. When your washer and dryer are only steps away, you’re much more likely to stay on top of laundry than if you had to descend two sets of stairs to wash your clothes. Being in close proximity to your daily chores increases the chance you will do them.

We realize that apartment living isn’t for everyone. But for us, a minimalist lifestyle in a 1,000-square-foot apartment leads to more joy, more fulfillment, and more family togetherness.

Our home has never been tidier and our family is thriving in this simple, manageable environment.

If you’re looking for a way to simplify your life and focus on what matters most, why not give apartment living a try?

It’s not the American norm, but it could just be the right lifestyle for you.

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The Perfect Home

We live in a culture of unreasonable expectations.

Nearly every day, television, magazines, websites, and billboards offer us countless images of the “perfect” home.

Beaming faces, sparkling eyes, pristine decor, and bountiful tables of food are shown on media platforms of every sort. Many of these images stand side by side with corporate logos and retail stores.

It would seem, from the image on the screen, these items are essential for a perfect home. Because, obviously, the smiles are bigger, the family is happier, and the lights shine brighter—if, and only if, we buy the consumer product to make it so.

This is not a new strategy from marketers. Our entire lives, they have communicated subtle (and not-so-subtle) messages that our lives will be better, happier, and more fulfilled if we buy whatever they’re selling.

It seems our entire economy is built on making people feel dissatisfied with what they have. And nobody is immune to the meticulously crafted persuasion.

I assume one reason for the effectiveness of these ad campaigns is because we all desire a joyful home filled with love, warmth, and comfort. We cherish our time with family and want it to be picture perfect. We love our kids and want them to be happy. And we all enjoy times of celebration and desire them to be memorable.

But let’s remember one important truth today: You don’t need any of those things in the ads for a perfect home.

You don’t need new furniture or updated countertops. You don’t need the stainless steel appliances (or whatever is most trendy this decade). You don’t need the largest-screen television. You don’t need all the perfect decoration. You don’t need expensive food or drink. And you certainly don’t need a Lexus in the driveway with a red ribbon wrapped around it.

Home is about family, thankfulness, acceptance, love, and strength. It’s about reflecting on the life that was and looking forward to the life that can be in the future. It’s about counting blessings. And it’s about slowing down from life long enough to appreciate and enjoy the people who matter most.

Too often, the consumeristic promises and fake photos keep us from all that.

Instead of slowing down, we speed up. We rush from store to store (or website to website), filling our homes with all the things we think we need to make it just perfect.

We fill our schedules with increased commitments and responsibilities. We max out our credit cards. We get so frustrated and weary chasing the perfect home that we never take time to enjoy the one right in front of us.

But once we slow down enough to notice our blessings, we begin to see that we already have everything we need for a perfect home. We just need to appreciate it more.

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7 Ways Minimalism Will Impact My Children

My son is 17 and my daughter is 14.

But when we first began pursuing minimalism, my son was only 5 and my daughter was 2. Which means, they’ve seen us trying to live a minimalist life as young kids, as elementary-aged kids, and now as they enter the end of their high school years.

And whether we like it or not, our kids are learning from us. They are learning about values and worldview and how to live their lives when they become adults.

I know this isn’t the case for everyone. But personally, I’m happy to know we chose a more minimalist life while our kids are still at home. They’ve learned valuable lessons (or at least I hope they’ve learned some valuable lessons from us).

Here are seven ways minimalism has impacted my kids:

1. They’ve learned that they don’t need to buy things to be happy.

For the rest of their lives, advertisers will barrage them (and us) with the message that our life needs more. That happiness will appear if we buy whatever they’re selling.

Many people will believe it and buy into it, and start chasing and accumulating things that they don’t need to be happy. My children have seen, from us, that you don’t need to own a lot of things to be happy.

1. They’ve learned that you don’t have to live like everyone else.

You don’t have to live like everyone else on your block… or in your neighborhood… or in society. Everyone else may be chasing bigger houses and nicer cars and changing fashion, but you don’t have to live like that if you don’t want. In fact, you’ll probably be happier if you don’t.

1. They’ve learned the value of living within their means.

No matter what their income level might be, as they get older, they won’t need to overspend it to find happiness. In fact, quite the opposite is true: When we begin overspending our income is when we start adding unnecessary burden and stress to our lives—rather than finding contentment with what they have.

1. They’ve learned the importance of being deliberate in their purchases.

As my kids have gotten older and found new hobbies and passions and pursuits, there are purchases that have accompanied those new pursuits and new passions.

But each time, they’ve seen us be deliberate and intentional thinking through the next purchase asking questions like “What do you actually need in order to begin playing this new sport or starting this new hobby? What do we already have that will work? What are the needs that you have in order to do it well?”

1. They’ve learned the importance of sharing with others.

Generosity is the byproduct of minimalism. My children have seen us get rid of the things we don’t need and donate them to be shared with others. They’ve seen us become generous with our finances. And that our time and excess can be used to solve problems around the world.

1. They’ve learned the value of spending time together.

As we’ve owned fewer possessions, we’ve wasted less time cleaning and organizing and maintaining all the stuff that we used to have. We’ve been able to spend more time together, making memories together, enjoying experiences together.

The greatest gift we can ever give to someone else is our time. I’m confident my children have learned that over the last decade.

1. They’ve learned they are in control of their stuff, not the other way around.

The old adage is true, “The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you.” I’m just convinced most people don’t realize how much of a burden their possessions have become until they begin to remove them.

That being said, to live is to consume. There are needs that we have and things that we own in order to fulfill our purpose and live the life that we want to live.

But you don’t have to own so much stuff that your possessions begin to dictate your life. You own your stuff, not the other way around.

There are countless values and life lessons that I want my kids to learn from me, but the importance and value of owning less is definitely near the top. It will set them up for a lifetime of potential.

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What Is That Saying About ‘Bad Apples’ Again?

The complete saying is "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch," and it means that you need to get rid of bad apples, or the problem will spread.

I’ve been hearing people talk about “bad apples” a lot lately, so it seems like a good time to look at this idiom—what it means and where it came from. Along the way, I also found some surprising history about the word “apple” itself.

What do we mean when we talk about ‘a few bad apples’?

First, we’ve been hearing about bad apples because it’s a way that people try to say a problem isn’t widespread. For example, when a police officer is caught doing something horrible, people who defend the police department often say that one officer was just a “bad apple” or sometimes a “rotten apple.” 

And if a few more police officers are caught violating people’s rights, defenders might broaden their defense to say it’s just “a few bad apples,” implying that most of the officers are still good.

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The complete saying is 'one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.'

It’s a troublesome phrase to use in that context though, at least historically, because the full idiom has a second part about spoiling the whole bunch. It usually goes something like “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch” or “a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel.” So instead of suggesting that one bad apple is an isolated problem, the idiom means that if you consistently have bad apples hanging around, the problem is going to spread.

The origin of the ‘bad apples’ idiom

Some sources say the proverb started with Chaucer, who in “The Cook’s Tale” had a character say, “It is better to take the rotten apple out of the bag than to have it rot all the other apples.” “The Cook’s Tale” was written sometime between the years 1387 and 1400, but the character who says that line says he is quoting a proverb, so it’s likely the saying was in use before then.

In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary has the earliest English use of “rotten apple” to mean “a bad person who has the potential to corrupt others” appearing in the year 1340 in a book called “Ayenbite of Inwyt.” That book was a commentary on Christian morality, and it was actually a translation from a book written in French that was published in the late 1200s.

The saying is quite old, and it’s true.

No matter the exact date, we can say with confidence that the saying is quite old. And it’s old because it’s true from a farming and produce perspective.

A bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch

Today, we can just buy a few fresh apples from the store every week, but back in the 1200s, people had to store all the apples from their harvest, and they knew that leaving a moldy apple in the barrel would make the others get moldy faster. 

And today, we also know that apples release a gas called ethylene that makes fruit ripen faster. If you want your avocados to ripen faster, put them in a paper bag with an apple. So an overripe or decaying apple will make all the other apples in the barrel ripen faster too—not good if you want to keep them in storage as long as possible.

Farmers knew that they needed to get rid of the bad apples as fast as possible.

A long time ago, ‘apple’ was the name for almost any fruit

Next, here’s something that will surprise you about the word “apple”: Originally, it wasn’t limited to what we think of as an apple today. Instead, in Old English, an apple was any round firm fruit that grew on a tree. For example, it could be what today we call an apple, an orange, or even a pomegranate.

According to Etymonline, in Middle English, “apple” was “a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts.” Dates were called “finger apples” and bananas were called “apples of paradise,” for example.

If you’re reading a document from Old English or Middle English, don’t assume an apple is what we think of as an apple today.

It made me think of words for color, which we talked about a couple of years ago, and how those words also started out covering broad categories and then became more narrow. Like how “white” used to mean what we think of as white today, but it also included the colors gray, and yellow, and silver.

To sum up, if you’re reading a document from Old English or Middle English, don’t assume an apple is what we think of as an apple today. 

And if you’re going to talk about bad apples, remember that the whole saying is that a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

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SEO for Amazon & the Future of Non-Traditional Search

Will Amazon replace Google as the go-to search engine? Not yet. But the e-tailing giant has seen a dramatic rise in search volume in recent years. In 2015, Google accounted for 54 percent of product-focused searches, compared with 46 percent on Amazon. By 2018, customer behavior evolved and Amazon became the leading search engine for product searches, accounting for more than 55 percent – with Google as the runner up.

Amazon Continues to Gain on Google in Search

Google’s algorithm updates keep retailers and marketers on their toes. The search giant’s secret sauce almost passes the Turing test in its ability to discern high-quality content. Amazon also has a search algorithm named A9, and while it doesn’t have the same apparent omniscience as Google’s, it is remarkably good at what it does: determining a customer’s search intent and returning the best products for them.

That’s why Amazon’s SERP converts at more than six times the rate of Google’s. It works like this: Google looks at three essential components to rank web pages: Authority, relevance, and technology. Google’s goal is to deliver its users the most valuable and relevant information. Amazon’s algorithm has three different essential components tailored to their revenue-first business model: conversion rate, keyword relevance, and customer satisfaction – all three directly influenced by product description and information in the listing. While both methodologies focus on customer intent, there are clear differences for how SEOs should go about optimizing for Amazon rankings.

Google has taken notice of Amazon’s rise as a top resource for product searches, which has led the 800-pound search gorilla to make changes to its shopping platform. Recently Google announced it would let businesses list their products for free, citing the impact of economic uncertainty brought on by COVID-19 for many retailers.

SEOs and digital marketers that work for retailers and e-commerce sites will need to pay attention to these trends. Search will not only be about the best content on a company’s public-facing web page, but also about a brand’s ability to stand out in a sea of close competitors selling similar products.

Expanding the Definition of Digital Content 

For a long time organic “content” meant informational, owned content. Much of it was in the form of educational blog posts and FAQs. The theory was, answer a searcher’s question, and they’ll become a loyal customer.

The way listings on Amazon (and other e-tailers) work is slightly different. While information is still key, products on Amazon are less likely to rank if they don’t convert and incentivize positive customer feedback. Factors like price and giving customers a reason to promote products via word of mouth is just as important as the quality of the information being provided.

In addition to traditional content, new kinds of content that drive visibility and convert well on Amazon are imperative for your digital marketing playbook. Optimizing images so that they fit Amazon guidelines is crucial, as is bringing your images in line with the unspoken tactics of competitive listings. Product descriptions require care and fine-tuning to ensure buyers find what they’re looking for. Providing thoughtful, accurate and helpful value through these descriptions optimizes your listing for all three components of Amazon’s algorithms, ultimately influencing rank.

Optimizing for Amazon Rank is a Critical Investment

Google has been the leader in online search because their algorithm is excellent at inferring a user’s intent. Google can determine what you’re looking for, even if you don’t know what exactly that thing is.

Amazon has the same capability to infer intent, but because their focus has always been more about selling goods than providing information, people searching on Amazon have an even more laser-like focused intent on buying something.

Think of Google and Amazon as two parts of a multi-platform customer journey. The early stage of the journey where awareness and consideration is built is where customers rely on Google. It finds people at the beginning of their search journey when they’re asking those early questions and figuring out what it is they want to do.

Amazon represents the very end of that journey. The OG e-tailer specializes in conversion pages, product reviews, and customer satisfaction. SEOs need a strategy that includes optimizing for both platforms to reach every stage of the customer journey, using learnings from both to cross-pollinate and inform their strategies.

Unlocking the Future: Amazon Rank Tracking in Conductor Searchlight 

At Conductor, our goal has always been to enable marketers to uncover customer intentand create powerful content that gets found online and drives visibility on search engines.

But, customer behavior is rapidly evolving and people are now searching for everything, everywhere. Using non-traditional search engines is becoming just as ubiquitous as the daily Google search. Marketers need an SEO platform that allows them to track their brand’s visibility on all the places people are searching. Optimizing your digital presence across the entire customer journey — from awareness, to research, to purchase — is key to driving holistic visibility, conversion and revenue.

We’re unlocking this potential. With Conductor, you can track how your content ranks on Amazon. Define and track keywords for Amazon profiles and product listings (owned, competitive and third party), and report on visibility within the Amazon search results across 10+ international Amazon properties. You can even track the visibility of your Amazon product listing on the Google SERP (and other search engines) for a comprehensive view of non-traditional content on traditional search engines.

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Not Your Grandma’s Minimalism, or Your Neighbor’s Becoming Minimalist 

 One unfortunate belief that keeps people from pursuing minimalism is the assumption that there are strict rules and guidelines to the lifestyle. But nothing could be further from the truth. Let me try to break that myth for you: Minimalism will always look different from person to person. Find freedom to make it yours in a way that works for you and your family. Minimalism looks different in both practice and process. In Practice Consider how these different factors might affect the possessions you need: Geography. Somebody who lives in a city will likely own different things than someone who lives in the suburbs, or someone who lives in a rural setting. If you live in the city, you may not need a specific mode of transportation because public transit is nearby. If you live in the suburbs, that might not be a possibility. Or if you live in a rural setting, even further away from a store, your needs will change and the possessions you keep on-hand will differ. Your Household. Minimalism will also look different based on your family or household. A single person in their twenties is going to own something different than a young family with children. And a family with young children is going to need different possessions than a family with teenagers. Or even empty nesters. Your specific stage of life will affect your practice of minimalism in significant ways. Your Career. Minimalism also looks different based on our careers, our work, or our job. A minimalist blogger is going to own something different than a minimalist dentist, or a minimalist architect, or a minimalist schoolteacher, or even a minimalist farmer. There is little benefit to comparing our possessions in this way. We may find motivation or inspiration in the story of the young minimalist YouTuber, but trying to apply their strict rules to your unique situation is rarely helpful. I believe that anyone, regardless of their occupation, can pursue minimalism. It’s just going to look very different from one person to another. Your Passion or Purpose. The good that we feel called to accomplish in the world may also impact the possessions that we own. In 2015, I founded The Hope Effect, a nonprofit organization changing how the world cares for orphans. Because of my desire to do this work well, there are some things I own that I might not if this wasn’t a passion of mine. Likewise, your passion for serving a purpose may cause you to own different items than your minimalist neighbor down the street. Your Hobbies. Hobbies can become a source of clutter in our homes and lives—especially if we try to do too many at one time. But the fact remains that hobbies are beneficial to us. They bring us joy, or peace, or entertainment, or exercise, or simply serve as a distraction. In theory and in practice, they help us live bigger, more intentional lives. As a result, our hobbies will impact the items we own—even as we seek to live intentional lives. In Process It is equally important to realize that minimalism looks different in process. How we get there changes from person-to-person and family-to-family. There are some people who hear about minimalism, rent a dumpster, and throw out everything over the course of a weekend. But those people are few and far between. And there are some people who just seem to be minimalist at birth. But for most people who choose to live a minimalist life, it takes a little more time. It also takes a little more intentionality, a little more strategy, a little more effort to wrestle with emotions that emerge. For us, it took about three months to go through the “lived-in areas” of our home (living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, etc.). But it took us nine months to minimize all our possessions if you count the basement and garage and storage shed in the backyard. In fact, we moved into a smaller house three years later, and got rid of even more things! So the time frame may vary significantly from one person to another. The process can also look different in more ways than just time. Some people can read one book or one blog post and that’s all they need to get started. Others need a little more help or someone to come alongside them in the process. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I created the Clutterfree App—it’s just another tool that might be helpful to someone seeking to own less. Additionally, different people struggle to minimize different items. One person might struggle with books or sentimental items, while someone else might have a hard time deciding what to do with their yarn stash or excess hobby supplies. I want to encourage you today. Minimalism is a lifestyle with countless benefits. Owning less means less cleaning, less burden, less anxiety, and less stress each and every day. You can enjoy freedom. Minimalism will look different for you than it does for me, both in practice and in process. But always remember, as long as you’re moving in the right direction, you’re moving in the right direction.

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How a “Do Nothing” Day Changed My Life

Doing nothing. The mere thought gives you a sudden twitch, right?

Me too, my friend, but despite the twitch, I would like to make a proposal: for one day out of each week, you do absolutely nothing. This doesn’t mean you don’t go anywhere, or just sit on your couch and stare at the wall. It means, simply, that you clear your calendar and make space for what could happen.

You remove any social obligations, you let projects sit idle, you turn off your notifications, and you simply take a day to just be.

Ever since my first daughter was born, I felt the pull toward a “do nothing” day. I went back to work part-time when she was only eleven weeks old, and when I spent time away from her, her demeanor and behavior was just different.

She wasn’t as settled, and neither was I. I could tell she was a happier kid when I was able to spend one day just being with her. So when we were able to be together on my days off, I tried to make it a point to have one day where we didn’t have a million places to be, if I could help it.

No agenda, no rushing around, no one else to please. Just me and her, together. Doing whatever we felt like doing, or getting into whatever adventure may come our way.

Recently I heard someone say if you want to see where your priorities really lie, look at two things: your calendar and your bank statement.

If you believe your priorities are what truly matters to you, look no further than those two places to confirm or deny your hunch.

The “Do Nothing” Day

Let’s do an experiment. Take a look at your calendar, and take an inventory with me. How much of it is work related? How much of it is spent in social engagements? With family? Doing hobbies? Self improvement?

And how much white space do you see?

We have become a culture that is severely uncomfortable with white space. We don’t like being left alone with ourselves, and that’s because it’s not always fun.

We then have to face our true feelings, our negative emotions, our relational drama, and figure out what to do with it. It is much easier to simply turn on the TV, check our phones, and continue numbing.

We are terrified of silence, of nothing on the agenda—who are we without these things to hold us up, to give us significance?

We pack our schedules full, hoping that will keep us from stopping long enough to notice our inner lives are in great need of attention. The essence of simplifying your life is recognizing you have intrinsic value by simply being.

You matter, your life matters, and you have worth. Period.

You matter without the stuff, without the outside approval and conferred significance, without the career, the projects, the friends, without anything.

Just. You.

It takes the absence of an agenda to really learn yourself. It takes quiet. It takes room. It takes time. But everything in the world is going to fight you for it.

Learning to be comfortable with a “do nothing” day isn’t going to come easily. It is hard work, but it is work worth doing.

So today, look at your calendar. What can you say no to, just this time around? If there is a colored notification on each day, which of those can you clear out? Which day can hold some white space, some possibility, some openness?

Here are a few tips as you consider your own “do nothing” day:

1. Set it aside, and make it known.

We make things sacred through our intentions and our actions. So set your intention—what day will it be? And then let some people close to you know, so they can support you in your effort.

1. Don’t stress about it.

Wake up, and simply resist the urge to immediately DO. It might take time to break this habit, but as soon as you remove all of your go-to distractions, you will instantly notice how often you rely on them.

1. Pay attention.

Depriving ourselves of our normal comforts for even a short amount of time can go a long way in teaching us what we really need. We are able to notice when we have an urge to check our phone, or make a call. We can get a better feel for our own patterns of behavior and the motivations behind them.

1. Listen to your heart.

If someone invited you to attend something, don’t simply give a knee jerk response. Stop, and wait. Is this something you would typically just say yes to because you feel obligated? Or is this something that would really breathe life into you? Notice, and respond with authenticity and vulnerability.

1. Spend some time in silence.

Our brains are constantly bombarded with information, images, and noise. We tend to assume our minds are like fortresses, and all this stimulation can simply bounce off, but that is not the case. Our minds are vulnerable, and everything we see and experience influences our thoughts and emotions. So for your “do nothing” day, set a guard at the gate.

Have you ever given yourself a “do nothing” day? What would be your ideal way to spend one if you had it?

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When the World Is in Chaos, Control What You Can

Becoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 2mo



There are times in our lives when we are confronted with the reality that we are not in control of the world around us.

As hard as we try, and as much as we’d like to think we’re in control, the reality is, we are not. And there are seasons and circumstances that remind us of that fact.

A natural disaster, a terminal diagnosis, a wayward son, an unexpected layoff… each of those come to mind as examples.

At this current moment in time, almost everyone in the world, simultaneously, is being confronted with the reality of lost control through the spread of a virus. A tiny virus, invisible to the naked eye, has brought the world to a screeching halt, disrupting everything in its path—even life as normal.

Our control has been upended. No doubt about it.

We, of course, never had as much control over our lives and the world as we thought we did, but still, it is hard to lose the little that we had. The world, it feels, has spun into chaos.

So how do we respond when the world is in chaos? How do we begin to move forward?

For one, we take back control of what we can control—even in the smallest of ways.

We’ve all been reminded that we are not in ultimate control of the universe. But that doesn’t mean we’ve lost all ability to maintain control over our lives. Even if our usual day-to-day opportunities have been taken from us by another, there is still much we can control.

For example:

We can still control what time we wake up in the morning.

We can still choose to get ready in the morning for the day ahead.

We can eat healthy. We can remain physically active.

We can make our bed in the morning, we can choose to reset our home in the evening.

We can choose what we watch and listen to, and we can control what time we turn off the television at night.

We can always control our attitude and our response to the people and events around us.

We can love our family.

We can choose kind words in conversations.

If you are a man or woman of faith, you can choose to rely upon it during this time.

We can still decide to make the most of each day in front of us.

Controlling what you can might not seem like much, but it’s something.

Actually, it’s a lot more than something. It is an essential strategy for each of us going forward.

It is the first step in moving from a reactive life to a proactive one. And it is the first step in making the most of our current circumstances.

So, focus your energy there, even if it seems like very little. When the world is in chaos, control what you can.

Stay healthy, stay well, and stay focused. We’ll get through this together.

SHAREVISIT WEBSITE

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Minimalism in a Crisis

Becoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 57d



There’s an old boating safeguard of throwing cargo overboard to lighten the load of the vessel during times of distress. The official word for the cargo cast overboard is jetsam.

The throwing off of unneeded cargo or equipment can help to lighten the vessel, to stabilize it during a storm, or remove flammables during a fire.

I can remember first hearing about this practice when I was kid hearing the old story about Jonah and the whale. But this is a practice that is still used today.

I think the analogy is helpful as we consider minimalism in a crisis—the benefit of removing unneeded cargo from our lives. To be fair, this principle applies to any crisis we may be facing such as the loss of a job, an illness, or a natural disaster.

But today, allow me to address minimalism during a societal crisis. Specifically, what we’re all going through right now trying to make the sense of COVID-19.

There is a reaction that some might have during a crisis to gather as much as possible and hoard as much as they can in their homes. We can see that reaction around us as people run to the grocery store or the pharmacy, grabbing as many things as they possibly can in their cart.

But there is an opposite response to this crisis we should consider: throwing off the non-essential cargo from our lives. Rather than hoarding possessions, we would use this crisis to begin removing the ones we do not need to help us find better stability.

Why use this crisis to own less?

Let me offer five important benefits:

1. Freedom.

When we own less, we find more freedom in our spaces and we find more freedom in our life.

When our homes are filled with unnecessary possessions, the environment is constricting and frustrating. But as we declutter our spaces, our homes become calmer and more peaceful.

1. Flexibility.

Another reason we throw off non-essential cargo is the flexibility that it provides us going forward. The world is going to change, no doubt about it. Your life is going to change. Normal will be new.

Who knows what tomorrow holds? Who even knows when this storm is going to end? But when we own fewer possessions, we become more flexible for the future—whether we need to move, find a new job, or make changes in the way we live.

1. Financial stability.

As we own fewer possessions, our life costs less. It costs less to maintain our things. Even more importantly, we begin to buy less going forward. Suddenly, it is easier to find financial stability than before.

1. Benefit others.

Another reason to embrace minimalism in a crisis is because it helps us provide goods to those who need it. I realize, at this point in time, different locations have different guidelines in place for donations. But if your local authorities have deemed it safe, this is an important time to help those who desperately need it.

1. Security.

One last benefit of throwing off unneeded cargo during a crisis is that we begin to look for security in places that can actually deliver. One of the problems in looking for security in material possessions is that possessions never provide the security we desire. That’s why people start hoarding more and more and more. They believe the added items will help them feel safe, but they never do.

Instead, we can turn to friends and family and faith. We can turn to things that we know to be true about ourselves: our talents, our abilities, our work ethic. When we begin to rely on those things for our security going forward, we begin to find more lasting security in a crisis.

Now, don’t mishear me. I’m not saying it is wise to go out tonight and throw away every single thing you own.

What I am saying is this: Whether you are going through a personal crisis or societal crisis, begin to see how owning less can help bring back control of your life. Minimalism will bring intentionality. It can bring freedom and flexibility and financial stability going forward.

As you remove the items from your home and life that you do not need, you will be more stable and more equipped to weather any crisis that you may be going through.

SHAREVISIT WEBSITE

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Inspiring Simplicity. Weekend Reads.

2KBecoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 11d

12 Ways My Life Has Changed After 12 Years of Minimalism

4KBecoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 16d

The Person’s Financial Ethic We Should Care Most About Is Our Own

Becoming Minimalist / by joshua becker / 13d



There is an important difference between values and ethics. In fact, I have found the distinction to be incredibly helpful in my understanding of finances.

Ethics, defined, is a system of moral principles.

Values, defined, is relative worth, merit, or importance.

Ethics deals with right and wrong. But valuesdeals with what is important to a given person.

Hypothetically, if we were all getting our ethics from the same source, they would not change from one person to another—what is right or wrong for you, would also be right or wrong for me.

Values, on the other hand, could vary significantly from one person to another. You may value security; I may value freedom. One person might value hospitality, another person might value travel, while someone completely different values compassion.

None of those values are inherently right or wrong, they are just different. Each person simply places more worth (or value) on one than the other.

The difference between ethics and values prompts a unique question in my mind—one that I’ve been wrestling with for quite some time.

Specifically, what is the role that ethics ought to be play in my personal finances?

What is right and what is wrong in how one pursues, accumulates, and spends money?

Most people, it seems to me, have a broad definition that they use to answer that question.

We apply broad ethics to our finances. Things like:

It is wrong to steal money.

It is wrong to extort money.

It is wrong to bribe with money.

It is wrong to be jealous of others.

It is moral and right for me to help others financially when I am able to do so.

These are financial ethics that most of us apply and adhere to in our lives and to our pursuit, accumulation, and spending of money.

So we do routinely apply ethics to our finances—but only in very broad terms. Beyond that broad application, we don’t tend to get particularly detailed in our pursuit of financial ethics.

Instead we tend to make our every day financial decisions based on values rather than ethics.

So we don’t ask detailed questions that sound like this:

Is it wrong for me to spend this much money on a car? Is it wrong for me to buy this size of house?

What is my moral obligation to pay off debt rather than spend on myself?

Is it okay for me to make this much money?

What is an ethical amount of money I should be saving this month?

What is an ethical amount of money I should give to help others?

Is there a moral question to be asked in how much (or how little) I am paying for this service?

Most of us, myself included more often than I’d like to admit, do not ask those ethical questions of our everyday financial decisions. Instead, we base our decisions on values:

I want x, and I have the money to buy x, so I am going to buy it.

This is important to me, so I am going to spend money on it.

My goal is to have this much money in the bank, so I am going to keep everything for myself until I reach that number.

I want to make as much money as possible, and here’s how I can do that.

You see how that works? Values guide our financial decisions, not ethics.

Except for one place…

When it comes to others, we are quick to apply a filter of financial ethics that we rarely ask of ourselves.

This is particularly prevalent today in our opinions of those with more.

We live in a society that is quick to discern and identify those with more who are notapplying ethics to their financial circumstances. At least, in our opinion, they are not being guided by ethics.

So we are quick to make moral judgements that they…

—should not have that much money.

—should not spend their money in that specific way.

—should not buy x.

—should spend more money on y.

—should be giving away more.

—shouldn’t be driving that kind of car.

—shouldn’t be living in that big of a house (or owning that many houses).

—are selfish because they have z.

Because they are not spending their money in the way we believe they should be spending their money, they are greedy or selfish or immoral.

Meanwhile, the person’s financial ethic we should be most concerned about is our own.

We are quick to place a filter of ethics on others’ decisions, but rarely apply those same filters to our own.

Indeed, ours is the only pocketbook and bank account we have control over. Rather than spending time concerning ourselves with others, we ought to focus intently on our own personal financial ethic and how to apply it to our unique financial circumstance.

After all, ours is the only pocketbook and bank account that we will have to give an account for at the end of our lives.

Am I proud of how I pursued, accumulated, and spent my financial resources? This is a question that we will all face at the end of our lives.

We can be proud knowing that we lived a life aligned with our values. But an even greater amount of pride can be found knowing we lived what was right and moral and ethical.

The person’s financial ethic we should be most considered about is our own—not someone else’s.

We have enough ethical questions to be asking ourselves anyway.

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Your Stuff is Only Taking Up Space

There’s an old joke about treadmills. It goes something like this:

One time I bought a treadmill, now it’s the most expensive clothes hanger in my home.

People laugh—they know it’s true.

The fact is we often buy items with good intentions but never end up using them.

Of course, in the scenario above, if the treadmill was only serving as an extra clothes hanger in the corner of our bedroom, that would be one thing. But the reality is, that unused item is more than a hanger.

It is taking up space—lots of it.

It is taking up valuable physical space in your home.

It’s another physical object, in your home, that you need to dust and clean and vacuum around. It’s just another thing to walk around every day… or pack up when you move.

But more than physical space, it also takes up mental space in your mind.

As Randy Alcorn says, “Every increased possession adds increased anxiety onto our lives.” And that is definitely true.

That unused item (a treadmill or anything) is visual clutter in your home. It calls for your attention every time you walk into the room. It surfaces guilt that you wasted money on it. It causes regret every time you see it. And it serves as a constant reminder that at some point you have to decide what to do with it.

Our unused items are not passive, they are active. They take up space—physical space in our home and mental space in our mind.

Which leads me back to the old adage about treadmills: One time I bought a treadmill, now it’s the most expensive clothes hanger in my home.

There’s a lot of truth in that statement—maybe more than we realize.

If a treadmill is not being used as a treadmill, what is it exactly? If it’s not being used for exercise, is it even a piece of exercise equipment? Maybe it really is just an expensive clothes hanger in the corner of my room.

This question quickly extends far beyond exercise equipment. We could begin to ask the same of other items in our home that are not being used.

For example:

If a shirt in my closet is never being worn, what is it? Is it actually a piece of clothing? Or is it just a piece of fabric hanging in my closet?

If a coffee mug in the back of my cabinet hasn’t been used to serve a drink for as long as I can remember, is it really a coffee mug anymore? Or is it just a piece of ceramic taking up space and gathering dust?

If there are countless tools in my garage that never get used, are they really tools anymore?

If that plastic spatula is never used, what has it become? Just something I need to rearrange every time I open the drawer?

If a book has never been read, is it really a book? I mean, isn’t the purpose of a book to provide education or entertainment? Clearly it isn’t doing that. Is it just a collection of papers, bound together, taking up space on my bookshelf?

If that old desktop computer is never used, what is it? It’s certainly not something I use to solve problems or accomplish tasks. It’s just a big box of electronic components sitting on a desk.

If I never listen to the CDs… if we never use the camping gear… if those old phones are just sitting in a box… if I don’t know what these cords go to… if I never play that piano… if that purse never gets used… if I never wear that pair of shoes…

It seems to me, the items in our home should serve a purpose. They should be used for the reason we purchased them.

If they are not, they are no longer serving their purpose.

They are only taking up space.

Or being used as a really expensive clothes hanger.

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How to Stay Focused on the Good

There are two competing forces that stir up discontent within us.

On one hand, we live in a society and economic system that runs on discontent. From start to finish, businesses work hard to fuel within us a desire for more or different.

We’re constantly told to keep up with changing fashions, upgrade technology, desire this new automobile, even change the exterior of our appliances—all because we are missing out on something “better” if we don’t.

Influencers on every channel and social media outlet keep us guessing, and then informed, about what we’re missing out on. From the palm of our hand, they hold us in theirs.

As a result, we become discontent. We wish we had more, better, or different. We chase new looks and appearances, diets and fitness trends. We travel to new places, check out the newest destinations, or can’t wait to eat at the hottest new restaurant.

Every time, we find ourselves desiring something we don’t currently have. We become focused on what we don’t have, and lose focus on the good that we already do.

Of course, these external forces don’t function in a vacuum. They connect with an inner voice of discontent already inside us. Discontent is stirred up both inwardly and externally.

Hedonic adaptation is the phrase that sociologists give to this tendency. Essentially, hedonic adaptation is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

In other words, regardless of what we acquire or the life changes that occur, we slowly revert to the same level of happiness that we had before the change occurred.

If I thought more stuff would make me happier and would ultimately resolve my discontent, I would be mistaken. If I was discontent with my life before, I will eventually be discontent later—even after acquiring the desired item.

If, as humans, we believe a greater level of happiness can be discovered by simply acquiring something new or changing our circumstances, we will always be disappointed. Our internal voice will never be satisfied in this way.

In this way, both inwardly and externally, discontent is continually being stirred up in our heart and mind and soul.

What happens as a result of this discontent is we quickly lose sight of the good around us. That’s the very definition of discontentment: a dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances.

In our bank accounts, we never have enough.

With our possessions and property, we always desire more.

With our bodies and appearance, we desire something different.

Within our jobs, we dream of something better.

In our marriages, we begin to focus on all the things we’d like to change.

Nothing is ever good enough…. because discontent is constantly being stirred up inside us.

But look around. There are so many good things around you!

And recognizing them is the first step to changing your attitude and discovering contentment in your life.

So how do we do it?

What intentional steps can we take to stay focused on the good?

Let me offer five:

1. Say it out loud.

The next time you are alone—at work, in the car, in the shower, or maybe right now, say this sentence out loud:

“You know what, I’ve got it pretty good.”

Don’t just think it, say it. Every time I say that sentence, I can’t stop with those words. I feel compelled to say more—continuing the thought rolls naturally off the tongue. I begin to immediately list something I have that is good.

It usually sounds something like this:

“You know what? I’ve got it pretty good…. I have a job that I enjoy, I have clothes on my back, I’ve got my health, I love my wife, I enjoy my kids…” and the list continues.

Give it a shot. The next time you are alone, see what immediately follows those words, “You know what, I’ve got it pretty good…”

1. Practice gratitude, daily.

Gratitude is best understood as a discipline, not an emotional response to circumstances. So practice it, every day. In a way that makes sense to you.

You can practice gratitude with your morning coffee, on your daily commute, during your prayer time, meditation time, or yoga session.

You can practice gratitude when you lay your head on the pillow or before you enjoy a meal with your family.

The important thing is to do it. The practice will immediately draw your focus to the good.

1. Remember what you liked in the first place.

Life isn’t perfect—it never has been and never will be. There is no perfect job, no perfect house, and no perfect marriage. Even the roses have thorns.

Over time, it seems, our natural tendency is to focus on the negatives rather than the positives. It seems to be the natural pull on our brains. But we can reverse this tendency by intentionally rolling back the clock in our mind.

For example:

What drew you to that job in the first place? What did you love about it when you first started? What are the qualities that drew you to your spouse initially? Why were you excited about the house/apartment the first day you moved in?

When you remember what you loved about your circumstance in the first place, you are again focusing back on the good.

1. Remember the positives.

When I talk about relationships with people, the question always seems to arise, “How do I get my spouse to be more ________ and less ___________?”

There’s a conversation to be had there, for sure. But I never begin the conversation by talking about how to change a spouse. Instead, I work hard to focus first on the positives.

Before we can talk about changing our spouse into the person we want them to be, we need to remind ourselves of all the good they bring into our lives.

Maybe they don’t clean up enough around the house, but are they the first to bring laughter into your home?

Maybe they aren’t as adventurous as you want, but do they bring a needed stability into your life?

Maybe they aren’t ____________, but are they ____________?

This same principle can be applied to so many circumstances in life.

Maybe my car isn’t fancy, but it’s paid for.

Maybe my house isn’t the biggest on the block, but it is the easiest to clean.

Maybe my job isn’t perfect, but it’s stable and I’m good at it.

In almost every case, there are positives to be found if we look for them.

1. Wage war against if/then thinking.

Work as hard as you can to live the best life that you can live. Never settle for anything less than being the best you that you can possibly be.

But don’t fall for if/then thinking along the way.

If/then thinking goes like this:

If x happens, then I will be happy.

This is dangerous thinking with no winners. It only spurs regret and discontent. There is no happiness to be found in it, because there is no finish line to the thought process.

If life can always be improved by changing or adding x, we will never be able to appreciate today for what it is.

Again, this doesn’t mean we become complacent and no longer strive to be the best version of ourselves. It just means we stop looking for happiness in changed circumstances and begin to appreciate all that we have today.

The battle in our mind to focus on the good is ever-present, but there certainly appear to be times in life when that battle is tougher than others. 

If you are struggling to find the good in your life today, try out a few of those steps above.

You might be surprised to discover how good you actually have it.

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5 Ways to Play Without Buying Toys



What do you want first, the good news or the bad news?

Let’s start with the bad news. You can’t one-click-Amazon-order your way out of dealing with boredom in childhood. We have all desperately wanted to find the “perfect” toy to keep our children engaged and happy. We may feel as we have found it briefly, but the novelty passes with time and we find our way right back into the online shopping cart.

It’s easy to fall into a cycle.

Kids get bored? Buy them a new toy. When the newness wears off? Rinse and repeat.

Which brings me to the good news, you can put your credit cards away. Because kids don’t need toys to play. In fact, most kids (including my own) spend less time than you think engaging with toys. Don’t get me wrong–they are still busy little bodies. But when you have fewer toys, you will see the creativity and innovation abound. But the play doesn’t revolve around toys and a “playroom”.

In fact, I often spy play that sneaks out of its designated playspace, winds its way through the kitchen, flutters through the backyard, and lands in a secret drawer filled with treasures collected along the way.

Toys can be amazing tools for play, but let’s consider other important ways to play and pass the time without buying toys.

1. Nature

Humans need nature. It doesn’t have to be a proper hike in the woods, just breathing the fresh air and watching a snail cross the sidewalk can do. Turning over a rock to observe some bugs. Feeling the wind on your face. These all count as engaging and enjoyable experiences in childhood. Play in nature can look like balancing on a fallen tree, jumping from stump to stump, and building a fairy house in anticipation of magical visitors.

Play in nature doesn’t have any prescribed way of looking. Some children go “all in” and jump into puddles and others just observe and keep a distance from all creatures. Regardless of how your children are spending this time outdoors, it is valuable. We know that our bodies and our brains need nature to thrive.

1. Imitation

Our children learn through experimenting and exploring, but they also learn through imitation. This means you might find them hanging around your feet when you are trying to take care of “real life” stuff like dishwashing and cooking.

When possible, I challenge you to invite them in and let them imitate you. Although it might not seem playful in the traditional sense, play is defined as “activity engaged in for recreation and enjoyment.” If your children enjoy grabbing a stool and splashing around in the bubbly dishwater, that’s play.

The hardest part is taking a deep breath, slowing down, and making space for this type of play.

1. Loose Parts

Handfuls of sparkly rocks. Collections of international coins. An array of treasures from a recent beachcombing adventure. Scrap pieces of fabric. The list goes on.

You’d be amazed at the play that can come from loose parts that are gathered together. “Loose Parts” play is using natural or scrap materials to create, imagine, and support play activities. This type of play encourages problem-solving and divergent thinking. So next time you go to throw away those toilet paper rolls—think again! The possibilities are endless. And they are free.  

1. Books

Much like a stage performance, play often has “scripts” or stories. Children’s play typically involves pretend through acting out these scripts that they either invent or hear in stories. When we keep them surrounded in good books, we are enhancing their literacy skills, but we are also giving them opportunities to launch off in new play scripts based on the books they are reading.

Fill their minds with warm, beautiful stories and you just may see the results in their play. 

1. Household items

Minimalists don’t use top sheets on their beds. Or maybe that’s just me? I made that up. When I purchase a set of sheets, the fitted sheet goes on the bed and the flat sheet goes to the kids. That sheet transforms into a fort, a sled to pull each other around, and even a cape or a makeshift sari.

Household items like sheets, towels, and pans can provide incredible options for open-ended play in childhood.

But I’m telling you something that your children already know: Play is everywhere in our lives. Our children have a magical way of bringing it to everything that they do.

Our job as parents is to start seeing that play in the most unexpected ways and places. When we do that, we can let go of the need to buy all the toys to keep them happy. Because with fewer toys, children can actually do so much more.

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20 Reasons People Should Not Buy into the Van Life

All over the internet, Van Life has been portrayed as an amazing way to escape your daily existence. Pictures of beautiful people parking their van near a beach so they can wake at dawn and go surfing truly does look like a dreamy way to live, especially if you’re still young and without a lot of responsibility. As the saying goes, “you only live once”, and some see a cross-country road trip as a way to live your life to the fullest. Some people also consider van life to be a good way to save money, since it means that they no longer need to pay rent on an apartment or a mortgage on a house. However, far too many people jump into buying a van and beginning this new lifestyle without fully considering the consequences of what might happen while living on the road. Here at Home Addict, we’re bringing you 20 very good reasons not to do Van Life. 

1. There’s No Escape From Bad Smells

When you live in a tiny space, there is no opportunity for you to escape things that smell bad. In a house, you can close a garbage can lid or a bathroom door and walk away without ever thinking too much about the bad smell. Unfortunately, van life comes with a lot of bad smells that you normally don’t experience all in one space. You have your trash, wet towels, dirty laundry, and possibly a toilet all in a tiny enclosed space. Even in those fancy vans with a door that closes on their composting toilet, owners admit that it makes the entire van smell like “number two” for several afters after doing the deed.

These smells force you to open the windows for ventilation. In the freezing cold winter, or the scorching hot summer, having the windows open might not be possible, or it could potentially make the issue worse. This is also not an option if it’s raining or snowing. And if you choose to have a dog, there are always a lot of stinky issues that come from having a canine companion. Those tiny tree air fresheners aren’t going to take away the stench of van life, so you can say “goodbye” to your living spaces that smell like candles from Bath and Body Works.

1. It’s Difficult to Keep the Van Clean

When you live in a van, there is no such thing as a mud room or an entryway. Everyone loves the photographs of people pulling up to a mountain to ski right out of their van door, but no one thinks about the fact that your snowy boots and clothes are going to come off inside of that confined space. Your entire living space is the entryway, and there is nowhere else to go. This means that muddy shoes, sandy feet, hair, and anything else is constantly being dumped on your one small floor. Bare feet or socks will get soaking wet if you don’t clean it up immediately. If you are bringing a dog with you, this means you can expect to add shedding fur and “accidents” to the list of things to clean up.

Some people shrug their shoulders when they hear this, because they think that in a smaller space, it might be easier to clean up compared to a house. But people who live in a van are constantly cleaning up after themselves, because there is often no other way to live. For example, you can’t leave dirty dishes in the sink, because when you drive, your objects have to be secured and locked into cabinets. Objects can’t be left out, because they will break during transit. And if you’re camping somewhere, and you let things go for a few days, the mess can quickly pile up to the point where you look like you’re a hoarder. You won’t have the option of leaving the work off until later. And if you do, you will find yourself surrounded by a huge mess.

1. There Is Often No Bathroom

Unless you can afford to pay for a van in the ballpark of $60,000, you won’t have your own bathroom or shower. Most people shrug it off, saying that they can go into a Starbucks to brush their teeth, or use their gym membership for showering. But think about all of those late-night moments where you have to go to the bathroom. And for women, we have certain times of the month where it’s crucial to have access to running water and sanitary conditions. Not to mention the fact that during the coronavirus pandemic, gyms and restaurants all shut down. In a time of crisis, there is nowhere for you to use the facilities at all.

Sometimes, people choose to install a composting toilet in their van, since they don’t have access to a sewage system. The only problem with that is that it smells very bad every time someone uses it. Grey water tanks from under the sink also begin to smell awful after a few days. You’ll also be responsible for disposing the waste whenever you possibly can, which is not fun at all. 

1. Travel Burnout is a Thing

When you’re bored with your daily life, the idea of traveling can seem really alluring. This fantasy of living life on the road can be perpetuated by travel bloggers who make everything look amazing. Believe it or not, it’s possible to experience travel burnout. As human beings, we need to rest and settle down after a while. Think about the fact that at one time, humans were a hunter-gatherer society before they realized life was a lot easier when they settled down. 

Driving, walking, and navigating new states and countries can be physically exhausting. It can take several hours to get the smallest tasks done like washing clothes or grocery shopping, simply because you don’t have an opportunity to get into a consistent routine where you’re familiar with your surroundings. Survival becomes a chore, and it takes away all of your energy from working or doing other productive things in your life. Many van lifers eventually get burned out, and choose to take a break for several months. Or, they can only keep up with the lifestyle for a year before going back to their normal lives. The van life sounds more exhausting than anything.   

1. No Temperature Control

For years, sleeping in a camper van was reserved for summer vacations, due to the fact that you would be too cold at night. Even if your van has heat and air conditioning, you can’t leave your vehicle running all night long, because you would run out of gas. (Plus, it’s just plain bad for the environment.) And even if you have a battery-powered fan, you are still going to experience a lot of discomfort when it comes to temperature. 

A YouTuber called Anna’s Analysis talked about her experience with Van Life. She explained that before she went on her trip, she planned out a map of average temperatures to be sure that she could drive across America with warm weather. However, there were still many nights where she had to sleep with several blankets, a coat, hat, and gloves just to keep warm. In the morning, the water in her sink would be nearly frozen, but it was necessary to use it to wash the dishes from breakfast before she drove to her next destination. Anna explained that when experiencing extreme temperatures, “You lose motivation to do anything that might make you more cold or more hot than you already are.” 

1. No Running Water

Since vans aren’t hooked up to a septic or water system, that means that you won’t have running water. There are some vans that have a hand pump installed, which helps with washing hands and doing dishes in a tiny sink. Or, people fill up a large water jug with a spigot so that they have something that essentially does the same thing as a sink. This gets deposited into a grey water tank, which needs to be emptied in an appropriate location. However, there is no hot water in a van. These water jugs that are being kept in the van will often freeze overnight, or it will be chilly on a cold morning. 

Most of the time, you won’t have the option to have a hot shower, unless you buy one of those outdoor solar bag showers. A lot of people choose to get a gym membership so that they can take a daily shower outside of their home. All campgrounds also have showers, but they’re shared with the community. This means that you never have a lot of privacy any time you want to bathe. Obviously, laundry has to be done at a laundromat or a friend’s house, so many van lifers go multiple days wearing the same clothes. 

1. You’re Always Worried About Safety 

The van life can actually be scary, especially if you are a woman traveling alone, or a family with children. Most van lifers have experienced someone trying to break into their van. Even when you take as many precautions as you possibly can, it’s still likely to happen at least once. A couple who film their van life on YouTube, Eamon and Bec, went on a European road trip in 2019. While on a trip to Spain, they parked in front of a hotel. Since that location had security cameras and guards walking around the area, they assumed it was one of the safest places to be. So they left their cell phones, DSLR cameras, drones, and computers all charging in their van while they went for a quick swim. By the time they came back, all of their expensive equipment had been stolen. For the rest of the night, they struggled to find a police station that was open, and a working smartphone to help them navigate with a GPS. Even when they got new smart phones, they couldn’t download the necessary apps like Google Maps without confirming their Apple accounts.

There are countless other people who have shared their van and RV break-in stories on YouTube. Yes, you could have your house broken into, as well. However, it’s far more risky for someone to break into a house, especially when you live near your neighbors. And in a situation where your home is broken into, at least you are close to friends and family who are there to help you. It’s easy to call the police and file a report, and drive yourself to the bank, where most of your money is safely kept. When you have everything taken from you in the middle of nowhere, it could be truly devastating. 

1. Getting in Trouble with the Police

Unfortunately, there is still a negative stigma surrounding van life. Instead of imagining cute Instagram models, most police officers see someone living in a van as a homeless vagrant. Or, they believe it’s reserved to hipsters who smoke weed and drink magic mushroom tea. They will assume that you’re up to no good, even if you’re a peaceful hippie just trying to enjoy an innocent road trip. As a van-lifer, you become a target for the police, because they can get some huge bonus points for pulling over someone in possession of illegal substances.

Even if you’re very careful, a cop can pull you over for the smallest excuse. This often escalates into being accused of violating a rule, just so they have an excuse to check your vehicle. Plenty of people have accidentally parked in an illegal spot that they believed was safe, and now it means paying an expensive ticket. Or, even if they haven’t broken any laws, nervous neighbors can call the police if they felt suspicious of a mysterious van parked on their street. In the best case scenario, you could be asked to leave. Worst case scenario is paying hundreds of dollars, or even appearing in court.

1. The Weather Dictates Your Lifestyle

When you are living in a house, you’re protected from all kinds of weather. If you have a car, you may have to put on a pair of boots or carry an umbrella, but it doesn’t stop you from enjoying your home. But once you live in a van, the weather can completely dictate what you do on any given day. Instead of having a place to walk and stretch your legs, one harsh storm could mean being stuck inside of a van without an easy option to escape.

Having your life dictated by the weather also affects your work productivity, as well. Some people imagine having a wonderful nomadic freelancing life where they can work outside in nature. However, on the days when it rains, or it’s too sunny to see a computer screen, you might think twice about going out in the wilderness with your laptop. Van lifers are often working inside of their vehicle, because they don’t have any better option. And unless you spent tens of thousands of dollars on a luxury van conversion, this might mean sitting on your bed with a laptop every single day. 

1. Breaking Down

When you are driving thousands of miles at a time, getting a flat tire or running into a major mechanical issue is bound to happen. This is especially true if you could only afford a few thousand dollars to buy a second-hand van. Even if you have car insurance or AAA, it can still be very scary to experience issues on the road. This can cause a huge issue, especially if you’re driving in the middle of the desert or a foreign country. 

Sometimes, being unfamiliar with an area can also be a huge issue. Nearly everyone has dealt with a GPS giving bogus directions at least once, but sometimes it can nearly be deadly. One young YouTuber who goes by Anna’s Analysis said that one day, her GPS took her onto a foot bridge that wasn’t meant to hold cars. Thankfully, she made it out alive, but it was a traumatizing situation. After that day, she began to have driving anxiety. This was made worse by the fact that she was forced to keep driving in new areas every single day, and the stress began to manifest in health issues,

1. It’s Difficult to Relax

Unfortunately, a lot of people take the need for relaxation for granted. Think about the places you relax at the end of a long day. Maybe it’s your couch, reclining chair, or your large bed. You need these places to decompress after a long day.  If you live in a place where it’s not possible to relax at the end of the day, you might not realise that at first, but it begins to take a toll on your body. You will begin to feel tense, and your stress is heightened. Even if you have the ability to stretch out on your bed at night, that is often not enough to  relax your muscles when they need it. Most people don’t want to lay in their bed until it’s time to go to sleep. So you will find yourself sitting in the driver’s seat, park benches, and wooden chairs in cafes wondering why you always feel so tense. 

Aside from a lack of physical relaxation, your mind will also be racing in your new environment. Even if you went into a road trip without anxiety, problems are bound to arise, and you may end up worrying about what else could go wrong on the trip. Many people who live in a van talk about having nightmares related to getting into an accident, being robbed, and so much more.

1. Social Media Accountability

If you are choosing to do van life because you feel motivated by gaining attention on social media, you might run into some issues that you never expected. Instead of living your normal life, you will begin to have followers who expect you to upload interesting content. At first, fame from having a lifestyle brand might seem intoxicating. The desire to create trendy posts is fun at first, and it can even be financially lucrative. But if having a lifestyle YouTube channel or Instagram revolving around van life becomes a part of your ability to earn an income, it can be complicated.

Suddenly, your decisions about where to go or what to do is dictated by your fans. Instead of doing what you actually want to do on any given day, you might feel pressure to keep pushing the envelope for what you do next. Eventually, van life needs to end. If you want to raise a large family, or if you begin to grow old, the idea of living in a van no longer seems sustainable. So you will have to figure out what you’re going to do next. Getting sucked into the fame machine can be a cycle that’s difficult to get out of, especially if you don’t have a backup plan.  

1. Space is Limited

This point may be obvious, but space in a van is extremely limited. In most vans, you won’t be able to stand up straight, especially if you’re tall. You will have to hunch over in order to walk through your tiny living space, and there may not be very many options for places to sit. Besides potentially having a sore back, you will also have to make some serious lifestyle changes when it comes to enjoying your personal space.

Living in a van means that you need to pair your belongings down to the bare essentials. You can’t keep large collections, a huge wardrobe, or appliances. In most cases, you will have to either give up your belongings, rent a storage unit, or ask your family if you can store your belongings in their home. If you are going the journey with a partner, this can be a true test on the strength of your relationship. When some people are forced in close proximity with one another, it can either make or break their relationship.

1. Your Home Can Be Seized 

When you live in a real house, it takes a lot for it to be taken away. You need to miss your mortgage payments several times, and you’ll have to go through foreclosure proceedings. But when you live in a van, you could come back from a shopping trip to discover than your home is gone, simply because you accidentally parked it in the wrong spot. Or, if you are trying to take your van abroad, it can get caught up in a lot of issues crossing the border.

On the YouTube channel run by a couple named Max and Lee, they tried to enter another country. They accidentally failed to fill out the proper paperwork, and the police seized their van. They had to pay over $700 to get it back. Even though they had gone through this experience once before, it happened to them again when trying to ship their van overseas. Customs helps onto their home for over a month, and they were charged over $6,000 in fees. While they were dealing with the ordeal, there were other American travelers who made the same mistake. 

1. It’s Difficult to Work Productively

When you’re a freelancer, you can technically work from anywhere and live the life of a digital nomad. A lot of people imagine taking their laptop into random cafés for free Wi-Fi, or even sitting in a national park to enjoy the scenery while they work. This may be possible in some cases, but the reality is that working remotely is far more difficult than social media leads us to believe. Part of being productive with your work is having a consistent routine in your life. It’s also essential for you to have a comfortable place to work for long periods of time. Both of those things are incredibly difficult to find when you are on the road.

It can also be difficult to concentrate when you are worried about your basic living necessities like showering, eating, and using the bathroom. You may also have difficulty sleeping if the weather is not good, or if you feel uncomfortable in the van. These days of fatigue can take away from your productivity at work. Then, there is the availability of WiFi, and a limit on the amount of time you can sit on your laptop in a cafe before you start to get stares from the barista. Many van lifers find that they are less productive, and therefore make less money, which counter-balances any money they might be saving from the lifestyle. The van life isn’t always the productive life.

1. Finding Free Camping is Hard to Come By

There are a lot of  people that want to dive into van life because they assume that it would be cheaper than staying in a hotel while they travel. In reality, there are very few places where you can consistently park overnight for free. Most campgrounds want you to pay between $10 and $40 per night. On the high end, you’re just $20 shy of a $60 motel room. So if you overpay on both fuel and accommodations, it almost defeats the purpose of van life. Even when you do find somewhere free to park overnight, like a Walmart, this might not be the most glamorous place for you to stay, and it has been known to wear down on people.

The plus side to parking in Walmart is that there are security cameras and lights. But the combination of noise, exposure, embarrassment, and feeling uncomfortable living in your van near crowds of shoppers makes most people want to move on to their next location. There are apps that help van lifers find free parking, but there are different parts of the country where it’s easier than others. For example, there are tons of places in California, because they have embraced that lifestyle. But once you go out into the Midwest, you might have to drive over 100 miles to find free, safe parking. 

1. You’re Always Saying Goodbye

Traveling can be a great way to meet new people. The only problem is that if you are living in a van, you are constantly going to be saying goodbye to the people that you need. Part of the lifestyle is constantly being on the move, so it’s difficult to maintain friendships once you leave a town. Sure, you could add each other on Instagram, but that’s not the same as having true friendship. When you stay in one place for an extended period of time, it’s a lot easier to become friends with someone on a consistent basis. It’s impossible to get close with a friend without spending an extended period of time with them.

This is also true for anyone who may be single while they travel. It’s difficult to have a consistent relationship with someone if you know that you’ll only be somewhere temporarily. Maybe it’s great for browsing Tinder and not getting attached. As much as we all want to have an Eat, Pray, Love moment, those romances you see in movies of two star-crossed lovers learning to make a long-distance relationship work is not actually very realistic. And when they do work out, it’s usually because one or both parties have the financial means to make it happen. 

1. You Don’t Actually Save As Much Money As You Expect

A lot of people want to get into van life because they believe that it will help them save money, compared to paying rent to live in an apartment. However, you have no idea how expensive a trip will actually be until you experience it. There are unexpected costs that will pop up, and finding a place to settle down and concentrate on work might be more difficult than you would expect. With so much to worry about on a daily basis just to get your basic needs met, it can be difficult to think about much else.

When you live in an apartment, your expenses are fairly predictable, and unexpected expenses can be affordable. However, in a van, if something goes wrong, you might be forced to pay over $1,000 before you can drive away. In his article for Outside Magazine, Chris Wright said, “If I was obsessing about a breakdown, I was also fixated on money and the way it seemed to flow through our wallets like water through a sieve. Living out of a van can be surprisingly expensive, especially if you’re burning through gas on long drives every couple of days. I had underestimated our costs.”

1. It’s More Difficult to Host Friends

If you enjoy hosting your friends for drinks or the occasional game night, you can forget about doing that in a van. Even in the larger van builds, the maximum that can comfortably fit in a van are two adults at one time. Some people have one child or a dog that goes along in the van with them, but it quickly becomes uncomfortable to have a crowd in such a small space. No matter how big your van might be, it’s simply not possible to have a growing family inside.

Sure, you can drive your van to a park and have you and your friends sitting at a picnic table together. Or, you can bring your mobile home to their driveway so that everyone has a chance to go inside and check out the space. However, you’ll never be able to host a large family gathering like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or Christmas. For some people, this might actually be a good thing, because it takes away the responsibility of hosting. However, if you’re a social butterfly, this could be sad to have that taken away.

1. Having a Pet is More Difficult 

Last but not least is that van life makes it more difficult to own a pet. Forget about bringing a cat on the road, because it will likely howl or run away as soon as it gets a chance. One of the most famous van lifers on the Internet, Janelle Eliana, has a pet albino snake named Alfredo that she keeps in a terrarium. In a lot of ways, a snake is one of the best pets to have on the road, because she can keep him in his little heated space and know that he will be perfectly happy. However, not everyone enjoys the idea of having a snake, especially if they’re used to living with a furry friend.

Dogs may enjoy the outdoors, but they will be on the road for hours at a time. Credit: Shutterstock

Most people opt for having a dog when they go on the road. They are loyal, and can give you love when you’re feeling lonely. Dogs will also love going on hikes in the wilderness. However, bringing a dog on your trip will also present its own challenges. There are a lot of parks that ban dogs from the premises. Your dog will also have a lot of time where they’re forced to stay inside of your vehicle in all kinds of weather. Plus, when they are accidents, it becomes exponentially more challenging to clean it up. 

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Positive Effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19) In Our Lives

After Lockdown in India, coronavirus pandemic has finally eclipsed our happy and exciting lifestyle just like the Bollywood popular classic villain Amrish Puri does to Mr. India. Now we are stuck in our homes…. Oh I am sorry… we are quarantined for our safety and health and we are very pissed off. But did you tried to figure out the other side of the coin…the goodness comes along with this so called devastating culprit — Coronavirus — the biggest villain of our life till now.

COVID-19, an unprecedented global pandemic and its fallout need no introduction. With every single passing moment, the Coronavirus is posing greater damage to the life of more and more people in the form of virus infection, stress management, fatigue, anxiety, fear, uncertainty and depression. This World Health Organization (WHO) declared “once in a lifetime crisis” has created the drastic impacts on the economy, governments, businesses, and of course, people health - leaving us with a million dollar question i.e. “Is this the new normal?”.

Indeed, this fast spreading Coronavirus has made our world upside down and disrupted our routine badly. But I would like to take an opportunity to drive your attention towards the brighter side of staying at home to practice social distancing and working from home (WFH) as a necessary precaution to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19 infection. Let's talk about a few positive impacts of the coronavirus in our life:

1. No More Monday Blues

Yes, it’s Monday and I am very productive that too without any Monday Madness and I am all gear up for the workweek with my contagious smile. After COVID-19 and quarantine time, Monday Blues seem a joke to me. Zoom, Skype, and WhatsApp are my saviors to stay connected with my wonderful teammates.

1. Connections Go Deeper

We are more concerned about well beings of our people and taking every possible initiative to be together even we are quarantined and maintaining social distancing. Human connections are getting stronger and we develop a sense of belongingness. Coronavirus pandemic linked us as a HAPPY SOCIETY TOGETHER and now we respect each other. Covid-19 In India has pushed societies to change attitudes towards doctors, nurses, paramedics staff, soldiers, police, delivery person, cleaning staff, truck drivers, milkman, and all corona warriors for their dedication and selfless services, in the face of immense risk.

1. Nature Regain Its Full Glory

We have bright clear blue sky, rivers are more clean, beautiful rainbow are spotted everywhere, and of course, there have been dramatic falls in pollution levels. Pleasing sounds of birds have absolutely replaced car horns during the lockdown. The sighting of bird species like the yellow-footed green pigeon, purple sunbird, the coppersmith barbet, common tailorbird, common kingfisher, the woodpecker and several others — is now very common from our balconies and roofs.

1. We Make Conscious Choices Now

We are getting more conscious about our choices now. Less travel means less vehicles, Less wastage of pages and natural resources, Earth’s ozone layer is recovering, Air quality is improving and we said no to usage of plastic. Most of us are now doing our household chores ourselves of course with our family members as the helping hands.

As it is very rightly said by Rahm Emanuel, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Maybe this Coronavirus outbreak has brought the darkest hour of our life, but it has had an unexpected positive changes in our lifestyle…. and it is not all doom and gloom!!!

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How artificial intelligence is transforming the future of digital marketing

From smart search options and personalised messaging to being used in campaigns and marketing, AI and machine learning are increasingly being used in digital marketing.





Digital marketing relies on leveraging insights from the copious amounts of data that gets created every time a customer interacts with a digital asset. Algorithms optimise various factors and data points that influence digital marketing success.

In 2020, we anticipate a significant uptick in the mainstreaming of AI and machine learning use cases in digital marketing across several areas. 

Search will get very smart

In the past year, online search has had several AI and machine learning developments. Google is leading the pack with exciting applications in information retrieval. For example, Google's BERT  technology can process a word in the context of all the other terms in a sentence, rather than one-by-one in order. BERT also enables anyone to train their own state-of-the-art question answering system.  

Customisation of search results and the results page based on learnings from past interactions and preferences of a user is another application of machine learning used in search.

AI-driven personalisation of messaging 

Several adtech companies have been focussing on using AI and machine learning to find the right audience to write better ads than humans, and to increase conversion rates and engagement with the target audience. There are also several AI-led developments in the area of creating dynamic ads and landing pages to personalise marketing messages on the fly. 

AI has an application in content creation in terms of determining the logic of personalisation as also curating content specific to an individual, using techniques such as natural language generation (NLG).

Use of machine learning in campaign operations 

Platforms such as Google and Facebook have been at the forefront of AI/ML applications in marketing. Starting from smart bidding and smart campaigns to auto-generated ads, Google is making it easy for advertisers.

Smart bidding options such as TROAS, TCPA, and others use advanced machine learning algorithms to train on data at a vast scale to make accurate predictions about how different bid amounts might impact conversion or conversion value and assist advertisers in optimising without getting into too many details. 

Google factors in a wide range of contextual signals (through search data) to predict user behaviour and to influence auction time bidding as per the goal set by advertisers. Facebook has also incorporated machine learning across campaign planning and execution, as also in ad placements and ad delivery.

Similarly, on the organic search side, machine learning-based product ALPS reverse engineers Google’s ranking algorithm, and is able to accurately quantify ranking drivers, provide precise recommendations for changes, and predicts the impact of SEO actions before they are implemented.

Similar technology to drive improved ad copy testing in digital marketing exists. These help in evaluating ad copies and landing pages on various parameters like relevancy, use of action promoters/inhibitors, urgency inducers, page layout, load times, etc., to gauge the impact on ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience. 

Future trends 

AI will also have additional application in digital marketing with the uptick in the adoption of technologies such as VR and AR, as commercial use cases of these technologies find wider adoption in retail and other sectors.

Many retailers are also testing AI and VR/AR technologies together to make the user experience personalised to an individual.

Other areas of impact include voice search. We will increasingly see ads about things which we just said or talked about, but haven't searched for yet. Similarly, image search is also being used by many brands for their consumers to match patterns and identify products using image search. 



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21,605 views|Apr 30, 2020,09:04am EDT

Reasons To Escape Excess Consumerism—And How To Do It

ne who knows me knows I am trying to live a minimalist life. But that doesn’t mean I don’t own stuff. My family of four still owns three beds, one couch, two recliners, a table with eight chairs, a desk, plates, bowls, glasses, and coats. My kids use toys, books, and sporting goods. My wife sews. I read, play sports, and care for the house.

We may be seeking to live a minimalist life, but we are still consumers. Indeed, to live is to consume. It is in the very nature of living.

Yes, I still consume material goods—but I have worked hard to escape excessive consumerism. And there is a big difference.

Consumerism becomes excessive when it extends beyond what is needed.

Think about it: personal credit allows us to make purchases above our income level; advertisements reshape our desires around material possessions; our consumption culture makes greedy accumulation appear natural; and ever-growing home sizes and storage units remove normal physical boundaries. None of this is needed. Or helpful.

Excessive consumption leads to bigger houses, more expensive cars, trendier clothes, fancier technology, and overfilled drawers. It promises happiness… but never delivers.

It results only in a desire for more, and it slowly begins robbing us of life. It redirects our God-given passions to things that can never fulfill at the same time that it burns through our limited resources.

It is time to escape the vicious effects of our own unnecessary acquisition.

Ten Reasons Why

Consider this list of practical benefits of escaping excessive consumerism in your life:

1. Less debt

Just under half of Americans are unable to pay off their monthly credit card balance—carrying debt from one month to another. On average, the monthly balance carried forward is $6,929 per household, totaling $420 billion in consumer debt.

This debt causes stress in our lives and may force us to work jobs we don’t enjoy. We have sought life in department stores and gambled our future on the empty promises of their advertisements. We have lost.

1. Less time caring for possessions

The never-ending need to care for the things we own drains our time and energy. Whether we are maintaining property, fixing vehicles, replacing goods, or cleaning things made of plastic, metal, or glass, our life is being emotionally and physically drained by the care of things we do not need. Surely our lives are too valuable to waste in caring for excess possessions.

1. Less desire to upscale lifestyle norms

Television and the Internet have brought lifestyle envy into our lives at a level never before experienced in human history. Prior to the advent of the digital age, we were left envying the Joneses living next to us—but at least we had a few things in common with them (such as living in the same neighborhood). But today’s media, especially Instagram and other kinds of social media, have caused us to envy (and expect) lifestyles well beyond our incomes.

Only an intentional rejection of excessive consumerism can silence the call to constantly upscale lifestyle norms.

1. Less environmental impact

Our earth produces enough resources to meet all of our needs, but it does not produce enough resources to meet all of our wants. And whether you consider yourself an environmentalist or not, it is tough to argue with the fact that consuming more resources than the earth can replenish is not a healthy trend, especially when it is completely unnecessary.

1. Less need to keep up with evolving trends

Henry David Thoreau once said, “Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but religiously follows the new.” Recently, I have been struck by the wisdom and practical applicability of that thought, whether relating to fashion, decoration, or design.

A culture built on consumption must produce an ever-changing target to keep its participants spending money. And our culture has nearly perfected that practice. Every year (or even season), a new line of fashion is released as the newest, must-have trend. The only way to keep up is to purchase the latest products when they are released.

Of course, another option is to remove yourself from the pursuit altogether. I recommend this choice.

1. Less pressure to impress with material possessions

Social scientist Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase conspicuous consumption to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In his 1899 book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, this term describes the behavior of a limited social class. And although the behavior has been around since the beginning of time, today’s credit culture has allowed it to permeate nearly every social class in today’s society. As a result, no human being is exempt from its temptation.

1. More generosity

Rejecting excessive consumerism always frees up energy, time, and finances. Those resources can then be brought back into alignment with our deepest heart values. When we begin rejecting the temptation to spend our limited resources on ourselves, our hearts are opened to the joy and fulfillment found in giving our personal resources to others. Generosity finds space to emerge in our life (and in our checkbooks).

1. More contentment

Many people believe if they find (or achieve) contentment in their lives, their desire for excessive consumption will wane. But I have found the opposite to be true. I have found that the intentional rejection of excessive consumption opens the door for contentment to take root.

When I began pursuing minimalism and started intentionally owning less, I discovered greater contentment than ever before. Once I stopped wanting all the things I didn’t have, I was able to better appreciate the blessings I already had.

1. Greater ability to see through empty claims

Fulfillment is not on sale at your local department store. Neither is happiness. They never have been and never will be.

We all know this to be true. We know that more things won’t make us happier. It’s just that we’ve bought in to the message of millions upon millions of advertisements that have told us otherwise.

1. Greater realization that this world is not just material

True life is found in the invisible things of life: love, hope, and faith. We know there are things in this world more important than what we own. But if one were to research our actions, intentions, and receipts, would they reach the same conclusion? Or have we been too busy seeking happiness in all the wrong places?

Ten Examples of How

Escaping excessive consumption is not an easy battle. If it were, people would achieve it more often. But it is definitely a battle worth fighting.

Here are some ways to begin making changes in your life and family:

1. Stop and reevaluate.

Look at the life you have created. Are you finding time, money, and energy for the things that matter most? Have your possessions become a burden in any way?

Slow down long enough to honestly evaluate the whole picture: your income, your mortgage, your car payment, your spending habits, your day-to-day pursuits. Are you happy? Or are you experiencing some of the negative effects of excess consumerism?

1. Stop copying other people.

Just because your neighbors, classmates, and friends are chasing a certain style of life does not mean you need to as well. Your life is too important to live like everyone else. And if you think you’ll be happier by following all the latest trends in society, you are wrong. Just ask anybody who has stopped.

1. Understand your weaknesses.

Recognize your trigger points. Are there certain stores that prompt you to make unnecessary purchases? Are there products, addictions, or pricing patterns (such as clearance sales) that evoke an automatic response from you? Do specific emotions (sadness, loneliness, grief, or boredom, perhaps) give rise to mindless consumption? Identify, recognize, and understand these weaknesses.

1. Look deep into your motivations.

Advertisers play on our motivations by appealing to our desires in subtle ways. They don’t communicate facts about a product; they seek to stir up emotions. They promise adventure, reputation, esteem, joy, fulfillment, and sex.

What inner motivations are subconsciously guiding your purchases? What unhealthy motivations do you need to root out? And what motivations (such as meaning and significance) do you need to fulfill elsewhere?

1. Seek contribution with your life and usefulness in your purchases.

We are more than consumers; we are contributors. Our presence on this earth ought to bring value to the people around us.

Purchase only what you need to more effectively accomplish your unique role in this world. Everything else is a distraction.

1. Count the hidden cost of each purchase.

Too often, when we purchase an item, we only look at the sticker price. But this is rarely the full cost. Our purchases always cost more. They require time, energy, and focus (cleaning, organizing, maintaining, fixing, replacing, removing). They prompt worry, stress, and attachment.

Henry David Thoreau, quoted above, also said this: “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

1. Test your limits.

Experiment with a no-shopping challenge. Go 30 days with no consumer purchases, 60 days without visiting the mall, or 120 days without buying clothes. You set the specific challenge based on your needs. You will break the cycle of shopping in the short term and lay the groundwork for greater victory in the long term.

1. Give more things away.

Your life will feel lighter. Your heart will feel warmer. The world will be better. And you will be reminded that shopping is not the answer.

1. Do more of what makes you happy.

Your possessions are not making you happy. So find what brings you happiness each day and do more of it. I find my happiness in my faith, my family, my friends, and my contribution to the world around me. Your list may differ slightly. But doing more of what makes you happy and less of what distracts you from it is always a winning equation.

Start Today

It is time to rethink our spending habits, rediscover thoughtfulness and intentionality in our purchases, and remind ourselves that happiness is not on sale at the department store.

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How to Sleep Sitting Up | The Minimalists



When you have less stuff your life changes. One of the nicest changes is the option to travel. Not every minimalist is a dedicated world traveler—we don’t all change countries every few months or walk to Brazil. But there’s a reason travel and minimalism get mentioned in the same breath. Whether you’re a jetsetter or just take a once a year vacation, it’s simpler with less stuff weighing you down (at home, in your luggage, or on the credit card bill).

But that doesn’t mean travel is always easy. I like to do whatever I can to lower the barriers. So when my sister Zangmo came to visit, I had some questions for her.

Zangmo is a Buddhist nun. She just finished a lengthy retreat in a Tibetan monastery in New York. We had a lot of catching up to do but after seeing her room at the monastery I particularly wanted to know about her bed.

She told me before entering retreat that Tibetan monks sleep sitting up. They even have a special “box” to sleep in at night. This lets them fall asleep facing their shrines and contributes to good meditation posture. To me, it also sounded like torture.



Though she makes it look good.

Better Living Through Sleepytime

Zangmo told a different story. She told me that she feels healthier sleeping upright. She never gets a sore back or stiff neck, she sleeps soundly and wakes up feeling rested and alert every morning (this depsite getting just 5 hours of sleep a night with the busy monastery schedule). I could see the effect it had on her: she was able to sleep anywhere and she was full of energy.

I thought this could be useful. I’m an adventurer, setting out on a spiritual pilgrimage across two continents. Anything that makes me more portable is good. Some of the benefits of upright sleeping include:

It’s good for your back

No more taking special pillows everywhere you go

You don’t need a sleeping bag—one blanket will keep you warm

It’s impossible to snore

You’re more aware of your surroundings and can wake up easily

I immediately saw the applications for my upcoming journey. I can carry less gear, and if I wake up to the sound of approaching footsteps I can be on my feet in a second. In the Colombian jungle that’s not a bad deal.

Of course most travelers aren’t so extreme. But where upright sleeping really shines is on a bus or in a friend’s living room. Once you become proficient you can sleep truly anywhere, never worrying about what the mattress will be like. Bad hotel beds, air mattresses, futons—these will be things of the past.

I asked Zangmo to teach me how to do it right, then tried it out for myself.

How to Sleep Upright

What Zangmo taught me was a series of tips to make the transition easy. It took her about three months to make the adjustment, but learning from her mistakes I was able to make it in four weeks. By the first week I could sleep an hour or two at a time comfortably, and within two weeks I had slept five straight hours upright (moving to a bed for the rest of the night).

Prior to this my only experience with sleeping upright was in vehicles or at airports. It always led to horrible stiffness and pain. The reason is bad posture. If you can control your posture you can sleep upright with none of the pain, and that’s what most of these steps are aimed at.

1. The Right Surface



Set a board or other surface at about a 70 ° angle.

Ultimately you can sleep against anything, even a vertical surface with no troubles. To start off though you’ll want gravity helping you, and that means a slightly sloped surface behind you. I put a piece of particle board against my bedroom wall at a 70 ° angle.



To avoid scratching the wall you can throw a towel over the top.

1. Padding



Everybody likes pillows.

If you’re used to sleeping on a bed you’re going to want some kind of padding or you’ll go nuts. At the beginning, two pillows should work: one to sit on and one to cushion your back. After about two weeks I stopped using the pillows and now lean directly on the board, with no comfort issues.

1. Back Support



Lower back support is how you make upright sleeping comfortable.

The single most important part of upright sleeping is lower back support. If you support your lower back it will reinforce your torso’s natural curve, minimizing soreness. At the same time it will slope your body so that your head is leaning back onto the surface behind you. This makes it easier to fall asleep and avoid neck pain.

If you under-do your lower back support or sleep leaning forward, you’ll wake up with the same kind of soreness you get from hours in front of a computer. That’s called slumping and it’s not your friend.

Luckily it’s easily fixed. A rolled up towel or small pillow behind the lower back gets you the shape you need.

1. Neck Support



A seat cushion has a nice shape to support the neck without shoving the head forward.

Just like with padding, in time you won’t need neck support at all. But it makes the transition easier for beginners. Ideally you’ll have something that supports your neck but is thinner behind your head. Err on the thin side. If you use a pillow that pushes your head forward you’ll find yourself with significant neck pain—it’s better to relax the neck and head and let them fall naturally back against the board or wall.



If you have a small enough pillow you can support the neck without anything behind the head at all.

1. Something Extra



If you find that you slump over in your sleep, you have options.

In theory you now have basic good posture: your lower back is supported, you aren’t leaning forward, and your head falls back naturally. But at the start your body might not want to stay that way—you’ll wake up lolling to one side, or slouched over.

This will stop happening as your body gets used to the posture, but you can intervene if it’s frustrating. The easiest way is just to tie a scarf around your board and use it like a seatbelt for your head. This way you can’t lean forward or fall to the side.



Buddhists make such good models. Thanks Zangmo!

Putting it to Use

Most people assume that lying down is the “natural” way for humans to sleep, but after experiencing upright sleeping I’m not so sure. I think most people just decide that however they were raised is the natural way, and anything that looks really different must be uncomfortable. But just like switching from sleeping on your side to sleeping on your back, after a short period of adjustment it becomes normal.

When I sleep upright I have a very light, but amazingly refreshing sleep. I remember my dreams better, I wake up more easily if something is going on around me, and yet I don’t feel groggy or disrupted. I can jump right up without that usual feeling of disorientation that comes after sleep, which has led to not hitting the coffee so hard. Even though it’s a lighter sleep somehow it’s very satisfying.

I’m curious to see if any other minimalists take the challenge and try this out. Is it something you could use when traveling? Or maybe even at home? If you try it out, share your experience. How hard is the adjustment period, and do you end up with the same refreshing sleep that I did?

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The Invention of Our Discontent

Guest Essay by Chase Night



Let me tell you about the monster who rides on my shoulders.

I can’t see him, but I know he is there. I sense that he is covered in mauve shag-carpet, has overly goggly eyes, and a gaping black maw with a felt tongue inside. I also sense that his name is Howard, but I could be wrong.

Howard is always on my back wherever I go, helpfully pointing out reasons I have to be unhappy and offering advice on things or experiences I could buy to make me happy again. I used to listen to Howard like a student at the feet of a trusted guru.

Back in 2008 before I moved to Austin, Texas, I took out a small loan to consolidate all my credit card debt into one payment with the intention of immediately chopping up all my credit cards and never buying anything on credit again.

Once I was in Austin though I started to feel sad and lonely. Howard told me I would feel happy again if I spent $1,500 on a Panasonic mini DV camera, a three-point light kit, and a boom mic. On credit, of course.

I made a short film, and it wasn’t very good. I was sad again. Howard told me what I really needed was an Appaloosa. So I pawned the brand new camera and bought a surly spotted horse who wasn’t even broke to ride.

I can’t lie. Captain did bring me happiness for a while. He did stave off the loneliness. But…a hamster probably would have sufficed. Do you know how much it costs to feed a horse? By April 2010, I had to sell Captain just to pay the rent for one month. As I watched Captain’s new family drive off into the sunset with him, I started to wonder if Howard had ever really had my best interests at heart.

I became more consciously aware of the things Howard was whispering in my ear. I started to think that maybe Howard was just making stuff up. Making up stuff for me to be unhappy about, and making up ludicrous, unrelated solutions for these perceived woes.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you’re a human being, then I’m guessing it does. Howard is a member of a prolific, parasitic species which infects most of the Western World. The common name for this monstrous species is Discontentment.

These monsters attach themselves to us very early in our lives. Even before we can speak, they’ve begun spinning their lies in our ears. You don’t have enough. You are not enough. You need to own more. Do more. Be more. Let’s go shopping. Let’s get wasted. Let’s get laid. You’ll be happy in the morning. I promise.

Yet the promises never materialize. Whatever warm, fuzzy feelings you gain from the acquired object or experience fizzle out once the monster gets bored. The whispers start anew. Try something else. I bet a 62 inch TV would make you happy.

But enough about how lousy Howard and his family make us feel. Let’s talk about how to shut them up and shove them off our shoulders.

It’s easier than it feels. Here’s why:

Monsters don’t exist.

We can’t be controlled by something that isn’t even real. That’s just silly!

We’ve been conditioned to believe that Discontent is a natural human state, or even a necessary factor in human progress. This, I believe, is a manufactured lie to keep us in need of things we never actually needed.

In our lives, we will experience discomfort. We will experience disasters. These are real and unavoidable parts of our existence. They teach us lessons and help us evolve, even when they hurt.

Discontent is a different beast. It offers us nothing we can truly use. It is a false promise of fulfillment around the next corner. Then the next and the next and the next until we find ourselves standing on a ledge with no more corners to turn.

But again, the good news: It’s not real. It’s not natural. It is not inevitable. You can debug your thought code.

The concept of enough is built into the earth. She provides everything we need. You don’t see discontent in the animal kingdom. Wild animals never take more than they need to survive. A healthy wolf that has just eaten will not kill again just because he can, just to prove how powerful or sexy or cool he is. If we would only follow in their footsteps, embrace the enough given to us by the earth, and accept that this is all we truly need—food, water, freedom, companionship—then we have a standard against which to measure the lies of Discontentment being whispered in our ears, and we gain the sanity to recognize them for what they are.

Then we can look Howard in the eye and say, “I can’t listen to you because you don’t exist.”

We usually have to repeat this a few times in a few different situations before Howard gets the point. Sometimes the nonsense they tell us will just be too appealing to resist. We might experience a lapse. Don’t be discouraged; this happens to all of us. We’re fighting hundreds of years of conditioning to be unhappy with our lot in life. But we can overcome it.

With enough time and practice, we can wake up one day with a lightness on our shoulders we didn’t know could exist. Howard has left the building. We can roll our shoulders, let out a big sigh of relief, look around at our lives and say, “Enough.”

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Google Translate Widget is Free Again for Some Websites to Use

Google is resuming support for the Google Translate website translator widget and making it free for non-commercial use.



Google is again supporting the Google Translate website translator tool in an effort help people get the information they need amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Google had previously withdrawn support for this plugin, which gave site visitors a way to translate pages into 100+ languages for free.

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Considering what’s going on in the world – now is the time to give site owners access to this tool again, Google has decided.

“In this time of a global pandemic, webmasters across the world—from government officials to health organizations—are frequently updating their websites with the latest information meant to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and provide access to resources.

However, they often lack the time or funding to translate this content into multiple languages, which can prevent valuable information from reaching a diverse set of readers.”

In addition to translating webpage content, the Google Translate widget can also translate content from a file such as a PDF.

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The Google Translate Website Translator uses machine translation technology, is easy to integrate, and is free of charge for non-commercial sites to use.



Usage of the website translator widget is strictly limited to government, non-profit, and/or non-commercial websites whose primary focus is on COVID-19 response.

If your website fits this criteria, you can apply for access to the Google Translate widget by filling out this form.

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For all other sites, Google recommends using the Google Cloud Translation API.

Google reminds everyone that its translations are not always perfect. So keep that in mind when adding the widget to your site, and while reading content translated by the widget.

“Finally, it’s very important to note that while we continuously look for ways to improve the quality of our translations, they may not be perfect – so please use your best judgement when reading any content translated via Google Translate.”

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Google goes over all the security issues reported on by Search Console in a new explainer video.

The video is another installment of Google’s Search Console Training video series on YouTube.

It’s actually a follow-up to Google’s last video which deals with the security issues report itself.

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The previous video taught users how to find and fix security issues using the reports in Search Console.

This last video goes into more detail about he types of security issues and what causes them.

Hacking and Social Engineering

The types of security issues reported on by Search Console can fall into one of two categories: hacking or social engineering.

Hacking

There are many different types of hacks. The most common one is URL injection.

URL injection can happen through stolen credentials or outdated software, and allows hackers to gain unauthorized access to a website.

With unauthorized access hackers can remove, modify, or add content.

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They can also steal user data or exploit the reputation of a website for their own commercial purposes.

Google Search Console reports on these three types of hacking:

Injection of URLs: When a hacker creates new pages on a site containing spammy links. These links redirect users to other sites

Injection of content: When a hacker adds unrelated content to a site’s pages, such as spammy keywords or gibberish text.

Injections of code: When a hacker injects code into a website to change its behavior. For example, by sending spammy emails

How Hackers Gain Control

Hackers typically take control of a website in one of these ways by gaining access to an insecure directory on a server.

For example, there may be a directory with open permissions that you have forgotten about.

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A hacker can take advantage of the open permissions to gain access to a site.

Hackers can also gain control of a website by exploiting a vulnerability in software running on a site, such as a content management system.

This typically happens when site owners are running an older, insecure version of a CMS.

Another way hackers gain control of a site is by hacking third-party applications like plugins or widgets.

Hackers look for technical signals to see whether a website is well protected or not.

If they see that a website is running an outdated version they might exploit a known vulnerability.

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Social Engineering

Social engineering tricks users into doing something dangerous online, such as revealing confidential information or downloading malicious software.

One of the most common examples of social engineering is phishing.

Google safe browsing protects users by warning them before they visit deceptive websites or downloading harmful files.

If Google safe browsing detects that a website has deceptive content, the Chrome browser might display a “deceptive site ahead” warning.

Search Console will alert site owners by email if any types of social engineering content are detected.

Google recommends checking the security issues report at least once in a while to stay one the safe side.

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Examples of Social Engineering

The most common examples of social engineering are:

Deceptive content: the site tries to trick visitors into doing something they would only do for a trusted entities. For example, sharing a password or a credit card number.

Deceptive ads: The site contains ads that falsely claim device software is out of date, prompting users to install unwanted software.

Since deceptive content makes users believe it is the original source, it may successfully trick them into sharing sensitive data.

Deceptive content may also include fake download buttons that trick users into downloading malware.

Other Types of Security Issues

In addition to social engineering warnings, Google Search Console reports on other types of security issues:

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Uncommon downloads: A site offers a download that Google safe browsing hasn’t seen before. Chrome may warn those who download it that it could be dangerous.

These warnings are lifted automatically if Google safe browsing verifies that the files are safe.

Harmful downloads: A site offers users a download that Google safe browsing thinks is either malware or unwanted software. Browsers such as Chrome may show a warning when a user visits your site.

To remove this warning you must remove the links to harmful sites.

Unclear mobile billing: A site is not sufficiently informing users about mobile charges.

Chrome may display a warning before a user loads a page that incurs these chargers.

Malware: A site has been infected by malware, or is hosting malware from a hacker. This can include software, a mobile application, or a script specifically designed to harm a device when a user knowingly or unknowingly installs it.

Final Thoughts

Some final words of advice from Google on security issues are to pay attention to the security issues report in Search Console.

The report may contain important information regarding the security of your site and your users.

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And, as user, beware of social engineering.

Pay attention to warnings and do not fall for deceptive content and harmful downloads.

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Finding yourself without a choice and having to work from home?

If you aren’t fully accustomed to working from home, it might seem like a vacation at first.

The kids at home, lounging around.

No alarm at 5:30 a.m.

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No tedious commute, half-hour lunch break, office bustle.

You can work in your pajamas, spend quality time with family, and binge watch your favorite Netflix shows whenever you want.

But a few days in, reality might just hit – and hard.

This is not easy.

The kids are bored, grumpy, and rebellious.

The house is a mess.

It’s 3 p.m. and you still haven’t started the project your boss sent in yesterday.

Cue the tears.

What do you do?

Can you survive working from home?

If this sounds like you, remember.

It’s going to be OK.

It’s OK if you haven’t gotten your act together just yet.

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In fact, it took me years to figure out how to run no less than five brands from home, write my three books, plus raise my daughter – and work with my husband.

But it gets easier, I promise.

All you need is determination and a few tricks and strategies here and there.

In this blog, I’ll show you how to do it.

10 Things You Should Do If You Want to Be Productive Working From Home

Stick to these 10 tips and tricks and your home will soon be running like a well-oiled machine.

Plus, you’ll get your work done on time and impress your boss!

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1. Don’t Treat Working from Home Like a Vacation

It’s super tempting to wake up at noon and check your emails while eating breakfast in bed.

Don’t do that. Just don’t.

What you need to get productive is structure.

Set your alarm for the same time each morning.

Create a schedule for the whole family, including specific time slots for each activity.

Eat meals and go to bed on time.

You’ll be surprised to find you don’t have as much time in a day as you think.

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When you set a routine, you’ll stay on track and accomplish everything you need to get done.

1. Dress the Part

Resist the urge to work in your favorite silk PJs.

Instead, take a shower in the morning. Get dressed in attractive clothes. Do your hair.

This will wake you up and tell your body it’s time to get to work.

Remember, you don’t need to wear the full suit-and-tie getup. Simply changing out of the clothes you slept in will do the trick.

1. Keep Your Blood Circulating

Take regular breaks!

The longer you sit at your computer, the less productive you’ll be.

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I work best in sprints.

For example, I’ll set my productivity timer to 30 minutes.

For 30 minutes, I’ll throw 100% of my energy into my work.

When the timer reaches 30, I get up and stretch for 5 minutes.

Then, I return to work for another 30 minutes.

This activity keeps the brain creative, active, and fresh.

Trust me!

1. Create Your Schedule around Your Biological Prime Time

Your biological prime time is the time of day when your energy levels peak.

Here’s an example.



This prime time is different for every person.

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That’s why we have “early risers” and “night owls.”

Once you find your biological prime time, use it to do the tasks that demand the most creativity and energy.

Save the easier jobs for when your motivation and focus drop.

1. Plan the Kids’ Activities

Humans thrive with routine, and this includes kids!

Routine will give your kids a sense of purpose and keep them from feeling bored and grumpy.

Plan fun kid-friendly activities in advance.

Negotiate with your partner. For example, I have my own designated “working hours” where my husband plays with our daughter while I focus on work.

Think of technology as a friend. Don’t feel guilty about giving kids extra screen time, especially if it’s for educational activities. Personally, I love Khan Academy Kids and Education.com.

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1. Negotiate with Your Family

Be clear about boundaries.

You don’t want your kids yelling in your ear because of a petty fight when you’re deep into a project from your boss!

To avoid this, plan for times when you’ll be “off limits.”

During these times, family members leave you alone to focus on your work.

1. Decorate Your Workspace

At first, it seems like a great idea to work with the kids around.

One big happy family around the living room, right?

Not so much.

In a while, you’ll realize working with the kids around is distracting.

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What you should do is create your own dedicated workspace.

Then, make this workspace as comfortable and beautiful as you can.

Invest in an ergonomic desk. Add some art and greenery. Line up your books by the window.

This is what my personal home office looks like.



1. Treat Yourself to Quality Tools

Great tools inspire you to keep working even when your energy levels drop.

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What tools should you invest in?

Really, it depends on your taste and how you like to work.

But excellent examples include a dual-monitor setup, a fancy mouse, and even a music player to get you in the right mood.

1. Don’t Let Your Social Life Die Out

Humans are social creatures, which means too much time in isolation will make you feel irritable and depressed.

But thanks to technology, you can always hop on a Zoom call with colleagues and talk about your current projects.

Or you can start up a conversation with friends or family through Facebook Messenger.

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The idea is to keep your social channels open so you feel alive and inspired throughout the day.

1. Be Kind to Your Body

I simply cannot stress this enough.

Take care of yourself.

Eat the Right Food

In a trying time like this, you’ll be tempted to pop a TV dinner into the microwave and call it a night.

Don’t do it.

Remember, your body’s output depends on the kind of food you take in.

So, if your diet consists of processed foods, sweets, and unhealthy snacks, you’ll end up feeling exhausted before the day is done.

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Instead, eat right.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

For instance, a simple salad of leafy green vegetables will give you more brainpower than a frozen pizza.

Drink a Ton of Water

Keep hydrated! Water flushes out toxins in your body and leaves you feeling energetic and refreshed. Plus, it’s calorie-free!

Take Time to Exercise

You don’t have to do a full-body workout every single day.

Simply follow the right guidelines for staying physically active to keep healthy and strong.

Don’t sit down for more than 30 minutes at a time.

Follow an online workout routine.

Walk around the house, stretch, and set aside time for meditation.

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How to Stay Sane While Working From Home

There’s no question working from home can be overwhelming and confusing. Especially if you’re doing it for the first time.

But also, it can be fantastic.

When you know the right tips and tricks, you can turn a nightmare quarantine time into something productive, enjoyable, and even memorable.

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Tips and Products For Setting Up A Home Office

Getting work done on your bed is actually a bad idea. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Don’t Work in Your Bedroom

Normally, when you come home from work, you probably feel your body begin to relax. Your brain knows that this is your “safe space” away from the stress of your job. And when you walk into your bedroom at night, your mind understands that this is your place of rest. However, once you start to work from home, there is no divide between the two. By working in your bedroom, you’re confusing your mind and body as to what task is supposed to get done. Working on your laptop in bed in your pajamas is the absolute worst thing you could do to yourself. First of all, your mind will take longer to wake up and be productive. Then, when it’s time to go to sleep, you might be thinking about work, and it will affect your sleep. This becomes a vicious cycle.

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It’s far better to work on your kitchen table, living room couch, or a designated office space. Depending on your living situation, a desk in your bedroom might be your only option. If this is the case, try to create a corner of the bedroom that is dedicated to work. This way, when you wake up in the morning, you can shower, get dressed, and go to the “work corner” of your bedroom. If you can block your view of the desk by putting up a room divider or create a wall with a bookshelf, that’s even better.

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It’s important to find a quiet place to work in your house. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Find a Quiet Space

Suggesting to work in a quiet space might seem obvious. However, a lot of people will feel tempted to work in their kitchen or living room so that they aren’t alone. Most people are used to spending their days with co-workers, so it’s only natural to want to reach out to other human beings. And if you have kids who need to be homeschooled, working in a common area might be your only option. Keep in mind that the more you can concentrate, the faster things will get done. Have a conversation with your family about the importance of giving you private work time. If you have young kids who find it difficult to go five minutes without calling for you, set a timer for them on a phone or iPad. It also helps to put a “do not disturb” sign on the door letting everyone know that you’re working.

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When you’re trying to concentrate, give yourself a moment of zen. Credit: Shutterstock

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If you’re in a living situation where it’s almost impossible to find a quiet space, it may be time to invest in some Apple Air Pods $139.00 , or whatever headphones you already own. Playing instrumental music or nature sounds will give you white noise without any lyrics to distract you. Make yourself a good cup of coffee, or whatever else helps you concentrate on the task at hand. Once you get yourself “in the zone”, you should be able to get through your work responsibilities quickly, so that you can return to being with other members of your household.

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Writing in a planner can help keep you on track. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Use a Planner or Calendar

When you work from home, it’s all too easy to wake up at noon and lounge around in your pajamas. One day bleeds into the next. You might wonder how it’s possible for so much time to pass without accomplishing much at all. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’re not planning out your days. Just because you’re staying at home doesn’t mean you should go without a schedule. It’s important for you to buy a planner  or a desktop calendar  that can sit in your work space. If you’re on a tight budget, you could also use Google Calendar, or a notebook you already own.

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Keep yourself organized in order to be productive. Credit: Shutterstock

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Humans thrive on structure, and it’s hard to get out of bed when you have nothing to look forward to. You might assume that there’s not much you could write in your planner, since you already know the drill. But once you get in the habit, you’ll be shocked to see how much it actually helps with productivity. If you’re not sure where to start, write down the simple things, like “Wake up at 8 AM. Shower. Feed the cat.” Then, incorporate one household task per day, like organizing your closet, along with your workplace tasks. Boredom is often an illusion, and you can be as busy as you want to be. It’s all about perspective.

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This artist’s desk has amazing city views. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Give Yourself a Nice View

Your eyes need a break from looking at the screen. It helps to look up at something across the room, but it’s even better if you have a room with a view. This gives you a reminder that there is still a beautiful world out there. However, not all views were created equal, and sometimes, it can be a distraction. I’ve worked remotely from AirBnB’s, hotels, and different homes over the past few years. Sometimes, a desk near a window can inspire me to work harder, like a hotel view of New York City. Other times, it’s distracting, and I’d be better off working somewhere else.

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Having a nice view can help give your eyes a break from the computer screen. Credit: Shutterstock

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Sometimes, a well-intentioned office view can backfire. For example, I recently stayed at an AirBnB in England where the home office desk faced the street. Since it was on the ground floor, I could hear and see people walking on the sidewalks in the village, and they could see me. During the daytime, the sun shone so bright, it blinded the computer screen.  This was distracting, annoying, and it made me feel exposed. So I just sat at the kitchen table for two weeks, and the home office became wasted space. Always weigh the pros and cons of your view before you set up a work space.

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Dual monitors can help you be more productive during your work day. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Set up a Dual Monitor

Depending on your line of work, you might want to consider setting up a desk with a dual monitor. This can help you work more quickly, especially if you need to see a lot of information at one time. If you already own an iPad $399.00 or a Kindle Fire $149.99, you should consider getting a tablet stand so that it can stand upright as your second screen. Laptop stands also help to elevate the screen to eye-level when you’re working with two computers at once. For computer programmers, graphic designers, and day traders, it’s absolutely necessary to have two or three screens at once. So it’s normal for people in this line of work to own more than one computer. Even if you’re not in this line of work, you can still benefit from their techniques.

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Sometimes, computer programmers need multiple screens. Credit: Shutterstock

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If you don’t already have this extra equipment at your disposal, it might sound like it would cost a lot of money to accomplish. Keep in mind that this project doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. If you own a MacBook  , it’s possible to go into your system settings to toggle between two different screens. All you need to do is use an HDMI cable to hook your Macbook up to a second computer monitor, or your TV. Follow tutorials online that explain how to set up two screens. It may be possible for you to pull this off with the tech you already own at home.

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The cleaner your workspace is, the more efficient you will be. Credit: Burst by Shopify

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1. Keep Your Workspace Clean

When you work from home, you’re allowed to break all of the rules that your boss had in the office. You can eat and drink at your desk, and take your time cleaning up. When no one is there to tell you what to do, you might fall behind on making things tidy. However, after spending hours in your home office, it’s all too easy to let clutter pile up.  Whether you realize it or not, clutter will prevent you from being productive.

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A spotless desk can help make it more inviting. Credit: Shutterstock

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If you walk over to your desk and see a pile of paperwork, empty cups, plates, and tangled wires, your brain will immediately tell you to stay away. On the flip side, if you walk to your desk and see a perfectly clean and organized station, you might actually look forward to working. Also remember to wipe down your work surfaces and technology. Germs and viruses love to linger on surfaces, so it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re sanitizing everything you touch.

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It’s important to organize your work space efficiently. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Get Organized

Some people claim that they “like” things to be messy, because they know where to find everything. This is just an excuse not to organize, and it’s usually not true. How many times have you purchased something in the store, only to realize later that you already owned it? And how often do you find yourself searching for something that’s lost? This is a sign that you have too much stuff, and it’s not organized properly. When you work from home, it’s crucial to have a “home” for everything. And when it’s time to find something, it should only take a few seconds for you to grab it, instead of minutes. The time you save finding things will seriously add up throughout your days, weeks, and months working from home.

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Always have your necessary items on-hand in case you need them. Credit: Shutterstock

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Organization also goes beyond your physical space. If you find that you reply to emails late, or you can’t find your digital files, this is a red flag. It could be a sign that your computer needs to get organized, too. Create a filing system that helps you get your tasks done in an efficient manner. Once you’re organized, you’ll find that you can breeze through your work, and get back to doing things you enjoy.

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Having plants in your office can help to bring life to a space. Credit: Burst by Shopify

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1. Fill Your Office With Plants

One of the top tips from interior designers is to add plants to your living space. This advice is relevant in your home office space, too. Plants will give any room a pop of color. It also helps to clean the air, which is important in a place where you’re going to spend a lot of time. And whether you realize it or not, humans need a connection with nature if they want to alleviate anxiety. Just make sure your office space has enough sunlight to keep your plants alive. If you can only work in a dark space, consider buying a faux plant, instead. Once you have some sort of plant in your office, you’ll be surprised by how nice it actually feels. 

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Plants help clean the air, and make a space feel more alive. Credit: Shutterstock

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Stores like Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart all have garden centers. They’re all allowed to stay open, because they’re considered essential. So it won’t be difficult for you to find plants to buy. But before you buy any plants, make sure you’re ready for the responsibility. Taking care of a plant is sort of like caring for a pet. You need to learn how to water it the correct amount, remove its dead leaves, and feed it plant food. And when you go on vacation, you may even need to ask a friend to take care of them while you’re gone.

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This office takes advantage of the empty space near the ceiling. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Take Advantage of Vertical Space 

If you’re working out of a small home office or a bedroom, the amount of space you’re using is probably limited. Most people don’t have the luxury of filling up an entire room as their home office. Bookshelves, filing cabinets, and a second table might not be an option. However, a lot of people completely overlook the fact that they have empty space on their walls. Take a look around your room and ask yourself if something can be on the wall, instead. For example, TV wall mounts  are relatively cheap to buy online. As long as you have a power drill, you and your roommate or partner could hang your TV together, and eliminate any unnecessary furniture that you were using as a stand. 

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This desk has an upper book shelf that takes advantage of vertical space. Credit: Amazon

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Consider installing floating shelves  above your desk to store books, plants, and other objects that would take up too much space otherwise. If you’re especially handy with construction, you might even consider installing upper cabinets for storage. Lastly, you could have a desk with an attached shelf  . This gives you a lot of extra storage, and it fully takes advantage of your vertical space.

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Sometimes, your desk needs to be large enough for two computers. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Make Sure Your Desk is Big Enough

Far too many people make the mistake of buying a desk online, only to be shocked by how small it is once it arrives. Every online listing will give you dimensions in inches or centimeters. So make sure you actually figure out how big your desk needs to be in order for you to be comfortable. This is crucial for someone who’s tall, or anyone who needs extra space to get their work done. You may need to buy a standing desk  that adjusts its height, just in case you’re not sure how big the desk needs to be, and you want the option to adjust your ergonomics.

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I use an old retail display table as my desk, because I need to fit a lot on there at once. Credit: Shannon Quinn

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For years, I used a vintage writing desk. It looked cute, and it served its purpose when I worked in an office full-time. But once I began working from home, I realized that it was actually cramped, uncomfortable, and annoying. If I wanted to be productive and sit for hours at a time, I needed a bigger space. My new desk is actually an old metal and acrylic retail display table that I found at Goodwill. It was dinged up, so I used faux concrete wallpaper  to cover the surface. Now, the desk looks like something out of a magazine, even though it was incredibly cheap. I also have a friend who purchased a piece of plywood and stuck a few legs on it, just so he could have a large desk. It doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy, so long as it helps your productivity.

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Once you take the time to personalize your home office, it can be exciting to work. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Add Artwork and Other Personal Touches

The great thing about working from home is that you can decorate your space any way you want. There are no rules about how many photographs or knick knacks you have on your desk. And you don’t have to feel embarrassed about your choice of artwork. You should decorate your workspace with the things you love, because it will make you excited to sit and be productive.

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Hang art and other things that bring you joy at work. Credit: Shutterstock

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If there is a piece of art you have wanted for a long time, now might be a good time to splurge. And it doesn’t always have to be expensive, either. In the previous entry, I included a photo of my desk. I have a vintage movie poster of the 1960 French film Breathless. Once I found it online, I was able to resize it on Photoshop to make sure it was large enough to print. Then, I took a flash drive to Walmart, where they printed it in their photo center for $16. The frame was $20, making it just $36 for the art. You can do something similar, or search online for pictures that give you inspiration to get work done.

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Try to get creative with adding storage to your existing space. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Get Creative With Storage

Very few people can afford to hire a professional organizer like Marie Kondo. Even if you read her book Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life  or watched the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, you might be wondering how you could apply those tips to your own space. Instead of wishing that you could give your space an overhaul, get creative with the things you already have at your disposal. When you think outside of the box, you can rearrange the furniture and items you already have, and only spend a small amount of money to buy additional baskets and bins.

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Baskets and boxes are a great way to organize your things. Credit: Shutterstock

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I wish I could afford to pay for a full Ikea closet system in my home office space. But for now, I used cheap white bookshelves  and white plastic organization bins  , instead. Every bin has a different category of item. One is filled with extra wires and chargers, while another has ink for my printer. This way, it’s easy for me to find something when I need it. And when you walk into the room, it looks sleek and organized, instead of being a huge pile of junk.

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Don’t let your wires get tangled to this point. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Manage the Wires

When you work from home, you’ll quickly begin to notice just how many wires are involved. You’re going to be charging your phone, laptop, and iPad. And if you’re using a desktop computer and television, all of them have wires, too. These can easily get tangled if you’re not careful. Try to prevent a mess by using smart surge protectors  which can keep all of your wires in one place. If you own a label maker  you can type out which wire goes to which product, so you never get confused.

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Surge protectors are a good way to keep your wires in a row. Credit: Shutterstock

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Sometimes, wires will get tangled even if you do your best to keep them separated. This is where Cable Clips  come in. These are incredibly affordable, but they’ll save your sanity. Or, create a system where certain technology is moved to another area of the house, and you only keep your necessary items with you all the time. For example, you could plug your phone across the room, which will help keep you less distracted from focusing on work.

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Don’t forget to use painter’s tape if you want to be precise while painting. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Paint the Room, if Necessary 

There are plenty of people out there who needed to create a home office out of an extra bedroom, or neglected basement space. If this room was painted a dark color, you might find yourself feeling down in the dumps. It’s not you- it’s the color! An instant way to brighten a room and make it feel more cheerful is to paint it a lighter color. The good news is that Walmart sells cans of paint for just $20 to $30 per gallon, so it should be affordable on almost any budget.

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Let your kids help paint a room. Credit: Shutterstock

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Cream and white give you the opportunity to use pops of color in your decor. But if you prefer to use color, try to go for light pastels. Remember that color darkens over time, so keep that in mind when you choose your color palette. When I first began working from home, my office space was painted lavender. This was perfect for a bedroom, because it had a soothing effect. But as an office, it did the opposite of what my brain needed. I needed to be able to feel awake, rather than lulled to sleep. So now, my office is painted beige, and I love it. Fair warning- if you’ve never painted a wall before, make sure you watch some tutorials online, first.

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Your pets will want to hang out with you during the work day. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Give Your Pet a Place to Hang Out

Dogs and cats across the world are absolutely thrilled that their humans are spending more time at home. Working with your pet is actually very soothing, and has been proven to alleviate anxiety. This is one of my favorite aspects of working from home. But a lot of people out there are experiencing a new issue- Their dogs and cats don’t understand boundaries. Your animals may be climbing on your lap, walking over the keyboard, or interrupting Zoom calls.

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Dogs everywhere are thrilled that their humans can give them more attention. Credit: Shutterstock

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If you want your pets in the room with you, but you don’t want them to get in the way, give them a new bed to sleep on. In some cases, you may need to put the bed underneath your desk. This gives your buddy a calm place to spend time with you, and they’ll feel excited and happy to know that they’re welcome in your work space. And if they want to play, don’t ignore them. Take a few minutes to play catch in the backyard, or dangle a cat toy. Once they have let out their energy, they’re more likely to sit and relax.

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Natural light is key to feeling awake and happy in your work space. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Use Natural or Ambient Light

If you have the luxury of choosing which room in your house you want to place your home office, always go for a room with natural light. Right now, a lot of people are struggling with finding motivation to get out of bed and be productive without the constraints of a normal work schedule. Remember that you want to stay awake and focused. Sunlight is one of the best ways to do that. Open your curtains, and let the breeze flow through on a warm day.

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If you don’t have natural light in your home, opt for ambient light, instead. Credit: Shutterstock

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Don’t have any sunlight to speak of? Buy a lamp with ambient light, instead. We’re lucky to live in a time where LED bulbs can replicate bright white sunlight. On a cloudy day, be sure to turn the lights on, even in the daytime. Yes, this might cost a bit more in electricity. But if it means keeping you focused, you’ll find that you can breeze through work much quicker.

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Decorate your work space so that it’s a source of inspiration every day. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Inspire Yourself

At high fashion magazines, they always dedicate a wall for a “mood board”, which showcases the theme for the month. This way, everyone who works in the office can look at the board and be reminded of the vibe they are aiming for. They used this for inspiration whenever they’re feeling stuck. Even if you’re just working by yourself in your home office, you can still replicate the same experience in your home office. Personally, I prefer to make inspiration boards on Pinterest, so that everything exists in the digital world, instead. 

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Inspire yourself by hanging up photos that are relevant to your work. Credit: Shutterstock

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Maybe your work isn’t in the creative field, so it’s not necessary for you to have a mood board. Alternately, you could be inspired by your personal dreams by creating a “vision board”, instead. If you’ve read The Secret  you’re already familiar with the concept. But for any of you who are new to vision boards, it’s a visual collection of all the things you’d like to accomplish. This can be made with pictures you print from the internet, or photos cut out of a magazine. 

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Soundproof walls can help for anyone who works in media. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Consider Soundproofing the Walls

If you’ve chosen a sparsely furnished room for your home office, you might notice that it has an echo. When you’re just doing administrative work, this might not be so bad. But it’s terrible for Skype and Zoom calls, and it can completely ruin any type of audio recording. If you want to improve the sound quality of a room, you should add a rug on the floor, furniture, plants, and other items that will dampen an echo.

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You can order sound paneling online. Credit: Shutterstock

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Sometimes, if you have high ceilings, this echo will still be there, even if the room is fully furnished. No matter how hard you try, there will always be a slight echo in the room. This is where sound dampening panels  come in. You’ll want these to be across from where you’re speaking. Sound waves move back and forth. These panels help to break up the waves so that they don’t immediately bounce back. Thankfully, there are only a few of you out there who will need to take this step in your home office.

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It’s important to keep all of your paperwork organized. Credit: Shutterstock

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1. Manage Your Paperwork

Last but certainly not least for your home office is that you’re going to suddenly have a lot of extra paperwork on your hands. Instead of handing papers into your boss, or bring it to another department, your employer might expect you to hold onto records. Even if most of your documents are digital, you still might need to handle extra mail coming to your door. All of this can quickly become a mess if you’re not careful. This is why it’s crucial to stay on top of your paperwork, and keep things organized.

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If you’re not careful, your paperwork can pile up during this crisis. Credit: Shutterstock

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Thankfully, managing your paperwork is easy. Create an organizational system of where you plan to put your mail as soon as it comes into the house. Mail holders  are great for this, and they can sit by your front door. Once you’re ready to sort your mail, you should throw away junk immediately. If you handle private information for clients, consider buying a paper shredder  if you don’t already own one. Lastly, buy an accordion file box that’s portable. This way, once it’s time for you to return to your office, you will have an organized collection of your work-related documents ready to be transported back to your boss.

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Google on How it Handles Extra Meta Descriptions and Title Tags - Search Engine Journal

Google's John Mueller's answer provides a glimpse into Google's strategy for handling invalid HTML and mistakes.



A publisher asked Google’s John Mueller if it’s okay to add two meta description tags and two title tags on a single page.

Google’s John Mueller provided a surprising answer that shows how Google handles double HTML elements.

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The person asking the question wanted to make a temporary change to the meta and title HTML elements. Then after a certain point the publisher could revert to the original versions.

The publisher said they had to temporarily update some of their content pages due to Covid-19.

The question was about how to handle a temporary change in the meta description and title tags.

This is the question that was asked:

“Concerning the meta description of the page, I got the SEO tip to include a second meta description and title concerning this topic into the header.

Would this really make sense to Google?”

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John Mueller answered:

“So, if you’re including a second meta description tag on a page we will treat that the same as if you just extend the existing meta tag on the page.

…there’s no kind of bonus to using a second meta description tag on a page compared to just adjusting your existing one.

With regard to the title, that’s the same thing. It’s not that there’s any kind of a bonus attached to making a second title tag.

Essentially, you might as well just write a clear new title using the existing title tag.”

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Google Says it’s Okay to Use Extra Title and Meta Descriptions

According to Google, Google will combine extra title and meta description tags into a single meta description and a single title tag. But just because Google says doing something that is different from normal is okay doesn’t mean you should go out an do it.

How Google will choose to display the double tags is up to Google.

Normally Google will display exactly what is in your title element. Adding two title elements passes that control from the publisher to Google and introduces an element of uncertainty as to how that title will display.

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Additionally, while John Mueller says that Google can handle extra title and meta descriptions, he also says that publishers should stick to writing a single meta description and a single title tag per page.

There’s one more concern that was left out and that involves HTML standards.

Extra Elements Violates Official HTML Standards

The technical name of the meta description tag is Meta Description Element. An element is like a major building block of an HTML web page (document).

HTML is officially defined by an international group called the World Wide Web Consortium, also known as the W3C. The specifications for HTML are found at W3.org.

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Elements are described by the W3C as having a function.  Each function has rules.

One of the rules for the meta description element is that there should only be one meta description per page.



This is a screenshot from the official W3C web page where it defines the proper use of the Meta Description element. The W3C publishes the official HTML standards.

Similarly for the title element, there should only be one title element per web page. Adding more than one title element creates invalid HTML.

Valid HTML, or HTML with the least amount of errors, helps ensure that the web document displays to site visitors exactly as you want it to. 

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The W3C clearly specifies that there should only be one title element per page. Adding more than one title element creates invalid HTML.

Takeaway

Google’s John Mueller’s answer provides a glimpse into Google’s strategy for handling invalid HTML and mistakes. In this case, double elements are treated as a single element.

Additionally, John Mueller advises that while Google can handle two meta descriptions and two title tags, he encourages publishers to adhere to the standard practice of one title element and one meta description per page.

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Lastly, by obeying good coding practices, publishers can assure a better user experience and helps assure that search engines will not make mistakes when crawling a web page.

Watch the Google Webmaster Office Hours hangout below: 

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A publisher told Google’s John Mueller that Google Search Console (GSC) reported over five hundred backlinks from two domains. The publisher reported that the backlinks correlated with a 50% traffic drop.

Google’s John Mueller commented on the correlation between referral links and a drop in traffic.

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The publisher related that GSC showed backlinks from two domains  to every page of their site.

When visiting those pages the publisher saw that they were empty, there was no content on those page.

They stated that the appearance of those referring links correlated to a 50% drop in traffic.

This is what the publisher asked:

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed a steadily increasing number of backlinks in search console from two domains to my website from these two domains.

Every single page on my website is linked about two to three times, accumulating more than 500 backlinks over the past four to eight weeks.

Looking at the originating URLs in search console I saw that these originating URLs from two domains are empty pages.

The home page on these two domains is simply an empty page.

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The publisher says the appearance of the links coincides with a drop in traffic:

My discovery of this issue correlates with a 50% drop in traffic. These backlinks don’t show up in other SEO tools, only in search console.

The publisher makes a reference to these links as “referring pages.”

But they’re probably referring to the search console backlink tool:

As these originating URLs are empty pages, do you have any idea why they would show up in search console as referring pages?

The publisher then asked if they should disavow:

And is this a scenario where the disavow tool makes sense or does Google detect them as unnatural and will ignore them as a ranking signal?

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Google’s John Mueller commented on the mystery of the “empty” pages and what those might be:

“It’s really hard to say what you’re seeing here. It’s certainly possible there are pages out there that show an empty page to users and then they show a full page to Googlebot.”

That is a reference to a page that is showing one page to Google and another page to everyone else. This practice is called cloaking.

Mueller is explaining that the possibility that the page might be cloaking. This is an explanation of what the publisher might be seeing and not addressing the second issue of the rankings.

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Mueller goes on to dismiss the referral pages as technical mistakes rather than a malicious attempt to sabotage the publisher’s rankings.

He said:

“From that point of view, I would just ignore those pages.”

He then suggested inspecting the pages with Google’s Mobile Friendly test to see what the page looks like when GoogleBot sees them. That’s a test for cloaking, to see if a page is showing one page to Google and another page to non-Googlebot visitors.

Mueller then commented on the correlation between the rogue backlinks and the 50% drop in traffic:

“I don’t think this is something that you need to disavow.

It probably looks weird in the links report but I really wouldn’t worry about this.

With regards to the drop in traffic that you’re seeing, from my point of view that would probably be unrelated to these links.

There’s no real situation… where I could imagine that essentially empty pages would be causing an issue with regards to links.

So I would just ignore that.

If you decide to put them in the disavow file anyway… just keep in mind that this would not affect how we show the data in search console. So the links report would continue to show those.

I don’t think there’s any reason to use a disavow file in this particular case. So I would just leave them be.”

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What Did the Publisher See?

What the publisher saw is an old and common phenomenon called referral spam. The original reason for referral spam was that in the early 2000’s certain free analytics programs published lists of referrers in the form of links.

That created the opportunity for spamming a site with fake referrals from the spam site to another site in order to create a link from the public analytics page.

This analytics page was not linked from any other page of a site. It simply existed at an automatically generated URL.

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Most sites no longer have those analytics pages. But the practice continues, perhaps in the hopes that if enough publishers click on the links that Google will see it as a form of popularity that would help their rankings.

What the publisher in this hangout probably was looking at was a manufactured referral.

The referrer was not real. Even the link did not exist. This is typically the case in referrer spam.

Do Random Strange Backlinks Hurt Rankings?

In twenty years of creating websites, I have never published a site that did not attract strange links, including what’s known as referrer spam.

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Phantom links to my sites that show up in backlink tools have had no effect on my rankings.

The reason why the publisher’s site lost fifty percent of their rankings is probably due to something else.

The local search algorithm has been in flux since April and Google announced a broad core algorithm update at the beginning of May.

Watch the Google Webmaster Hangout:

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22 Ways to Get More Instagram Followers Right Now

Looking to grow your brand on Instagram? Use these 22 tips to get more Instagram followers, including using hashtags, contests, and what to post.



Do you want to know how to get more followers on Instagram in 2020?

Even though there was a reported drop in user growth, Instagram still retains its position as the second most used social networking channel (in the U.S.) behind Facebook.

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The Instagram app is the second most popular app for the iPhone (after YouTube).

Out of a billion monthly Instagram users, 63% (about 63 million) log in every day for an average of 28 minutes.

Out of 500 million people viewing Instagram stories every day, a third of those are from businesses.

For a brand wanting to reach or increase engagement with their audience, there’s a lot of users in one place waiting to meet you.

But, like all social media, you have to find the right tone of voice.

Or, risk looking like your dad crashing a festival and trying to dance with your friends.

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Nobody wants to see that.

So, to get more followers on Instagram and increase engagement here are 22 steps for your brand to succeed.

Hold onto your Instagram stories, posts, feed, bio, and hashtags.

1. Have a Plan & Create a Content Calendar Full of Great Ideas

When we write content, we labor over ideas, delivery, and optimization.

It should be no different when we share photos and videos on a business or brand’s Instagram account.

Take the time to brainstorm clever content ideas that align with seasons, holidays, your business’ upcoming events, and (most importantly) your overall traffic and sales goals.

You can still be flexible and post spontaneously as ideas come to you.

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But having a library of ideas and a (tentative) schedule will keep you ahead of the game instead of scrambling for something to post.

Depending on your business, you could potentially post several times a day or several times a week.

Make an Instagram content plan and stick to it.

1. Only Post Well-Composed Images & Videos + Make Sure They’re in Focus



Only use high-quality photos and videos when posting to Instagram.

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By high quality, I mean crystal clear, unpixelated shots.

Instagram, above all else, is a visual platform.

There’s no room for blurry photos.

Or images that have part of the image cut off.

OK, it doesn’t need to be to a BBC or National Geographic standard. But it must be in focus.

Low-quality content won’t get any engagement.

It might even cost you some followers.

1. Experiment with Different Filters & Dimensions

Just because you’re a business doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with filters and use different dimensions.

On the contrary, you should use filters on your content.

The more creative, original and captivating your photos are, the more likely people are to share and follow your account.

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You can go one step further and download photo editing apps to touch up your photos even more.

As far as dimensions go, don’t feel relegated to the square – make use of the landscape and portrait options, as well.

Test out the dimensions yourself and see what performs best for you.

1. Use Instagram Analytics to Feed Your Persona Research

With an Instagram business account (which is free), you’ll have access to analytics that shows when your audience is most active.

Use that data to optimize your posting schedule.

Instagram also gives you insights into the age, gender, and location breakdown of your audience, which can be a starting point doing persona research.

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1. Tag People in Your Photos Who Interact with Your Brand

Another way to be discovered by people who aren’t following you is to tag relevant accounts so that you show up in their tagged feed.

If you own a fitness studio and you take a group shot after a Zumba class, tag every single one of those people in the photo. It will populate into all of their tagged feeds.

Their followers (some of who likely have similar interests) will see the post, and discover your studio.

This strategy also applies to other brand and business accounts.

For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, a best practice is to tag the vendors from a wedding in your photos.

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A photo of the reception, for example, could potentially tag a DJ, cake baker, wedding planner, and wedding venue tagged all in the same photo.

It’s good for all the businesses involved: each gets additional exposure, and leads to more discovery as brides-to-be search for vendors – chances are if someone is looking through Instagram for a wedding venue, they are probably also looking for a photographer and a lot of other related vendors.

If you can share the spotlight and tag others, do so.

It’ll circle back to bring you more Instagram followers and leads, as well.

1. Optimize Your Instagram Bio with Branded Hashtags & CTAs



Your bio should be used to feature a call-to-action, branded hashtags, and a link, which is a big deal in the quest for new Instagram users.

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It’s this section where users will discover who you or your brand are and whether they will follow you.

Don’t, however, plead, sound desperate, or come across as spammy.

For example, do not include “Follow People Who Follow Me!” in your bio.

You want to let users know who you are and why they should follow you.

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Make sure this section is updated when needed.

If you were running a contest, you could mention that piece of information in your Bio.

1. Ask Questions in Your Posts & Include CTAs



At the end of each post, include a clear call-to-action or a question aimed at boosting engagement.

CTAs include things like:

Learn more – link in bio!

Double-tap if you want to see more videos like this!

Follow us so you’ll never miss an update.

You can also post questions.

Let’s say, for example, you own a yoga studio and you post a quick video where a teacher demonstrates how to go into a certain pose.

At the end of your caption, you could write something like “Tell us what poses you’d like to see demonstrated in future videos in the comments!”

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This will keep your audience engaged, show that you actually care what your audience wants to see, and give you ideas for what to post in the future.

1. Add a Link to Instagram in Your Website & Email

Make sure existing clients and customers find your Instagram by adding an Instagram icon to your social links, or embedding Instagram content on your site.

You can also link to your brand’s Instagram account from your email signature.

And use a plugin to feed your latest Instagram posts directly to your website.

This can be a great way to promote your new account to people who regularly visit your site, building your following of clients.

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1. Cross-Post Your Instagram Content to Facebook & Twitter

Cross-posting Instagram content to Facebook and Twitter can drive users back to your Instagram profile.

Users who didn’t know you’re on Instagram and following you on other platforms will then discover that you’re on Instagram, too, since the post will note it was shared from Instagram.

You can adjust your settings for every post to cross-post automatically, or you can do it manually for select posts.

1. Run Contests & Campaigns to Increase Brand Reach



Once you’ve started growing a follower base, you can hold contests and campaigns that can attract more users to your page.

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For example, you can drive traffic to your website or sell your product by running an inspiring Instagram contest.

You can either ask users to like, comment, use a specific hashtag, or ask your followers to tag a friend.

When you ask users to tag a friend, it exposes your brand and page to more Instagram users online.

It is an effective way to increase your brand awareness and reach, and a key hack for how to get more Instagram followers.

1. Look At What Your Competitors Are Doing

Another best practice for how to get followers on Instagram is to take a look at what your competitors are doing and learn from it.

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Researching their accounts might reveal hashtags you haven’t thought of, influencers you haven’t reached out to, or other strategies that can inform your own.

Also, note which of their posts are performing the best – that can serve as another clue as to what can work on your own account.

1. Interact Across Instagram (Follow, Like & Comment on Other Posts)

Strategically engage with users who will potentially like your profile.

Practically, that means interacting with potential customers and brand allies by liking, following, and thoughtfully commenting on their posts.

Start with your hashtags: click on your frequently used, relevant hashtags to discover others who are posting similar content.

You can also toggle to the Discover section of the Instagram app to find relevant content.

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Another good practice is interacting with those who are already following you.

Follow them back and like their content, as well.

The more you engage, the more you’ll show up in others’ feeds and get noticed.

Plus, it shows you’re an authentic, real account who believes in reciprocity!

1. Don’t Use Too Much Text in Your Photos



In general, you want to save the words for your captions.

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People go to Instagram for visual content.

It’s outside the norm to post a lot of text in an image.

A short, positive quote or statement is perfectly fine, but don’t attempt to fit an entire product description or long message in the actual image.

If you’re looking for ways to add text to photos, Canva is a free tool that comes in handy.

With professionally designed text formats and templates built for different social networks (including Instagram and more), Canva can help you create clean designs for those times you do want to add text to your photos.

1. Logos & Watermarks Should Never Be Used on Your Images

Stamping your logo onto your Instagram post is disruptive to your content and your users’ experience.

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People do not expect to see logos or watermarks on Instagram posts.

It’s like waving a giant flag that says “I’m a business trying to sell you something.”

While it’s not advised to put a logo on your content, you can include branding.

For example, if you’re a B2B company posting a behind-the-scenes shot of your employees, have them wear shirts with your logo.

Or, if you’re a fashion retailer, you could occasionally include a strategically placed bag in a photo that has your store’s name.

Keep it subtle, or you’ll risk being unfollowed.

1. Using the Right Hashtags Will Help You to Capture New Audiences



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Using hashtags will get you in front of new audiences who are searching for the type of content you’re posting, whether they’re following you or not.

For example, if you are selling bath supplies, tag a relevant photo with hashtags like #bathsupplies #bathtime and anything that relates to your products like #bubblebath, #bathbomb, etc.

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If you have a local business, make sure to include local hashtags, as well.

Take the time to do hashtag research and find the best hashtags for your particular content.

It’s easy to identify which hashtags get the most traction.

When you start typing # and your word, Instagram shows up how many posts have been done around that word.

Hashtagify.me is also a great tool for finding hashtags that are getting a lot of traction.

You can type in your primary hashtag and it will show you its reach as well as related hashtags and their reach, and all the hashtags related to those hashtags, and so on.

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How Many Hashtags Should I Add to an Instagram Post?

It’s common practice to stick to five to seven to avoid looking spammy.

But you can add up to 30 hashtags.

Where Should I Add the Hashtags on an Instagram Post?

You can add them directly to the post or in a separate comment immediately after posting – it’s really an aesthetic choice.

Some users prefer to add single periods separated by line breaks after their caption, and then add the hashtags.

Whatever you choose to do is fine, but keep it consistent across posts so you have a streamlined professional look.

1. Using Geotags Will Help You Reach Local Audiences



Another way to get found in by users who aren’t already following you is to geotag your content – but not necessarily with your store location.

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Try using your city or a nearby (relevant) landmark that gets a lot of searches.

When people are searching for that nearby location, they can now come across your content.

If your content is doing particularly well, it can even be featured at the top of the search.

Using geotags is also a great way to promote a local business on Instagram.

1. Only Add Links to Your Bio (Links in Posts Are Unclickable)

Any link you include in an Instagram post will not turn into a clickable link – instead, it will just serve as an annoying and bad experience as your audience tries (and fails) to open it.

Rather than including an unclickable link, direct people to click the link in your bio.

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They can easily click that and head to your site to check out all you have to offer.

Be sure to put your link in the “link” section when you edit your bio, and mention that in your post.

And, because space is limited, use a link shortener like Bit.ly to save room.

You can even optimize the link further by customizing the link so it’s not a random string of characters, but a meaningful word or two.

1. Tagging Products in Images & Videos Will Help to Drive Conversions

If you’re selling a product, take advantage of Instagram’s tagging feature.

Businesses can tag photos or videos with product links.

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To use this feature, you must have a business page on Facebook complete with a product catalog.

It’s a great user experience for users, and it’s a huge win for businesses looking to drive conversions seamlessly.

1. Create a Branded Hashtag for Your Events



Create a branded hashtag for your next event.

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Not only will it give your brand exposure, but it will also curate a unique stream of all the content from your event and allow others to connect and engage with your brand and other people at the event.

Leading up to the event you can use your branded hashtag to promote the event, and after the fact, you can use it to post follow-up content.

1. Repost When You Get Tagged to Showcase Positive Reviews

Whenever a user tags your business or brand, make sure to get extra traction from it by reposting it directly to your feed.

Showcasing positive reviews and mentions is a great use of Instagram for business.

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Make sure to reach out to the user and thank them for their post, as well as ask if you can have permission to repost it (Instagram’s terms of use note that you should obtain written permission to repost a user’s content).

Most likely, the user will agree.

You can repost manually, or use an app like Repost for Instagram.

Either way, remember to credit the original poster in the caption and tag them in the photo.

1. Instagram Ads Can Put You Directly in Front of Your Audience

Consider devoting ad spend to promoting your Instagram profile.

You can create effective carousel ads through Facebook’s Power Editor and promote your content.

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If you’re running a specific contest or marketing campaign, you can use Facebook advertising to push the content in front of more audiences.

With the ability to target your customers based on their interest and behaviors in Power Editor, you can ensure that your posts will be viewed by Instagram users that will be interested in your business.

While some of these strategies may work better than others, find the ones that work well with your business or yourself.

1. Get Your Account Verified (The Blue Tick Shows Trust & Authenticity)



Getting verified on Instagram (or any other social media platform) never hurts your engagement.

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The little blue tick gives your brand credibility, trust, and authenticity.

While not everyone will qualify for Instagram verification, it’s something to strive for.

Getting verified is one more way to stand out from your competition and deliver a trust signal that your business is real.

To be considered, your account must be:

Authentic (you must prove you are, in fact, the brand or business you claim to be).

Unique (only one account per brand can exist).

Public.

Complete (with a bio, profile photo, and at least one post).

Notable (Instagram must deem your brand “well-known” and “highly searched for”).

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To Sum Up

As a recap, the 22 tips that will help you to get more follower on Instagram to increase your brand engagement are:

Create a content calendar

Post well-composed images and videos

Experiment with different filters and dimensions

Review your Instagram analytics

Tag people who interact with your brand

Optimize your Instagram bio

Ask questions in your posts and include CTAs

Link to your Instagram account from your website and email

Cross-post your Instagram content to Facebook and Twitter

Contests and campaigns can increase brand reach

Look at what your competitors are doing

Interact across Instagram by following and liking other posts

Don’t use too much text in your images

Don’t add watermarks and logos to your images

Use hashtags to capture new audiences

Use geotags to reach local audiences

Only include links in the bio

Tag products in images and videos

Create branded hashtags for your events

Repost posts that tag you

Try running Instagram ads

Get your account verified

FAQ

How can I get 1000 followers on Instagram?

Getting your first 1,000 followers will involve putting yourself in a position to be seen. To do this, follow other relevant accounts and leave thoughtful comments on their posts. Also, use hashtags by posting and commenting on hashtags that are relevant to the audience you want to attract.

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How do I get followers on Instagram fast?

Getting followers on Instagram takes an investment of time and good quality content. Like anything, you get out what you put in. Don’t let anyone tell you there are shortcuts. But if you work hard and put in the effort you can grow your Instagram followers pretty fast.

To get real followers fast, engage with other relevant Instagram users. The key is to be seen and be seen to add value. Creative ideas, amazing images and thoughtful content will attract followers if you post on a regular basis and use hashtags the right way.

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Can you buy Instagram followers?

Yes, you can buy Instagram followers for as little as $10 per 1,000 followers. But, you are only buying fake accounts and bots who will add no value or engage with your brand.

Beware, an Instagram account that has a high amount of followers but no likes or comments on posts looks really spammy.

Buying Instagram followers is a waste of your money and you’re far better investing time to build real followers.

100 engaged hard-earned followers are far more valuable than 1,000 followers that never comment or like.

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The 10 Best Video Search Engines

Tons of video search engines are out there to help you find the perfect video – or create your own. Here’s a list of the 10 best.



Video content is super popular today.

In fact, internet users spend an average of 6 hours and 48 minutes watching videos per week.

That’s a 59% increase since 2016!

What’s more, users spend on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.

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So, why not spice up your blog with engaging, relevant videos?

The good news is there are tons of search engines you can use to find the perfect video to use in your blog or inspire you to create your own.

Here’s a list of the 10 best ones out there.

10 Video Search Engines You Should Use to Find Excellent Video Content

We all know about Google and YouTube, but have you ever heard of video search engines like Dailymotion and Metacafe?

These video search engines are gold when you learn to use them.

Read on below to find a mix of familiar and new video search engines.

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1. Google

We can’t leave Google out, although everyone online knows about it. It’s just too big and popular to scratch from our list.

So, what’s special about Google videos?

You can search for practically any video on Google using the Videos search bar.

First, type in your keyword on Google.



Then, click Videos.



Voila! You get tons of videos based on the keyword you used. It’s that simple.

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1. YouTube

YouTube is the second most-visited site in the world (next to Google).

And it’s no wonder, since over 500 hours of video are uploaded on YouTube per minute!

Here’s an example of a search on YouTube for “white strawberries.”



If you’re feeling uninspired for your next video, head over to YouTube and type in a rare keyword.

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Chances are, you’ll find a unique video on it.

1. Bing

If you’re like a ton of other people, you think of Bing as a search engine “living in the shadow of Google.”

But Bing isn’t inferior to Google, it’s just different.

For example, there’s its video platform.

Here are three amazing things you didn’t know about Bing videos:

They’re optimized for mobile usage.

They play directly from the website.

You can easily find paid video content.

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Finding inspiring videos on Bing is super easy.

Simply type your keyword into the search engine and select Videos.



1. Dailymotion

Dailymotion is a platform with millions of videos.

Right on its homepage, you can watch trending videos on the latest news, entertainment, music, and sports.



Looking for something specific?

Head over to the search bar on the right-hand corner and type in your keyword.



You can even create a personal library with all your favorite videos on the platform.

1. DuckDuckGo

If privacy is important to you and you don’t like the idea of everything you do online being recorded, you should use DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo does three things for you:

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Blocks trackers.

Allows you to search privately.

Gives you secure connections.



Using the search engine is super easy because of its simple interface.

If you’re looking for videos, simply type in your keyword into the search field and click Videos.

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Another fun thing you can do is run a search based on different countries.



You’ll be thrilled to find out that selecting a different country gives you different video results!

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For example, here are the top videos for the keyword “content marketing” in the U.S.



Now, select another country. Say, Argentina. This is what you get.



1. Yahoo

Remember Yahoo?

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Well, considering Yahoo’s search engine market share is under 2% market globally, you aren’t alone if you don’t.

However, just like other search engines, Yahoo makes it super easy to browse through tons of videos.

What’s interesting is that although Bing powers Yahoo’s search results, you won’t get the same video results if you enter the same keyword on both platforms.

Let’s take a look.

Here’s “marketing tips” on Yahoo.



And here’s “marketing tips” on Bing.

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Since searching both Yahoo and Bing will give you different results, they’re each worth trying if you want to find some hidden gems.

1. Metacafe

Metacafe is the place to go to find fun, unusual videos.



It offers a ton of categories to choose from including art animation, comedy, entertainment, how-to, fashion, and more.

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You can also search for popular or trending videos using the search bar at the top of the page.

If you’re suffering from a creative block and you need inspiration, Metacafe is an excellent video search engine to visit.

1. Ask

Ask once used to be a popular competitor to search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Today, it’s known as a question and answer site.

But you can still search for videos on Ask.

Simply type your keyword in the search box and click Videos.



When you search for videos on Ask, you’ll get results straight from YouTube.

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But again, you won’t get the same results as using the same keyword on YouTube.

1. Yandex

Yandex is the the Google of Russia.

It’s a massive search engine offering mail, maps, a browser, translation, images, and more.

Of course, Yandex also has a video search bar.



1. Swisscows

Swisscows is a search engine that bills itself as “family-friendly.”

It also offers a unique promise to users: it doesn’t collect or store any user data.

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Aside from music, images, and web content, Swisscows has a wide range of videos to choose from.



How to Find Amazing Videos for Your Content

Yes, video is extremely popular today.

Internet users prefer watching video over reading long blocks of text.

In fact, 85% of U.S. internet users watch online video content each month.

But creating videos isn’t easy.

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There are days when you simply lack inspiration and need a breath of fresh air to get your creative juices going.

When this happens, make sure to visit the top video search engines on the web.

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5 Brilliant Ways to Combine Traditional & Digital Marketing



Long-term business success requires organizations to transform, innovate, and take risks.

This principle drives companies to embrace the latest high-tech products and services to ensure they don’t fall behind in the digital economy.

Unfortunately, the integration of new martech sometimes comes at the expense of discarding traditional tools – a potentially costly mistake.

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Traditional marketing is still a valuable asset for any B2B organization.

And as new technologies emerge, the art of synergizing traditional marketing with digital marketing is worth mastering.

In order to realize the full potential of new digital tools and move leads down the funnel and ultimately convert buyers, marketers need to employ a holistic, omnichannel approach that retains a role for traditional marketing.

The digital revolution has greatly enhanced marketers’ ability to reach, engage, and convert their ideal target audiences.

But traditional marketing tactics like direct mail, networking, and cold calling are still vital for building a memorable and ultimately, profitable brand.

Building an effective marketing strategy means reaping the best of both worlds by seamlessly integrating new channels with traditional assets.

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Here are five ways to combine your traditional and digital marketing.

1. Cold Calling + Intent Data

There is an ongoing debate around cold calling and whether it’s still an effective strategy.

Should we leave it in the 1970s or defiantly proclaim that cold calling is not dead?

When intent data is added to the mix, the cold calls of yesterday could become the warm calls of tomorrow.

By incorporating intent data into the cold calling process, marketers can reach better-qualified prospects, while foregoing contacting the least promising contacts.

By signaling which prospects are most likely to convert, intent data makes cold calling far more efficient.

Prior to making a call, marketers can use intent data to identify:

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The prospects that are looking for their solution.

What other solutions they may be considering.

What context clues might be telling about their readiness to buy.

How to evaluate and address the prospect’s specific needs.

Armed with this critical information, sales teams will see conversion rates skyrocket.

Every marketer strives to learn as much as possible about their prospects.

When it comes to cold calling, an inherently intrusive tactic, LinkedIn profiles and firmographics simply aren’t enough.

To optimize conversion rates and reduce the stress for the sales team that comes with calling unqualified prospects, intent data is the critical missing piece.

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1. Print Media + Deep Media Nurturing

Successful marketers understand the value of developing and nurturing buyer relationships at every stage of the sales funnel.

They’ve cultivated a buyer-focused mindset that is wired to drive more sales at lower costs and adapt according to the shifting buyer journey.

With the rise of deep media nurturing – an integrated, omnichannel strategy that employs the full range of digital assets – marketers have already taken lead nurturing beyond the inbox.

And now, the savviest marketers are going a step further by expanding lead nurturing beyond the digital space.

Running ads in digital magazines using premium programmatic display is a popular deep media nurturing tactic.

And while print media is obviously not as prominent as it once was, there’s a reason why print editions of digital magazines are still in circulation: audiences read them.

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If the goal of deep media nurturing is to reach prospects across multiple channels to increase conversion probability, it makes sense that incorporating print media advertising into the mix will accelerate conversion rates.

Aside from being an additional touchpoint, print media has several unique advantages.

Compared to their digital counterparts, for example, print ads are seen as less intrusive and have a much longer shelf life. A print ad in a cybersecurity magazine will be seen as long as a physical copy of the magazine exists.

Moreover, print media provides more flexibility when it comes to ad placement.

Unlike programmatic display advertising where placement is primarily determined by digital bidding on advertising exchanges, in print media, marketers control exactly where their ads are placed.

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Finally, just as the promise of deep media nurturing relies on crafting customized messaging attuned to the buyer’s journey, print media allows marketers to get granular and target their audience in niche industry publications with relevant messages.

1. Events + ABM

Today, virtually all successful B2B marketers rely on Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to target and engage accounts that are most likely to convert.

Leveraging the targeting power of ABM with the intimacy of live event marketing can help marketers realize the full potential of both.

A top-class ABM technology stack will not only help practitioners hone in on their most lucrative accounts but also get a prioritized view of the key decision-makers (and influencers) at a target account.

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Putting this marketing intelligence to work will aid any professional in planning – and ultimately, executing – a high-impact event engagement strategy.

As marketers narrow in on the best-fit accounts, they have to monitor the online activities of their targets and identify the signals that may trigger the event outreach.

One way or another, every group of targets will signal their interest in attending or sponsoring a specific event.

ABM technology gives marketers access to real-time insights based on their accounts’ actual online activity and allows them to act on these signals.

ABM also enables marketers to de-prioritize low-yielding industry-events.

How?

By pinpointing must-attend events and the exact locations of the most valuable contacts within the target accounts.

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Knowing which trade shows a target account is sponsoring or attending enables marketers to allocate resources to the highest-impact events and locations.

Once the event (or geographic region) that may feature the ideal prospects is identified, marketers should determine which decision-maker is ready for a one-to-one conversation.

In-person communication is the unifying piece of a thriving ABM campaign simply because it encourages the richest two-way value exchange between a marketer and the target accounts.

Utilizing the full power of ABM to gain maximum insight into a prospect enables marketers to foster authentic relationships founded on a comprehensive understanding of the prospect’s needs and buying habits.

1. Traditional Content Platforms + Geotargeting

Traditional content platforms like billboards and banners are making a resurgence in B2B marketing, helping to drive brand awareness, reinforce brand messaging, and engage new audiences.

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To optimize the impact of this traditional advertising platform, marketers can integrate geotargeting – a technique that determines the geolocation of a website visitor and delivers tailored content to that visitor based on their location.

By pinpointing prospect locations, geotargeting gives marketers a better understanding of their buyers’ personas and their journey maps, enabling them to advertise content where it’s most likely to be seen and remembered.

Placing messages in strategic locations creates brand equity in the areas that matter.

The right target location could be a conference, a sports arena within the vicinity of the audience, or a bus whose route is in a business district where several target accounts are headquartered.

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The marker of a good strategy is the extent to which it speaks to the right audience at the right time and in the right place.

Marketers can use geotargeting as their compass and leverage location data as a powerful strategy for personalized content outreach.

1. Direct Mail + Lead Nurturing

While lead nurturing is integral to conversion rate optimization, the sheer volume of online exchanges increases the odds that digital communications end up in digital spam.

A prudent tactic to hedge against the digital message being drowned out by the unquantifiable volume of online content is to augment lead nurturing with direct mail.

It might seem like a blast from the past, but at the current rate of inbox saturation, it’s a strategy that works.

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The underlying idea is to send prospects something relevant and of value that will help a brand stand out.

If five follow-up emails fail to elicit a response, what are the odds that the sixth email will convert?

On the other hand, a follow-up in the form of a physical letter, a postcard, or a thoughtful gift can be the differentiator that triggers a prospect to consider the offering and agree to an appointment.

The endless personalization opportunities that direct mail entails can go a long way toward building trust by speaking directly to the prospect’s needs.

It makes them more likely to respond and move down the sales funnel.

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Conclusion

In the era of unprecedented technological innovation, some marketers might be tempted to abandon the low-tech traditional marketing channels.

But far from being antiquated, these channels have the potential to significantly bolster marketing initiatives.

Leading organizations are currently reimagining the interplay between traditional and digital marketing, employing a holistic mix of the old and the new to create rich forms of engagement that accelerate conversion rates.

Driving ROI is not just about implementing the latest technologies.

It’s about evaluating how to strategically deploy each marketing capability in the service of broad marketing objectives.

Abandoning capabilities just because they’re not new or “cutting edge” is shortsighted and ultimately, counterproductive.

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10 Questions to Ask When Onboarding an SEO Content Client



As an SEO content writer, I interact with tons of businesses that have varying degrees of experience and preparation when it comes to their SEO content strategy.

Some brands have well-researched buyer personas and a mountain of keyword research at the ready while others have no blogging strategy at all and no clear idea of who their target audience is.

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Not that those in the latter category are “wrong” – as SEO professionals, it’s our job to dig into the data and create optimized content that will speak to their target audience.

That means our job is made easier by having a clear client onboarding process that helps us gain a better understanding of their business and the types of people they are trying to reach.

What follows are 10 questions I ask while onboarding SEO content clients to help me write SEO-friendly and audience-focused content tailored to each brand.

1. ‘How Do You Describe the Business to Someone Unfamiliar With the Company?’

This question gives clients a chance to explain, in their own words, what their business does.

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For some brands, this answer may be straightforward.

For others, this is more complicated and warrants an explanation in “layman terms”.

Consider that a brand’s target audience is usually approaching the brand’s content at a lower level of experience and understanding.

Using “marketing-ese” or “industry-ese” to explain what a business does can leave many prospective customers confused.

This question helps you and your client define what the business does in the simplest of terms.

1. ‘What Is Your Brand’s Mission?’

Some brands might have a well thought out mission statement while others may have no mission statement at all.

It’s worth asking this question because if they do have a mission statement, you’ll likely end up referencing this at some point in their SEO content.

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It also gives the client a chance to think about creating a mission statement, which can be a beneficial asset to their brand in terms of defining what makes them unique.

This works to help the brand – and their content – stand out from the competition.

1. ‘What Key Taglines, Words, or Phrases Are Used and Associated With This Brand?’

Every brand has its own “isms” that make them different from other brands. There may be words or phrases they use that add character to their content.

As an SEO content creator, you’ll want to learn what these “isms” are so you can use them throughout their content.

1. ‘What Are Some Things You Don’t Say in Your Company?’

Similarly, there will be some phrases that your client doesn’t say.

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Often times, this is because they don’t want to be associated with certain terms (like “cheap” or “affordable”), are trying to set themselves apart from the competition (“marketing consultants” vs. “marketing agency”), or want to weed out a certain type of audience (general web development vs. “WordPress web development”).

At the same time, there may be some terms that you, as a marketer, are unfamiliar with and don’t want to use incorrectly in their content.

Since you want your client to be seen as an authority in their niche, you should rely on your client to tell you which terms to use and which ones to avoid.

1. ‘What Is the Purpose of This Content?’

The answer to this question may seem obvious (“Higher rankings and more traffic, of course!”) but this isn’t always the case.

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Never assume what your client’s goals are because they may surprise you, and this can certainly influence your content strategy.

For example, I could assume that my clients want higher Google rankings, but after surveying my target audience, I realized that what they wanted was “consistent” and “engaging” content that “generated leads” for their business.

If I had focused on rankings, I would have missed the mark when it comes to what my clients are really trying to achieve with their content.

1. ‘What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? What Sets You Apart From Your Competitors?’

You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t have an answer to this question.

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Which is why asking it is so important.

If a brand can’t define what makes them stand out from their competition, it will be hard for you, as an SEO content specialist, to create content that sells prospective customers on what your client brings to the table.

Many brands will answer with statements like “We have 10+ years of experience” or “We are a family-owned company” but these aren’t particularly compelling.

See if you can uncover what makes your client truly unique and how that relates to what their target audience is looking for.

1. ‘What Products/Services Do You Offer? Please Provide a Description of Each.’

Many SEO content writers and specialists are guilty of writing off-the-cuff without thoroughly understanding what a brand has to offer or what their products are.

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Not only can this be frustrating to the client but it can be confusing to their prospective customers.

In asking this question, you again give your clients a chance to explain their offer in their own words.

This will help you know:

What keywords to target in relation to their offer(s).

How to write in a way that highlights their unique benefits and features for their audience.

1. ‘Who Is the Focus Audience and What Are They Like?’

Again, don’t assume to know who their target audience is.

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Always ask them.

Their ideal customer may be very different from what you have in mind or even from what their content seems to indicate on their website.

Most often, clients are seeking you out because they want to improve their content, so their existing content may not be a good indication of what their business does or who they are targeting.

So, be sure to ask your client who they want to reach, asking them to be as descriptive as possible.

1. ‘What Is the Problem the Audience Is Facing and How Does This Content Present a Solution to This Problem?

Just as your client has goals when it comes to their content, their own audience has goals when it comes to seeking out that content.

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While you may be focusing on improving your client’s rankings, traffic, etc., you should try to uncover what it is that their target audience intends to find when searching for and reading that content.

Your client should be able to tell you what their audience’s primary pain points and goals are so you can work these into the SEO content.

This will help you write content that’s suited to the user (think: search intent) and provides information that’s going to compel a visitor to convert into a customer.

1. ‘What Kinds of Conversions Are We Trying to Make Through the Content (e.g., ‘Free Consultation’, Contact Form, Visit a Product Page, Etc.)?’

Many SEO content creators get lazy with this and just assume that they should direct users to the main Contact page or to schedule a free consultation, but that’s not always the case either.

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Your client may have a certain conversion point, lead magnet, product, or service in mind.

When you know what the end goal is, you’ll be better prepared to work this into the content.

So, if for example, they want readers to be directed to their “10 Secrets of Digital Marketing” ebook, you can “warm” readers up by alluding to the unknown digital marketing strategies and why they need them, rather than simply linking to the client’s Contact page.

Additional Questions to Ask When Onboarding a New Content Client

As an SEO content writer myself, I have an SEO content client questionnaire which includes over 20 questions which help me get a better understanding of my client’s brand, audience, and goals.

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If you plan on creating an onboarding process for your own company, I recommend adding to these questions over time, tailoring them to the needs of your unique clients.

That said, here are a few additional questions you might want to include in your onboarding process:

“What keywords would you like for your company to rank for?”

“What’s 1 story that serves as a good representation of your brand?”

“Who are your top 3 competitors?”

“In a perfect world, what would your ideal client/customer/reader be like?“

If you truly want to create on-brand, audience-focused content for your clients, you need to know their brand and understand their target audience.

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One of the easiest ways to do this is to work these questions into your onboarding process so you can create their best SEO content ever.

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11 Important Image SEO Tips You Need to Know

Your visual content must be optimized for your customers and search engines. Use these image optimization tips to maximum findability and speed.



Think about the last time you uploaded an image to your website. Chances are you downloaded it from a stock photography site, uploaded it to the backend of your site, and then inserted it to the page.

This makes a shining example of image optimization, right? Not quite.

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You’ve added a giant bowling ball weight to your site that’s slowing down the page speed. And, search engines can’t read your images without alt text.

Let’s change that.

Over 20% of all U.S. web searches happen on Google Images, according to 2018 data from Jumpshot.

SEO amateurs and pros alike know that optimizing images for your website is notoriously worth the time spent.

Dan Morgan at WebSpection got one of his photos to rank #1 in Google Images for “best person in Cardiff” in less than four days by optimizing his image.

And, Robbie Richards generated 150,732 visits by adding image alt tags, compressing images, and a few other SEO tricks.

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Without proper image optimization, you’re wasting a valuable SEO asset.

It’s like the search engines are giving away Oreos and milk for free. But, you only take the Oreo. When in reality, the Oreo is way better dunked in milk.

Image optimization creates many advantages such as better user experience, faster page load times, and additional ranking opportunities. And, it’s becoming an increasingly more important role.

As Matt Southern pointed out, Gary Illyes’ statement on image search in a recent Reddit chat:

“We simply know that media search is way too ignored for what it’s capable doing for publishers so we’re throwing more engineers at it as well as more outreach.”

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But which factors are most important to ensure your images are findable and don’t slow down your site?

Here are 11 important image optimization tips you need to know.

1. Choose the Right Format

Decoding all the various image format can feel like your first time ordering at Taco Bell. But, before you can start adding images to your site, you want to make sure you’ve chosen the best file type.

While there are many image formats to choose from, the PNG and JPEG are the most common for the web.

PNG: Produces better quality images, but comes with a larger file size.

JPEG: You may lose image quality, but you can adjust the quality level to find a good balance.

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For me, PNG is the unsung hero of image formatting. Typically, I only use JPEGs for bigger, more visual images taken by a true photographer. But, for my daily use, PNG is the way to go.

1. Compress Your Images

Yep, hell hath no fury like a bloated web page after uploading an image that’s not compressed.

Search engines will look at your web page like you might look at a big vat of Crisco: You can’t seriously be considering putting that on you your website, right?

According to HTTP Archive, images make up on average 21% of a total webpage’s weight.

That’s why I highly recommend compressing your images before uploading to your site. You can do this in Photoshop or you can use a tool like TinyPNG. TingPNG also has a WordPress plugin you can use too.

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However, I prefer WP Smush as my WordPress plugin. It reduces the image file size without removing the quality. Whatever plugin you use, make sure to find one that compresses the images externally on their servers. It reduces the load on your own site.

Increasingly.com improved website speed by 33% / 2 seconds by compressing images.

I mean, there’s just something sexy about faster page speed when after you compress your images.

If you’re unsure how your images are affecting your page speed, I recommend using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

1. Create Unique Images

You want your photos to pop on your site. If you fill your website with stock imagery, you’ll look unoriginal – like thousands of other sites that don’t stand out.

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Too many websites are cluttered with the same generic stock photos.

Think about a corporate website, a consulting firm, a business that prides itself on customer service. All these websites use virtually the same looking stock image of a businessman smiling.

I’m sure you’ve seen one that looks like this:



While you may have your stock images perfectly optimized, it won’t have the same impact or potential SEO benefits as an original, high-quality image.

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The more original pictures you have, the better experience for the user and the better your odds are of ranking on relevant searches.

1. Beware of Copyright

Regardless of the image files you choose to use, make sure there’s no copyright conflict.

The Postal Service is paying $3.5 million in an image copyright lawsuit. And, Sketchers got sued for $2.5 million.

If Getty, Shutterstock, DepositFiles, or some other stock photo provider owns an image you use, and you don’t have a license to use it, then you’re risking an expensive lawsuit.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you could be issued a notice if you have violated any copyright issues. If the owner of a piece of content sees their content on your website, they can issue a DMCA Takedown which you must comply with.

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Google Images allows you to filter results based on those available for reuse. And, Mindy Weinstein shares 41 different websites to find free images.

1. Customize Image File Names

When it comes to SEO, creating descriptive, keyword-rich file names is absolutely crucial.

Not customizing your image file name is like getting a burrito with nothing in it. It just plain sucks.

Image file names alert Google and other search engine crawlers as to the subject matter of the image.

Typically, file names will look like “IMG_722019” or something similar. That’s like ordering from a menu in a different language. It doesn’t help Google.

Change the file name from the default to help the search engines understand your image and improve your SEO value.

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This involves a bit of work, depending on how extensive your media library is, but changing the default image name is always a good idea. Let’s take this image of chocolate for example:



I could name it simply “chocolate” but if you sell chocolate on your website, potentially every image can be named “chocolate-1,” “chocolate-2,” and so on.

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I named this image “dark-chocolate-coffee” to let users and search engines understand the image.

1. Write SEO-Friendly Alt Text

Alt tags are a text alternative to images when a browser can’t properly render them. Similar to the title, the alt attribute is used to describe the contents of an image file.

When the image won’t load, you’ll get an image box with the alt tag present in the top left corner. Make sure they fit with the image and make the picture relevant.

Paying attention to alt tags is also beneficial to the overall on-page SEO strategy. You want to make sure that all other optimization areas are in place, but if the image fails to load for any reason, users will see what the image is supposed to be.

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Plus, adding appropriate alt tags to the images on your website can help your website achieve better rankings in the search engines by associating keywords with images. Even Google has remarked on the value of alt text in images.

It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. We use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user’s query.

Alt text is required under the American Disabilities Act for individuals who are unable to view images themselves. A descriptive alt text can alert users exactly what is in the photo. For example, say you have a picture of chocolate on your website.

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The alt text could read:

However, a better alternative text that describes the image would read:

Alt text is viewable in the cached text version of the page, aiding in its benefit to both users and the search engines. For further SEO value, the alt text can act as the anchor text of an internal link when the image links to a different page on the site.

1. Think About the Image File Structure

In 2018, Google updated its Image Guidelines. One of the major updates they revealed was that they use the file path and file name to rank images.

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Repeat: The file path and file name is an actual ranking factor.

For example, if you’re an ecommerce brand with multiple products, instead of placing all your product images into a generic /media/ folder, I would recommend structuring your subfolders to more category related topics like /shorts/ or /denim/.

1. Make Your Page Title & Description

Google also revealed that it uses your page title and description as part of its image search algorithm.

The Google support page states:

“Google Images automatically generates a title and snippet to best explain each result and how it relates to the user query… We use a number of different sources for this information, including descriptive information in the title, and meta tags.”

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All of your basic on-page SEO factors like meta data, header tags, copy on the page, structured data, etc. affects the way Google ranks your images.

It’s like putting all your toppings on your burrito. It tastes way better with guac. So, make sure to add the guac for improving image rankings.

1. Define Your Dimensions

If you’re using AMP or PWAs, you are required to define your image dimensions in the source code.

However, if you’re not using either, it’s still a best practice to define the width and height. It provides a better user experience.

Plus, it allows the browsers to size the image before the CSS is loaded. This stops the page from jumping when it loads.

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1. Make Your Images Mobile-Friendly

Oh, mobile SEO. At its worst, it can give you a high bounce rate and low conversions. But, at its best, it can give you more ranking power and better user engagement.

Problem is, how do you optimize your images for the mobile-first index?

You create responsive images. This means the image will scale with the size of the site whether the user is using desktop or mobile. It adjusts to the size of the device.

1. Add Images to Your Sitemap

Whether you’re adding your images to your sitemap or creating a new sitemap for images, you want images somewhere in your sitemaps.

Having your images in a sitemap greatly increases the chances of search engines crawling and indexing your images. Thus, results in more site traffic.

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If you’re using WordPress, Yoast offers a sitemap solution in their plugin.

Image Optimization Key Takeaways

So, before you begin uploading your image to your site, make sure to follow the image optimization rituals from above.

The most important thing is to make sure the image and alternative text are relevant to the page. Other key takeaways:

Choose the right file format. PNGs are my favorite for screenshots.

Reduce file size for faster page load speed.

Make sure your on-page SEO elements (meta data, structured data, etc.) pair with your image.

For crawlability, create an image sitemap or make sure your images are featured in your sitemap.

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Optimizing images are no joke. With advancements in voice search technology, media is a growing importance and your entire site will benefit from taking the steps above.

Happy optimizing!

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3 Tips to Master a Minimalist Web Design

Choosing a minimalistic approach for your company’s web design? Feature only the most essential elements by focusing on these three areas.



The world craves minimalism.

So much so, that whichever aspect of our lives you look at – whether it is the lifestyles we lead, homes we live in, or the products we consume – minimalism is present in every facet.

Even the smartphones in our pocket prove that minimalist design has more than caught on.

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Why Minimalism?

Often confused with simplicity, the concept of minimalism entails reducing all elements to only include those that are essential.

This means that while minimalism is simple, simplicity, or using simple forms, does not necessarily translate to minimalism.

In the world of design, minimalism is used to directly convey the message without the unnecessary noise and obstruction of focus due to other distracting elements.

Seeing the benefits of using minimalism to swiftly and effectively convey the message, the minimalist approach has taken root in many branches of design.

From painting and sculptures to digital product design and web design, minimalism has managed to root itself and understandably so.

Designed with minimalism in mind, digital products and web designs are no less impressive.

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Apple’s brand is one of the best examples of having a minimalist approach in mind when designing products.



The design itself is clean and sleek, and it puts an accent on every aspect of customer experience – from the first moment you hold an iPhone packaging in your hand, peeling off the foil of your screen, to finally using the smartphone.

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Minimalist designs are visually appealing and user-friendly, so it’s really not surprising that so many businesses prefer to have a minimalist web design, as it helps them boost their company’s bottom line.

Taking Minimalist Approach to Web Design

Your company’s website is the best business card you have.

It tells your customers all they need to know about your business – from where to find you to what the business is all about.

Websites that are not functional, take a long time to load, have too many distracting elements or are not user-friendly will make your potential customers bounce in a heartbeat.

In essence, a business’ website tells customers all they need to know about the company, but if your visitors don’t stick around long enough to know who you are or what you do, they won’t actually get to know you or understand what you have to offer.

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In minimalist design, gestalt takes precedence over all else.

This means that the elements that are connected must remain close to one another, whereas elements that lack connection should be further apart.

Every element on your website that is crucial in guiding the user should be bigger, bolded, or feature strong colors.

From these simple principles, you draw all other rules of minimalist approach in web design, whether typography, negative space, visual elements or overcrowding are in question.

Instead of overcrowding your website with elements that are not necessary, feature only the most essential ones.

This way, the most important information will quickly grab users’ attention, allowing them to easily solve their problems.

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Choosing a minimalist approach for your company’s web design means making conscious decisions about the layout of the website.

This means that you ought to question every design decision, putting the user first.

Ask yourself:

Will the chosen typography be too off-putting for users?

Is the typography easily readable?

Does the chosen element distract the user from their path?

Are there too many images on the page?

Is the color scheme appropriate?

Are too many colors used?

Minimalist Web Design & SEO

SEO-friendly websites receive more traffic.

This means that when designing a website, you need to keep both the users and search engines in mind.

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Questions of how to create the best user experience should keep you up at night.

Google said that when designing a website, you should aim to serve your users’ needs… but users aren’t limited to consumers – you have to consider search engines, too.

We all know that competition is fierce, and we need to do our best to keep users on their track when they visit the website.

We all want our websites to load quickly, and minimalist design entails lesser features, which means that there will be lesser features to load.

However, even if you have a single image on your webpage, it is still important to optimize it.

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Great and memorable user experience is the basis of a minimalist approach.

It does not only aim to be visually appealing, but to keep the most important for the user in order to gain valuable information without unnecessary chaos surrounding it.

So, rather than losing your customers over a badly designed website, try a minimalist approach and create an experience on your site that is simple, but not one that they will be quick to forget.

Minimalist Web Design in Action

When it comes to creating a plan for a minimalist web design, here are three focus areas you should consider leveraging.

1. Visual Elements 

Every detail must be significant.

It should be functional and serve the purpose.

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So when designing take each element into account, stop and ask yourself: Does this detail serve a function or is it just visual?

If it is only visual, then you must step back and decide if it belongs on your webpage or it clutters it.

Graphic Elements

All graphic elements need to be usable.

Think of the purpose the added element serves.

Does it have the role of shape divider?

Does it lead the eye, meaning it will help the user navigate easily?

Or, does it highlight the information that should be immediately noticeable to the user?

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If it doesn’t serve a purpose, avoid using it.

Yes, illustrative detail might appear to be appealing to the eye.

However, every element must be added with a purpose in mind.

This applies to all types of visual elements, images, illustrations, and shapes.

A great example of how to incorporate graphic elements with minimalism can be found on plus63’s site:



Images & Videos

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Having a single image featured on a homepage may seem monotonous, but think of it as highlighting a point.

Here’s an example by Measponte, a website that sells shoes, that features one simple image of a shoe with overlaid copy:



Instead of an image, you can always use a video or animation for the first impression.

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Your website can still look clean and have minimal copy, but also be interactive and inform the user what they need to know.

Although sometimes perceived to be on the “heavy” side, videos – like images – can be optimized to ensure they do no hurt your page loading time.

Take a look at the website from My Switzerland, they’ve done a great job:



The most prominent type of minimalist web design focuses on having a hero image and hero text in focus, all the other elements, whether visual or written are featured on other pages.

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Images vs. Words

A key element to keep in mind is the amount of copy your webpage uses.

Words are the quickest and most reliable way to get your message across.

However, they can be our biggest enemy.

If a user lands on a homepage with a ton of the copy, they are unlikely to stop and read.

What’s more likely to happen is that consumers will bounce off your site and search for information elsewhere.

So, as a rule of thumb, don’t let words overtake the webpage; use as little as possible and only include essential information.

Allow navigation pages on your site to be dedicated to describing a product, service, or mission, featuring more copy than your homepage.

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Background Image

Choosing the right background image is important.

At times, the background image may be the only visual element on the page, over which you’ll have hero text displayed, similar to what KickPush did:



Just like other elements of minimalism, flat design and textures are featured in the background image.

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By using flat design, you can employ a stripping concept, so that what’s left on the page seems deemphasized, allowing users to pay attention to the most important information on the webpage.

1. Colors & Contrasts

In minimalist design, colors must be used wisely.

Colors should create visual interest while also capturing and directing the users’ attention in a way that does not require additional elements or graphics.

The usage of colors should be limited – which is why on successful websites, you’ll see monochromatic colors or the use of two to three key colors on a website.

The commonly used monochromatic color palette (which uses several shades of a single color) tends to soothe the eye and not overshadow the important details.

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However, contrasts still have value in minimalist web design, and many web designers make the use of white color, as it tends to contrast well with other elements on the page.

Remember that color has many purposes.

It can serve as a background of the webpage, similar to the design that We Are You has embraced.



But, it can also accentuate the important features on your webpage, serving as the functional element.

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If you wish to highlight your product, this might be done best with a color that contrasts the rest of the palette.

It is wise to keep the psychological aspects that colors can tap into in mind.

Consider the purpose of your website and the message you want to convey to your visitors.

What would be the best color to use in order to set up the mood that aligns with your business?

For example, consider Huntington’s color choice.



They’re a financial company, therefore they leverage various colors of green, which psychologically signifies money.

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Blue and purple hues can be calming, while yellows, oranges, and reds can be warm or exciting – all things to consider when making a color choice on your site.

1. White Space

Commonly referred to as negative space, this feature can be the most powerful trick up a web designer’s sleeve.

The white or negative space tends to open up the “room” and let it breathe, and it is quite contrary to the visual clutter that exists on many websites.

The white space can be used to your advantage to guide the user’s attention.

By increasing the negative space around the information you want the user to focus on, you can make particular content elements more noticeable.

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White space has the power to naturally guide the eyes of the user toward key content.

If you opt for using the white space, make sure you steer away from having multiple focal points on one screen.

Keep in mind that users have vulnerable focus, and their attention can easily drift from one thing to another.

When faced with too many options, users may find it hard to figure out what to focus on.

Summing Up

Minimalist web design creates a win-win situation for both businesses and customers.

Clean, non-obstructive design with clear focus points allows the users to quickly find the information they need, while also allowing businesses to keep customers happy by quickly providing answers to key customer questions of who their business is and what they do.

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The “less is more” approach appears simple to achieve, but there are many elements that need to be considered in the creative process.

We’ve all faced tough moments when all information feels too precious to let go of and cut out.

From choosing what colors and visual elements to use to deciding on the quantity of text you should display on each page and each screen, it’s important to keep one key item in mind:

What’s the purpose of the piece of information?

If you can’t answer that, then it shouldn’t be included in a minimalist web design.

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Every Other Never

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



There are a few things I’ve been putting off lately. Meditating this morning. Cleaning my house this week. Finishing my taxes this month. This embarrassing list stretches on and on.

With my mounting task list, I’ve let my crastination turn pro. If I were running for public office, “I’ll get to it tomorrow” would be an honest slogan for my tacky yard signs.

Tomorrow? Well, today was once tomorrow, so if I want to break the cycle, I must pause and then prioritize my most important affairs. I know this intellectually, but it’s difficult in practice because it often feels like life gets in the way of life. Or, more accurately, everyone else’s life gets in the way of my life. Work, leisure, and family obligations prevent me from doing what I need to do.

But do they really?

The truth is that even my best excuse is still an excuse. Today, I have the same 24 hours as everyone else. The only difference is how I spend it—what I say yes to, and, just as important, what I say no to.

So, instead of a never-ending to-do list, I make three lists in the Notes app on my phone.

Today. My Today list functions like a to-do list but with one major difference: anything on this list must be completed today, so I’m careful about what creeps onto this list because these are the things I’ll say yes to over the next 24 hours; everything else receives a polite no, thank you. Today’s list includes: meditate, write, exercise, read, sauna, file taxes, prepare for a podcast, cook dinner for Bex and Ella, and make three business-related phone calls. If I don’t have enough time, I’ll wake an hour earlier, before the world is buzzing, so I can focus. At the end of the day, I’ll write a Tomorrow list at the bottom of this list, which becomes my new Today list in the morning. If anything from Today makes it to Tomorrow two times, then I either delete it or move it to the next list because it’s not a real priority.

Someday. This short list helps me collect aspirational considerations—items that are important to me but not urgent. These Somedays might eventually become a priority, but not right now. My current list includes: schedule lunch with a friend, do the laundry, grocery shop, plan a vacation, and consider a couple consumer purchases I’m still pondering. Eventually—as soon as later this week—some of these items will make their way onto my Today list, while others will fall by the wayside as I focus on more vital undertakings.

Never. These are the things I mustn’t do if my Today list is incomplete; they are imaginary values that clog the path to my priorities. It turns out that nearly half my compulsions make this list—watch TV, surf YouTube, check email, peruse social media, browse the news. However, the onus of these burdens is fake. I feel compelled by these distractions only because they are easier than hunkering down and drudging through more meaningful endeavors. Of course, everything worthwhile—and all the rewards—reside on the other side of the drudgery

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The Actual Cost of Owning a Thing

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Pull any item off a retail shelf, carry it to the corrals of cash registers, and you can exchange the money you’ve earned to bring the thing home with you.

But the true cost of a thing goes well beyond the price on the pricetag.

The cost of… Storing the thing. Maintaining the thing. Cleaning the thing. Watering the thing. Feeding the thing. Charging the thing. Accessorizing the thing. Refueling the thing. Changing the oil of thing. Replacing the batteries of the thing. Fixing the thing. Repainting the thing. Taking care of the thing. Thinking about the thing. Worrying about the thing. Protecting the thing. Replacing the thing.

When you add it all up, the actual cost of owning a thing is nearly immeasurable. So we better choose carefully what things we bring into our lives, because we can’t afford every-thing.

Of course, letting go is not only freeing, it’s free—no purchase necessary

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Does This Add Value to My Life?

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



I don’t own many things—but everything I own adds value to my life.

Each of my belongings—my kitchenware, furniture, clothes, car—functions either as a tool or adds positive aesthetic value to my life; that is, as a minimalist, every possession serves a purpose or brings me joy.

Over time, though, situations’ll change—they always do. So I’m forced to ask the same important question over and over and over again: Does this thing add value to my life?

In other words: does it serve a purpose or bring me joy?

And it’s not just material possessions at which I posit this query: I ask it in regard to relationships, social media, and any other potentially superfluous matters in life.

I constantly ask this question because circumstances constantly change: because something adds value to my life today doesn’t mean it’ll add value to my life tomorrow, so I keep asking and I keep adjusting accordingly

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A Minimalist’s Thoughts On Money

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



I don’t think about money the way I used to.

I used to think money was more important than just about everything else in life. So I sacrificed to make money, and then I sacrificed more to make more, and then I sacrificed even more to make even more, working too many hours, forsaking my health, forsaking the people closest to me, forsaking everything important in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

The more things I forsook, the more important the money became. Something was missing.

“I’m dizzy from the shopping mall I searched for joy, but I bought it all It doesn’t help the hunger pains and a thirst I’d have to drown first to ever satiate”

—John Mayer

I made good money—nay, great money—during my days in the corporate arena, but the problem was I spent even better money. And that was a serious source of dissatisfaction in my life, one that would haunt me for most of my twenties.

When I was nineteen, I worked six or seven days a week, and I earned more than $50,000 a year, which for a degree-less poor kid from Dayton, Ohio, that’s a lot of money—more money than my mother ever earned. The problem was that when I was earning 50 grand, I was spending 65; and then when I was earning 65, I was spending 80. Eventually, I’d worked my way up the corporate ladder, working 362 days a year (literally), and I was earning a six-figure salary. That sounds great, but I was still spending more than I was bringing home, and that equation never balances.

So instead of bringing home a great salary, I brought home debt, anxiety, and overwhelming amounts of discontent. My love and hatred of money (love of spending it, hatred of never having enough) was, in fact, my largest source of discontent.

Call me stupid. Go ahead, you should. I was stupid. I wasn’t stupid just because I was wasting my income, though—I was far more stupid because of the value I gave to money. I told myself I was a number, there was a dollar sign on my head, I could be bought. I told others they could take my time and my freedom in exchange for green pieces of paper with dead slave owners’ faces printed on them.

That changed when I stopped giving such importance to money. I need money to pay rent, to put food on the table, to put gas in the car, to pay for health insurance—but I needn’t struggle to earn money to buy crap I don’t need.

Minimalism has allowed me to get rid of life’s excess so I can focus on what’s essential. And now, at 31, I make less money than my ignorant nineteen-year-old self, and yet I’m not in debt, I’m not struggling, and most important, I’m happy.

Now, before I spend money, I ask myself one question: Is this worth my freedom?

Is this coffee worth $2 of my freedom? Is this shirt worth $30 of my freedom? Is this car worth $20,000 of my freedom?

In other words, am I going to get more value from the thing I’m about to purchase, or am I going to get more value from my freedom?

Don’t you think it’s a question worth asking yourself?

These days I know every dollar I spend adds immense value to my life. There is a roof over my head at night, the books or the music I purchase bring me joy, the few clothes I own keep me warm, the experiences I share with others at a movie or a concert add value to my life and theirs, and a cup of tea with my best friend becomes far more significant than a trip to the mall ever could.

I no longer waste my money, and thus it’s far less important to pursue it endlessly

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5 Questions to Ask Before Buying

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Before committing to the next purchase, ask yourself five questions:

Can I afford to part with this money? If you have to charge it to a credit card, you can’t afford it.

Can I pay the actual cost? Remember, the true cost of a thing stretches far beyond the price on the price tag.

Will it add value to my life? It must serve a purpose or bring joy; otherwise, it does not add value.

What are the alternatives? In other words, is this the best use of this money? If not, then use the money elsewhere.

Can I get by without it for a while? If so, wait. Who knows—maybe a day of contemplation will help you realize you no longer want the thing you wanted. (We call this the 30/30 Rule.)

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How to Go Clothes Shopping

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



The average American tosses 88 pounds of clothes each year. Yet we keep buying more when we actually need less.

Pull any article of clothing from the back of your closet, the bottom of your dresser, the bin in your basement. When’s the last time you wore it?

Last month? Last year? Last decade?

Whenever I feel the urge to hit the mall to go clothes shopping, I head to my closet instead to try on the clothes I already own.

Am I unhappy with this shirt? These pants? Those sunglasses? If so, why do I still own them? And if I am, in fact, satisfied, why do I feel the need to acquire more? Am I trying to fulfill a need that doesn’t exist?

The lure of consumerism is real. Most objects appear more fashionable, more necessary, more urgent when they’re on a mannequin, model, or retail display. But the clothes in your closet serve the same purpose: cover, warmth, style.

Every time I go shopping in my own closet, I’m inspired by the results. Either I find an item I forgot I owned and start wearing it again, or I stumble across that oversized orange sweatshirt I’m eager to donate. Either way, my checking account is grateful.

Then, whenever I genuinely need something new, I feel good about my purchase because I ask the right questions, and because I’m meeting a material need, not a primal impulse

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How The Minimalists Are Using Social Media

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Have you ever quit social media for an extended period of time? How did it change your perspective?

After using social media almost every day for the last seven years, we decided to walk away for a month to see what would happen. So, on December 31, 2017, before the ball dropped, we deleted all our past tweets and Instagram photos, we ceased our Facebook and Pinterest activity, and we uploaded a cryptic video alluding to our disappearance.

Then we were gone.

And now, a month later, we’re still alive, and we’re entering February 2018 with a blank slate.

During our month away, we learned some important lessons. And we unlearned a few bad habits. Most important, we discovered a need for us to use social media differently going forward.

Lessons Learned

Purpose. For us, once we’d created a blank slate, the purpose of social media became evident: communication. Not to sound overly simplistic, but we want to use these platforms to effectively communicate our thoughts, ideas, and creations, and engage our audience directly with questions and answers—not broadcast our every thought. Social media can be a noisy place, and we don’t want to add to the noise—we want to whisper to the people who are listening.

Mindfulness. Whenever an activity occupies much of our mind, we need to take a step back and assess whether it’s worth the time we spend on that activity. Our friend Jessica Lynn Williams, who helps us organize our social feeds, discovered an important insight without the pall of social media in her everyday life: “Stepping away from social in January gave me the clarity of mind to see ‘the asshole in my mind running amuck’ (as Dan Harris says), and it has prompted me to adopt a regular meditation practice, which is something I’ve been afraid of for a while. This will be the year I take back my mind.”

Augmentation. We want to use social media to augment our creations—blog, podcast, books, films—not as the main platform on which we create. While we’ll be active on the different platforms, it’s worth noting that the best place to follow The Minimalists isn’t social media; the best place to follow our creations is by subscribing to our blog or by subscribing to our podcast (or both). Social media will simply append those platforms.

Unfollow. Whether it’s celebrities on Instagram, friends on Facebook, or news outlets on Twitter, the folks we follow often negatively affect our moods. We get caught up comparing ourselves with others, we get dragged down by naysayers, and we start twitching for 24-hour “breaking” news. Whenever this is the case, it’s best to unfollow those negative influences and instead curate a feed that includes people and brands who inform us, challenge us, and improve us. Letting go of the negative is the only way to make room for the valuable.

Value. As The Minimalists, we’ll post to social media only when it will add value for others. Before we publish to any platform, we must be able to affirmatively answer one question: Does this add value? If not, then delete.

Unlearned Bad Habits

Idiots. If the purpose of social media is to communicate with other humans, then we also must be careful with whom we engage. People find it easy to be keyboard crusaders, interactions with whom are rarely productive, so it’s important not to engage with the snarky critics, because this isn’t for them. Hence, if you’re a seagull, you’ll be blocked without discrimination, and you won’t be unblocked—ever. We have a renewed desire to communicate with our audience and a new vigor to avoid arguing with idiots.

Pacifiers. By removing the social media apps from our phones—which often pacified us whenever we had a silent moment in an airport, waiting room, or other interstitial zone—we learned that new pacifiers always appear. If you get rid of Facebook, you twitch for Twitter. If Instagram is gone, YouTube steps in. Two thousand years ago, the Stoics complained about people getting lost in books instead of going out and experiencing the real world. Today, we complain that nobody reads books anymore because everyone is lost in the tempting glow of their screens. Whether it’s books or social media we get lost in, we must work hard to use these tools deliberately to help us function in the real world—not remove ourselves from it.

Promoless. There’s too much “branding” going on these days. No, there aren’t any advertisements on our website or podcast or social media feeds, but even we have been guilty of too much self-promotion getting in the way of our own creations. Perhaps Derek Sivers said it best: putting ads in your work is like putting a Coke machine in a monastery. We feel the same about all the shameless self-promotion that’s going on these days, including our own. It’s solipsism run amuck. We’re pledging to remove the Coke machine from the monastery immediately so you can better enjoy what we’re creating and sharing without the promotional eyesores. Yes, we’ll occasionally talk about what we’re working on—including events, books, and projects—but we won’t let it get in the way of what we’re creating. If anything, promotion should be similar to the end credits of a film, not the main plot.

Triplicate. Over the years, we began using the different social media platforms the same exact way, which, when you think about it, is insane. It was a digital version of those old carbon-copy forms from decades past: post a photo to Instagram, repost it to Twitter, and then re-repost it to Facebook. Lather, rinse, repeat. Triplicating our efforts isn’t only tedious, it’s the opposite of using these platforms intentionally.

Using Social Media Differently

Because each social media platform is different, we want to use them differently—not as a carbon copy—so we’ve decided to focus on the specific strengths of each platform by identifying their primary and secondary uses. These changes should help us avoid creative overlap and will allow us better communicate with our audience as a result.

Facebook. We’ve found our Facebook audience engages most with the articles we post. Thus, we’ll use our Facebook account primarily to share useful links, be it our essays or others’ articles. Secondarily, we’ll use Facebook to publish short Audiograms and photo albums from past tours.

Twitter. Twitter is the best platform for us to share our text-only Minimal Maxims, so that will be its primary use. Secondarily, we’ll use Twitter to communicate directly with our audience: the brevity of this platform makes it the best place to interact with other people, so if you want to interact with us directly, Twitter is the best place to do so.

Instagram. Instagram is undoubtedly the best platform to share photos, so, going forward, we’ll use IG primarily to share beautiful black-and-white images. Secondarily, we’ll use the ephemerality of Instagram Stories to broadcast updates, current events, ephemera, and useful excerpts from our blogposts and podcasts. And we’ll occasionally use Instagram Live for unplanned live broadcasts, which are deleted after 24 hours.

Pinterest. Pinterest is the Internet’s corkboard, so it’s ideal us for us is to share letter boards that contain challenges and simple-living reminders from The Minimalists. We’ll also use our Pinterest account to repost photos of minimalist living spaces.

YouTube. Since YouTube is the premier video platform, this is where we’ll publish videos created by The Minimalists. This will be especially relevant when we add a video version of our podcast later this year. Secondarily, we’ll use YouTube to post other video creations: video essays, web series, and scheduled livestreams.

You’ll notice our absence from most social platforms: Snapchat, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Ello, Google+, Periscope, Flickr, Reddit, Quora, et al. That’s not because these services aren’t useful; they simply aren’t useful for us right now.

All things considered, we hope to use our new strategy to creatively add value to people’s lives. This is our recipe, and it isn’t ideal for everyone. Truth be told, it might not be ideal for anyone but us. And even then, we’ll likely adjust how we wield these tools after using them differently for a while.

No, we don’t expect you to follow us on every platform. Hell, we don’t expect you to follow us on any platform. But if you find value in what we’re communicating, feel free to join us on our new journey. And if you ever stop finding value in what we’re sharing, please unfollow us at anytime

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Your Past Does Not Equal Your Future

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



You needn’t be defined by your past. And certainly, your future does not have to look like your past, unless you allow it to.

Sure, certain parts of your past were great, but…

The popular kid isn’t necessarily popular now. The college quarterback doesn’t always make it to the NFL. The child actor often doesn’t make it to the big screen.

Conversely…

The high-school nerd became Bill Gates. The freshman bench-rider became Michael Jordan. The poverty-stricken, abused girl became Oprah.

Sometimes the mighty fall, and sometimes the fallen embrace greatness. Sometimes you think you are not enough, but then you discover that you are more than enough.

If the past equaled the future, then your windshield would be of no use to you; you would simply drive your car with your eyes glued to the rearview. But driving this way—looking only behind you—is a surefire way to crash.

Instead, it’s important to occasionally acknowledge your past—to check your rearview from time to time—while staying focused on the road in front of you.

We’ve all made mistakes and bad decisions in the past. We are all human. We can, however, take the lessons from those bad decisions and start a new future, starting with this moment.

In fact, a more accurate snapshot of your potential future is the present moment. What you’re doing right now will shape your future far more than your past. And with every new moment comes a new present, a fresh start.

Take advantage of this moment. Your future depends on it

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A Minimalist, a Japanese Cowboy, and an Arrogant American Walk into a Museum | The Minimalists



I’m standing outside one my favorite places on earth, the Getty, next to an Asian man outfitted in rancher’s attire: white cowboy hat, yellow snakeskin boots, head-to-toe denim. The views here are stunning. Even under a ceiling of cerebral clouds, you can see miles in every direction: I think I finally understand the true meaning of the word “panoramic.” With a galaxy of green hills to the south, downtown L.A.’s diffused skyline to the east, and a string of ruby taillights scorching the congested 405 to the north, the sun is preparing its descent into the hills of Santa Monica to our west, casting long, angular shadows before it disappears behind the Pacific’s metallic horizon, like a glowing coin placed carefully into a wishing well.

“I like your hat,” I say to the denim-clad man, towering over him even with his heeled snakeskins.

“I like it, too,” he responds definitively, with a thick Japanese accent and a nicotine smile, his cadence dressed in conviction. “I love living life,” he says with no further explanation, as if everything that needed to be explained—about him, about life in general—is contained inside those four words. Although we’ve never met, the two of us are bystanders in the museum’s afternoon architecture tour, which is just wrapping up. Our tour guide points out the 80,000-year-old granite pillars framing the impending sunset.

Behind us, an American man is complaining to his wife about the cold breeze, about the clouds overhead, about the lack of amplification in the tour guide’s voice. He has been pompously protesting the entire tour. Apparently the universe has conspired to ruin his day. From the sound of his steadfast objections, everything here is ill-suited for his presence.

There should be something out of place with a five-foot-tall Japanese cattleman standing among Rembrandt paintings and modern architecture in Southern California, but there’s not. And yet something is off with the everyday American maundering about the world’s inadequacies.

Tuning out the American for a moment, I let the cowboy know he would fit in well back home in Montana. We have a lot of big hats and pickup trucks, I tell him. He says he likes that part of the country—“the Wild Western” he calls it—and then recommends a book called The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich. (Although the book is out of print, I later find a copy online and discover for myself Ehrlich’s gorgeous rumination on life on Wyoming’s high plains.)

Despite the cowboy’s unconventional appearance, or maybe because of it, it is obvious that he would fit in almost anywhere. His posture, his gait, even his gap-toothed grin, speak volumes about this man’s interior life. He seems composed, resolute, content—many miles from arrogant. In a word, he is confident.

Conversely, no place seems fit for the babbling American: his regal standards and his poor expectations make assimilation a constant problem. After another snarky comment directed toward his wife, I give him a searing eyeful, and his gaze immediately searches for his feet. His voice may be the loudest in the pack, but volume isn’t a measure of confidence. A truly confident man need only whisper to be heard.

The sun is completing its coin toss into the ocean, our group outlined in twilight. Looking over the cowboy, surveying his staunch temperament, I realize that his confidence is simply an external display of a rich interior life—congruency between his internal and external worlds. Arrogance, on the other hand, is the opposite of confidence: a veneer of composure, incongruence at its zenith. This is why a confident man is able to coalesce with any group, anywhere—an arrogant man, nowhere at all.

Confidence holds up under scrutiny, whereas arrogance fractures with the slightest crack. And, as human beings, we all have cracks. Sooner or later, a spotlight is shone and the arrogant man’s pomposity is exposed, seeping through the veneer, while the confident man just admires the beauty of his flaws.

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Stimulate the Economy Like a Minimalist

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



If everyone immediately stopped spending their money, our economy would crash. This goes without saying. Consequently, one of the biggest (supposed) arguments many people have against minimalism is that if everyone became a minimalist, then we’d all be doomed: the financial system as it stands today would collapse, and no longer would we have the wealth necessary to purchase cheap plastic shit from Walmart.

There are several problems with this point of view, some obvious, some a bit more abstruse.

First, no informed person would argue that we should stop spending money or that we must stop consuming. Consumption is not the problem; consumerism is the problem. Consumerism is compulsory, vapid, pernicious, impulsive, unfocused, misguided. Worst of all, it is seductive: consumerism’s shiny facade promises more than it can possibly deliver, because love, happiness, contentment, and satisfaction are all internal feelings that cannot be commodified, and the truth is that once our basic needs are met, the acquisition of trinkets does little for our lifelong well-being.

Using consumerism to stimulate the economy is like fixing a cracked mirror with a hammer. It only worsens the problem. Yes, trade is an important part of any society. Circumventing consumerism, however, doesn’t imply that minimalists sidestep commerce. Rather, minimalism is predicated on intentionality, which means we spend our money more deliberately.

Minimalists invest in experiences over possessions. Travel, indie concerts, vacations, community theater, etc.: we can all spend money without acquiring new material things.

Minimalists buy new possessions carefully. To do so we must ask better questions, like, Will this thing add value to my life?

Minimalists support local businesses. Local, indie shops tend to be less motivated by profit. Sure, they need to make money to keep the lights on, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but earning a buck usually isn’t the primary concern of the local bookstore, restauranteur, or bike shop. They are in business because they are passionate about their product or service, and they want to share that passion with their patrons. Passion begets greater quality and better service, which makes the money they earn well deserved.

Ultimately, minimalists aren’t interested in “stimulating” the economy. Stimulation is ephemeral. We’d rather improve our economy’s long-term health by making better individual decisions about consumption, getting involved in our community, and supporting local businesses who care. If more people do this, we’ll build a stronger economy, one that’s predicated on personal responsibility and community interaction, not a false sense of urgency and the mindless stockpiling of junk we never needed in the first place.

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Constructing an Extraordinary Life

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



An extraordinary life doesn’t just happen: it is constructed, crafted, curated.

We ought not simply “go with the flow”: it’s nice and easy for a while—riding the current to wherever it might take us—but eventually everyone ends up at the same place—the rapids. And then, unprepared, we’re in for a world of hurt.

Your authors live extraordinary lives: we’re not ashamed to admit this. It wasn’t always this way, though.

For the longest time our lives were unremarkable at best, miserable at worst: too long we went with the flow. We were fat, in debt, and unfulfilled by the lives we were leading—lives filled with every conceivable type of clutter: mental clutter, emotional clutter, physical clutter. We had reached the rapids, and we were quickly headed for the falls.

Then we decided to change.

An extraordinary life—a life to be proud of—is a decision. Not a single decision, but a myriad of little decisions each day regarding money, health, passion, and contribution. With the passing of each day these decisions add up, until one day you realize you’ve created an extraordinary life.

If this seems insurmountable initially, that’s because you’re looking too far ahead—only worry about making today extraordinary.

What tiny decisions will you make today—not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but today—that will sculpt your extraordinary life?

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This Year Beat the Crap Out of Me and It Was Awesome | The Minimalists



I feel like a bruised thing. Tired, tattered, and threadbare, I’m not entirely sure how I made it through this year. But I did—we did—and it was awesome.

Four years ago we started a little blog and called it The Minimalists, and we never anticipated everything that would follow. Among all the successes and failures these past four years, 2014 has been our greatest year of personal growth: we published our best work, Everything That Remains, our bestselling book to date; we brought our simple-living message to tens of thousands of people in eight countries during our 100-city tour (photos); we planted 100 free local meetup groups across three continents; we spoke at TEDx, Apple, and several other conferences, organizations, and universities; we introduced a team of mentors to assist people one-on-one with their challenges; we filmed a documentary about life’s most important things; we partook in hundreds of television, radio, and newspaper interviews, including our Christmas Day appearance on the TODAY show; we taught 127 students how to write better; we watched our audience grow from 2 to 4 million as readers shared our message with their friends and family; and, most important, by testing and expanding our boundaries, we grew in every area of life: health, relationships, passion, contribution, creativity.

It is astonishing what one can accomplish in a year. Glancing in the rearview, though, everything seems much easier now than it did through the windshield in January. Back then, had we tried to plan all this out, it would have seemed impossible. But rather than focus on arbitrary goals and plotting every potential outcome, we avoided busywork and instead remained intensely focused through it all. That’s the only way we could have done it: not busy but focused. Because busy for the sake of busy is, by definition, unfocused, which makes it impossible to discern that which matters most amid the blur.

Of course with great growth comes great growing pains. Hence the bruised feeling I’m currently experiencing. So now, after slamming on the breaks to enjoy the holidays, Ryan and I are caring for our bruises, attempting to recover, spending time with people we love, resting before moving forward toward the new year on the horizon.

Thank you for being with us on this exciting journey, helping us spread a message we truly believe in.

Looking back, here are my favorite essays from 2014:

We’ll see you next year. We have a lot in store, including an outstanding documentary, a new tour, and a surprise or two. The best way to stay in the loop is to subscribe to our essays via email (no spam, ever).

Take it simple.

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Imperfect Is the New Perfect By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  Perfectionism is a futile endeavor. As a perfectionist, I speak from experience. And this essay is my confessionary hymn. At times my perfectionism haunts me: all the pleasure of “getting it right” can be immediately wiped out by small, debilitating imperfections: the sharp, stabbing pain of a negative criticism; the disappointment of a brightly illuminated flaw; the vitriolic feeling brought forth by a set of rolled eyes. Our culture reinforces certain standards we cannot live up to: the women with their half-a-serving hips adorning the covers of magazines; the expensively dressed celebutantes wearing an average-person’s annual salary on her wrist; the modern-day rock stars and Fonzarellis plastered all over billboards and TV screens. Attempting to keep up with these false standards is tantamount to playing a rigged game—the game of Perfectionism is designed for failure. Plus, even if we could win that game, it wouldn’t make us happy—contentment comes from within, not from the entrapment of protruding hipbones or the bling-bling of consumer purchases. And yet we continue to play this game with religious devotion—myself included. For example, I published my first fiction book this week. It quickly climbed to the top 10 on Amazon. Going into the week, I didn’t have any expectations or sales goals, so watching the book climb was a beautiful surprise. I’m not concerned about sales or making money with this book—it is far more important to me that people read it. Writing literary fiction has been my passion since I was 22 (I’m 30 now); so, suffice it to say, this book has been a long time coming. Moreover, writing fiction is ten times harder than nonfiction for me: one must worry whether or not his characters feel real, whether or not the narrative flows fluidly, whether or not the plot serves a purpose, and a dozen other concerns. However, writing fiction feels 100 times more rewarding when I “get it right.” That’s because fiction allows me to explain life in ways that nonfiction can’t: it can evince human emotion; it can exhibit what it’s like to live in the complex, modern world; it can explain life in ways that nonfiction can’t. The way I think about it is that nonfiction nourishes my intellectual side (what I think), while fiction nourishes my emotional side (what I feel). So, publishing my first book of fiction and watching it climb the bestseller list has to feel great, right? No—not at first. My first reaction this week was anything but great. It wasn’t even good or all right. Instead, I felt a pang of panic when I got the first email from a kind, well-meaning reader who informed me that he loved the book but wanted to point out a typo in the first chapter (an “a” was used where an “an” belonged). What a horrible dash of cold water! It sounds silly, but my first thought was “Oh no, I thought this book was perfect!” My first reaction was to beat myself up, to freak out a little. I had worked harder on this book than anything else in my life and there was a mistake. How was this possible? I read these stories dozens of times (there are entire passages I can recite without looking at the page). The stories were line-edited by two incredible editors. And the book was proof-read thoroughly by a group of a dozen proofreaders. How could there be even a single typo? I thought about it until I found an answer in my favorite literary writer: David Foster Wallace. I remembered that his magnum opus, Infinite Jest, was line-edited twice by Michael Peitsch, arguably one of the best editors in the world. Then it was copyedited by several professional copyeditors. And yet the first print edition of that book had several typos (much more than an “an”). This reminded me of other errors I’ve spotted in my favorite books from my favorite authors, not to mention the errors, typos, and stupid mistakes I’ve seen in high school and college textbooks. Remember those? And don’t even get me started on the amount of mistakes I see online. Oy vey! Once a creation—a book, an album, a movie—is released to the public, even its most subtle flaws are glaring. Perhaps this is a suitable metaphor for life as well: once we put our individual problems out in the open, they are far more noticeable, and thus we feel more compelled to address those problems. I’ve noticed this phenomena with myself and this website this year. By writing about my life, my transformations, my continued pursuit of personal improvement, I’ve “put myself out there,” as it were. Many of you know more about me than certain members of my extended family. Consequently, my public display of self forces me to grow in ways I wouldn’t otherwise grow. The truth is, we are all human. Thus, we are all flawed. DFW’s Infinite Jest is a classic novel, even with its few mistakes. Similarly, I’m incredibly pleased with my first book: the stories convey emotion, the characters feel alive to me, and it’s easily the best thing I’ve ever written—even with any scar tissue that keeps it from being perfect. The initial feedback on Falling While Sitting Down: Stories has been overwhelmingly positive. But, at first, even with the praise and exultation, I couldn’t get past the post-publication imperfectness of the whole thing. Yes, more than 10 people proof-read and edited this book with me, and we fixed dozens of syntactical and grammatical snafus in the first five (yes, five!) drafts; but none of us are perfect, so I’m sure we missed something. Ironically, the stories are about some incredibly flawed people; so, in a strange way, a few flaws feels appropriate. I don’t write to show-off some sort of portentous cerebration; so “getting it perfect” isn’t the primary intention of my writing. Rather, I write to uncover what it means to be a human being—both intellectually (essays) and emotionally (stories). Consequently, I learned a valuable lesson this week: I learned to be happy with my efforts and my growth, not with perfection. Truth be told, I worked hard on this book and I’m proud of that. It was exciting and gratifying to write. It was also difficult to write. I grew as a writer during its creation. And I’m incredibly pleased with the end result because I put every ounce of effort I could into this project. It is not perfect, but it is a damn good book (it’s the only thing I’ve ever written that I’d said that about). I think the same goes for all other areas of life. Health. If you want a perfect body, you’ll never have it. Instead, we can focus on having a better body, we can focus on having a healthier body while enjoy the process of exercising and improving our health. Relationships. If you’re looking for the perfect partner or friend or co-worker, you’ll lose every time. People are, by nature, imperfect—we come equipped with a tackle box of flaws. But instead of the flaws, we can focus on making our relationships better, we can focus on growing as individuals and contributing to other people. Passions. If you’re looking for the perfect job, it’s not out there. No matter your vocation—even if you land your “dream job” in which you pursue your passions every day—there will be moments of despair, moments of tedium, and moments of doubt. But that’s OK. Instead of those moments, we can focus on the joy experienced by pursuing our passions, we can focus on the fulfillment we get from growing and improving everything we do in tiny little ways every day. Every area of life is filled with imperfection, but we needn’t neurose over every flaw. I’m not, however, advocating mediocrity. I refuse to be run-of-the-mill. I’d rather fail miserably than saunter down the alley of mediocrity. Instead, I’m advocating passionately pursuing what you love and doing so with vigor, knowing there will be flaws and mistakes along the way. I’m advocating learning from those flaws—even appreciating them—because they allow you to grow. That’s what life is about. Additionally, this week I learned to take feedback for what it is. Sure, there are some cynics and hypocritical jerks out there—and I’ve learned to pay them no mind (although that’s not always easy). But most people who provide feedback are simply attempting to help—they are contributing to the greater good. This feedback allows us to grow, it allows us to improve and live more meaningful lives. In fact, that’s the intention of this site: to contribute to people in meaningful ways. Ryan and I do so by writing about our lives and the lessons we’ve learned about our lives—warts and all. I’m constantly seeking new ways to grow and better myself, new ways to improve my flaws. So if you ever notice a mistake (be it a typo in a book or in an essay on this site), feel free to send me an email. I’ve written nearly half-a-million words this year (that’s more than one word per minute, including when I’m asleep), so I’m sure there’s a typo or two somewhere. You can always email me, and although I won’t apply every bit of feedback I receive, but I do consider the meaningful, value-adding feedback. Any errors I need to fix, I’ll fix and eventually republish the updated content. Likewise, I’ll do the same with my life: any errors I need to fix, I’ll fix and continue to grow as an individual. I also learned how to better deal with imperfection this week. I learned to do three simple things to change my state. Breathe. When something stressful knocks on my door, I’ll take a walk and focus on my breathing. Deep, diaphragmatic breaths change our physiology, calm us, and provide our bodies with the oxygen we need. Focus. If we focus on the negative, we’ll feel fear, loneliness, jealousy, and every other negative emotion we can conjure from within. Conversely, if we focus on the positive, we’ll feel joy, happiness, and contentment. Much of how we feel is directly associated with what we focus on. Beliefs. Similarly, whatever we believe becomes our reality. If we believe people are rotten and hateful, then we’ll find all the flaws in even the kindest people. If we believe people are kind and caring, then we’ll find glimpses of perfection in every miscreant and reprobate. The same is true for any event or situation in which we are involved—it is whatever we believe it is. Your life isn’t perfect, my life isn’t perfect, but as we grow we will continue to improve our lives, which allows us to contribute to other people. Life, therefore, is about growth and contribution, not perfection. It’s not always easy—often it takes some gruelingly hard work, immense amounts of effort, and tremendous courage to get outside your comfort zone and grow—but growth is a critical part of life. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

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Check Email Like a Minimalist

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Most of us receive a multitude of emails each day. It’s easy to address them one by one, filtering and sorting and replying to them as they tumble into our inboxes.

Most of the emails I receive are either positive or pointless—nice words from readers (positive) or junk mail I do my best to filter out (pointless). Thus, it’s only logical to want to check my email frequently, receiving textual praise while clearing the clutter. It’s a win-win, right? After all, who doesn’t want constant positive feedback? And who doesn’t want to feel productive?

This sounds ideal, except for one problem: we have real lives.

You see, living in our inboxes—something I did for a long time, especially during my twelve years in the corporate world—forces us to be on edge, always seeking the next nugget of digital applause, always anticipating the next question, the next “follow-up,”� the next “action item.”� Worse, it keeps me away from living a fulfilling life, one that doesn’t revolve around the white glow of my computer screen.

The problem with email is it’s never enough. Even when we whittle our incoming messages down to zero, we’re constantly waiting for the next fleeting bit of good information. I call these bits “food pellets from the universe.”�

Similar to a lab rat, we have trained ourselves to click that “get mail”� button to receive these food pellets. Hit the lever, get the food. Hit the lever, get the food. Hit the lever, get the food.

Sometimes the food is tasty—a kind message from a friend, a thoughtful question, a hilarious link from Nicodemus. But most of the time these food pellets are filled with empty calories and they taste like cardboard.

So instead of checking my email throughout each day, I check it once a day at most, and some days I don’t check it at all.

A handful of changes in my life have made this shift possible—and far less stressful than you might think.

Home. I don’t have Internet at home. This one change, albeit utterly frustrating at first, is likely the most productive thing I’ve ever done. Because I don’t have Internet at home, it is impossible for emails to penetrate the walls of my abode.

Phone. I don’t get emails on my phone. Once I brought my cellphone back into my life—after going two months without it—I discovered that it was better and far less stressful to remove email from it altogether. Now I use my phone to text and (ahem) talk.

Planning. When I check email, I do so deliberately: I set aside a block of time, clear my plate, and embrace the messages on my schedule, on my terms, when it’s convenient for me. If I do it right, it’s possible to enjoy myself, even when I’m checking my email.

Expectations. It’s important to set the proper expectations with people. Let people know how you feel about email (they likely feel the same way). Ask them to respect your time and attention. My friends know I don’t like receiving superfluous emails, and if they must send me an email, then I likely won’t respond right away. My writing students know I don’t respond the same day, either. When I do respond, it’s thoughtful, succinct, and, above all, value-adding. The best question to ask yourself before clicking the send button is, Does this email add value?

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Can We Have an Honest Conversation About Advertisements? By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  If the following screed were a peer-reviewed journal article, its abstract would be brief: advertisements suck. Well, at least most of them do. That’s not to say that all advertising is inherently evil, or even bad, because not all advertisements are created equal—they run the gamut from informative to downright destructive. To understand the inherent problems with advertisements, it’s important to first point out that advertising isn’t the same thing as marketing. Though these two terms are often used interchangeably, they are different in practice. Advertisements Advertisements are paid announcements via a public medium—mattress commercials, “infomercials” for the latest exercise fad, and seemingly harmless adverts for harmful prescription drugs—and they are generally not an endorsement by the platform on which they are displayed. In Latin, advertere means “to turn toward,” and that’s the exact aim of today’s ad agencies: they’re willing to pay heaps of money to turn your eyes toward their products and services. And if the demand for a product isn’t as high as the supply, no problem! Advertising can create a false demand if the budget is high enough. In recent years, worldwide spending on advertising has topped half a trillion dollars a year. Even writing the full number—500,000,000,000.00, commas and all—doesn’t come close to truly understanding its depth. So let’s put it into perspective: If you leave your home today and begin spending one dollar every single second, it will take you more than 15,000 years to spend half a trillion dollars. In fact, if you’d’ve spent a million dollars every single day since the fall of Rome, you still wouldn’t’ve spent half a trillion dollars by now. And we’re spending more than that every year on advertising. Which isn’t so bad in and of itself. After all, it’s just money being spent on informing people about useful stuff, right? Yes, that sort of used to be true. A Brief History of Modern Advertising Before the twentieth century, advertising largely connected the producers of goods with consumers who genuinely needed those goods. But then, as Stuart Ewen describes in his book Captains of Consciousness, “Advertising increased dramatically in the United States as industrialization expanded the supply of manufactured products. In order to profit from this higher rate of production, industry needed to recruit workers as consumers of factory products. It did so through the invention of [advertising] designed to influence the population’s economic behavior on a larger scale.” By the Roaring Twenties, thanks to Edward Bernays, who’s sometimes referred to as the founder of modern advertising and public relations, advertisers in the U.S. adopted the doctrine that “human instincts could be targeted and harnessed.” Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, realized that appealing to the rational minds of customers, which had been the mainstream method advertisers had used to sell products, was far less effective than selling products based on the unconscious desires that he felt were the “true motivators of human action.” Since then, we’ve witnessed ten decades of advertising agencies reaching—and overreaching—into the depths of the human psyche. Overreach of Advertisers Fast forward to the present day. One of the most obvious examples of advertisers’ rapacious (over)reach in recent years is the drug Sildenafil, which was created as a treatment for hypertension. When clinical trials revealed the drug wasn’t effective, that should have been the end of its life cycle. But then advertisers stepped in. After discovering several male test subjects experienced prolonged erections during clinical trials, the makers of Sildenafil had a solution that desperately needed a problem. So they hired an ad agency who coined the term “erectile dysfunction,” and Viagra was born. This campaign took a relatively flaccid problem and created a ragging $2-billion-per-year blue pill. Of course, Viagra is a rather anodyne example. There are many pharmaceuticals whose side effects are so expansive that their commercials are forced to use gratuitous green pastures, yearbook smiles, and handholding actors to conceal the terror of “rectal bleeding,” “amnesia,” and “suicidal ideation.” In a sane world, misleadingly selling harmful prescription drugs would be a criminal act. Actually, it is: it’s illegal in every country in the world—except the United States and New Zealand—to advertise drugs to consumers. But we let the almighty dollar get in the way. In 1976, Henry Gadsden, then CEO of Merck & Co., told Fortune magazine that he’d rather sell drugs to healthy people because that’s where the most money was. We’ve been sold new “cures” ever since. But please don’t think this is an anti-boner-pill diatribe. According to the research, Viagra seems to be a relatively benign drug. Thereby, there’s little wrong with the pill itself. It’s the paid advertisements that are troublesome. Many ad agencies employ writers, demographers, statisticians, analysts, and even psychologists in an effort to divorce us from the money in our checking accounts. With the help of a fine-tuned agency, even the “disclaimer” is part of the sales pitch: “Consult your doctor if your erection lasts longer than four hours.” I don’t know about you, but I’d rather consult my partner with my everlasting hard-on. Viagra isn’t the only product pushed beyond its initial conception. Did you know Listerine was previously used as a floor cleaner, Coca-Cola was invented as an alternative to morphine, and the graham cracker was created to stop you from masturbating? Hmm. If at first your product doesn’t succeed, hire an ad agency! Selling Insecurity Making men believe their erections aren’t firm enough isn’t the first time corporations have capitalized on human insecurity. For decades, women have been sold an inferiority complex. Our glowing screens would have the average female believe her waist isn’t skinny enough, her breasts aren’t big enough, and her eyelashes aren’t lush enough. Don’t worry, though, whatever your ailment, consumerism has the cure. In Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk prophesied of a dystopia in which a cunning con man could sell our own fat back to us after extracting it from our bodies. He was only half right, however. In the book, the fat is repackaged as soap—a metaphor for cleansing ourselves by way of consumerism—but in the real world we’re sold our fat in the form of autologous-fat transfer (butt injections) so we can look like our favorite reality-television stars. In a Kafkaesque bait-and-switch, advertisers sell us the food that makes us obese because we “deserve a treat,” and then they sell us the diet plans and exercise equipment to combat our gluttony. The sleight of hand doesn’t end with “male enhancers” and weight-loss remedies. Advertisers go much further, capitalizing on our fear (and greed) with radically overpriced timeshare properties, precious metals, and end-times survival kits. You may not’ve known the world was ending, but now that you do, there’s a product you can purchase to prepare. Selling Scarcity Speaking of the end of the world, why does it seem like the ads we experience are always taking place in a state of perpetual emergency? Act now! Limited time only! While supplies last! These advertiser-induced artificial limits are almost always imaginary. The truth is that if you “miss out” on a so-called sale, you’ll be just fine because corporations are always looking for a new opportunity to sell you something today. I mean, what’s the alternative? “Sorry, Mrs. Customer, you’re screwed—you waited an extra day to make your decision, so we no longer want your money!” Why, then, does almost every company inject urgency into their ads? Because, as Bernays recognized a century ago, this tactic takes advantage of our primal nature: humans make quick—often rash—decisions in times of perceived scarcity. This made sense when our number one concern was starvation; it makes much less sense when we think we’ll never be able to own that big-screen television, video-game console, or clutch purse unless we get in on this weekend’s doorbuster bonanza. Selling Nonessentials Advertisers have gotten so skilled that they can even sell us trash and tell us it’s good for us. Literally. Since American farmers are faced with unprecedented hoards of soybean and corn crops, and thus unprecedented waste products from those crops, advertisers have found a way not to safely dispose of that waste but to repackage it and sell it to you as hydrogenated oil, a supposed “alternative” to healthier oils from olives, avocados, and almonds. Inferior cooking oils are just the start of the garbage that’s sold by the food industry. The amount of junk food that is peddled to us is so immense and so dangerous that there isn’t room in this essay to meaningfully explore the sugar and processed foods vended by America’s largest corporations, but it can be summed up in a single stat: in 2018, you are more likely to die from obesity than of a violent crime, terrorism, war, starvation, or a car crash. Junk foods aren’t the only junk we buy. Unbeknown to us, advertisers have helped turn our homes into mausoleums of trash. To justify our clinging, we’ve invented cute nicknames for our junk—trinket, knickknack, novelty, doohickey, tchotchke, collector’s item, memento—as if what we call our trash increases its importance. But in the real world, the cheap plastic things we purchase at gift shops aren’t of importance, which might be fine if they made us happier or improved our lives, but they don’t. Instead, we experience a dull high that wears off soon after the cash register dings its quiet victory, and we sit in the aftermath of consumption with an unusable artifact. Then, in time, we feel icky because we’re too ashamed to let go, so we purchase plastic storage containers to hide—ahem, organize—our past mistakes. Each year, Americans spend $1.2 trillion on nonessential goods. In contrast, we contribute less than $200 billion to charities every year. In other words, we spend a trillion dollars more on shit we don’t need than on helping people in need. Advertising to Children Advertisers have found perhaps the easiest way to flood our homes with nonessentials: by advertising to our children. Not only do kids lack the critical thinking skills to say no to the foods that are killing us, but if they develop brand loyalty early, then Ronald McDonald has a lifetime customer. According to the American Psychology Association, commercial appeals to children became commonplace with the advent and widespread adoption of television, and they grew exponentially with the proliferation of cable television, which allowed programmers to develop entire channels of child-oriented programming and advertising. It is estimated that advertisers spend more than $12 billion each year to reach the youth, and children view more than 40,000 television commercials each year—an exponential increase from decades past. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes this targeting occurs because advertising in the U.S. alone is a $250 billion a year industry with 900,000 brands to sell, and children and adolescents are attractive consumers: teenagers spend $155 billion each year, children younger than 12 spend another $25 billion, and both groups influence another $200 billion of their parents’ spending every year. Perhaps the solution is to follow Sweden, Norway, and Quebec, and completely bar advertising to children under the age of 12. But more than likely it’s up to us as parents to develop the systems and communities that will better influence our kids’ viewing habits. The Upside of Advertising When done carefully, however, as rare as that might be, advertising can help fulfill an existing need. In fact, a hundred years ago, many ads did just that: they connected potential customers with a product that would improve their lives. I myself have benefited from informative advertisements. Living in Los Angeles, I’m exposed to more billboards than most of the world’s population. Even though they’re a horrendous eyesore, I can honestly say that I’m more informed about the available media—movies, music, television series—than if these advertisements didn’t exist. The same is true for the tailored ads of the Internet. Google does a great job matching their content with my perceived needs. If a website is going to clutter their sidebar with banner ads, I would rather be served messages that are geared toward my interests: the bookshelf I’ve been considering instead of a cosmetics display, the socks I need instead of an automobile pitch, the concert I want to attend instead of a beer commercial. It would be hard for me to claim that ads don’t occasionally provide some quantifiable good to my life. I’m simply not sure whether the pros outweigh the cons. True, the ads are “better” than ever, but maybe I’m more likely to spend my money irresponsibly when I’m constantly presented ads that match my precise interests. And while L.A.’s billboards are more informative than, say, the ambulance chasers who fill the outdoor displays in most American cities, they’re still intrusive, and I’d prefer they didn’t exist at all—and I’m not alone. The People’s Preference While I was driving from Burlington to Boston last year, something felt off. The rolling emerald landscape was unsullied, not unlike a tranquil screensaver, and I felt an unnameable calm as the mile markers ticked away. Then I crossed the Massachusetts state line, and it became obvious: the trip’s serenity was produced largely by its lack of billboards, which are illegal in the state of Vermont. Currently, four states—Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont—prohibit billboards. And more than 1,500 cities and towns have banned them throughout the world, including one of the largest cities on Earth—Sao Paulo. When Sao Paulo introduced its “Clean City Law” in 2007, more than 15,000 billboards were taken down. To boot, an additional 300,000 intrusive signs—pylons, posters, bus and taxi ads—had to go. The strangest result of ridding the world’s third largest city of these advertisements? In a poll done after the removal, a majority of Paulistanos actually preferred the change. What a novel idea: ask people what they like instead of letting profitability dictate the cityview. From Good to Great Profit If all ads were unobtrusive and informative, it would be hard to have anything bad to say about them. But many twenty-first century advertisers have figured out how to manipulate the system for maximum profit. In the era of mass media and Internet spamming, they’ve crossed a line: we went from connecting people with products they need; to creating a false desire for objects that add little value to our lives; to selling objects that get in the way of a richer, more fulfilling life. Many of the things advertisements make us think we need are actually the source of our discontent. You see, the easiest way to sell us happiness is to first make us unhappy. It’s a painful cycle for us; it’s big business for them. Unfortunately, we’ve accepted ads as part of our everyday life; we’ve been conditioned to think they are a regular part of “content delivery.” After all, advertisements are how we get all those TV shows, radio programs, online articles, and podcasts for free, right? Alternatives to Advertisements There’s no free lunch. Every hour of network television is peppered with nearly 20 minutes of interruptions, and the same is true for most other mediums, which one could argue is more costly than the “free” price tag because we’re giving up our two most precious resources—our time and attention—to receive the product. If we don’t want ads storming our attention (or our children’s attention), then we must be willing to pay for the things we associate as “free.” Netflix, Apple Music, and similar services are able to sidestep the traditional advertising model by providing a service people value. Other businesses and individuals—Wikipedia and Sam Harris come to mind—follow a variation of this ad-free model, frequently called a “freemium” model, where creators provide content for free, and a small portion of their audience supports their work monetarily. (By the way, this model is what keeps The Minimalists Podcast advertisement-free.) When asked why he chooses not to run ads on his popular Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris responded, “I don’t feel I can credibly run ads on my podcast, even for products and services I love and use myself. The one ad I read for a while was for Audible, which I do use, but even in that case, I don’t feel entirely comfortable telling you that you should subscribe to Audible. I mean, should you? Perhaps you shouldn’t. I have no idea. And that would go down as the worst Audible ad ever. “In any case, I’ve discovered that I don’t feel comfortable selling ads, which is fine because I hate what ads have done to digital media. The advertising model is responsible for almost everything that is wrong online. But not running ads puts me in a position of asking my audience for support. This is something I approached with real trepidation in the beginning. However, having done it, I’ve discovered it’s actually the most straightforward relationship I can have with my audience.” No matter your feelings about Netflix, Apple Music, Wikipedia, Sam Harris, or similar companies and individuals, their approach undoubtedly improves their creations by making them interruption-free, and it increases trust since their audience knows these creators aren’t beholden to the desires of advertisers, which allows them to communicate directly with their audience in a way that strengthens the relationship because the customers are in control, not the ad buyers. Moreover, as consumers, our willingness to exchange money for creations forces us to be more deliberate about what we consume. If we’re paying for it, we want to make sure we’re getting our money’s worth. It’s a mystery why we don’t do the same for so-called “free” programming, where we pay no money, but we rarely get our attention’s worth. Whether your time is worth $10, $100, or $1,000 per hour, you likely spend tens of thousands of dollars every year consuming messages from advertisers. Think about that: in a very real way, you’re paying to be advertised to. And there are no refunds on your misspent attention. Marketing The flipside of advertising isn’t the absence of communication—it’s marketing. In his book, The Mindset of Marketing Your Music, Derek Sivers writes, “Don’t confuse the word marketing with advertising, announcing, spamming, or giving away branded crap. Really, marketing just means being considerate. Marketing means making it easy for people to notice you, relate to you, remember you, and tell their friends about you.” What Sivers is describing here is the most honest form of marketing: informing people without manipulating or bothering them. At its ethical zenith, marketing considers the needs and points of view of an audience and works hard to meet those needs by connecting the creators with consumers in an authentic way. In neutral terms, marketing is an unpaid endorsement, often by the creator herself, communicated directly to an audience who’s eager to learn more about the product or service. When done well, this is what Seth Godin describes as Permission Marketing: “the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.” It is possible to engage in world-class marketing without spending a penny on advertising. True, both advertising and marketing are forms of promotion—both allow creators to present their goods and services to a group of people—and when executed poorly, even well-intended marketing can be overkill. Like advertisements, not all marketing messages are created equal. Bastardized Marketing Unfortunately, not every marketer is a paragon of integrity. Just like the advertising world, marketing messages can be laced with misinformation, exaggerations, and propaganda. When creators stray from their audience’s preferences—when they stop providing value and abuse their permission with over-marketing—they fail; they fall victim to vapid self-promotions, the most egregious examples of which include spam emails, website pop-ups, clickbait headlines, begging for followers, searching for “Likes.” As “The Minimalists,” we provide loads of high-quality free creations—essays, podcasts, and quotes—and we occasionally use our platforms to promote a book, event, or service. And if we’re being forthright, even though we attempt to market with integrity, even we struggle to walk the line between informative and overkill. While Ryan & I refuse spam, pop-ups, and salacious titles, and we strive to add value, we, too, have fallen victim to the “look at me” Internet culture—occasionally putting our preferences above our audience’s best interests. Whenever we catch ourselves straying, we course correct, and we work diligently to improve. Marketing as Part of the Creation Regardless of how you feel about marketing, it is the final step in the creative process. Marketing helps creators get their creations in front of people, and when approached delicately, it benefits their audience. But when creators focus more on promoting the creation than the act of creating, the product suffers and so does the audience, and trust is eroded. Until recently, the only way a creator could effectively market her product was to plaster her message across television, radio, print, and billboards. Using jargon like “GRPs,” “TRPs,” and “frequency,” advertisers could guarantee their product would reach a particular audience via a robust advertising plan. Even though this shotgun approach was imprecise, it was the only way to get to a mass audience. Today, the opposite is true. As a creator, you are your own marketing department; you can find an enthusiastic audience without the need to advertise. And because our tools are better than ever, your efforts can be more precise than the traditional approach of yesteryear, so you needn’t cast a wide net to be effective. In fact, a thousand true fans are enough. Spending time marketing your creation doesn’t need to be tedious, either; it can be creative, artistic, and even fun. That’s why the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing: it feels like a conversation or entertainment or something the audience anticipates. Above all, it feels considerate—not salesy or forced. Unavoidable Advertisements All of this poses an interesting and prickly dilemma for us as “The Minimalists.” Because we don’t want to add to the noise, we personally don’t allow ads on our website, podcast, or any other medium we directly control. However, we appear regularly on television and radio shows, as well as in newspapers and magazines, in which advertisements appear. And we’re honestly conflicted about this. Even companies we respect and have partnered with—our tour promoter, Live Nation; our primary bookselling platform, Amazon; and the company behind our travel-bag project, Pakt—engage in various forms of advertising. We could, of course, choose not to appear anywhere that participates in advertising in any form, but because ads are virtually everywhere—Americans see upwards of 5,000 each day—that would greatly limit the amount of people our message reaches. So we’ve instead decided to ride the line: no, we won’t incorporate ads into our platforms, and we’ll continue to speak out against the innate problems with advertising, but we won’t hide in a cave to shield ourselves from every billboard. Now maybe you don’t think advertisements are a big deal, but I believe they are one of the worst things to happen to our culture: they are the largest contributing factor toward rampant consumerism in the developed world, and they’re the biggest reason our political climate is where it is today. Advertisements are much like the islands of plastic haunting our oceans—a giant problem people rarely think about. That doesn’t mean ads (or plastic) shouldn’t exist; I simply don’t feel good about producing either unless they contribute to the greater good. Values over Money That said, I’m not allergic to money. And this commentary isn’t meant to be a judgment on other people. Many of my close friends incorporate advertisements into their creations, and I don’t necessarily begrudge them for that. It likely wouldn’t do much good anyway because, as Upton Sinclair once wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” The way I understand it, though, is simple: my values trump my ability to make money. And advertisements don’t align with my personal values. Do I want to earn a living? Yes, of course I do. But I want to live a life that’s congruent with my values, and thus I don’t want money to be the primary driver of my creations. Just because I can advertise, that doesn’t mean I should. True, money will always be an important part of the equation (everybody has to pay the bills, right?), but if we put creativity and our values first, then we can determine the role of money further down the line. Conclusion Suffice it to say, this disquisition wouldn’t see the light of day in any of today’s ad-driven organs. Nor would it find its way into a scholarly journal, because this isn’t a peer-reviewed article; it’s just one guy’s loosely connected thoughts about advertising. It’s my hope that these musings start a conversation about the oft-ignored pernicious aspects of advertisements. And maybe—just maybe—our society can find a way to make advertisements that don’t suck. Let’s not hold our breath, though. If we want to produce meaningful creations, we must rely on ourselves. Or, as the historian Yuval Noah Harari once wrote, “You cannot unite humanity by selling advertisements.” This is true even if those ads are for dick pills.

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Can I Get Him to Stop Watching TV?

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



A reader, Michelle, wrote to us seeking our advice:

I’m working on creating a minimalist lifestyle for my family, but I’ve hit a roadblock and I hope you can help—specifically from the male perspective. In our house we watch TV—always have. I despise the TV because my husband spends so much time watching sports, because it’s often used as a babysitter for our kids when I am not home, because it costs us money (granted, the cable doesn’t cost that much), and because, most of all, it sucks up our time! What, if any, suggestions do you have to get this time sucker out of my house without causing a war with my husband? He is embracing minimalism—at least in theory—because while we didn’t have tons of stuff, we got rid of lots of junk and he likes the feeling of more space—but I mention his beloved TV and it’s a whole different ballgame.

Our recommendations:

Start with yourself. Before you can convince anyone to change, you must first change yourself.

Reduce. How many TVs do you have? If it’s more than one, reduce them by half initially. Get down to one TV over time.

Bedroom. Whatever you do, get the TV out of the bedroom. There are better means of entertainment in the bedroom.

Schedule. Schedule your viewing. Don’t watch TV unless you scheduled your viewing at least 24 hours in advance. Ask your husband to attempt this with you for ten days (an experiment of sorts).

Limit. Limit yourself to X hours per week. Track your viewing. Do this together for ten days.

Friends. Invite friends over to watch TV with you during your scheduled viewing, then discuss what you watched afterward: this will strengthen your relationships.

Replace. Replace TV with other activities. Just jettisoning TV is boring: what else can you do together instead of watching television?

Once you do these things, your husband will likely follow. There’s nothing wrong with owning a TV: it’s when we spend too much time watching television that it has a negative effect on our lives

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Balance of Attraction: Simple Thoughts on Dating for Men and Women

Guest Essay by Crew Spence



Dating Tips Are Often Misguided

Have you ever experienced a migraine headache? A thousand years ago a doctor would treat your migraine with bloodletting—the removal of blood from a patient to cure illness—believing it would restore balance in the body. Of course bleeding won’t help your headache, but physicians swore by the practice well into the 19th century.

Why did so many people support such a useless, harmful remedy? Because afterward, patients felt better. Everyone attributed the relief to blood loss, failing to understand the many thousands of variables at play.

That’s sort of how dating advice works, too.

Over the years I’ve learned that men and women can improve their love lives with straightforward changes in habits and conversation techniques. Such growth can be achieved without sleazy pickup routines, without objectifying other people, and without any of the bloodletting of the so-called pickup-artist industry.

In romance there is an elegant interplay that takes place. I call this harmony the Balance of Attraction, which is the basis for everything I talk about when I teach men and women how to improve their dating lives. The Balance of Attraction is comprised of four components: personal investment, reciprocated investment, comfort, and tension. These ingredients are present in every romantic interaction.

Personal Investment

Attraction cannot happen without first investment. We tend to place value in the people, places, and things we spend time on. The goal is to insure that the person of interest is thoroughly engaged in the dialogue. The best way to garner his or her full investment is to first invest yourself.

Once I was unwinding with friends at a pub when a drunken bar patron asked if we could light his cigarette. None of us smoked, but that didn’t stop him from requesting to borrow our nonexistent lighter five more times over the next few minutes. Needless to say he was a nuisance, and we didn’t want to share our time with him. Fast-forward to later that night when a jovial gentleman entered the bar offering to buy everyone a round of drinks in celebration of his new baby’s birth—everyone wanted to talk with him and offer congratulations. Why? The first guy was taking value, while the second had something to offer, which encouraged us to give something back.

I’m not suggesting you purchase alcohol for people at a bar. Your personal investment doesn’t require money. My favorite way to start a conversation is humor. Most people enjoy good jokes, and they usually appreciate the person telling the jokes. Maybe you’re not a natural comedian. You might try something as easy as holding a door or complimenting someone’s karaoke performance. The point is to initiate the interaction with something pleasant that encourages the POI to reciprocate.

Reciprocated Investment

Of course there’s more to romance than simply making sure you’re both talking enough. You need to establish rapport. Uncovering shared interests and values can achieve mutual comfort. Your commonalities give you conversation topics, and you’ll become relaxed in each other’s company.

A great example of reciprocated investment is when the man or woman you like starts to talk more than you. Perhaps he or she shares stories from their youth or talks about her dedication to local volunteering. The goal is to get him or her to share themselves. Also look for instances when the person of interest asks questions about you such as, “How do you feel about dating an ambitious person?” or, “What does your boyfriend think about your art work?” Intimate questions are a strong indicator of interest.

Comfort

It’s impossible to create romance without first building rapport. Failing to establish comfort with your love interest is like trying to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the bread. It can’t be done. Comfort helps you earn trust. That trust comes in handy when you amp up the tension later. Your potential lover won’t stick around when things get tense unless they already enjoy talking with you.

The best way to establish a comfortable connection is to uncover commonalities you share with the other person. Aim for niche areas of interest. Almost everyone enjoys listening to music and watching movies, so interests like that don’t help create bonds, but what if you both share an affinity for Russian literature? Clearly the latter would spark more interest. Try to find something unusual you share in common.

Tension

Comfort is good, but you shouldn’t get too relaxed. Sexual tension is absolutely necessary for healthy romance. Intensity can be built in a number of ways, including simple actions like sustained eye contact and appropriate physical contact at opportune times. Like comfort, you don’t want your exchange to become too tense, which can happen when one person is too aggressive. All things in good time. Enjoy the journey instead of rushing to a destination.

Looking for a great way to create tension and encourage someone to open up? Try saying something like, “I enjoy chatting with you, but I worry that most conversations between strangers ultimately fall into the same tired patterns. Let’s go off script. I’m curious about what makes you tic. What are you passionate about?”

Diagram: Balance of Attraction

Here’s an illustration to clarify: 

As you can see, a good interaction will fall somewhere in the middle. Healthy romance typically has equal balance from all four components. This system is based on simplicity. You needn’t memorize scripts or buy fancy clothes to impress your potential sweetheart. Understanding these concepts will help romance form naturally. Obviously, there’s much more to fulfilling courtship than a Venn diagram, but this is a good start. Next time you’re in a potentially romantic interaction, ask yourself, “Where are we in the Balance of Attraction?” Simply being mindful of these variables will go a long way toward improving your dating life

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Becoming Who We Need to Be

Guest Essay by Colin Wright



We all find meaning in different things. As such, discussing meaning in any productive way can be a cumbersome undertaking. That said, there are two main types of meaning that I want to address.

The first is significance meaning. That is, imbuing moments or events with implicit substance so that, to us at least, there is more to them than meets the eye.

A chance glance from a stranger on the subway, or the sequence of lucky numbers in our fortune cookie being the same as our high school locker combination can both seem loaded with meaning. These are not coincidences, we think. What are the chances of something like that happening, after all? They are significant in some way, and it makes sense, from that perspective, to want to figure out how.

Most people, it should be noted, are terrible at offhandedly understanding, or even estimating, probability. You’d be a killjoy to deflate a friend who’s erupting with enthusiasm over the perceived significance of receiving his old locker combination as a set of lucky numbers in a fortune cookie, but you’d be right in recognizing that although the chance of something like that happening is small, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Unlikely things happen all the time. If something has a one in one-billion chance of happening, well, do you know how many things are happening at all times, to all of the over seven-billion people who live on the planet today? Our perception of how likely these events might be remains unchanged, because we see the world through the lens of a single individual. But if you do the math on that scale, it quickly becomes clear that the unlikely is actually not all that unlikely.

We also tend to notice and remember things we perceive to be unlikely more than things we don’t perceive to be in any way unusual, even if those ignored things are, in fact, the less likely, more impressive, and more interesting happenstances.

This tendency to pay more attention to the seemingly unlikely events that happen to and around us is called “selective attention.” Our brains have a bias toward patterns, and ignore so-called uninteresting data—things we are not primed to perceive as significant to us—and to put increased emphasis on the opposite, storing seemingly meaningful happenings more firmly in our memory. As a result, we’re more likely to recall the times when the tarot card reader was right, and to completely forget or disregard the times when she was wrong. The significance of that card reader’s words, then, elevate in our mind, while the significance of information we might read about the practice of tarot card reading having no basis in reality and no scientific credibility, decreases.

This is part of why, too, we tend to underestimate just how likely seemingly unlikely events might be. Our brains latch on to the amazingness of this chance reappearance of old, familiar numbers, while dismissing other bits of data—it wasn’t on your fortune cookie, but on your friend’s, two of the numbers were rearranged, you’ve been going to that same Chinese food place for five years, and never before received a familiar set of numbers inside your cookie—which in turn results in our finding meaning in what is almost certainly meaningless. The part-time worker or machine algorithm that jots those numbers down on the fortune cookie papers most likely is not a wizard, and it’s far more likely that the familiarity and feeling of significance is merely the consequence of our brains wigging out over the perceived connection, due to its pattern-finding predilections. Because that’s what it does.

Why are our brains so primed for patterns?

As with so many things brain-related, we can’t say with absolute certainty, but there is a good argument to be made that this pattern-seeking habit is what allows us to think, interact, and build tools.

A creature who is able to piece together a sequence of events can infer causality—that other beast over there drank from the water, and now it’s dead, so perhaps I shouldn’t drink that water—and benefit from that perception. A creature who can recognize cause and effect while extrapolating further, imagining how things might be changed, can manipulate the world around them. That is, they wouldn’t just avoid the water that seems to be killing other animals, they might be able to figure out new ways to get water, by folding large leaves to collect dew and rainwater. The idea to use leaves as collection tools, by the way, would also be the result of observation and pattern detection: watching the rain drip down the leaves, and the dew accumulate on the leaves each morning, would lead to the conclusion that these green things are related to this free-flowing water somehow, and could perhaps be manipulated to sate our thirst.

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, also called the “frequency illusion,” is relevant to this discussion. This is a phenomenon that you’ve almost certainly experienced at some point in your life: you buy a new car, let’s say a Saturn coupe, and then suddenly, from the next day onward, you see Saturn coupes absolutely everywhere. It’s as if the entire world is copying you. There can’t have been this many Saturn coupes on the road before you bought yours; you’ve never seen so many of them out in the world before. How strange and coincidental.

Of course, this is neither strange nor coincidental. It’s the consequence of your brain earmarking a new bit of information as important. This brand and type of car is something that you’ve been thinking about and now own. It’s important to be able to pick out your own car from all the cars in a parking lot, but it’s also a shape that you now recognize, a logo that you’ve come to know, and a collection of design elements that you now see more clearly in a crowd of other, less-vital-seeming car-mounted design elements. These other Saturn coupes were always there in your environment, but now that they seem important to your brain, you’ll notice them more frequently, and remember noticing them, because that perceived significance is amplified, collected as relevant data.

The fortune cookie, the sudden appearance of cars like your own—neither are mystical or magical. The word “synchronicity” was coined by Carl Jung to describe such things, and to justify the paranormal nature they certainly had, when in reality he merely lacked the clarity afforded by modern brain and social sciences.

That said, something not being inherently magical doesn’t mean it isn’t important. It doesn’t mean such things can’t be vital as mental milestones or as valuable intellectual footnotes.

Finding significance in things that are not significant is what causes a lot of us to have harmful beliefs that hold us back in many ways, but it’s also kind of a superpower that provides us with ambitions. It can bring out the best in us. Or rather, it can help us bring out the best in ourselves.

This is the second type of meaning I mentioned. The first is significance we imbue in an event or object that makes that thing or happenstance seem more important than it is. The second is the type of meaning we pursue throughout our lives. The sort of meaning that, in a lot of cases, provides us with the intellectual and emotional will to make it through tough times and to work hard toward something big, something larger than ourselves.

In some cases, this meaning takes the shape of religion, or of a particular brand of governance, or of one’s own family and their well-being. Sometimes it’s the wholehearted pursuit of knowing the unknown, or taking down the wicked, or teaching things you believe should be more widely known.

There are as many meaningful pursuits as there are people, and although we have no reason to believe that any such meaning is divine or magical, that doesn’t diminish the potential benefits of finding meaning, perhaps even multiple sources of it, throughout our lives.

People who feel that they have purpose tend to live longer. People who have convictions, who believe something to be not just true, but important, have a greater capacity to endure discomfort, pain, and antipathy from those who believe differently. People who ascribe some type of meaning to the work they do or the goals they’re pursuing are more likely to see the journey as the point of the exercise, rather than seeing life as a necessary period of suffering on the way to a goal they hope to reach someday. The journey itself is meaningful. The goal is important, but the act of working toward it, even when painful or disheartening, is meaningful by association.

When we talk about “finding meaning” in our lives, this is the type of meaning we’re usually discussing. Very seldom does someone hope to find meaning in the sense of recognizing more cars like the one she just bought on the road, or finding familiarity in the lucky numbers contained within the folds of a fortune cookie.

But these types of meaning are inextricably connected. The pattern-seeking tendencies of our brains are what make connections and assume relationships between things, and it’s those same neurons, those same interconnections between memory and higher-reasoning and animal instinct and whatever it is that makes us feel conscious that allow us to feel a sense of not just existence, but purpose. They allow us to see the act of feeding the hungry as not just one more action among all the actions we perform every day, but something significant.

If we feed this person, they will feel something, and hopefully something better than they feel now. Some of the fear and desperation will disappear, and they may have more capacity for joy. Beyond that, they’ll go on to live their own lives, full of the same tribulations we all face, but also packed with moments of happiness resulting from goals accomplished, the joy of relationships, and the thrill of new discoveries. And by helping give this person something to eat, we’ve played some small role in that. We have in some small way served as a catalyst for all that emotion, all those feelings, all that experience, all that life.

Without the sometimes overenthusiastic pattern-recognition tendencies of our brains, we would be unable to make these connections, and feeding a stranger would be just one more act, with no more significance than brushing our teeth or driving to work or feeding ourselves an unremarkable lunch. The cause and effect assumption would be lost, and our ability to dig deeper and subconsciously guess at what this action of ours might mean, not just for us, but for others, perhaps many others, would not exist.

The world, lacking this meaning that we generate, would be a much flatter, more pragmatic place, I think. That’s assuming we were able to build such a world to begin with, which is anything but certain. I’m guessing that much of the human desire to explore would be lost, due to the lack of imagination about what we might find over the next horizon. As a result, we’d probably never have evolved and spread out the way we did, and would not have had the same biological inclination toward tool usage and brain development.

I also have trouble imagining what would drive us to do anything beyond the bare basics under such circumstances. It seems unlikely that we’d feel incentivized to achieve anything more than the essentials that would allow us to survive another day. We’d have little reason to believe investment in infrastructure or assets would pay off, and we’d have little reason to make small sacrifices for the greater good of the family, tribe, society, or species. We wouldn’t be able to perceive any significance in those actions, and as such, the frantic, genetic-level drive toward self-preservation would be the only thing keeping us going.

There are many causes out there that are misguided and faulty and based on false-premises. I think we’re sometimes too dependent on gut-instincts when we should think analytically, and put too much faith in incomplete mental models when we should trust our gut. We adhere to ideologies dogmatically, assuming that the meaning found within them is the only possible meaning and the only possible source of valid morality. We misunderstand coincidences, seeing them either as messages from the sky or remarkable impossibilities, ignoring the truly remarkable things that happen around us all day, every day. Among the remarkable things we often misunderstand or ignore is the incredible persistence of a species that has the capacity to both extrapolate and care.

The pursuit of meaning, of significance, is a valid one. It’s valuable and, wherever we find it, it tends to be more asset than liability.

But it’s also worth being conscious of where this feeling comes from. We are the ones who imbue things with significance. We don’t discover significant things, we discover things and make them significant. Recognizing and remembering this allows us to better understand and interact with people who find meaning in different places than we do. It also allows us to find meaning in many and varied things.

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An Irresponsible Christmas

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



It’s easy to see when we’ve arrived at the “holiday-shopping season.” Take a look around: The shopping malls are packed with herds of consumers. The storefronts are decorated in green and red. The jingly commercials are running nonstop.

The holiday season has much to recommend it, though: each year around this time we all feel that warm-‘n’-fuzzy Christmastime nostalgia associated with the onset of winter. We break out the scarves, the gloves, the winter coats. We go ice skating, we go sledding, we eat hearty meals with our extended families. We take days off work, spend time with our loved ones, give thanks for the gift of life.

The problem is we’ve been conditioned to associate this joyous time of year—the mittens, the decorations, the family activities—with purchasing material items. We’ve trained ourselves to believe buying stuff is part of Christmas.

We all know, however, the holidays needn’t require gifts to be special; rather, this time of year is special because of its true meaning—not the wrapped boxes we place under the tree.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with gifts, but it’s irresponsible for us to believe that purchasing presents is a holiday requirement. Let’s instead celebrate the infinite gifts all around us. Even without presents, we have everything we need to be jolly, merry, and joyous on Christmas

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An Apology and the Need to Say No

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



An Apology

My sincerest apologies to the folks who attended our Washington, DC, event last month: it was the first show I’ve missed in the seven years we’ve been touring as The Minimalists.

On the day of that event, I was suffering from the effects of a nasty virus—likely contracted from my child or caught while dishing out hundreds of free hugs—and I had to get an emergency IV drip. There was no way I could’ve made it to the theater that night, let alone the main stage, but thankfully Ryan and the rest of the team held down the fort in my absence.

After being bedridden with a wicked fever for two days, I mustered what little strength I could to make it to our subsequent events in Atlanta and Tampa, albeit in a diminished capacity. Although my health has been improving slowly since those events, I’ve still been feeling ill the past three weeks, and this illness has taught me a lot about pushing past my limits.

The Need to Say No

I often find comfort in my discomfort zone—that’s the place from which we grow. But when I stretch too far, my health suffers, and the result isn’t good for anyone—my audience, my family, my friends, and I all suffer.

The last three weeks have given me time to scrutinize my grueling schedule, and I realized something unfortunate: over the past year, my life has gradually become busy. Ugh! There isn’t a more vulgar four-letter word in the English language.

Of course, it didn’t happen overnight. In fact, I’ve been good at avoiding busyness since I left the corporate world seven years ago. But every time I say yes to something, I’m indirectly saying no to something else. And this year is the first time since my corporate days I’ve said yes too much.

Within the last twelve months, we released our documentary on Netflix, started working on two new film projects, moved our families to Los Angeles, began building a podcast and film studio, produced our first physical good, wrote dozens of essays, recorded more than 60 podcast episodes, interviewed with more than 100 media outlets, and embarked on a 50-city international tour.

On their own, these are all worthwhile endeavors. But crammed into one year, it’s too much—especially considering I’ve been dealing with C. Diff, mercury poisoning, multiple chemical sensitivities, and daily physical therapy for my back. I’m simply not as durable as I like to pretend.

You see, sometimes when I say yes to something that’s seemingly “important,” I’m inadvertently saying no to something else that’s even more important: health, relationships, creativity. Which means that, going forward, I must do a better job saying no to anything that isn’t a true priority—even the good stuff. So I’m scaling back in the following ways.

Fewer projects. I’m saying yes to only one major project at a time. The next project we’ll be working on as The Minimalists is a new film that’s one part documentary, one part TED Talk, and one part stand-up special. All other new projects will simmer on the back burner until this one is complete.

Back to basics. The creative work that fuels me the most is writing and podcasting. So, in the vein of “fewer projects,” these creative outlets—mixed with our new film project—will receive the bulk of my attention in 2018. I think of this trio of creativity as a three-legged table: each leg is a necessary part of our creative output, and they each play an equal role in helping us communicate with our audience effectively. The table is sturdy with three legs—adding more seems superfluous.

Reduced social media. As an experiment, we will spend January away from social media. We’re confident it will help us determine how to better use these platforms going forward. I’ll definitely write an essay about the experience once it’s over.

Less growth. Through a combination of luck and hard work, we’ve been fortunate to reach a large audience with our work, but I’m no longer interested in “scaling up.” Sure, I want our message to reach as many eyes and ears as possible, but I believe the best way to do this isn’t via the traditional tropes of “content generation”; rather, I want to focus on meaningful creations, without worrying about what will “resonate” or “go viral”—and certainly without endlessly promoting our “brand.”

Promoless. I listen to a lot of podcasts, I see a lot of billboards, and I even notice it encroaching upon my own work: there’s too much “branding” going on these days. No, there aren’t any advertisements on our website or podcast, but even I am guilty of too much self-promotion that gets in the way of my own creations. Perhaps Derek Sivers said it best: putting ads in your work is like putting a Coke machine in a monastery. I’m beginning to feel the same about all the shameless self-promotion that’s going on these days, including my own. Tweets and photos and status updates. It’s solipsism run amuck. And I’m pledging to remove the Coke machine from the monastery immediately so you can better enjoy what I’m creating without the promotional eyesores. Yes, I’ll occasionally talk about what I’m working on—including events, books, and projects—but I won’t let it get in the way of what I’m creating. If anything, promotion should be similar to the end credits of a film, not the main plot.

Fewer interviews. From every major newspaper, radio program, and TV show to the tiniest podcasts, Ryan and I have probably accepted a thousand interviews over the last half-decade, and I’ve said everything I need to say to the media. So, unless you’re Joe Rogan, don’t be surprised if I say no to your interview request next year. Don’t worry, it’s not you—it’s me. As a policy, I have to say no, so I can say yes to my life.

Fewer events. Our Less Is Now tour is finally coming to an end, and truth be told, touring is probably the straw that broke my back this year. It pains me to say this because I absolutely love our live events. But nonstop touring is challenging. Thankfully, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. This weekend Ryan & I will end our year with just two stops in Detroit and Milwaukee. Then, in January, we have only one charity event in Las Vegas (profits go to the Las Vegas Victims Fund). Finally, in March 2018, after a two-month break, we’re going to Australia and New Zealand to end the tour. And then we’re finished for a while. Yes, we’re honoring these commitments, and I’m truly excited to see you on the road, but then we’re saying no to new events for a while because 50 events in one year is too much. Too much for me, at least (Ryan is far more durable than I am). So, after a long break next year, we’ll determine what’s appropriate going forward. Whatever the number is, it’ll be considerably less than our current pace. Right now, I’m thinking maybe a couple live events per quarter—maybe fewer, maybe none. We’ll see.

Less travel. I’ve been on nearly a hundred flights this year, which is taxing on my body. By doing fewer tour stops and fewer speaking gigs next year, I’ll reduce the majority of my travel, but the cold truth is I don’t enjoy traveling. I have peripatetic friends who live for driving to the next city, flying to the next country, visiting as many new places as possible. That ain’t me. I don’t like flights or long car rides, and it’s difficult for me to sleep on the road. So I plan on reducing my globetrotting by 80% next year, which, paradoxically, might help me enjoy my limited travels a bit more

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A Well-Edited Life

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Everyone develops their own creative process over time.

Some sculptors, Bernini for instance, build sculptures with clay. Others, like Michelangelo, carve from marble. Though I’m no Michelangelo, my creative process tends to mimic the latter, building way too much and then removing massive amounts of excess until I uncover the beauty beneath the banality.

I call this process Subtractive Creation. Unlike most carving sculptors, though, I also have to quarry the marble from which I pitch, chisel, and polish.

The essays on our website are published with around 400 words, even though they often start with 2,000 or more. My novel was 950 pages before it entered the world with only 252.

When I edit this way, the final result is far more meaningful to me, and to the reader. The care and handcraftedness shows in the final work. I teach my writing students how to edit this way, too; that is, how to spend one-third of their time writing effectively, and two-thirds of their time editing—shaping their work into something more concise, more powerful, more beautiful.

Subtractive Creation seems to be an appropriate metaphor for the rest of life as well: there will always be life’s excess, always more, always too many inputs bombarding us from every direction—but instead of abhorrent multitasking, instead of trying to get things done, we can make life more beautiful via subtraction.

We can filter out the noise. We can remove unnecessary material possessions. We can let go of sentimental items. We can get rid of negative relationships. We can avoid the American Dream. And when everyone is looking for more, we can focus on less.

Sure, there’s an infinite amount of materials with which to build our lives—but sometimes the best way to build is to subtract. The best lives are often well-edited, carefully curated lives.

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A Rolex Won’t Give You More Time

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



A friend recently emailed me to communicate the buyer’s remorse he was experiencing after purchasing an expensive watch. Even though he’s a successful entrepreneur who can afford to drop $10,000 on shiny wrist-ornamentation, he expressed pangs of post-purchase grief, sorrow, and regret.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he felt this way, so he emailed me for advice. This is how I responded…

I know where you’re coming from—as a guy who has owned several expensive watches (I owned more than one fancy watch during my lotus-eating twenties, although I don’t own one now), I understand the allure. I could, of course, recite a dozen platitudes here—an expensive watch can’t give you more time, a puppet who enjoys his strings still isn’t free, you are not the sum of your material possessions, our possessions possess us, etc.—but it comes down to two things: Value and Quality of Life.

In terms of Value, does the watch actually add value to your life, or does it drain value? I’m not talking about monetary value (price is an arbitrary measurement); I’m talking real, intrinsic value. Is that watch worth $10,000 of your freedom? Is it worth the emotional stress you’re going through while thinking about it?

I know these questions sound rhetorical, but they’re not. I’m currently wearing a $100 pair of jeans, and, yes, they are worth $100 of my freedom to me. They are also my only pair of jeans, therefore I get immense value from them since I wear them almost every day. Does the watch do the same for you? If so, wear it with pride. If it doesn’t, then ask yourself why you still own it—not why you bought it, but why you still own it. Is it a status thing? Is it part of your identity? Is it just an expensive personal logo?

At this point, the purchase is over—you needn’t beat yourself up over it because you can’t change it: it’s a sunk cost. But you can change what you do going forward if you’re not getting value from the purchase. If you get value from the watch—if it truly enhances your life—then why not keep it?

And when it comes to Quality of Life, you need to consider how the watch adds to the quality of your life. I used to earn about $200,000 a year at the peak of my corporate days, but I was miserable. My Quality of Life was poor.

Last year, however, at age 31, I made $27,000, which is actually less than I earned at eighteen. But with that $27,000 I still saved more than I’ve ever saved, paid off the rest of my debt, traveled more than I’ve ever traveled, and experienced life—real life—more than ever before. Though I make a multiplicity of millions less than the corporate big wigs I once aspired to be, and though I bring home roughly 1/8 of what I used to bring home at my pinnacle, I have an appreciably higher Quality of Life than most CEOs and my former self. Very few material possessions could enhance that Quality of Life; in fact, most would take away from it.

I obviously cannot and will not tell you what to do with your shiny timepiece. What I can tell you is I’m much happier without my expensive watches. Who needs to know the time all the time anyway?

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A Simpler Family Life: Starting Life Anew with Our Six Kids

Guest Essay by Leo Babauta



The kids, Eva, and I looked out of the train at the cold, foggy day and couldn’t help but shiver. It was the middle of June, and we were colder on our first day in San Francisco than we’d ever been, straight off a plane from Guam.

We’d left behind the only home we’d ever known, with a backpack each on our backs.

It was quite a journey: from a tiny speck in the middle of the vast Pacific, to the most beautiful city in California, just on the verge of another tech boom.

But the more amazing journey was that we each had just about all our possessions in the world on our backs. That would have been unthinkable only four years earlier—and I still had trouble believing my wife and kids would go along with such a crazy idea.

In fact, I had my doubts: if it were just me, I’d be OK with owning almost nothing. But here we were, starting life anew in an unknown city, with the kids never having lived in any city before, and we didn’t have a home, beds, couch, or a car (nor were we planning to get a car).

What kind of madness had I gotten our eight-person family into? Had I just made a huge mistake? With all of their trust resting on my shoulders, I was pretty worried.

Everything turned out OK. We found a home after a couple of weeks shacking up in the living room of my cousin’s house, and we soon grew to love our new city. We found furniture on Craigslist, learned to explore the city by walking and riding mass transit, and found clothes in the great thrift shops.

I learned to trust we’d be OK, even starting life afresh with not many possessions to speak of. I learned we can adapt, survive, and cope with the fear of not being OK.

It still amazes me how far we’ve come, from living in a home piled high with clutter and toys and furniture, to giving up that life. It’s easy for me to make those kinds of changes by myself, but getting my wife who loved shopping and my kids who loved toys to change—that’s the miracle.

How did we make those changes? I remember sitting the kids down in our house in Guam and talking to them about the idea of simplifying: they looked skeptical, and frankly a bit horrified, that I was talking about getting rid of their favorite toys.

But we went into their room, where we couldn’t even see the floor because it was covered in toys, and I pointed out that most of their toys they didn’t play with. Some of them were played with once on Christmas day, only to be stuffed in the back of the closet and forgotten. Others you couldn’t find even if you remembered to look for them, because they were buried in an avalanche of Legos and Transformers and trash.

So I proposed an experiment: let’s box up just the toys they didn’t like, and they could keep everything they really wanted and really used. I wasn’t threatening their favorite things—just clearing the way so they could play with those favorite things more.

Sorting through their junk was fun, and we turned it into a game: how many things could we put in the box that they didn’t need? And wouldn’t it be fun to give some of those things to kids who needed them more? Or give them as gifts to cousins? Decluttering became fun and generous.

Eva and I were going through the same process with our stuff, boxing up piles of junk that had accumulated over the years. I told her she didn’t have to get rid of her shoes, or her favorite clothes, and she was pretty cool with it all. Incredibly, she’s one of the most minimalist people I know now, and travels for weeks with a tiny backpack smaller than mine. What a journey.

We went through stages of decluttering, with our own stuff and with the kids’. We’d remove a few boxes and give them away, and then spend another weekend the following month finding more things they didn’t need. On and on we were shedding layers of dead skin, becoming new people.

Christmas was the hardest transition: we used to go all out and buy them a mountain of toys, because it was fun. They adored Christmas Day for the gorging on gifts that it had become. We talked to them multiple times about what a waste that was, about how we were trying to get out of debt, about how our favorite times as a family were when we spent time together doing fun things. They got that, because their favorite memories weren’t of toys, but of going to the beach, or playing board games, or going to a waterpark.

So they eventually agreed to forgo toys for experience gifts, and that has become our tradition. I think we all still long for the Christmas consumerist feast sometimes, but we treasure the family trips we do together even more.

Layer upon layer, we removed our junk and changed our habits as a family. It didn’t happen overnight, but lasting change never does: It requires an adaptation of your mind to a new normal, one small stage at a time. It requires changing your buying habits, figuring out what your real needs are, and creating new family traditions.

We’ve learned that meaningful change is a slow learning process, but then the best journeys always are.

We came a long way from mountains of broken toys to a backpack each on our backs, entering a new city. This was a frightening sight, the fog of San Francisco, but it turns out, even with few possessions, we were well equipped.

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A Rolex Won’t Give You More Time

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



A friend recently emailed me to communicate the buyer’s remorse he was experiencing after purchasing an expensive watch. Even though he’s a successful entrepreneur who can afford to drop $10,000 on shiny wrist-ornamentation, he expressed pangs of post-purchase grief, sorrow, and regret.

He wasn’t entirely sure why he felt this way, so he emailed me for advice. This is how I responded…

I know where you’re coming from—as a guy who has owned several expensive watches (I owned more than one fancy watch during my lotus-eating twenties, although I don’t own one now), I understand the allure. I could, of course, recite a dozen platitudes here—an expensive watch can’t give you more time, a puppet who enjoys his strings still isn’t free, you are not the sum of your material possessions, our possessions possess us, etc.—but it comes down to two things: Value and Quality of Life.

In terms of Value, does the watch actually add value to your life, or does it drain value? I’m not talking about monetary value (price is an arbitrary measurement); I’m talking real, intrinsic value. Is that watch worth $10,000 of your freedom? Is it worth the emotional stress you’re going through while thinking about it?

I know these questions sound rhetorical, but they’re not. I’m currently wearing a $100 pair of jeans, and, yes, they are worth $100 of my freedom to me. They are also my only pair of jeans, therefore I get immense value from them since I wear them almost every day. Does the watch do the same for you? If so, wear it with pride. If it doesn’t, then ask yourself why you still own it—not why you bought it, but why you still own it. Is it a status thing? Is it part of your identity? Is it just an expensive personal logo?

At this point, the purchase is over—you needn’t beat yourself up over it because you can’t change it: it’s a sunk cost. But you can change what you do going forward if you’re not getting value from the purchase. If you get value from the watch—if it truly enhances your life—then why not keep it?

And when it comes to Quality of Life, you need to consider how the watch adds to the quality of your life. I used to earn about $200,000 a year at the peak of my corporate days, but I was miserable. My Quality of Life was poor.

Last year, however, at age 31, I made $27,000, which is actually less than I earned at eighteen. But with that $27,000 I still saved more than I’ve ever saved, paid off the rest of my debt, traveled more than I’ve ever traveled, and experienced life—real life—more than ever before. Though I make a multiplicity of millions less than the corporate big wigs I once aspired to be, and though I bring home roughly 1/8 of what I used to bring home at my pinnacle, I have an appreciably higher Quality of Life than most CEOs and my former self. Very few material possessions could enhance that Quality of Life; in fact, most would take away from it.

I obviously cannot and will not tell you what to do with your shiny timepiece. What I can tell you is I’m much happier without my expensive watches. Who needs to know the time all the time anyway?

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A Quiet Place

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



My mind often cries for serenity.

When I moved to a mountainside cabin in Montana for four months, my intention was to tap into a pseudo–Walden Pond experience, one in which I was closer to nature, closer to myself—my interior self—than ever before.

It worked. During those months, I committed myself to a great deal of self-exploration, a great deal of writing (I wrote a ton of short stories, including “Echo Lake“), and a plethora of activities that forced me to better examine my interior life: tending to a fire for warmth, dealing with the loneliness of remote living, living more intentionally out of necessity.

One of my recent experiences—living with two single guys in Missoula, Montana’s University District—more closely mimics Thoreau’s experience than the remote cabin.

Hard to believe, right? The reason is simpler than one might guess: amid the talking, the visitors, the socializing, the work, the meetings, the stuff-30-year-old-single-guys-do, I found a serene place, a place all my own, a place to which I could retreat when I needed absolute peace.

That place was my bedroom.

Back in the cabin, peace and quiet became the norm: I was surrounded by deafening silence. But at the Asym House, I was forced to seek quiet when I was in need. Thus, I established my bedroom as my quiet place. Much like Thoreau’s lakeside plot, my room contained only a few necessary items: a bed for sleeping, a desk for writing, a chair for sitting, and a lamp for reading. Occasionally, I burned a candle so my olfactory sense—our strongest sense—knew I was in my quiet place.

That’s it—there was nothing else. I left the walls blank, the wood floor bare. I didn’t want anything else in my quiet place. It needed to be not only quiet auditorily, but quiet visually.

I’m not opposed to artwork adorning my walls nor decorations festooning my shelves. Aesthetics are important: art and decorations often add a personal touch to a living space. But I can hang artwork and other personal embellishments anywhere in the home. My room, however, is intentionally void of these things: no clock, no paintings, no photos, no bookshelf, no nightstand, no noise. It’s completely quiet and distraction-free, and thus it’s anxiety- and stress-free, too.

How about you? Where is your quiet place?

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A Quiet Place

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



My mind often cries for serenity.

When I moved to a mountainside cabin in Montana for four months, my intention was to tap into a pseudo–Walden Pond experience, one in which I was closer to nature, closer to myself—my interior self—than ever before.

It worked. During those months, I committed myself to a great deal of self-exploration, a great deal of writing (I wrote a ton of short stories, including “Echo Lake“), and a plethora of activities that forced me to better examine my interior life: tending to a fire for warmth, dealing with the loneliness of remote living, living more intentionally out of necessity.

One of my recent experiences—living with two single guys in Missoula, Montana’s University District—more closely mimics Thoreau’s experience than the remote cabin.

Hard to believe, right? The reason is simpler than one might guess: amid the talking, the visitors, the socializing, the work, the meetings, the stuff-30-year-old-single-guys-do, I found a serene place, a place all my own, a place to which I could retreat when I needed absolute peace.

That place was my bedroom.

Back in the cabin, peace and quiet became the norm: I was surrounded by deafening silence. But at the Asym House, I was forced to seek quiet when I was in need. Thus, I established my bedroom as my quiet place. Much like Thoreau’s lakeside plot, my room contained only a few necessary items: a bed for sleeping, a desk for writing, a chair for sitting, and a lamp for reading. Occasionally, I burned a candle so my olfactory sense—our strongest sense—knew I was in my quiet place.

That’s it—there was nothing else. I left the walls blank, the wood floor bare. I didn’t want anything else in my quiet place. It needed to be not only quiet auditorily, but quiet visually.

I’m not opposed to artwork adorning my walls nor decorations festooning my shelves. Aesthetics are important: art and decorations often add a personal touch to a living space. But I can hang artwork and other personal embellishments anywhere in the home. My room, however, is intentionally void of these things: no clock, no paintings, no photos, no bookshelf, no nightstand, no noise. It’s completely quiet and distraction-free, and thus it’s anxiety- and stress-free, too.

How about you? Where is your quiet place?

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A Day in the Life of a Minimalist

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



I do not have a daily routine. I no longer need one.

I do, however, have habits on which I focus every day. Don’t get me wrong—I used to have a daily routine before I quit my six-figure job to pursue my passions and live a more meaningful life. And I hated that routine. Every day felt like Groundhog Day: awake to a blaring alarm, shower, shave, put on a suit and tie, spend an hour or more in mind-numbing traffic, succumb to the daily trappings of emails and phone calls and instant messages and meetings, drive home through even more mind-numbing traffic, eat something from a box in the freezer, search for escape within the glowing box in the living room, brush my teeth, set the alarm clock, sleep for five or six hours, start all over again in the morning. That was life most days. The same thing over and over and over. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

And then, last year, I decided it wasn’t for me anymore. I realized working 60–80 hours a week to make the money to buy more superfluous stuff didn’t fill the void I felt inside. It only brought more debt and anxiety and fear and loneliness and guilt and stress and paranoia and depression. So I canceled my routine. Or, rather, I traded in my routine for better habits.

It didn’t happen overnight, but over a few years I pared down my possessions, got into the best shape of my life, paid off my debt, jettisoned my TV, eliminated Internet at home, left corporate America, started pursuing my passions, stopped buying junk, and started living a more meaningful life—a life focused on growth and contribution.

During that time of personal growth I developed new habits I love, habits I look forward to each day, habits that make me happy: exercise, writing, reading, establishing new connections with people, and building upon existing relationships.

I also developed the habit of contribution. Giving is living—we don’t feel truly alive unless we contribute to other people in meaningful ways. Donating time to Habitat for Humanity, local soup kitchens, and various other community organizations has been a starting point on my journey toward developing this habit. And I enjoy contributing to the readers at our website and inspiring them to change their lives.

Many readers ask me what my typical day looks like now that I’m no longer forced into an unnecessary routine. My answer is always the same: every day is a blank page, although there are habits I act upon daily.

Presenting last Thursday as an example, this is how I enjoyed the day…

I woke at 4:50 a.m. without an alarm, excited and refreshed. These days my habit is to wake when my body tells me it’s rested. But there is no routine.

I ate a banana, drank a cup of coffee, and then wrote from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. As I primarily write literary fiction, I prefer writing in the morning when it’s quiet and I’m closest to the dream world. My writing room contains only a desk, a chair, a laptop, and my notes: the only things I need—nothing else. There’s no phone, no Internet, no clock—no distractions. Just me and my habit, which I enjoy immensely. Each day I write until I don’t feel like writing anymore. But there is no routine.

After a writing-fueled morning (interrupted only by push-ups every hour or so), I walked to the neighborhood park and alternated between pull-ups and push-ups under the midday sun. Exercise is important for me, and I enjoy it daily. But there is no routine.

I showered, dressed (jeans and a T-shirt), and walked to a local burrito joint to eat a modest, vegetarian lunch. I eat when my body tells me I’m hungry, irrespective of the time (I don’t own a watch). Some days I eat lunch at noon, other days I might eat at 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. But there is no routine.

After my meal, I walked to my favorite coffee shop, ordered an herbal tea, used their Internet connection to check my email and publish some writing online, and then visited with some of the regulars (as well as a few strangers). There were 37 emails in my inbox, which was okay as I only check email two or three times a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But there is no routine.

After a couple hours on the Internet, I walked to a park, sat on a bench, and read a novel. Some days this habit invites me to devour chapter after chapter, hour after hour; other days I read for only half an hour. But there is no routine.

After a few chapters, I hit the gym with my best friend (and online writing pal), Ryan Nicodemus, and enjoyed some cardio and weight training. We habitually visit the gym four or five days a week. We drop by at different times each day. But there is no routine.

Throughout the day I made sure I was hydrated. Besides coffee and herbal tea, I drank only water. No alcohol. No sugary drinks. No soda (or ‘pop,’ for those of us in the Midwest). I attempt to drink my body weight in ounces of water each day, which isn’t always easy—so sometimes I drink only half that. But there is no routine.

I own a car, but I didn’t drive it on Thursday. I didn’t need to. It was a nice day, so I walked (even though Dayton, Ohio, isn’t exactly the most walkable city). Some days I need to drive to where I want to go, other days I can walk. But there is no routine.

Later that evening I enjoyed dinner and conversation with a friend, and afterward we walked to a local concert. Other days I might watch a movie at the indie theater or visit a friend’s house or spend time in an art gallery or volunteer a few hours of my time—all habits I enjoy. But there is no routine.

After the concert, I walked a few miles by myself, gathering my thoughts. It had been a beautiful day, followed by a beautiful night—a denim sky illuminated by a waning crescent moon, a million diamonds afire, and the prospect of a new day at midnight.

The good news is my life is no different than yours, minus the routine. Sure, the details are different, the circumstances are different, but we all have the same 24 hours in a day. We all have one life to live, and that life is passing by one day at a time. The only real difference lies within the decisions we make and the actions we take

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18-Minute Minimalist Exercises

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



A few years ago, I couldn’t do a single push-up—and I certainly couldn’t do a pull-up. I hardly exercised at all; and when I did exercise, it was sporadic: it never lasted more than a few days before I gave up. Sound familiar?

Even after I shed 70 pounds of fat—due mostly to diet—I was in terrible shape. At age 28, I was doughy, flabby, and weak.

Not anymore.

At age 30, I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m in good shape because I’ve found ways to enjoy exercising: I’ve found ways to make exercise a daily reward instead of a dreaded task.

I can point to three reasons exercise is now enjoyable.

I do only exercises I enjoy. I don’t enjoy running, so I don’t do it. I attempted it for six months and discovered it wasn’t for me. If you see me running, call the police—someone is chasing me. Instead, I find other ways to do cardio: I walk, I get on the elliptical machine at the gym, I do bodyweight exercises that incorporate cardio.

Exercise relieves stress. Although I enjoy exercising most in the mornings, I love hitting the gym (or the park) in the evenings if I feel tense or stressed. Exercising at the end of a long, stressful day also gives me time in solitude to reflect on what’s important.

Variety keeps exercise fresh. When I first started exercising, I used to hit the gym three times per week, which was certainly better than not exercising at all. Then, as I got more serious, I started going to the gym daily. This routine became time-consuming, and doing the same thing over and over eventually caused me to plateau. These days I mix it up: I walk every day, and I still hit the gym occasionally, but the thing that has made the biggest, most noticeable difference has been the variety of daily eighteen-minute bodyweight exercises.

Eighteen minutes?

I know, eighteen minutes sounds like an arbitrary number. That’s because it is. When I started these bodyweight exercises, I didn’t have a specific window of time in mind. But I timed myself for a week and discovered that almost every time I hit the park for my exercises, I was worn out within eighteen minutes. Thus, these are my eighteen-minute exercises (all of which you can do in your living room, outdoors, or just about anywhere).

I usually alternate between the following exercises. You can of course pepper in your own favorites. And, yes, these exercises are suitable for men and women.

Push-ups. Like I said, a few years ago I couldn’t do a single push-up. Eventually, I could do one (after doing modified push-ups for a while). After a while, I could do ten and then 20. Now I can do 50–100. I tend to do three to five sets, resulting in about 200–400 push-ups within my eighteen minutes.

Pull-ups. Two years ago I thought I’d never be able to do a pull-up. Eventually, I learned how to do one. Soon, two, and then four. Now I can do ten to fifteen in a row. I complete three to four sets, resulting in about 50 pull-ups within my eighteen minutes. I use monkey bars at the park. You can use a pull-up bar at home. A friend of mine uses tree branches. I hated pull-ups because they seemed impossible, but now it’s my favorite exercise.

Squats. I just started doing bodyweight squats, and I’ve already noticed a huge difference. I’m doing only three or four sets of 30 right now, but I’ll continue to work my way up—I’ll continue to grow.

I don’t have a specific routine or plan, I simply take a 30-second break between sets, bouncing from one exercise to the next. After eighteen minutes, I’m spent. And I feel great afterward. I get that wonderful tired-but-accomplished feeling you get after a great workout. What used to be tedious is now exhilarating

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11 Ways to Write Better

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



We are all writers now. Whether you write books, blog posts, emails, Instagram captions, or text messages, you are a writer. No matter your preferred medium, here are a few tips to help you write more effectively.

Treat text messages like prose. Before hitting the send button, review your text: spelling, content, punctuation. Ask yourself: What am I attempting to communicate? What am I attempting to express? Be more deliberate with your most common form of casual writing, and you’ll automatically become more deliberate in other mediums.

Words are tools. Expand your vocabulary to make your writing more precise. There’s no need to use a ten-dollar word when a ten-cent word will suffice, but having more tools in your toolbox will allow you to select the most appropriate tool for the job. Sometimes you need an ax, sometimes you need a scalpel. Pick one new word each day, and then use it at least 21 times in your conversations with others that day. The most useful words will stick, and your vocabulary will expand over time.

Do it daily. If you want to improve your writing, write every day. Writing is a muscle: if you don’t use it, you lose it. For me, the best way to guarantee consistent writing was to start a blog. (Related article: How to Start a Successful Blog Today.)

Punctuation. Is. Pace. To add variety, velocity, and cadence to your writing, play around with different punctuation: periods, commas, em dashes, colons, semicolons. Short, succinct sentences communicate tension. Longer, run-on sentences, on the other hand, help establish a frantic, hurried rhythm—a feeling that the pace is picking up as the words tumble onto the page.

Avoid throat-clearing. Blogs, books, and social media posts are littered with unnecessary intros, solipsistic digressions, and avoidable drivel. Ditch the nonsense and state your points. When in doubt, delete your first two paragraphs and see whether the writing improves.

Don’t waste the reader’s time. Our time and our attention are two of our most precious resources. It is selfish to force a reader to spend fifteen minutes reading something you could’ve—and should’ve—communicated in 90 seconds. If you want to earn your reader’s trust, don’t waste their time.

30% composition, 70% editing. For every hour you spend writing, spend three hours editing, shaping your work into something more concise, more powerful—more beautiful. Writing truly is rewriting.

Narrative urgency. Every sentence must serve a purpose: Your first sentence must make the reader want to read the second. The second sentence must propel the reader to the third. So forth and so on until the very end. If a sentence doesn’t move the narrative forward—if it doesn’t make the writing more urgent—then it must hit the cutting-room floor, no matter how clever or precious it seems.

Avoid too many adverbs. A sure sign of amateur writing is the overuse of adverbs, especially -ly adverbs. A woman in a story isn’t incredibly pretty—she’s beautiful; the sky isn’t very blue—it’s azure. Find the perfect words to avoid using adverbs as crutches.

Follow the rules, and then unfollow the rules. Learn the rules so you can break them successfully. I recommend two books to my writing students to help them understand the guidelines of good writing: Grammatically Correct and Garner’s Modern English Usage.

Read more about writing. No matter your level of competency, there’s always room for improvement. For daily tips and writing-related articles, follow How to Write Better on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to the free How to Write Better newsletter.

If you’re serious about improving your writing, and you’re willing to put in the time and effort, I teach a dozen new students each month in my four-week online writing class, How to Write Better

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11 Signs You Might Be Broke

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, InstagramUpdated August 9, 2019



You might be broke if…

1. You’re living paycheck to paycheck. If you’re spending every dollar you take home, you are, by definition, broke. More than 75% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck (with little to no savings), which means that, right off the bat, at least three-quarters of us are impecunious.

2. You have credit-card debt. There’s no such thing as “good” debt. The debtor is always slave to the lender.

3. You have student-loan debt. Read our lips: THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “GOOD” DEBT, DAMMIT!

4. You have a monthly car payment. Ahem.

5. Your income dictates your lifestyle. It should be the other way around: we should work to earn enough money to live, not live to earn enough money to buy shit we don’t need. Until he breaks free from consumerism, the hoarder is slave to his hoard.

6. You aren’t saving for the future. We know, we know: you’ll start saving “tomorrow.” But of course tomorrow never comes, because tomorrow will be today tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow will never be today. Ergo, begin today. Your life literally depends on it. See 5 Difficult Steps Toward Financial Freedom.

7. You’re not healthy. Unhealthy equals depression. Yes, if you’re unhealthy, statistics show that you’re likely depressed. If you can’t enjoy life, no matter how wealthy you are, then you’re broke in a different way: you’re broken. The richest man in the graveyard might have the most lavish tombstone, but he’s still dead.

8. Your relationships are suffering. Too often we forsake the most important people in our lives in search of money or ephemeral pleasures. We believe that our loved ones will always be around or that “they’ll understand.” But when you’re careless with something for long enough, it breaks.

9. You argue over money. Troubled relationships tend to end for one of two reasons: arguments over money or arguments over sex (or both). Even if the relationship doesn’t end, it is difficult to grow if y’all’re constantly bickering about finances. (P.S. If you’re arguing over sex—or the lack thereof—then something’s broken.)

10. You’re not growing. It doesn’t matter how much cash you earn: if you’re not growing, you’re dying. We feel most alive when we cultivate a passion, drudge through the drudgery, and live our lives with purpose, autonomy, and mastery.

11. You don’t contribute as much as you’d like. Your worth isn’t determined by your net worth: real worth comes from contributing beyond yourself in a meaningful way. It was MLK who said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?” Giving is living, and it’s much easier to give when you’re no longer worried about money.

Being broke is okay. Being broke without a plan to break the cycle is not. You see, given the above criteria, we’ve all been broke at some point in our lives—everyone has been broke or broken.

True, we all need money to live, but you are not the contents of your wallet. What’s more important than income is how we spend the resources we have. We personally know broke people who make six (or even seven) figures a year. We also know families who live on $25k per year but aren’t broke at all—because they live within their means: they live deliberately.

Real wealth, security, and contentment come not from the trinkets we amass but from how we spend the one life we’ve been given

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10 Life-Changing Links

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Below is a list of our five favorite minimalist essays from other sites and our five favorite non-minimalist essays.

Minimalist Links

1. Paring Down (on mnmlist). We link to this short essay more than any other. Paring down is a key principle within minimalism, and it reminds us that the journey is never complete. We think about—and take action towards—paring down every day.

2. Discovering Simplicity: Audio by Joshua Becker (on Becoming Minimalist). We share this audio with tons of people via email. If you want to hear a superbly articulate introduction to minimalism—complete with a great story about the Becker family’s journey into minimalism—then listen to this. This audio is the perfect thing to share with people who ask: “What the heck is minimalism?”

3. Questioning the Couch (on Miss Minimalist). It’s funny what words stick with a person over the years. As odd as it might sound on the surface, a short essay about Miss Minimalist’s couch is one of those things that stuck with us. The couch thing seemed ridiculous to us at first, until we read the entire essay. You see—as leaders of people for over a decade—we often tell people to ask better questions if they want better answers. “Questioning the Couch,” at its fundament, is about much more than its ostensible subject (viz. it’s about questioning the stuff in your life, and that’s the first time we started to do so with any real purpose).

4. All 72 Things I Own (on Exile Lifestyle). Colin Wright, a good friend of ours, is the person who introduced us to minimalism. This post showed us a different kind of focus on life: a focus that wasn’t about stuff, but about living a more meaningful life. Even though we don’t aspire to have less than 100 things, Colin showed us it was possible to do so and inspired us to take our journey into minimalism. He also posted his subsequent 55 Things and 51 Things articles on his site.

5. A Day in the Life of a Minimalist (on Zen Habits). This was Joshua Fields Millburn’s first essay on Zen Habits, and it still remains one of our most popular works on the Web. The essay is a panoramic view of the “typical” day of a minimalist.

BONUS: 38 Lessons I’ve Learned in My 38 Years (on Zen Habits). This one is fairly new, but it’s chock-full of heartfelt advice from Leo Babauta. Well worth reading.

Non-minimalist Links

Warning: some of these links include profanity, which we aren’t bothered by—but if you are, you may not want to read on.

1. Stop Being a Fucking Pussy (on In Over Your Head). This was one of those “aha!” moments for both of us. It’s a powerful essay by Julien Smith, and it might make you reconsider a lot of things.

2. My Last Day (on Location 180). Sean Ogle does a great job explaining the feelings and emotions he experienced when he left his day job.

3. The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck (on In Over Your Head). This is another essay from Julien Smith. It’s fairly new, but it’s spectacular. A must read for everyone. Trust us, it’s remarkable.

4. Becoming Who I Am (on Uberless). You may not know of Rick Rivera or his site, but this one is worth sharing. It’s Rick’s story of questioning himself and his life as he gets older. It’s magnificently honest, heartfelt, and introspective. Do yourself a favor and read it. Note: This essay could have been listed under the “Minimalist Links” (Uberless is a minimalist site), but we saw it as more of a new kind of coming-of-age story than a story about minimalism.

5. 2,000 Subscribers in Three Months: One Blogger’s Story of Rapid Growth (on Think Traffic). Note: This one is more for people with blogs, but it’s an inspiring read either way. When Corbett Barr featured Tyler Tervooren on Think Traffic, we were inspired by his story of rapid growth (we’ve since taken a similar path as Tyler). This was also the first time we were introduced to Tyler’s cool site, Advanced Riskology. This shows that hard work pays off. Bonus: If you’re considering starting your own blog, then you can read our essay How to Set Up a Beautiful Blog Today.

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‘Follow Your Passion’ Is Crappy Advice

By Joshua Fields Millburn · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram



Are you passionate about your life? Your job? Your hobbies? What are you passionate about? How do you incorporate those passions into your life?

These are important questions—questions closely linked to your happiness and contentment and personal growth. I’m a big proponent of doing what you’re passionate about, or “following your passion,” as it were, so much so that Ryan and I dedicated an entire chapter in our book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, to finding and pursuing your passions. Unfortunately, these days there are many passion-misers running around the Internet promulgating an irresponsible view of following your passion. While these people are often filled with good intentions, the end result of their advice, of dropping everything to merely follow your passion, can prove to be disastrous.

This summer, Ryan and I were fortunate enough to spend a few hours in a tiny classroom with our friend, Cal Newport, where we discussed life, habits, discipline, and why “follow your passion” is bullshit advice.

Cal Newport, Ph.D., a 30-year-old assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University, is interested in why some people lead successful, enjoyable, meaningful lives while so many others do not. Being a self-proclaimed geek (N.B. he’s one of the coolest guys I know), Cal is not satisfied with simplistic slogans (e.g., “follow your passion!”) or conventional wisdom (e.g., success requires stress); instead, he dives deeper, looking to decode underlying patterns of success in all their nuanced glory.

I’ve always respected Cal for his contrarian viewpoints. His popular website, Study Hacks, is one of only a handful of blogs to which I subscribe. Over the last two years, Cal has helped me shift my perspective on several key areas of my life, including the oversimplification of mantras like “follow your passion.” In celebration of his new book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, I asked Cal the following questions.

Questions with Cal Newport

JFM: The advice often regurgitated throughout the Internet is simply, “You should follow your passion.” Why does this sound so appealing? Why is this bad advice?

Cal: It’s appealing because it’s both simple and daring. It tells you that you have a calling, and if you can discover it and muster the courage to follow it, your working life will be fantastic. A big, bold move that changes everything: this is a powerful storyline.

The problem is that we don’t have much evidence that this is how passion works. “Follow your passion” assumes: a) you have preexisting passion, and b) if you match this passion to your job, then you’ll enjoy that job.

When I studied the issue, it was more complex. Most people don’t have preexisting passions. And research on workplace satisfaction tells that people like their jobs for more nuanced reasons than simply they match some innate interests.

You advocate cultivating your passion, instead of following your passion. What are the key differences?

“Follow” implies that you discover the passion in advance then go match it to a job. At which point, you’re done.

“Cultivate” implies that you work toward building passion for your job. This is a longer process but it’s way more likely to pay dividends. It requires you to approach your work like a craftsman. Honing your ability, and then leveraging your value, once good, to shape your working life toward the type of lifestyle that resonates with you.

In your research, what were some of the most common misconceptions you discovered about following your passion?

The biggest issue I run into is semantic. When I say, “don’t follow your passion,” some people get upset because they think I am saying, “don’t follow the goal of being passionate about your work.” But I’m not saying this. Passion is great. I just don’t see a lot of evidence that passion is something existing naturally, waiting to be discovered. It takes hard work and planning to develop.

In a recent speech, you told people to, “Do as Steve Jobs did, not as he said.” I thought this was great advice. Can you expand on it?

Steve Jobs, in his famous Stanford Commencement address, told the students (and I’m paraphrasing here): You’ve got to find what you love, don’t settle.

If you read the press and social media that surrounded the event, it’s clear that many people interpreted this as him saying, “follow your passion.” If you go back into the details of his biography, however, you discover this is not what he did. He stumbled into Apple computer (it was a scheme to make a quick $1,000) at a time when he was “passionate” mainly about Eastern mysticism.

But Jobs was open to opportunity. When he sensed that his scheme was bigger than he imagined, he pivoted and poured a lot of energy into building a company around selling computers. He cultivated passion. He didn’t follow it.

Often times, people get excited (i.e., passionate) about an idea, but they quickly lose steam and soon lose their drive to see their idea through. Why does this happen? How can we rectify this problem?

An issue here is that we rarely talk about what true passion feels like. The sensation of excitement about a particular idea is often a different sensation than the type of deep passion that drives people into a fulfilling career. Excitement comes and goes. True passion arises after you’ve put in the long hours to really become a craftsman in your field and can then leverage this value to really have an impact, to gain autonomy and respect, to control your occupational destiny.

If someone is lost and she doesn’t know what her passion is, what first step do you recommend to get her on the right track towards cultivating her passion?

Here’s the key: there is no special passion waiting for you to discover. Passion is something that is cultivated. It can be cultivated in many, many different fields. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to say, “I don’t know what my passion is.” What does make sense is to say, “I haven’t yet cultivated a passion, I should really focus down on a small number of things and start this process.”

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15.- Visually appearing More appealing. Think about photos of homes that are cluttered, and photos of minimalist homes. The ones with almost nothing in them except some beautiful furniture, some nice artwork, and a very few pretty decorations, are the ones that appeal to most of us. The feeling is both calm and elegant. Things that value most are proudly on display. You can make your home more appealing by making it more minimalist.

We have found this to be true in our home over and over again. Whether it be something simple like removing crowded knick-knacks from a shelf or something large like removing unused pieces of furniture, we continue to enjoy the look of our home more and more as we continue to become more and more minimalist.

16.- Not tied to the past Soon after becoming minimalist, I minimized my office. In doing so, I made a deliberate decision to throw out anything related to my previous place of employment 8 years ago. This included books, materials, trainings, etc. Working at a local non-profit serving local teenagers, it occurred to me that youth culture has changed so much over the past 8 years that even the things effective 8 years ago are just not as effective today. New problems call for new solutions. And so I got removed them. And in doing so, I discovered an important benefit of minimalism: Freedom from being tied to the past.

Clutter keeps you tied to the past. Your thoughts tend to dwell in the past as the things around you force your mind to reminisce. Solutions tend to be rooted in the past as the things around you conjure up the same old thought-processes. Additionally, our minds are tied to the past because there is no available space for anything new.

Minimizing my workspace (and life) forced me to recognize the problems of today and solve them with solutions for tomorrow. Some might say – you have to release the past to create a better tomorrow. And this benefits every area of our lives.

17.- Less places for your heart A wise teacher once said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” By that, he meant that our hearts will naturally gravitate to the things we have invested the most into.

I felt that gravitation this past weekend. While I was in the store shopping with my family, a stranger scraped the side of our vehicle in the parking lot and promptly drove off. The driver left us with no insurance/contact information… nothing… just a large noticeable scrape across the rear passenger side of our vehicle. My wife and I both immediately felt sick to our stomachs. And as we drove away in silence, I began to think about what had just happened and how I responded.

I found it interesting to consider that if this same scrape had been left in my bicycle, my son’s skateboard, or my daughter’s scooter, I would not have been nearly upset. “Why not?” I wondered. And it occurred to me, I wouldn’t be nearly as upset because I don’t have nearly as much invested in those things. But our vehicle is a huge investment and because of that, my heart gravitates toward it. I guess the teacher was right, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

One benefit of minimalism is that the less investment you put in material possessions, the less places your heart has to go. When we begin to invest our money, time, and lives into more meaningful things (like relationships, social causes, or raising our children), our hearts will be drawn to those things because that is where our life investment is going… and a white scrape in your maroon minivan won’t ruin your entire day.

18.- More opportunity for rest It is no coincidence that most of the major world religions exhort human beings to set aside time each week for rest. And even those who would not consider themselves religious still speak to the value of rest. As humans, we all have physical limitations.

There is a danger in our world to self-exalt ourselves over our limitations – to claim that we can work without rest. There is great danger in losing the natural rhythm between rest and work. Great danger for our physical bodies, our emotional well-being, our relationships, and our spirituality. Simply put, we must guard the natural rhythms of life.

Minimalism provides more opportunity for valuable rest, refreshment, and enjoyment. Removing the relentless pursuit of physical possessions from our lives frees us from the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Removing unnecessary physical possessions from our lives frees us from the burden of caring for them. Removing clutter from our homes allows energy to flow more freely. And removing the value we place on physical items allows us to redirect our values and priorities.

So take a deep breath or better yet, take a nap. And return to the natural rhythms of work and rest.

19.- Find things easier I used to judge track and field at a local high school in Vermont. One particular morning before beginning our minimalist journey, I woke up to a steady rain on the day of the state’s largest competition. And because track and field doesn’t stop for rain, I knew it would be a good idea to bring an umbrella. That was until I started rummaging through the mess in our basement closet trying to find it.

If you’ve ever felt the panic that arises when you can’t find something you desperately need and the time is slowly ticking away, you can relate to how I felt. Our closet was a big hodgepodge of winter clothes (snow boots, gloves, scarves, snow pants), spring clothes (rain boots, raincoats), outdoor toys, and board games all piled up in one small closet. At the end of the search, all I could find was a blue umbrella with the big logo of a woman on it. I ended up judging the largest track and field meet of the year with a girl’s umbrella. Thankfully, this will never happen again.

Own less clutter. Find things easier.

20.- Live in a smaller space According to statistics, the average house size in America has doubled since the 1950s—yet how many times have you heard someone complain their house is still too small? Chances are pretty good that our houses aren’t too small—we’ve just put too much stuff inside them.

For most families, a house is the costliest investment they’ll ever make—almost 40 percent of an average American’s expenses go toward housing costs. Being able to live comfortably in a smaller home provides far more financial flexibility and stability.

21.- Display what you value most I have a friend with a bookcase in her living room. It has four shelves… and 36 books, 11 figurines, 24 photos, 2 souvenir coffee mugs, various snow globes, flower arrangements, vases, and candles.

People often define minimalism as removing all material possessions from your life. They ask me, “How do you live life as a minimalist? It sounds so boring.” But their definition is founded on an incorrect assumption.

Minimalism isn’t just the removal of all physical possessions. It is also the intentional promotion of the things I value most. It is about deciding what is most important in your life and removing the things that distract you from it.

Which bring me back to my friend’s bookcase. As I look at her bookcase, I ask myself, “What is it that she values most?” I can’t tell by looking her at bookcase—it’s too crowded with things that are less important.

One benefit of minimalism is that you are able to visibly declare what is most important to you. Look around your living room. What does it communicate about you? If a total stranger walked in, what would they identify is most important? Is it? Or has the most important things in your life become crowded out by less important things?.

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8.- Support other causes

Living a simple life provides the opportunity to financially support other causes. Minimalism provides an opportunity to not just save money for the sake of keeping it for myself, but to use it to further causes that I believe in.

I met a man recently who has just put his house on the market to sell so that he can donate some money to a charity that he believes in strongly. Let me adjust that… he has put one of his homes on the market. He has recently decided that there are more important things in life than owning houses in every imaginable climate. Now, I may not be tempted to sell my house (I only have one), but I am seeing the value of not purchasing another coat this winter, another piece of art for my wall, or another “new and improved” cleaning solution so that my finances can be given to bigger causes.

I am learning that our money is only as valuable as what we choose to spend it on.

9.- Own higher quality things

I will admit this benefit of minimalism came unexpected to me. For some reason, I didn’t combine owning fewer things and owning nicer things in my mind. But the truth is, they go hand-in-hand and are directly related.

When we made a commitment to buy fewer things, we opened up our lives to the opportunity of owning nicer things.

Take your wardrobe for example: if you are like most, you have 25 mediocre shirts hanging in your closet – even though you really only wear 10 of them and truly love even less. A much more sensible approach is to have 10 shirts that you truly love hanging in your closet rather than 25 that you just “kinda like.” Based on the budgetary reality that we only have a certain amount of money that we can spend on clothes, you can either purchase 20 shirts at $20 each or 10 at $40 each.

In this way, a minimalist lifestyle allows you to purchase higher quality items. Remember, more is not better… better is better.

10.- Less work for someone else

This past year, my mother sorted the belongings of a deceased parent. This past month, my close friend oversaw an estate sale of a family as they transitioned into assisted living. This past week, I helped a family move out of their residence of 45 years. Hours and hours were spent going through boxes and boxes of belongings, room by room. Some things were kept, some things were sold, much was thrown away.

In each case, someone other than the owner of the possessions was doing all the work. Consider the fact that at some point in your life (or in your death) every single item of your belongings will be sorted by another human being.

You can create for yourself a less stressful life today by living a minimalist life and lessen the burden on someone close to you as well. For the sake of your closest friends and family, choose to live a simple, minimalist life.

11.- Be happier

Owning fewer possessions makes you happier.

According to a survey by the Simplicity Institute, an organization that surveyed 2,500 people across various countries who self-identified themselves as living with fewer possessions, 87 percent of respondents indicated they were happier now than when they owned more possessions.

This may sound contrary to everything we’ve been told growing up. But when we begin to consider the benefits of living with less (less debt, less stress, less cleaning), it begins to make sense why these statistics would hold true. Happiness is not found in owning as many possessions as possible; it’s found living life consistent with your greatest passions.

12.- Do work you love

Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher, is credited with saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Whether you are 16, 26, or 76, you are making choices today that will chart the course for the rest of your life. And those who choose to embrace the idea of living with less open up the rest of his or her life to endless possibilities—including picking a passion as a career.

Somebody who decides to intentionally live with less has less need to hold a certain level of income. As a result, they can choose whatever career path they most desire. Their decision does not have to be dictated by income level. And while there is nothing wrong with earning money, when your salary package can be removed from the career-choice equation, you are free to choose your career based on other factors—such as “something I really want to do.”

Own less stuff. Choose work you love.

13.- Freedom from the comparison game

Our culture begs us to own more. Advertisements call us to purchase the latest and the greatest. Our natural tendencies cause us to compare our lives with those around us. Add in the fact that we seem to have a built-in desire to impress others by owning as much as possible. And you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

As a result, we spend precious energy comparing our stuff to others. We notice what she got for her birthday, what technology he carries in his pocket, or what trendy clothes all of our friends seem to be wearing. Ultimately, we end up wishing we had more. But this constant dreaming, hoping, and envying others’ possessions steal from our joy and contentment today.

We spend so much mental energy thinking about what we don’t own, we fail to appreciate the things that we do own. It makes us feel we are missing out on something—even though there is so much joy right in front of us.

14.- Time for things that matter most John Ruskin, an art critic in the 19th century, once wrote, “Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.” He was right. Every single thing you own requires a little bit of your attention and time whether it be researching, shopping, cleaning, organizing, repairing, replacing, recycling, or working just to make the money to buy the new thing that you can take home to clean and organize and replace. John Ruskin was right. The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you.

That’s why those who live a minimalist lifestyle have more time on their hands for other things in life. It was this benefit that ultimately led to our decision to become minimalists. Remember the story of my son playing baseball in the backyard while I was stuck cleaning the garage?

Since becoming minimalist, we have found that living with fewer possessions means that all our belongings have a standard place where they belong in our home, which makes cleaning a snap. I spend less time searching for books, keys, and shoes. In short, I spend far less time being the janitor for my possessions, and far more time doing the things I love.

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1.- Spend Less

One important benefit of minimal living is the simple reality that it costs less. As you accumulate fewer things, you spend less money. Additionally, it costs much less to store them, maintain them, repair them, clean them, and even discard them. And as your affection for physical possessions begins to fade, you’ll find far more opportunity to use your finances in other ways.

Many people believe the secret to financial freedom is earning more money. Unfortunately, when we begin to make more money without spending restraints in place, we just spend more money… this truth has proven true over and over again (maybe even in your own life). Conversely, the reverse is probably more true: the secret to financial freedom is actually spending less. It’s the simplest solution to (almost) all your money problems.

Live a life that accumulates only the essential often results in the financial freedom you’ve been searching for

2.-Less Stress

A minimalist home is less stressful. Clutter is a form of visual distraction as everything in our vision subtly pulls at our attention. The less clutter, the less visual stress we experience. A minimalist home has a calming feel.

I have found this to be true and you will too with a simple experiment. Compare two counter tops: one that is clear (minimal) and one that is cluttered. Look at each of them separately and gauge your internal response. What exactly is your emotional and mental response? Notice how the clear countertop brings about a calming effect and the cluttered one bring emotions of distraction or anxiety. Now, magnify this emotional response throughout your entire home.

A minimalist home is significantly less stressful. I have found this to be entirely true. And so will you.

3.-Easier to Clean

When we first began to declutter our home, we started easy.

The decorations in our living room was one of the first projects. Immediately after removing them, I was surprised at the amount of dust found on the shelves (particularly the top shelves). Clearly, the vast number of knick-knacks on the shelving made the proposition of dusting a daunting task. Additionally, when we finished decluttering our kids’ toy room, we noticed it took much less time to put their toys away in the evening. And when we began decluttering our wardrobe, we found it easier to keep our closets tidy.

This benefit became very clear. The fewer things in our home, the easier it is to clean.

4.- Freedom

This benefit took me by surprise. I had just completed minimizing my office at work and as I put the last few items in their new found home, I kept commenting out loud, “This feels so good. Today has been a great day.” It was an emotion and response I did not expect to experience.

A feeling of freedom was coming over me as I kept looking around at my new, simple office. No longer would my work environment feature three bookcases of books that I “should have read.” No longer would my desktop be cluttered with stacks of paper that “should be filed properly.” No longer am I strangled by clutter as I sit in my office trying to work.

The sense of freedom that comes from minimalism is truly refreshing. Indeed, it is more than a feeling; it is a reality that can define your life.

5.- Good for environment Assume for just a moment you have one of those mothers that does all the work around the house for you. Every morning when you wake up she makes your bed and the kitchen is spotless no matter what the family ate for dinner the night before.

If that was the case, how would you show the most respect and honor to your mother? Would you best bring her honor by pulling out every toy and making as large a mess as possible for her to clean? Or would you bring her honor by keeping things clean, by putting your own toys away, and keeping the room as close to perfection as possible? The second one of course. You would bring honor to her by sustaining the perfection that she desires for you as much as possible.

That’s how I look at the environment. If it started in a state of perfection, we would most honor it by taking as much care of the environment as we can. The less we consume, the less damage we do to the environment. And that benefits everyone.

6.- Be more productive

Our possessions consume our time. Whether we are cleaning them, organizing them, buying them, or selling them, the more we own the more time they rob from our lives.

Take shopping for example: the average American spends nearly 12 hours every month shopping. Now, while it is impossible to completely remove shopping from our schedules, one benefit of living simply is the opportunity to live a more productive life by the plain fact that we spend less time shopping. Add in the time we spend cleaning, sorting, and organizing our stuff once we get it in our homes and we’re beginning to talk about a significant chunk of time.

We only get one chance to live this life; we would be wise to make it as productive as possible.

7.- Example for my kids

My son is 7 and my daughter is 3. Right now, they are soaking up values from us as parents about how to live and how to achieve significance.

Becoming minimalist has modeled for my children that personal belongings are not the key to happiness, that security is found in their character, and that the pursuit of happiness runs a different road than the pursuit of possessions. These are valuable life lessons they will never learn at school or in the media.

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Benefits of Minimalism: 21 Benefits of Owning Less



Minimalism is countercultural. It is contrary to every advertisement we have ever seen because we live in a society that prides itself on the accumulation of possessions.

But there is more joy to be found in minimalist living than can be found pursuing more.

Benefits of Minimalism

Here are 21 powerful benefits of pursuing and living a minimalist lifestyle.

1. Spend Less.

Choosing to accumulate only the essentials often results in financial freedom. Spending less on things you don’t really need will cut your financial expenses and increase your savings.

2. Less Stress.

A minimalist home is significantly less stressful. Being able to freely move around and enjoy your home is a huge weight off your shoulders.

3. Easier to Clean.

The fewer things in our home, the fewer things there are to clean. This makes cleaning a significantly easier chore.

4. More Freedom.

The sense of freedom that comes from minimalism is truly refreshing. You will no longer feel tied to the material possessions in your home and you’ll feel a new sense of independence.

5. Good for the Environment.

The less we consume and buy, the less damage we do to the environment.

6. Be More Productive.

Our possessions consume our time more than we realize.

7. Example for my Kids.

These are valuable life lessons they will never learn in the media.

8. Support Other Causes.

Money is only as valuable as what we choose to spend it on.

9. Own Higher Quality Things.

More is not better… better is better.

10. Less Work for Someone Else.

Create a less stressful life today and lessen the burden on someone else too.

11. Be Happier.

Owning fewer possessions makes you happier.

12. Do Work You Love.

Own less stuff. Choose work you love.

13. Freedom From the Comparison Game.

Our culture begs us to own more.

14. Time for Things that Matter Most.

The more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you.

15. Visually Appealing.

Make your home more appealing.

16. Not Tied to the Past.

Release the past to create a better tomorrow.

17. Less Places for Your Heart.

Invest your heart into meaningful things.

18. More Opportunity for Rest.

Take a deep breath.

19. Find Things Easier.

Own less clutter. Find stuff quicker.

20. Live in a Smaller Space.

For most families, a house is the costliest investment they’ll ever make.

21. Display What You Value Most.

Communicate what is most important.

If you need ideas on how to get started in becoming a minimalist, here are 10 creative decluttering tips.

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Minimalist FAQs

Some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about minimalism and living the minimalist life, for those new to the concept.

Q: Why be a minimalist?

A: It’s a way to escape the excesses of the world around us — the excesses of consumerism, material possessions, clutter, having too much to do, too much debt, too many distractions, too much noise. But too little meaning. Minimalism is a way of eschewing the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important, what gives our lives meaning, what gives us joy and value.

Q: Isn’t minimalism boring or too sparse, with nothing in your life?

A: This is a misconception about minimalism — that it’s necessarily monk-like, empty, boring, sterile. Not at all. Well, it can be, if you go in that direction, but I don’t advocate that flavor of minimalism. Instead, we are clearing away all but the most essential things — to make room for that which gives us the most joy. Clear away the distractions so we can create something incredible. Clear away all the obligations so we can spend time with loved ones. Clear away the noise so we can concentrate on inner peace, on spirituality (if we wish), on our thinking. As a result, there is more happiness, peace, and joy, because we’ve made room for these things.

Q: What is minimalist living?

A: It’s simply getting rid of things you do not use or need, leaving an uncluttered, simple environment and an uncluttered, simple life. It’s living without an obsession with material things or an obsession with doing everything and doing too much. It’s using simple tools, having a simple wardrobe, carrying little and living lightly.

Q: What are the benefits of minimalism?

A: There are many. It’s lower in stress. It’s less expensive and less debt. It’s less cleaning and maintaining. It’s more enjoyable. There’s more room for creating, for loved ones, for peace, for doing the things that give you joy. There’s more time for getting healthy. It’s more sustainable. It’s easier to organize. These are only the start.

Q: What does the schedule of a minimalist look like?

A: There’s no single answer to this question, but a minimalist would probably focus on doing less, on having a less cluttered schedule, but what’s on his or her schedule would be important. A minimalist might not actually keep a schedule or calendar, at one extreme, if he didn’t have much to do each day — he might instead live and work moment-by-moment, or just decide each morning to focus on one or two important things.

A minimalist would also save a lot of time because of having less clutter and fewer possessions. That means less time cleaning and maintaining, and less time searching for things. A minimalist who clears away distractions and single-tasks would also waste less time with those distractions and in switching back and forth between tasks (multi-tasking).

In general, all this results in more time for relaxing, for hobbies, for creating, for doing fun things.

Q: What rules do I need to follow to become minimalist?

A: There are no set rules. There’s no one way. What I suggest for living minimally isn’t what someone else would recommend, nor is it how you would live your minimalist life. In general, however, you want to live simply without too many unnecessary possessions, distractions, clutter, or waste. You want to live frugally, debt-free, sustainably, naturally.

Q: Do you need to be vegan or vegetarian to be minimalist?

A: No. While I believe the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle is consistent with minimalism, you can eat simply as an omnivore as well. Again, there’s no one way. A minimalist would try to eat naturally, without too much processing, and not eat too much food (such as the ridiculous portions at most restaurants these days).

Q: I believe in simplifying, but why should I be so frugal — what wrong with a few REALLY nice things?

A: Frugality is simply a way of not spending on unnecessary things — sticking to the essentials. Is there anything wrong with a few really nice things? Not necessarily. If you need to buy something, it’s usually better to go for quality, rather than cheap, because it’s better made and will last longer. Minimalism is about quality over quantity.

However … it’s always good to examine whether it’s good to have an attachment to material things. This isn’t something I’ve completely succeeded with — I love my Mac, for example — but it’s something I’ve been working on. I am much less attached to possessions than I was just a few years ago, and I recommend that everyone examine their relationship with physical things, with products, and see if it’s really what they want.

Q: What about finding minimalism in America — where you need to have a car and a job?

A: This whole site is about finding minimalism within the American culture and society — as well as other industrialized nations — not on some remote desert island. The complexities and social expectations of the United States (and other industrialized countries) is exactly why minimalism is needed. All the advice I give on this site (and Zen Habits) is aimed at people in these modern societies.

I’ve lived a minimalist life on Guam, and now in San Francisco. It’s a matter of choices.

Do you need to be as minimalist as me, or someone living in the wilderness? Not at all. It’s not about that. It’s about finding simplicity and finding what’s important to you, and making choices, rather than adopting the consumerist mindset that most people have.

Q: Aren’t you being contradictory by claiming to be a minimalist and owning a Mac, or a house, or having six kids?

A: Again, there’s no one way. Everyone must find his own path, and mine is different than what someone else would consider minimalist. Also, I have never claimed to be perfect – I’m striving for minimalism, but I always have room for improvement. I have things that are inconsistent with minimalism, or at least by the definition of others. I’m working on it.

I should say a word or two about having six kids and minimalism. Having six children is inconsistent with my message of simplifying, frugality, downsizing, being green.

I don’t have a defense – but I do have an explanation for the inconsistency. I had my kids before (and during) my change in philosophy. In fact, my philosophy is evolving even now, so I can’t claim to have believed in the things I believe in now, for a very long time. Many things I believe in are only recent developments.

As an example – only recently, I made the decision to transition back into veganism (I was vegan once, but have been lacto-ovo veggie for over a year). But I own a pair of leather sandals – do I throw them out? Wouldn’t that be wasteful? Is it better to be wasteful but consistent with my beliefs? It’s hard to say.

However, I have decided it would be most unethical for me to throw out my children, just because I now believe in downsizing. It was a tough decision, but I’m sticking by it.

As a result of my simplifying, I am able to enjoy my time with my children, and I have to admit, they are the best thing to happen to me. I don’t regret having them one bit, even if they are inconsistent with my philosophy of downsizing.

On the good side, I believe that even with six kids — being vegan, buying less stuff, being energy conscious, going car-less, walking more for transportation – I actually use fewer resources than the average person in developed countries (and far less than the average American) – this is according to online carbon footprint calculators. It’s not a justification for having six kids, but just a note that things aren’t as bad as they could be.

Q: Why don’t you have a comment button or comments on this site?

A: I purposely didn’t include comments on this site for a couple of reasons:

1. I already manage several other blogs, and get a ton of comments at Zen Habits, and having to manage another blog’s comments is too much for me. I just don’t have the time, and if I had to do it, I couldn’t do this blog.

2. I love dialog with readers — it’s what makes blogging such a joy — but commenting isn’t the only way. I encourage you to reply to me about any of these posts via Twitter or on your blog. The dialog then will be less local and more widespread.

3. I like the idea of keeping things simple on a blog about minimalism.

Q: How is mnmlist.com different than Zen Habits?

A: Well, Zen Habits is about simplicity, and mnmlist.com is about minimalism — can’t you see the difference?

Seriously, though, there will be a different focus here than at Zen Habits, which covers a wide range of topics besides simplicity, including productivity, changing habits, health & fitness, family, finances, happiness, and yes, simplicity.

This blog will focus pretty much exclusively on minimalism, a passion of mine. Not all Zen Habits readers are incredibly interested in minimalism, so I’m breaking off this blog for those who are.

If you have other questions that I should include here, please let me know on Twitter!

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What Is Minimalism?



So what is this minimalism thing? It’s quite simple: to be a minimalist you must live with less than 100 things, you can’t own a car or a home or a television, you can’t have a career, you must live in exotic hard-to-pronounce places all over the world, you must start a blog, you can’t have children, and you must be a young white male from a privileged background.

OK, we’re joking—obviously. But people who dismiss minimalism as some sort of fad usually mention any of the above “restrictions”� as to why they could “never be a minimalist.”� Minimalism isn’t about any of those things, but it can help you accomplish them. If you desire to live with fewer material possessions, or not own a car or a television, or travel all over the world, then minimalism can lend a hand. But that’s not the point.

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.

There are plenty of successful minimalists who lead appreciably different lives. Our friend Leo Babauta has a wife and six children. Joshua Becker has a career he enjoys, a family he loves, and a house and a car in suburbia. Conversely, Colin Wright owns 51 things and travels all over the world, and Tammy Strobel and her husband live in a “tiny house”� and are completely car-free. Even though each of these people are different, they all share two things in common: they are minimalists, and minimalism has allowed them to pursue purpose-driven lives.

But how can these people be so different and yet still be minimalists? That brings us back to our original question: What is minimalism? If we had to sum it up in a single sentence, we would say, Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.

Minimalism has helped us…

Eliminate our discontent

Reclaim our time

Live in the moment

Pursue our passions

Discover our missions

Experience real freedom

Create more, consume less

Focus on our health

Grow as individuals

Contribute beyond ourselves

Rid ourselves of excess stuff

Discover purpose in our lives

By incorporating minimalism into our lives, we’ve finally been able to find lasting happiness—and that’s what we’re all looking for, isn’t it? We all want to be happy. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself; thus, it’s up to you to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in your life.

Through our essays we intend to present to you ideas of how to achieve a minimalist lifestyle without adhering to a strict code or an arbitrary set of rules. A word of warning, though: it isn’t easy to take the first steps, but your journey towards minimalism gets much easier—and more rewarding—the further you go. The first steps often take radical changes in your mindset, actions, and habits. Fret not, though—we want to help: we’ve documented our experiences so you can learn from our failures and successes, applying what we’ve learned to your own situation, assisting you in leading a more meaningful life.

This is just our take on minimalism. For more, read our minimalism elevator pitch, as well as some of our friends’ explanations of minimalism:

Leo Babauta’s Description of Minimalism

Joshua Becker’s Benefits of Minimalism

Courtney Carver’s 25 Reasons You Might Be a Minimalist

Colin Wright’s Minimalism Explained

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Doggo and Kitty Do Their Laundry

Once, there was a dog and a cat. The dog was called Doggo. He had long, thick hair. The cat was called Kitty. She had soft, thin hair. Doggo and Kitty lived together in a small house. Their house was beside a forest. Doggo and Kitty liked living beside the forest very much.

Doggo was only a small dog. Kitty was only a small cat. But they had big dreams. Doggo and Kitty wanted to be like the Big People: the adults. They wanted to walk like adults, and talk like adults, and live their lives like adults.

There was a problem, though. Adults have hands, and Doggo and Kitty didn’t have hands. They only had paws. Their paws were big and cute, but they weren’t like adult hands. They didn’t have fingers. They only had sharp claws. You can’t shake someone’s hand if you have sharp claws. You will just hurt them!

So Doggo and Kitty couldn’t be like the Big People. But they had their dream, still. You might be thinking: if Doggo and Kitty weren’t adults, did they go to school? The answer is no. School isn’t for animals. School is only for children. Doggo and Kitty weren’t adults, and they weren’t children. They were animals. So, of course, they couldn’t go to school!

As I said before, Doggo and Kitty lived together in a small house. The house was made of wood, and had a bright, red roof. It was a very pretty house. But, because Doggo and Kitty weren’t adults, and because they had big paws instead of small hands, they were very messy. Their house was always full of mess, and they hated cleaning up.

One day, Doggo and Kitty were looking for clothes to wear. They liked to wear shirts and trousers and hats, just like the adults did. But Doggo and Kitty couldn’t find their clothes! They weren’t in their drawers. They weren’t in the cupboards. They weren’t on the hooks. Finally, Doggo looked on the floor, and he found the clothes there.

‘Look, Kitty,’ he said, picking up a shirt. ‘Our clothes are all dirty. We can’t wear these! Adults don’t wear dirty clothes.’

‘You’re right, Doggo,’ said Kitty. ‘These clothes are too dirty for us to wear. We will have to wash them.’

‘The adults have a word for that, don’t they?’ said Doggo. ‘They call it “laundry”.’

‘Yes, I think you’re right,’ said Kitty. ‘We are going to have to do our laundry.’

‘Very good,’ said Doggo. ‘Now, how do we do our laundry?’

‘It’s very simple,’ said Kitty. ‘You go and get some water, and I’ll go and get everything else.’

Doggo went outside to the river, to fill up a bucket of water. The bucket was big, wooden and very, very heavy. Kitty opened one of the kitchen cupboards, and pulled out a bar of soap. The bar of soap was round, red, and very, very pretty. She put it on a chair. Then she went to find the washing board. The washing board was a long, metal board, that they could use to wash the clothes on.

Doggo came back to the house, carrying the very heavy bucket of water. He put it on the floor in the kitchen and went, ‘Phew!’. Then he saw something on the chair. It was round, red, and very, very pretty.

“This must be something very nice,” thought Doggo. “In fact, it looks very tasty.”

Because it looked so tasty, and so pretty, Doggo thought it must’ve been put there for him. And if it was put there for him, then he should eat it. So Doggo picked up the round, red thing and took a big bite out of it.

But it wasn’t tasty. In fact, it tasted very, very bad. Doggo spat it out, and started coughing. His mouth was full of bubbles, and they tasted horrible!

Just then, Kitty came back into the kitchen. She saw Doggo spitting and coughing, and asked him, ‘Doggo, are you OK? You’re spitting bubbles everywhere! Are you sick?’

‘No, I’m not sick!’ Doggo said, between coughs. ‘I found this red thing here, and I thought it looked very tasty. It looked like a piece of cheese, or maybe some sweets. So I decided to eat it. But it tastes horrible, and now I can’t stop coughing up bubbles!’ COUGH

‘Doggo, you’re very silly!’ said Kitty. ‘That wasn’t food. It was a bar of soap! And soap is for washing, not for eating.’

‘Well, that explains why it tastes so bad,’ said Doggo. ‘But I don’t understand. Why make a bar of soap look so tasty? It just makes you want to eat it!’

‘I don’t know,’ said Kitty. ‘But anyway, I’m going to get out another bar of soap, and you must promise not to eat this one. Go and drink some water to wash those bubbles out of your mouth.’

After Doggo did that, and Kitty found the washing board, they were all ready to do their laundry. Except one thing was missing.

‘Wait,’ said Doggo. ‘We don’t have a brush. How can we do our laundry without a brush?’

‘I didn’t think of that,’ said Kitty. ‘You’re right. Without a brush, we won’t be able to rub our clothes on the washing board. If we can’t rub our clothes, we won’t be able to get the dirt out of them.’

‘Hmm,’ said Doggo.

They sat down and thought for a while. Then Kitty jumped in the air.

‘Doggo, I have an idea! Brushes have long, thick hair. You also have long, thick hair. We can use you as the brush!’

‘Good idea!’ said Doggo.

So Kitty sat down with the washing board, the bucket of water, and Doggo in front of her. She put a piece of dirty clothing on the washing board. Then, she dipped the soap in the bucket of water, and rubbed it on the clothing until it made lots and lots of bubbles. Then, she picked up Doggo, and rubbed him quickly against the clothing.

Afterwards, they had a pile of clean, wet clothes, and a very dirty, wet Doggo. Both the clothes and Doggo were dripping water all over the floor.

‘But Kitty,’ said Doggo. ‘We don’t have a towel to dry the clothes with. And I’m too wet to use again.’

‘Hmm,’ said Kitty.

They sat down and thought for a while. Doggo dripped more water on the floor. Then, he jumped in the air.

‘Kitty, I have an idea! Towels have soft, thin hair. You also have soft, thin hair. We can use you as a towel!’

‘Good idea!’ said Kitty.

So Doggo sat down with the pile of clothes and Kitty in front of him. He picked up a piece of clothing, put it on the washing board, and rubbed Kitty all over it.

Afterwards, they had a pile of clean, dry clothes. But Doggo was still very wet, and dripping water everywhere. And Kitty was very dirty, so she sneezed loudly, ‘Atchoo!’

‘Doggo,’ said Kitty, ‘imagine if an adult saw us now! They would laugh at us for hours! We have done our laundry, but now we need to wash ourselves!’

‘OK then, Kitty. I will wash you first, and then you will wash me. OK?’

So Kitty climbed onto the washing board, and Doggo started rubbing her with the soap. She shouted, ‘Ow!’, because he had to rub her very hard to get her clean. When Doggo was finished, Kitty climbed off the washing board, and Doggo climbed onto it. Kitty started washing him, and he shouted, ‘Ow!’, because her claws were sharp and kept scratching him.

Then they both stood up, and squeezed each other, so that all the water in their hair dripped out onto the floor.

‘Now we need to hang ourselves to dry,’ said Kitty, ‘because we have so much hair. If we stay inside, we will never be dry.’

‘You’re right,’ said Doggo. ‘We will have to hang ourselves up on the washing line.’

They went into the garden, where the washing line was hanging from a tree. They climbed up the tree, and then onto the washing line. They didn’t need any pegs to hang themselves from the washing line, because their claws were very sharp.

They hung from the washing line, and the sun shone on them.

‘The sun is shining on us, Doggo!’ said Kitty. ‘Soon we will be dry.’

But just when she finished talking, a big cloud appeared, and it started to rain.

‘It’s raining!’ shouted Doggo. ‘Our laundry is getting wet! We must take it down!’

Quickly, they both jumped off the washing line, and ran inside the house.

‘Is it still raining?’ asked Kitty.

‘It has stopped,’ said Doggo, seeing that the sun was shining again. ‘Let’s hang our laundry up again.’

So they went into the garden, climbed up the tree, and then onto the washing line, which they hung off with their claws. The sun shone on them, and they were so happy to see their laundry drying!

But then, it started to rain again.

‘It’s raining!’ shouted Kitty. ‘Our laundry is getting wet. We must take it down!’

Quickly, they both jumped off the washing line, and ran back inside the house. Then, the sun shone again, so they went back to the washing line, but then it started to rain again, so they ran back inside the house. They continued hanging from the washing line, and running inside, and then going back to the washing line, until it was evening, and the sun had stopped shining.

By that point, they were both clean and dry, although they were very, very tired.

‘The laundry is done!’ said Doggo.

‘What a day!’ said Kitty. ‘We did our laundry, just like the adults do.’

‘So now it’s time to go to bed,’ said Doggo.

They climbed upstairs and into their beds and quickly fell asleep.

THE END

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The Spider’s Thread

It was a normal day in Heaven. It was morning, and Buddha was standing beside a pool. In the pool there were many flowers. The flowers sat on the top of the water, and they were very beautiful. Buddha began to walk. He walked around the pool and looked at the flowers. The flowers had a beautiful smell. The smell grew inside the flowers and moved into the air. All the air around Buddha smelled amazing.

Buddha stopped walking, and looked hard at the pool. Between the flowers there was water, and under the water, there was Hell.

The water was like a piece of glass. Above, there was Heaven, beautiful and lovely. Below, there was Hell, ugly and horrible. The water stood between the two places.

Through the water, Buddha could see all the horrible things in Hell.

First, there was the Sanzu river. It was a river full of dragons, and it had a bridge going over it. Only good people could walk across the bridge. There were demons standing in the water, and if a bad person walked across the bridge, the demons would take them and throw them into the water, so that they would be eaten by the dragons.

Then, there was the Mountain of Needles. It was a huge mountain made of sharp needles. When a truly bad person came to Hell, they had to climb the Mountain of Needles.

There was also the Lake of Blood. The Lake was made of very, very hot water, and it smelled horrible. Bad people in Hell had to swim in the boiling water, and their blood filled the Lake. And of course, there were many other horrible things in Hell, but Buddha did not like to look at them.

Among the groups of bad people in Hell, there was one man called Kandata. Kandata had been a very evil man. He had killed people, stolen from people, and even burned houses with people in them. He was truly an enemy of all good people. But once in his life, he had done something good, and Buddha remembered this.

One time, Kandata was walking through a thick forest. He was going to steal from a man who lived in the forest. As he was walking, he saw a spider beside him. Kandata raised his foot, and was about to stand on the spider and kill it, but then he stopped.

‘No, no. Even something this small has a reason to live. It would be truly evil to take its life away.’

So he let the spider live, and went to steal from the man.

As Buddha looked down into Hell, he thought of how Kandata had saved the spider. He decided that Kandata was actually not that evil. Because he had saved the spider, Buddha thought he should give Kandata a chance to leave Hell.

Luckily, next to the pool of beautiful flowers, a spider was walking. It was a spider of Heaven. It was an amazing green colour, and it was making a beautiful gold thread. Usually, spiders only made weak, white threads, but this spider’s golden thread was strong and made of shining gold. So Buddha took the spider’s golden thread and dropped it into Hell deep below him.

At the bottom of Hell, Kandata was swimming in the Lake of Blood, along with many other bad people. Occasionally, he saw something bright, and he thought it was something that could save him. But when he looked harder, he saw that it was just the needles on the Mountain of Needles, shining in the light. All around him, people cried in pain and sadness. Kandata had stopped crying, because he was too tired. He felt truly awful, because he knew he would never leave Hell. He swam in the Lake of Blood, quiet and sad.

Kandata saw something shine, but he knew it was only a needle, so he did not look up. But it kept shining, so eventually he raised his head. Above him, in the darkness of Hell’s sky, there was something bright and gold. It was a long thread that was slowly coming down into Hell.

Kandata couldn’t believe his eyes. His chance to leave Hell was coming down to him like a present. He would climb onto the thread, and climb out of Hell! If he was lucky, he might even be able to climb into Heaven. He no longer had to swim in the Lake of Blood, and climb the Mountain of Needles. He would be free!

So Kandata climbed out of the Lake and ran to the golden thread. He took it in his hands. The thread was thin, and easy to hold onto. Kandata climbed up and up and up. Because he used to steal so much, he was very good at climbing, so it was no problem to climb up the golden thread. However, between Heaven and Hell were thousands and thousands of miles, so even for a great climber like Kandata, it was a difficult journey.

After climbing for a long time, Kandata was tired, so he decided to take a break. He looked below him to see how far he had climbed. He saw that the Lake of Blood was far, far away, and that he had climbed many miles. Even the Mountain of Needles was far below him. If he kept climbing, he would leave Hell. He felt a great happiness inside of him.

‘I’ve done it! I’ve done it!’ he shouted, and laughed.

But then he felt something below him on the thread. He looked down, and saw that lots of other bad people in Hell had seen the thread. They were now following him, climbing up and up and up.

Kandata saw this, and he was surprised, and sad. He hung there, looking down at the other evil people. The thread was not thick, so he was surprised that it could take so many people without breaking. But if too many people climbed onto the thread, it might break, and they would all fall back down into Hell. More and more people climbed out of the Lake of Blood, and started climbing up the thread.

Kandata shouted at the people below, ‘Hey, you terrible people! You awful people down there! This spider’s thread is mine. It belongs to me, and only me! Who told you you could all climb up? Get off, get off!’

Then, suddenly, the spider’s thread broke. It made a SNAP, and Kandata fell. He fell down and down and down. Finally, he landed in the Lake of Blood with a SPLASH, along with all the other bad people. The spider’s thread hung in the air, shining bright like the needles on the Mountain of Needles, while all the bad people sat below.

Buddha stood by the side of the pool in Heaven, and watched all of this happen. He had a sad expression on his face. He started to walk around the pool again. He had given Kandata a chance to get out of Hell, but Kandata showed that he was a truly bad person, and so Buddha had to send him right back to Hell. He seemed very sad at this.

Meanwhile, the flowers in the pool continued to smell lovely. They continued to make their beautiful smell all throughout Heaven, and they did not think of Kandata. The green spider continued to make its golden thread, and it did not think of Kandata. It was a normal day in Heaven, and soon it would be noon.

THE END

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A chat with Mexico’s coronavirus czar  Richard Ensor Apr 5 · 19 min read   Hugo López-Gatell (left), Richard Ensor (right), Susana Distancia (centre) Nuevo: Se puede leer en Español aquí For political junkies in Mexico used to a president hogging the spotlight, the rise to household-name status of Hugo López-Gatell, a once-obscure health undersecretary, has been breathtaking. Each evening Mr López-Gatell holds a press conference in which he reveals Mexico’s daily covid-19 figures and exhorts Mexicans to stay in their homes. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the populist president, has at times resembled Donald Trump in playing down the pandemic. So Mr López-Gatell has earned a reputation similar to that of Anthony Fauci in America: a by-the-book health bureaucrat who must contend with an unhelpful boss. Yet Mr López-Gatell himself is controversial. His critics fret that too little is being done. The total number of coronavirus test results that Mexico has processed until now, 11,357 as of April 4th, is roughly what the United States goes through every two hours. Like many countries, Mexico uses a sentinel model for tracking the disease, using only a few high-quality testing centres, with narrow criteria for testing eligibility. This is a reliable way to track overall trends, but it almost certainly leads to a drastic undercount of the pandemic’s true spread. Unlike in most countries, Mexico’s quarantine measures have been lax and unenforced. I interviewed Mr López-Gatell on April 3rd. Below is the transcript, lightly edited for brevity and clarity. Richard Ensor: How do you balance the need to tell the public the full truth about the crisis — and perhaps catastrophe — that is coming, up against a desire to reduce panic and maintain public morale? Hugo López-Gatell: This is possibly one of the most challenging or complex elements of managing an epidemic. I mention as a starting point, that in Mexico governmental public health has a tradition of, I would say, rudimentary and politicised risk-communication policy. This is something that I personally have dealt with in the last 10 or 11 years, including when I worked in the government during the 2009 [swine flu] pandemic. When I was in academia at the Institute of Public Health, I would give a course on health safety. And I always emphasised a lot that the idea that information must be hidden from the population is completely wrong. Not only in ethical terms, individual ethics, government ethics, but technical ones. There are manuals and textbooks which can be summarised with the notion that the faster you make the population participate in a problem, explaining it to them frankly, absolutely transparently and candidly, adding them to be part of the solution, setting out the alternatives and what they can do, this is the most effective way for government and society to work together towards a solution. In Mexico we began preparing for this epidemic of covid-19 from January 3rd. And very early, on January 22nd, we gave a press conference. And I remember that one of the journalists asked us: “Why are you giving us this news?” I made reference to what occurred 10 years ago, with the influenza pandemic, where the very first [government] communication was a very formal decision, by the health secretary, to decree the immediate closure of activities in metropolitan areas. So, this journalist’s question is: you’re presenting us with a catastrophic situation at this moment? And he was surprised to see that we were telling him about something that hadn’t even arrived yet. We had the first case in Mexico more than a month later, on February 27th. And my response, we are telling you now because we want you to know it from the beginning, so that society works with us from the preparation [phase]. Of course, each day carries a new challenge, and one has to have clarity in that regard. But the fundamental principle is that transparency helps. RE: But is it possible to be fully transparent with the population when you are using the sentinel model of epidemiological surveillance? You acknowledge that this number [of cases] you are publishing every night is not the true number of cases that are in Mexico today. When this government publishes crime statistics, it acknowledges the numbers it collects are not accurate; to compensate for that, it tries to estimate the cifra negra (“black number”) that the system is missing. HLG: Totally. RE: Why is your government not making more of an effort to provide a cifra negra for covid-19 cases, which would improve transparency? HLG: We are doing it and we will continue to do it. Today we are publishing a new indicator of sentinel surveillance: the percentage of confirmation [positive test results as a share of all results]. It does not matter if a country has 20 cases, 400 cases or 1,000 cases. The proportion of confirmation itself reveals what the pattern is. A rising rate of confirmation of covid-19 cases, among suspected cases, is an indicator that things are progressing in the epidemic. On several occasions, in our press conferences, we have said: we use the sentinel model, and in this sentinel model not everything is visible. The sentinel model formally started operating when we moved to Phase Two last Monday [March 23rd]. And we are just now doing the whole package of estimations to present it publicly. It is not that we wish to restrict it, but rather that the model’s numbers are not yet available because it has only just begun operating. RE: So you cannot put a number on the true number of cases that are in Mexico? You report 1,700 cases today in total. What is the real number in your estimation? HLG: In Mexico, we don’t have that yet. That is a technical issue. In the world, there have been two or three publications, some more technical than others, that have suggested a factor of 10, a correction factor of 20, a correction factor of 40. These estimates are not universal. Because for each country, the expansion factor, or the correction factor, depends on various elements. Above all it has to do with risk behaviour. There are segments of the population that, with the smallest encouragement, will seek medical attention. Then there are segments of the population that never go, or take a long time. So, the patterns of demand are one factor. In the sentinel model of influenza surveillance, there is an indicator that is very useful, and it is the one that the CDC formally proposed with the PAHO in 2005. That is: the proportion of health consultations due to an influenza-like illness. And from this attribution the number increases, when the number of consultations is known. Right now, we are calibrating this. And this has to do with the fact that we still have influenza, it is still active in Mexico. We have about 30% of acute respiratory infections — symptoms compatible with covid-19 — which are clinically indistinguishable from influenza, but which are still due to the influenza virus. So, it is not, I insist, incorporating the sentinel model for covid-19, this is an issue that was recently activated. We had it planned this way, because by changing the phase of response [from eliminating the spread of the virus to mitigating it], the surveillance model required also changed. RE: in the absence of a proper numerical estimate, there are other pieces of statistical information that the General Directorate of Epidemiology could be providing to the public in the coming weeks, which has been useful in other countries. I will give two examples. The first is from Brazil: the total number of hospitalisations for respiratory illnesses. In the last 3 weeks, Brazil has seen about 16,000 more hospitalisations than during the same period in 2019. Just 1,000 of these cases, as of March 28th, have positive diagnoses for covid-19. So there are 15,000 unexplained hospitalisations on a date by which the country had diagnosed just 3,784 people (see chart below). Now, in Mexico you have similar data that you could be releasing each week in the absence of your own cifra negra number. And a second example: The health secretary could begin publishing its internal database of new death certificates, broken down by sanitary district, on a weekly basis.   Source: Brazilian health ministry HLG: This is an excellent idea that we have considered for 10 years. These figures are very useful. It is good that you know the quality of the information system that exists in Mexico. It has great virtues, but also, great limitations. This system to document deaths has existed since the 1990s. The processing of information is so primitive that it takes a year, if we are lucky, to have the information. It is not a real-time system where death certificates can be automated and converted into electronic records. I wish that were the case. And the other, that of hospital admissions, has big limitations and its information is not in real time either. If you tell me that you have seen yesterday’s admissions, please give them to me. RE: Sometimes in your daily press conferences you show statistics from the health secretary’s modelling about how many beds or ventilators Mexico will need, what share of people will end up in intensive care and so on. When you show these figures, you do not tell us whether this is the model’s worst-case scenario or the best-case scenario. Could you be clearer in explaining what these figures mean?   A slide taken from the Mexican government’s presentation on the projected impact of the coronavirus HLG: We have said that the key parameter is the cumulative incidence rate. That is the crucial point and the base parameter for what can happen in the distribution of cases in general, out of 127m Mexicans. Of those who receive attention, it is [a breakdown of] 80%, 15%, and 5% for mild, serious and very serious cases or deaths. We took as a reference, first, Wuhan and Hubei. And there, the incidence rate was 0.1%. So we overestimated it, and we considered 0.2%. We recently took an additional scenario of 0.5% and adjusted this to be our average scenario. And we are still considering the scenario of 1% up to 2%. And my emphasis, not only in public but inside the government, on staying home, is desperately looking to bring down the curve, to make it flatter. I have not yet wanted to present it formally, but I am optimistic that the qualitative data suggests that we are achieving it. For two reasons. One, communication. I want to gather more social commitment to the [quarantine] measures. If I announce now: “We are achieving it”, that emphasis deflates. And the other reason is technical. We do not yet have a sufficiently robust dataset to infer within the confidence band that we are achieving the suppression of transmission. RE: One of the most consequential covid-19 questions for Latin America is what happens if you have a population that is not ageing like Europe’s, but where young adults are much more ill. Is that just as dangerous as having an ageing population? How does a young diabetic compare in your modelling with someone who is over 65? Yes, we consider it. We have a median age that is 10 years younger than most European countries and 7 years younger than that of the United States. And that is an advantage. We have several models. There is a basic model, which we made with ordinary differential equations, a model to follow, compartmentalised and not stochastic. We have a model with the same characteristics, a little more complex, that considers some chances of recovery and other possibilities. We have models that have been brought to us by academic communities such as the UNAM Institute of Mathematics, the Centre of Complex Sciences; other colleagues, including a French colleague from Marseilles, Benjamin Roche, who is working at the faculty of veterinary science. And consistently, they have very similar signals, obviously with small differences. And we have other, simpler models, like the one we use to estimate our needs: ventilators, beds, and so on. And then we made a refinement to this, which considered the difference in the risk of complication and death, with special emphasis on the age of 65 and over. One does not consider co-morbidity and another considers the huge prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity in Mexico. Obviously, there is no previous experience of what the specific mortality rate of covid-19 is in these populations. They are known only to be higher-risk populations. But there are no comparative studies yet. Those will come out at some point, but they don’t exist yet. So, what we did was, assume that they have similar risks, with different scenarios for the adult population. But we were doing several scenarios and in the end we were left with an idea that is not very encouraging, that the advantage of age in Mexico is negated by the disadvantage of illness. RE: So, there is no big difference between the demographics of Italy and the demographics of Mexico? HLG: Yes. I do not trust too much in wishful thinking. I would like to think that these 10 years of average youth would help us, but with the monstrous burden of diabetes, 14% of the population, 25% hypertension and 75% of the population overweight and obese, it is difficult to think that 10 extra years of youth are going to help us. RE: The fragmentation of Mexico’s public-health system is a great source of inequality in this country. So are the regional discrepancies that we see between urban and rural places and between states. A pandemic will exacerbate these inequalities. This government cares a lot about inequalities. What is its plan to minimise the inequalities that we are going to see in the next months? HLG: Yes. I see this in two stages, starting with the acute stage. We have to be realists. There is an inequality in Mexico that was built over decades, 50 years. We cannot resolve it in two weeks before covid-19 comes. It is structural. What we can do is mitigate the impact. On health, we are doing it using the infrastructure and the organisation of government social programmes, [which] cover 20–25m people. And this also has a network of citizen participation, but they are mechanisms for linking citizens so that they have early access to certain resources: money, but also information, it is also internal linkage within communities. On that network we must mount the logistics of the distribution of supplies. Now that we have the participation of the armed forces, offering civilian support — not militarised. We are defining access routes to certain critical foods. So, at any given moment, if the immobilisation caused by the pandemic or by government restrictions results in a shortage, we have mechanisms in place. They are not yet in the field, because they are not needed yet. But it is planned to have a supply of basic grains, milk, and so on. They are already planned, so that if they happen in the field according to what is happening with the epidemic. Another side that should not be overlooked — we are still working on some details: what if we need to remove patients from a community where there is not enough access to services, for example? And here it has also been very useful to be able to trust that we have the support of the Armed Forces. Through the military we have at our disposal the possibility of air transfers and so on. But even on the civil side, we are making an inventory of the ambulances that depend on state and municipal governments, and private ambulances. What we want is to have an organising mechanism to optimise the use of ambulances. RE: In January you were telling some very confused journalists that there was going to be a global health catastrophe. Now today, those journalists might ask you why you are still yet to buy medical equipment like gloves, masks and ventilators. HLG: Because the global market became distorted immediately. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the two biggest suppliers of PPEs [personal protective equipment] are Mexico and China… RE: Mexico sold a large portion of its masks to China in February. You are now buying those same masks back on the Chinese market at 30 times the price. Should you have stopped those sales? HLG: Maybe we should have done it in retrospect. We didn’t do it. There was no consideration of “we have to do it” and indeed China had the need, China had the power, that is, to locate the supplies. And it is not 30 times, it’s less. Stopping that would have involved making decisions in February that would have been extremely disruptive. For example, we would have needed the government to declare a state of emergency back in February in anticipation of what was to come, completely affecting the social, economic and political dynamic. So, in every moment, thinking about the counterfactuals based on how it turned out always has its consequences. RE: It is considered a good thing to be the last in line for a pandemic. You have time to watch the responses elsewhere, to learn the lessons and for your population to have awareness of what’s going on. Is there also a disadvantage to coming after Europe? I am sure that none of the ventilator manufacturers have said to themselves: “We need to save 5% of these to send them to Latin America”. And so you have to join the end of the queue in this global free-for-all for supplies. HLG: It has definitely been quite a challenge to get the different supplies and each one has its own specificity. There are those which are low-tech but for mass consumption, like PPEs, and those that are high-tech but not for such mass use. We have suffered many difficulties to find them, to the degree that we have had to obtain them in small proportions. This company has 50, that one has 120, that one has 10, that one has 2, that one has 1,000! Well, 1,000 in no case — the most that we have had from a single source has been 200. Tomorrow (April 4th), two planes are leaving for China to bring them supplies, mostly PPEs. A couple of days later they will return with ventilators. Today the Mexican president had a teleconference with the Chinese president. The foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, is doing an exhaustive search all over the world [for ventilators]. We have been working for 10 days now on utilising here the technological prototypes not just at MIT, but also others that were in Mexico. We discovered that there are seven [ventilator] prototypes in Mexico in an advanced state of development, thinking of the possibility that during the different phases we may be able to obtain more ventilators. RE: Mexico is one of the few countries in Latin America with the kind of manufacturing base that could be repurposed for the making of these machines. Lots of Americans are expressing optimism that these Mexican factories are going to be making ventilators for the United States. Should the Mexican government have a problem with this prospect of factories in Mexico churning out ventilators for other countries when this country doesn’t have enough? HLG: Once we meet our needs, I don’t see a problem. But obviously we are going to prioritise our internal consumption. We still do not have a massive response from the industrial sector, but we have had some positives. The automakers, Volkswagen, Audi, they are offering help. Others on a smaller scale, like maquiladores in the north, are offering help. There is a company in Tamaulipas that was already making ventilators, a French company. RE: Ventilator parts? HLG: Assembling it. Assembling it from the prototype. My understanding is that the technological part of the microcomponents is not the great challenge, but to assemble it later is. At this moment, as I say, we have seven prototypes under study. One of them is that of MIT. We have involved public universities, private universities. Our own health institutions, the nutrition institute and the Mexican social-security institute are running simulations, they are experiments on animals, in the last 72 hours they are already experiments on pigs, already the fine-tuning is the last issue. RE: Where are the extra doctors and nurses that Mexico requires going to come from? HLG: We opened a call, which is named “doctors for well-being” but also includes [a call for] nurses, it includes psychology personnel and chemists. And that recruitment process has begun. We assume that we will have an influx of two classes: the youngster who has just graduated and to whom we will give rapid progress, not to graduation but to specialisation, and the retiree who wants to return to help the country. We made this call before covid-19 began, we already had about 3,500 recruits, the goal is 45,000. And now we accelerated it with covid-19. I was asked today what would happen to these older doctors, being the population most at risk of complications from covid-19. The vision is that they come but obviously they cannot be in the front line for covid-19 but they can replace someone younger and free that someone to attend covid-19 patients. RE: And Cuban doctors? HLG: I would not rule it out. There is no specific plan at the moment but I would not rule it out. It will surely lend itself to political controversy if we implement it, but I would not rule out the assistance of Cuba or any other part of the world that could attend. Doctors of the world, Doctors without Borders, I don’t rule it out. RE: Many countries go down a similar path towards total quarantine. They begin by asking citizens to do the right thing and stay home, and they end with forcing citizens to do the right thing. Mexico is in the stage of very nicely asking its citizens to “quédate en casa”. What happens next? Surely you have some other plans if this is not enough. HLG: We formulated our recommendation so that it was not directed at citizens, but at the economic sector. And that makes a big difference. Our order by the Secretary of Health is to temporarily suspend work activity. That has two or three elements behind it. One: if one is to direct orders towards citizens, one must assume that there is a previous history of adherence to the law. And we know that Mexico is a country that in the last 30 years has been greatly affected by criminality that arises from socioeconomic inequality, the fatal war against drug-trafficking decreed by a president two terms ago. That has totally distorted the meaning of law enforcement. Nor should we lose sight of corruption, a historical phenomenon that has undermined the government’s ability to apply the law. A difference from — , I don’t know if I’m too optimistic — most of the countries in western Europe. That is one factor, the other is the huge economic inequality in the country. So if one does direct the measure at citizens, if one is equally stringent with the street vendor, the taquero on the corner and the lady with her corn, as with the owner of a multinational company, then the one that suffers the worst consequences is the first group, not the second. So we designed the intervention so that it was destined for the productive sectors, because the productive sectors, by suspending activities, would set in place a mass demobilisation. Strictly speaking we must remember that the goal is mitigation, not containment. And so the intervention erodes, because if the taquero on the corner and his family are not to starve, there is going to be a certain number of people who will need to remain mobile, in addition to those workers deemed essential. But the sum of suspending the schools, suspending formal work, and suspending government work is a very large population volume. We had originally estimated it at 65m of immobility. That has a positive effect. RE: Will that be enough? Many countries are concluding that you cannot reach a sufficient level of “demobilisation” without having a sufficient level of financial compensation to keep everyone indoors. HLG: It is an excellent approach, I believe that in the near future we will start to see economic actions to support mitigation. Yesterday the president met with Carlos Salazar Lomelín, the president of the business coordination council. I do not know the specifics of what is agreed but I am aware that the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economy already have plans for compensation in the productive sector. RE: Lots of countries in the developing world are also worried that this demobilisation will lead to an exodus from cities of migrants who will then go back to the villages, possibly with covid-19. Are you worried that this kind of population movement could spread the virus beyond urban centres? HLG: Yes, we thought about it. According to demographic statistics, in the 1970s and 1980s, the poor peasant society that sent its people to live in the cities was a relatively recent phenomenon with a very large rate of return. From the late 1980s to today, it has become a more stable migration to the cities, either in Mexico or abroad. Internally it is unlikely that [we will see], in large numbers or in a small proportion, those people returning to their rural origins from those Mexican cities, including Mexico City. What may happen is the return of our migrant countrymen in the United States who, due to a fear of the epidemic there, a lack of services they need, and a desire to come home could make the trip back to Mexico. RE: With the fullest respect to the Mexican cabinet, why is it the cabinet and not the president announcing some of the most consequential measures that Mexico has seen in many years? Is that a reflection of the level of interest that the president of this country has in this issue? HLG: From the beginning the president wanted to make very clear a perspective that, it seems to us, has been very unfortunately blurred in other countries. Undoubtedly, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Denmark have very robust scientific and technical communities health, both outside government and their public-health agencies within government: CDC, the Public Health of Canada, Public Health England, etc. As a public-health specialist I find it regrettable to see that such robust scientific and technical communities have been displaced from the decision-making spectrum, to make way for political decisions that have governed, not in all but in many of these countries, the timing of decisions and even the technical content of these decisions. And in Mexico I feel very encouraged due to the fact that we have a president who from the beginning said: these decisions are scientific, they are technical and the experts will take them. We had the G20 meeting a week ago, I had the privilege of accompanying the president in the videoconference. He opened his speech by saying “I share with you that in Mexico these decisions are those of the specialists”. I do not doubt that in other countries the experts have been taken into account, but if one sees the final result both of the implementation of the measures or their design, and of the governments’ positioning, what has prevailed is the political dynamic. So that is the main reason why the president said “I want to make it very clear that this is a technical decision and not a political one”. In turn we believe that this approach to new measures has positive consequences regarding the economic and social dynamics. I will close with the following example. The measure, as you know, says that essential activities will remain open. The whole world assumes that they are essential: and so the steel sector comes, the construction sector comes, the beer sector comes! In the last 72 hours the beermakers were defending themselves. The best defence against these pressures has been to keep ourselves in the technical realm. It is not a political decision to marginalise or discriminate one sector from the other. It is a technical decision and what we want is for there to be fewer people in the public space. So for whichever sector that can promise to keep their operations to a minimum, it would be feasible to keep it running. But if a sector just because it has economic power, comes to say, “I want to remain open even if I do not remove superfluous administrative activities, marketing, and so on…” well, no. What has protected us is the technical.

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HOW TO PACK YOUR CAR THE TETRIS WAY



One of the places where I use Tetris skills the most is in my car. There never seems to be enough room to get what I need from point A to point B. Whenever I need to store something in my car, there’s always a mishmash of forgotten stuff, especially in the backseat and trunk.

Fortunately, by changing the task from a chore into a game of Tetris, I’m able to pack things into my car. If you’re thinking about using your Tetris skills while moving items in your car, SUV, or truck, you’ll first need to analyze the size of your vehicle.

Your car is a Tetris Matrix, although you’ll primarily be focused on the trunk and backseat. What I find helpful is to segment the trunk and the backseat into two individual Tetris Matrices. That way, I can play two different games of Tetris, rather than having to go back and forth between the two areas, which can get hectic and confusing.

Next, I arrange my Tetriminos (the items I’m transporting) outside the car before I begin playing Tetris. If you have several items in your home, it’s easier to bring everything outside rather than going back into the house for each individual item. When they’re arranged next to one another, your mind will jump in and begin playing Tetris—even before you pick up your first Tetrimino!

While some Tetriminos are easy to stack up, such as boxes and flexible bags of clothing, other items can be tricky, like S and Z-Tetriminos. For example, every now and then I have to completely disassemble my bicycle in order to get it to fit into both my trunk and backseat.

Before I started thinking of things the Tetris way, I tried to fit the entire bicycle inside of the car. I quickly realized this wasn’t going to work because it was too big. In a way, it was kind of like a broken stack in Tetris, where your Tetriminos haven’t aligned the way that you wanted. You have to first clear the broken stack before you can hop back into your comfortable Tetris rhythm.

By thinking outside of the box, I was able to view the bicycle as several different Tetriminos, like the wheels, which are O-Tetriminos, and the handlebars, which are a combo of L and J-Tetriminos.

If you’re having trouble fitting a large or awkwardly shaped item into your vehicle, try thinking of the item as several smaller Tetriminos. If you can disassemble the item (having the confidence to put it back together later), go for it. This will make your game of car Tetris easier.

If your bag of clothes isn’t stuffing into the side the way you’d like, try vacuum storage bags.

Photo Credit: © Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com

Remember to make use of all available space in your Tetris Matrix. Rather than using large boxes, try using several smaller boxes. If you’re going to have passengers during the drive, try to avoid having your Tetriminos spill over into their area. You want them to be comfortable, not miserable!

Finally, isolate and save any breakable items for last. You don’t want to pile a heavy stack of Tetriminos on top of a television or glass. By packing your car the Tetris way, you’ll have an easier time moving items, and taking them out when you arrive at your destination.

Plus, you won’t have to worry about forgetting or losing something, since you’ll be able to slow down and go through everything during the process of stashing your items. Have you ever put your Tetris skills to the test while moving or organizing your home?

If you want to practice, be sure to hop in and play a few rounds of Tetris online!

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The Mature, Elegant Woman

One day, on her way to work, Silna saw an advertisement.

Drink Less, Live Longer

The advertisement hit her like a baseball bat. She drank a lot. And she looked much older than she was. She wanted to say that the sign was wrong. She could drink as much as she wanted! But she couldn’t say that to the sign, because it was a sign, and not a person.

Behind the letters, there were pictures of people laughing. They looked young and happy. Their faces were soft. They didn’t have any grey hairs. Their teeth were perfectly white.

Silna hated them. She felt sick from hating them so much. As she walked to work, she kept thinking about those laughing faces. She carried the hate on her back, and it got bigger and bigger.

Silna was a teacher. When she arrived in class, she looked very angry. One of the students, Pegro, said to her, ‘Miss, does your back hurt? Maybe you should lie down. At your age—’

She looked at him. Her hair was wild, her lips were pushed together, and her eyes were on fire. It was the look of a monster! He stopped talking immediately.

Today’s lesson was about the Romans. Silna shouted for the students to get their books out, and they began.

‘Well, if you look at old books and old pictures, you will see that the Romans drank a lot of wine. In fact, they drank wine every day! And they never said, “You have had too much to drink,” or that you should “drink less, live longer…” ’

The students found the lesson very funny. Silna shouted so much that she gave herself a headache. So she went home and lay down on the sofa.

Then, she had an idea.

She would lie about her age. She would say that she was older than she really was.

Every time someone asked her age, and she told them the truth, they clearly wanted to laugh. They never did laugh, but she could always see that they wanted to. She looked far older than she was. Like a monster.

But if she started lying… When people found out her age, it would be a pleasant surprise! They would say, ‘Oh, Silna, how soft you look! How pretty you look! I thought you were far younger than that.’

Her classmates in university always said that she “lived in another age”. Well, now she really would live in another age!

She wanted to try her plan immediately. But how could she do that? At work everyone knew her too well. She could move to another city, but that would take too much time.

She had to go somewhere. Somewhere where nobody would know her. She lived in a big city, so that wouldn’t be hard. In fact, there was a concert that night, by a famous piano-player. She had seen a poster about it.

‘Yes, yes… That will be perfect!’

She went to her bedroom to decide what clothes to wear.

But wait. A mature, elegant woman doesn’t spend hours choosing clothes. She is too clever for that. She chooses something pretty, but also comfortable. So she chose a simple black dress.

Then she went to the bathroom to put on makeup. She took out a bright red lipstick.

But wait. A mature, elegant woman doesn’t wear too much makeup! So she put on some light makeup, and didn’t wear any lipstick.

Afterwards, she stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t see the angry, ugly old woman from before. Now she really did see a beautiful, mature woman, with simple clothes and makeup. And she had saved so much time!

She had a light supper, because a mature, elegant woman knows not to eat too much. She had a glass of wine with her supper, because even mature, elegant women drink. Then she drove in her car to the concert hall.

In the concert hall there were lots of people. Silna looked around. She saw a group of women who were talking about culture. Yes, perfect.

She went up to their group and said, ‘This building is wonderful, isn’t it? I love neoclassical architecture.’

The women quietly agreed.

One of them, a blonde woman with a big ring, said, ‘Do you know the piano-player?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I have some of his compact disks. Or, as the young people say, “CDs”!’

The other women laughed quietly.

‘I think I’m the only one who doesn’t know him already!’ said the blonde woman. ‘But I love concerts. I think it’s the best way to find new music.’

‘Yes,’ said a brown-haired woman, ‘you invited us to the Facero concert, didn’t you? That was amazing.’

‘Yes, that was me!’

The women started talking about concerts they had been to. Silna had to find another way to talk about her age.

‘Ha ha,’ she laughed loudly. ‘That makes me think of when I was younger! I loved going to concerts when I was a student. I was one of those “hippies”. I’m lucky that I passed my exams!’

The brown-haired woman looked at her. Silna thought she was trying to guess her age. She smiled.

‘Did you study in the city?’ the brown-haired woman asked.

‘Oh no! I studied in the United Kingdom, at Cambridge. I graduated in 1981.’ She happily used the new date.

‘Wow!’ said the blonde woman. ‘Wasn’t it really difficult to go to Cambridge at that time, for people from our country?’

Silna stopped smiling. It was true. It was hard to get in at that time. She had completely forgotten that.

‘Well, I had a friend who was already studying there, who gave me lots of help and advice. But yes, in that time it truly was difficult. I was very, very lucky.’

She stopped and waited for someone to ask her age. But then the brown-haired woman started talking about the wine.

Silna understood her mistake. Mature, elegant women don’t ask other women how old they are. It is simply the wrong thing to do. She drank her wine, and thought of a new plan.

‘Silna! What a surprise to see you here!’

Silna turned. It was Kasha, one of the other teachers from her school. She was much younger than Silna, and had lots of energy. She made Silna feel very tired and very old.

‘Is your headache better?’

The other women looked at Silna. She had to be careful. Kasha might say something about her age.

‘Yes, I took some medicine. Now I feel much better.’

‘Pegro was in my class after you. He is so bad. And he is so afraid of you!’

The other women laughed.

‘Shall we go find seats?’ Silna said. ‘I think the concert is about to begin.’

She wanted to move away from the other women. But it was impossible. Kasha walked quickly, and talked lots. She was talking about how awful Pegro was in her class.

‘…he says so many bad words. I don’t know where he learns them, because his mother is lovely. He always says—’

‘Oh, Kasha!’ Silna said. ‘You are so funny, you young people. But please do not say those terrible words. I am too old to hear them!’

‘But you’re only a few years older than me, aren’t you?’

Silna smiled, and said loudly, ‘Kasha, dear! You are too kind. Many people have said that to me! But no, I’m probably twenty years older than you. I won’t say the exact number, but I am older than fifty.’

‘Really?’ said the blonde woman. ‘I thought you were younger than fifty. I thought you were around forty!’

Silna made herself smile. She thought that they would guess a lower age than that. But a win was a win.

Kasha shook her head. ‘No, that can’t be. Pegro said that you always talk about the year you graduated, 19—’

‘What a great view we have here!’ Silna said loudly.

At that moment, the lights went down. She was safe, and she could enjoy the music.

The concert was very good, and a mature, elegant woman would enjoy it a lot. But Silna couldn’t enjoy it, because she was sad. Her plan wasn’t working very well. Only one of the women had said anything about her age.

But after the music finished, something amazing happened. A handsome, mature man came up to her.

‘Good evening. I was standing over there and I thought, “Wow! A beautiful woman from my dreams is in the room!” And I decided I had to talk to her.’

Silna smiled. She was very surprised.

‘Lovely words from a lovely man. Do you often come here? It’s strange that I haven’t seen you before.’

‘Not at all. I couldn’t come, because I hadn’t dreamed of you yet…’

He bought her another glass of wine. They moved away from the other women, and Kasha. Silna gave them a strong look of happiness as she left. Kasha looked amazed. Another win.

She loved mature men, and this man was very mature. Unfortunately, this kind of man usually thought she was too young for them. But this time, that wouldn’t be a problem!

‘This building is a great example of neoclassical architecture, don’t you think?’

‘I thought the same! My friend didn’t think so, though. Are you a historian?’

‘Yes, I am a historian.’

She felt a fire inside her. He was a man of culture. Finally, someone who knew as much as her!

The conversation kept getting better. She almost forgot about her plan. But then, she saw a chance.

‘Oh, I loved The Beatles when I was younger,’ he said. ‘I suppose you were too young for them?’

‘Well, The Beatles are for all ages. But actually, I was a small child then, in the sixties. I listened to their music all the time!’

The man stopped smiling. ‘You look much younger than you are.’

‘Thank you! Yes, sometimes people say that.’ A mature, elegant woman is never too proud.

But strangely, her lie didn’t make the man happy. In fact, he looked very surprised. In a bad way.

‘Excuse me, I need to go to the toilet.’

She watched as he walked away and left the building. She wanted to follow him, but then Kasha came up to her.

‘Silna, you won’t guess what happened to me! I found another Cambridge student, who studied at the same time as you. Maybe you know each other!’

She turned and looked at Kasha. She felt very old, and not mature or elegant at all.

On Monday morning, Silna went into school wearing all the makeup in her house. She fell into her chair. As always, the first one to make problems was Pegro.

‘Miss, miss!’

‘What, Pegro?’ she said.

‘Kasha said that you’re over fifty years old. Are you going to stop working soon?’

She couldn’t even do that!

‘Thank you for the interest, Pegro,’ said Silna. ‘But Kasha didn’t hear me correctly. I am without age, and I plan to stay here until you finish school. So I’ll probably be here forever.’

This made the other students laugh. Pegro went red, and stopped talking.

Silna smiled. At least she had won that.

THE END

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The North Wind and the Sun

Nature has many parts. There is water. Water gives us life, and helps us clean ourselves. There is fire. Fire helps us cook food, and stay warm. There are trees, which give us fruit and wood. All the parts of nature work together, and help us live on Earth.

There are two parts of nature that are very important. They are the North Wind and the Sun. The North Wind tells us when the weather is going to change. The Sun keeps us warm, and gives us light.

But the North Wind and the Sun are different to the other parts of nature. They do not like to work together. They want to be better than each other. They often think about how they can be better than each other.

The North Wind thinks that being strong is the most important thing. She thinks that if you are strong, you can do anything. If you can do anything, people will think that you are the best.

The North Wind watches humans. She sees that humans fight, and kill, and go to war.

‘The humans understand,’ says the North Wind. ‘The humans understand that being strong is the best thing to be in the world. Because if you are strong, you will win against all others, and everyone thinks you are the best.’

The Sun thinks differently. The Sun does not think that being strong is important. The Sun thinks that the most important thing to be is kind. If you are kind, everyone will like you. If everyone likes you, then you will always have help when you need it. But if you are strong, and not kind, then people will not help you. When you most need help, you will be alone.

The Sun also watches humans. She sees that humans love each other, and make friends and families.

‘The humans understand,’ says the Sun. ‘The humans understand that being kind is the best thing to be in the world. If you are kind, then everyone will love you, and your friends will make you strong.’

One day, the North Wind and the Sun were talking.

‘You are weak,’ said the North Wind. ‘You only talk about being kind. What if someone wants to hurt you? If someone wants to steal from you, and you are kind to them, they will simply hurt you and steal from you.’

‘Oh, North Wind!’ said the Sun. ‘It is not so simple. If I am kind, and I give the person what they want, they will not hurt me.’

‘But they will still steal from you!’ said the North Wind. ‘You will still lose your thing.’

‘Things are not everything,’ said the Sun. ‘People are more important than things.’

‘What if the thing is a knife?’ said the North Wind. ‘A knife is very important. If you have a knife, people will not hurt you.’

‘Anyway,’ said the Sun, ‘if I have lots of friends, and someone steals something from me, it is not important. My friends will help me, and give me the things that I need.’

The North Wind laughed. ‘And what will you do when your friends don’t give you the things that you need?’

The Sun smiled. ‘I must hope that they will help me.’

This made the North Wind angry. ‘Sun! I will make you understand. Look down there, at the Earth.’

The Sun looked down, and saw a man walking along a road. It was winter, and very cold. The man was wearing a big coat.

‘This is how we will decide who is better,’ said the North Wind. ‘We will both try to take off that man’s coat. If you can take off the man’s coat first, you will win. I will agree that being kind is more important than being strong. But if I take off the man’s coat first, I will win. You will have to agree that being strong is more important than being kind.’

The Sun said, ‘OK, I will play your game.’

‘I will go first,’ said the North Wind. ‘It will be very simple for me to take off that man’s coat.’

The North Wind moved down to the man. She blew very, very hard. The blowing of the wind made a loud sound, whoosh whoosh. The trees began to move. They moved very, very quickly. The birds that were on the trees began to fall off.

The North Wind blew on the man, because he wanted to push the man’s coat off. But the man got colder and colder, so he held his coat closer and closer. The more the North Wind blew, the closer the man held his coat. The man was holding his coat very closely, and the North Wind could not push it off.

Finally, the North Wind stopped. He could not take off the man’s coat.

‘Hmmh!’ the North Wind said. ‘I blew as strong as I could. If I could not take off the man’s coat, then nobody can. You can try, Sun, but you will not push his coat off.’

The Sun smiled. She was standing behind a cloud, and moved from behind the cloud. Quickly the world was full of light. The trees stopped moving. The birds sat on the trees and sang. The cold earth warmed up.

The man saw that it was warm. He stopped holding his coat so closely. The Sun kept shining, and the world got warmer and warmer. So finally, the man took off his coat. He was very happy that it was warm now, and he walked quickly along the road. It got so hot that he stopped, and sat under a tree to rest.

The North Wind said, ‘How did you do that?’ She was very angry. She could not understand. The Sun had done nothing special. She had not been strong at all. She had just stood there!

The Sun laughed. ‘I won by being kind. Being kind is the most important thing in the world. I told you already.’

The North Wind could not believe it. ‘I still don’t believe that being kind is more important than being strong. You were lucky.’

The Sun smiled. ‘You do not have to agree with me. I still love you.’

The North Wind felt very warm, and could say nothing more.

THE END

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The Lion and the Mouse

In the Great Forest there was a small mouse called Gentle. Gentle was a very sad mouse. He lived alone in a tree. All the other animals in the forest hated him. They said that he was weak and silly. All he wanted was a friend.

One day, Gentle was walking through the forest and talking to himself.

‘Who will be friends with a mouse like me? I am not smart like the other mice. I am not funny like the foxes. I am not quick like the birds. And I am not strong like the lion.’

There was one lion who lived in the Great Forest. The lion was called Crush. Everyone was scared of Crush the lion.

Gentle looked up. Of all animals to meet, he saw Crush was in front of him. He was lying a few metres ahead. But the lion was sleeping.

Gentle should have run away. Crush the lion was very strong, and very dangerous. But Gentle wanted to stop being so weak. None of the other mice went near Crush. If he went near him, he could tell the other mice. They would think he was strong. They would want to be his friend!

Carefully, Gentle climbed onto Crush and looked at him. He had big, round ears. He had lots of hair, and a big tail. Gentle thought that the lion looked amazing. He climbed onto his back, and then his tail, because he wanted to look at the tail more.

But then Crush woke up!

‘Aha, there is a mouse on my back!’

He took Gentle in his hand. Crush had caught Gentle, and Gentle could not leave. Crush looked very hungry.

‘Please don’t eat me!’ said Gentle. ‘I am only a small, silly mouse.’

‘You are very silly indeed! You walked onto me, the great lion of the forest. Usually I have to catch my own lunch! But today, my lunch comes walking up to me. Yum yum!’

Gentle didn’t know what to do. The lion looked so hungry. If he was a smarter mouse, he would tell him jokes. If Crush thought he was funny, maybe he would let him live.

But Gentle wasn’t funny. He could not think of one single joke.

But maybe there was another way…

‘If you let me live, I will help you in the future.’

Crush laughed. ‘You are so small and weak!’ he said. ‘How could you help me?’

‘I will! Believe me. One day you will need my help.’

Crush laughed and laughed and laughed. He laughed so much that he had to hold his stomach. Gentle jumped out of his hand and ran away. He ran until he was far, far away from the lion.

Gentle was very lucky to escape Crush. He told the other mice what happened. He thought they might think he was strong now, or clever. But the other mice didn’t believe him. They said he made the story up. Gentle was still sad, and he still had no friends.

A few days later, two men came into the forest. They wanted to catch a lion. So they put up a trap. The trap was made of some ropes. When the lion walked into the rope trap, he would be caught.

And that is what happened. Crush walked into the ropes, and was caught. He couldn’t move.

The lion shouted and cried. ‘Help! Help!’ he shouted. But nobody came to help him.

Gentle was sleeping at the time. He woke up from his sleep and heard the lion shouting. He went and saw Crush caught in the ropes.

‘Oh no, it is you!’ said Crush. ‘I need help. You won’t be able to help me. You are just a weak mouse!’

Gentle thought for a while. He should run away. He knew that it was dangerous to go near Crush. And Crush was saying unkind things about him. But he had escaped last time, hadn’t he? He would show the lion that he was a clever mouse.

Gentle climbed onto the ropes. There was one big rope. He started to bite it.

‘What are you doing?’ said Crush.

Gentle continued biting the rope. Finally, the rope broke. Crush was able to move out of the trap. He was free!

‘I don’t believe it,’ said Crush. ‘You did help me. You are small, and you are certainly not strong. But you are smart.’

‘I am not!’ said Gentle. ‘All the other mice say I’m silly. The foxes laugh at me, and the birds fly away when I come near.’

‘You are smart. But you are smart in a different way to them. You saved my life. What can I give you?’

‘You don’t have to give me anything,’ said Gentle. Then he thought. ‘Well, maybe there is one thing…’

‘What is it?’ said Crush. ‘I can cut off some of my hair, because you like it so much. I can kill your enemies for you. I can tell the other mice that you are smart and strong and funny. If they laugh at you, I will eat them.’

‘No, no. I don’t want any of that.’

‘What do you want? What shall I do?’

‘Will you be my friend?’

THE END

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The Rabbit and the Tortoise

In the Great Forest, everyone knew a rabbit called Speedy.

Speedy was very fast. He ran every day. He could run from one side of the forest to the other in less than an hour. None of the other animals could run faster than him. So Crush the lion could never catch him, although he tried to.

Because Speedy was the fastest in the forest, he thought he was better than everyone else. He thought that everybody loved him, because they always said how fast he was.

Actually, the other animals didn’t like Speedy very much. The mice didn’t like him, because they thought he was stupid. The foxes didn’t like him, because he didn’t listen to their jokes. The birds didn’t like him, because he was quicker than them. Crush the lion didn’t like him, because Speedy teased him. Speedy ran away from him, shouting, ‘Haha! You can’t catch me!’

There was a tortoise who lived near Speedy. She was called Steady. Steady could only walk very slowly. She did not go from one part of the forest to the other, like Speedy did. Instead, she walked the same way every day. She visited all the other animals, and talked to them. The other animals all loved Steady. She was very kind, and smart as well. All the other animals in the Great Forest learned from her.

Except Speedy. Speedy the rabbit could never stay still long enough to listen to Steady. When Steady started talking to him, Speedy got bored, and ran away.

One day, Steady was talking to Crush the lion and Gentle the mouse. The lion and the mouse were great friends now.

‘We must do something about Speedy,’ said Gentle. ‘He thinks he is the best in all the forest. He is unkind to you, and all the other animals.’

‘Yes,’ said Crush. ‘He always calls me slow and stupid!’

Steady thought for a while, and then spoke. ‘I have an idea. I will challenge Speedy to a race.’

Gentle and Crush didn’t understand. Speedy would definitely win against Steady in a race. But Steady smiled, and said, ‘You must trust me.’

As I said before, Speedy never listened to what Steady said. So Gentle the mouse went and spoke to Speedy for her. It was difficult, because Speedy was always running around. But when Gentle said the word “race”, Speedy started listening.

‘Steady wants to race me? That will be so funny! Yeah, let’s do it.’ Then he ran off.

So the next day, all the animals in the forest came together. They had all heard about the race. They all knew that Speedy would win. But really, they wanted Steady to win, so that Speedy would stop saying how great he was.

‘We don’t have to do this, you know,’ said Speedy to Steady. ‘It’s clear that I will win.’

Steady just smiled. ‘We will see.’

Crush called out the start of the race: ‘Ready, set, go!’

Speedy started running. He quickly moved far ahead of Steady. Steady walked behind him. She walked slow and steady, but not very fast.

‘Come on, Steady!’ called Speedy. ‘Are you even trying?’

She would never win walking so slow and steady. But the other animals were shouting, ‘Come on, Steady! You can do it!’ This made Speedy angry. Steady was going to lose. It was obvious!

So Speedy kept on running. He ran past all the other animals. The race was very long. It went across the whole forest and then back again. So after running for a long time, Speedy was alone. It was very quiet in the forest. He reached the end of the forest, and then turned around.

‘It is such a nice day,’ Speedy said. ‘I have plenty of time. Steady will take hours to get here. Why don’t I have a rest?’

So Speedy lay down on the path and fell asleep.

A few hours later, Speedy woke up. He heard something from the other side of the forest. It was the other animals shouting, ‘Come on, Steady!’

‘That’s strange,’ said Speedy.

So he quickly ran back along the path, as fast as he could. At the other side of the forest, Steady was near the finish line. She was about to win the race!

‘No!’ shouted Speedy. ‘How did you get in front of me?’

He ran after Steady, but Steady crossed the finish line before him. All the other animals shouted, ‘Hooray! Hooray! Steady wins! Speedy loses!’

‘I don’t understand!’ cried Speedy. ‘How did I lose?’

Everyone else was talking about Steady, and saying how great she was. Speedy felt awful.

Gentle came up to Speedy and said, ‘Do you see now? Slow and steady wins the race. And Steady won the race.’

Speedy didn’t want to believe it. But it was true.

Steady came up to Speedy and smiled. ‘Don’t worry, Speedy. I can teach you how to be slow and steady.’

‘Please!’ said Speedy. ‘I want to be the slowest and the steadiest in all the forest!’

THE END

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The Heart That Told the Truth

Listen, and I will tell you what happened. Then you can judge how healthy my mind is. You see, my body is strong. My hearing has become much stronger. I can hear sounds far and near. I am not weak, like a crazy man.

I don’t know where the idea came from. There was no reason to do it. I didn’t hate the old man. I actually loved him. He had never hurt me. I didn’t even want his money.

It was his eye. His eye was like the eye of a vulture, one of those terrible birds that watch and wait while an animal dies, and then fall onto the dead body and eat it. When the old man looked at me with his vulture eye, a cold feeling went up and down my back. Even my blood went cold. And so, I finally decided I had to kill the old man and close that eye forever!

So you think I’m crazy? A crazy person can’t make plans. But I planned it out slowly and carefully.

Every night around twelve o’clock I slowly opened his door. When the door was open wide enough I put my hand in, and then my head. I held a light in my hand, covered with cloth so the man couldn’t see it. I stood there quietly. Then, carefully, I lifted the cloth, so that a single, thin, small light fell across his eye. I did this for seven nights. His eye was always closed, so the light did not touch it. But I could wait.

I did not want to kill the man. I wanted to kill his eye: the Evil Eye.

Every morning I went to his room, and I asked him in a friendly voice how he had slept. He had no idea that every night, at twelve, I watched him as he did that very thing.

The eighth night I was more careful when I opened the door. The hands of a clock move more quickly than my hand did. I had never felt so strong before. Tonight I would win!

The old man was lying there on the bed. He was dreaming, and had no idea that I was at the door. Then he moved. But I was not scared. The darkness in the room was thick and heavy. I knew he could not see me opening the door. I continued to push. I put my head in. I put my hand in. I put the light in, covered with the cloth.

Suddenly, the old man sat up in bed and said, ‘Who’s there?’

I stood still. I didn’t move for a whole hour. I didn’t hear him lie down again, either. He just sat there, listening. Then he made a scared sound. I knew he was sitting up in his bed, filled with fear.

He knew that I was there. He did not see me. He did not hear me. But he could feel me. He knew that Death was standing there.

Slowly, bit by bit, I lifted the cloth, until a small light came out and fell onto that vulture eye! It was open, and I felt more and more hate as it looked at me. I could not see the old man’s face. Only that eye, that hard blue eye. My blood turned to ice.

I told you my hearing had become very strong, didn’t I? It was then that I heard a soft, quick sound, like the sound of a clock through a wall.

It was the beating of the old man’s heart.

I tried to stand quietly. But the sound grew louder. The old man was getting more and more scared. And I hated him more and more.

But it wasn’t just hate. In the dark night, I started to feel fear. His heart was beating so loudly that someone would hear!

The time had come.

I threw away the light and ran into the room. ‘Die! Die!’

The old man shouted in fear. I fell onto him and held the sheets tightly over his head. His heart kept beating, but I smiled. I knew I would win.

The heart beat for several minutes, and finally stopped.

The old man was dead.

I took away the sheets and held my ear to his chest. There was no sound. Yes, he was dead!

His eye would hurt me no more.

So you still think I’m crazy? But I was so clever. I put the body where nodoby would find it.

First I cut off the head, and then the arms and the legs. I was very careful, and didn’t get any blood on the floor. I pulled up three of the floor boards and put the pieces of the body there. Then I put the boards down again, so that no human eye could see they had been moved.

I heard someone knock at the door. It was now four o’clock in the morning, but still dark. But I was not scared as I went to open the door.

Three policemen were there. One of the neighbours had heard the old man’s shout and called the police. The three policemen had come to ask questions and to search the house.

I asked them to come in. I told them that I was the one who shouted, because I had a bad dream. I told them the old man was away. He had gone to visit a friend in the country. I took them through the whole house. I told them to search it all.

Finally, I took them to the old man’s bedroom. I asked them to sit down and talk for a while. It was like playing a game.

My easy voice made the policemen believe my story. They sat talking to me in a friendly way. But I wanted them to go. My head hurt and there was a strange sound in my ears. I talked more, and faster.

The sound became clearer. But they kept sitting and talking.

Suddenly, I knew that the sound was not in my ears. It was not inside my head. I turned white. I talked faster and louder. And the sound, too, became louder. It was soft and quick, like the sound of a clock through a wall.

A sound I knew well.

The sound grew so loud it hurt my ears. Why wouldn’t the policemen leave? Louder, louder. I stood up and walked around the room. I pushed my chair across the floor to make more noise, to cover that terrible sound. I talked even louder. But the men kept sitting and talking and smiling.

They heard it! I was sure. They knew! Now they were playing a game with me. Their smiles hurt me, just like the old man’s Evil Eye. Bang, bang, bang!

I couldn’t stand it any longer. I pointed at the floor boards and shouted, ‘Yes! Yes, I killed him. Pull up the floor boards and you will see! I killed him. But tell me! Why won’t his heart stop beating?! Why won’t it stop?!’

THE END

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1

Find a place that makes you want to study. If the books and seriousness of the library put you in the mood for focusing on Trigonometry, go for it. If the comfy chairs and coffee at your local cafe are what you need to get through your reading for English, go there. The most important thing is that the location motivates you to study.[9]

Most people like a place that is neither too cold nor too warm.

A study space shouldn't be loud. Some people prefer a place that is absolutely quiet, others like a little background noise.

If you are often distracted by studying, choose a seat that faces a wall rather than a window, hallway, or other seats.



2

Let others know if you're studying at home. Put a sign on your door that lets others know you're studying. This will keep them from distracting you.[10]

You can also message your friends, tell them when you're studying, and ask them not to disturb you during that time.



3

Use music only if you're sure it helps you stay focused. Studies about whether or not music helps you focus when studying are mixed. If you feel like listening to music keeps you energized and focused on studying, you can use it. Keep a couple things in mind, however:[11]

The music should be fairly quiet.

Choose music that has no words so you'll be less likely to become distracted.

Consider listening to “white noise” tracks for background noise instead of music

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Using a Study Schedule



1

Set a study schedule. When you have many classes or things to study for, it can seem hard to get through everything. Give yourself a schedule where you set specific times to study particular subjects. This makes studying seem less overwhelming, helping you to stay on task.

For example, you might decide to study biology for an hour on Monday night, followed by an hour of English. Then, on Tuesday afternoons, you study Math for two hours.

Keep your schedule, but be flexible when needed. For example, if you have a biology exam coming up on Tuesday, you might study Biology for two hours on Monday night, and put English off for Tuesday.

If you are studying around other people, post your schedule so they will know when it's not ok to distract you.



2

Change subjects every two hours. A little variety keeps you refreshed and focused. If you try to study one thing for too long, your energy level and attention span will go way down. Switch things up to combat this. For instance, after two hours of Math, take a short break then switch to studying English.



3

Give in to your distraction as a reward. Distractions can actually be used in a positive way, and an incentive to get you through your studying. Say you need to study Geometry for an hour but keep getting distracted by funny cat videos. Tell yourself that if you get through the hour of studying without being distracted, you'll then let yourself watch all the cat videos you want.

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Method 1 of 3:

Finding a Focused Mindset



1

Keep yourself on track with the “be here now” technique. Whenever you feel your attention begin to wander, stop and tell yourself to “be here now.” You may have to do this several times, but you will be gently reminding yourself that you want to focus on the task at hand.

If you do this consistently, you should find that you gradually spend less and less time being distracted.



2

Tune out specific distractions as you notice them. Say you're trying to study in the library and you keep getting distracted by someone texting. Take note of this specific distraction then tell yourself you are going to overcome it. The next time you see it happen, will yourself not to look. Keep doing this every time the distraction comes up, and eventually you will no longer notice it.[1]



3

Give yourself a worry break. Life can get really busy, so it's no surprise if you find yourself distracted from studying by thoughts about everything else. Rather than acting like all of those other needs don't exist, give yourself an outlet. Spend 5 minutes thinking about everything that's on your plate, but then tell yourself it's time to focus on the main task for now: studying.[2]



4

Prioritize your studying by setting a main goal. When you've got an exam coming up, it's easy to think you need to study everything. Breaking things down and establishing just one primary goal makes things more manageable and you will be less prone to becoming distracted.[3]

For example, if you have a biology exam coming up that covers three chapters, you don't have to cram everything into one study session. Try focusing first on the parts that give you trouble, like that subsection on the Krebs cycle. Also try making notes and flashcards as it helps.



5

Go off the grid. Texting, social media, calls, and other distractions that come from our electronic devices are some of the biggest barriers to staying focused when studying. Luckily, the fix is easy and totally within your control. Unplug yourself![4]

Turn off notifications on your devices. Better still, turn them off completely.

Don't take calls or texts. Turn off your phone if you are able, or at least keep it on silent and away.

If you can't stop this distraction, look into apps or browser plugins that can block social media, certain websites, or any other specific outlets that pull you away from studying.[5]

EXPERT TIP



ASHLEY PRITCHARD, MA Master's Degree, School Counseling, Caldwell University

Expert Trick: If the temptation of using your phone is too much, try putting it in a different room and leaving it there. Then get into a comfortable study spot to discourage yourself from easily getting up and grabbing your phone again. You can do this same thing with other devices as well!



6

Work with your energy levels. It's natural to want to procrastinate and put off the most difficult or unpleasant tasks. Your energy level at the start of a study session will be higher, however, so it's actually best to begin with the harder things. Put off the easier tasks instead. This will keep your focus sharp when you need it most.[6]



7

Take a brief study break now and then. It might seem counterintuitive, but stepping away from your studies now and then can actually be more beneficial than trying to plow through everything without stopping. About once an hour, get up and take a short break of about 5 minutes. This helps refresh you so that you can stay focused when you come back to studying.[7]

Moving around a bit, such as by taking a brief walk, will be most beneficial.



8

Don't attempt to multitask. Some people imagine that knocking out several things at once means you can work faster. Attempting to multitask, such as doing your homework while watching TV or shopping online, will cause you to lose your focus. Instead concentrate on one task at a time

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The Teacher and the Student

Eklavya stayed low in the grass. Before him, his father, the hunter, moved quietly. He held a bow and arrow. Then, he saw it. A few metres in front there was a rabbit. It was drinking water. Eklavya’s father put an arrow in the bow. Eklavya took a deep breath. He tried not to move, but it was hard. He moved, and the grass made a sound. The rabbit turned and saw the hunter. It ran away. Eklavya’s father shot the arrow, but it did not hit the rabbit.

The hunter turned around. He looked very angry. ‘Eklavya! I know you are there. Come out.’

Eklavya walked out. He felt bad. His father would hit him for what he did. But instead, the man looked happy.

‘You want to be a hunter, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I do.’

‘That is a shame. It is a difficult way to make money.’ He looked where the rabbit had been. ‘We will have nothing to eat tonight.’

‘I’m sorry, Father! But I will become a hunter. And I will catch rabbits every night.’

‘Don’t be sorry. But promise me you will not become a hunter. You should be a builder. There will always be work then.’

‘I promise, Father.’

But Eklavya was bad at keeping promises. As he grew up, he tried everything: building, making knives, even sending messages. He grew strong and fast. At night, he went into the forest and practised moving quietly.

Eklavya understood that he did not want to be a hunter. Really, he wanted to be an archer. He loved the sound of shooting arrows. He watched his father do it all the time. He could never use the bow himself, of course. Several times, Eklavya found some wood and made his own bow, but each time his father found the bow and broke it.

When he became an adult, Eklavya travelled to the capital city. His father had a friend there. The friend said Eklavya could work as a builder for him. But Eklavya did not go there, and instead went to the castle.

‘I must see Dronacharya.’

Dronacharya was the archery teacher for the king and his family. He was the most famous archer in the whole country.

Eklavya did not think Dronacharya would meet him. He was too important to meet someone like Eklavya. But Dronacharya wanted to know who this strange man was.

‘What do you want?’

‘Please, I want you to be my teacher! I will study day and night, and I will do everything you say.’

Dronacharya looked at him coldly. ‘You know the laws of the country. I am the teacher of the princes and kings, and I cannot teach my art to anyone else. If I teach you, you might become as strong as the princes and kings. That is not good. Promise me you will not bother me again.’

‘I promise.’

But as we know, Eklavya was bad at keeping promises. He thought the tall, powerful Dronacharya was amazing. In his heart, he had already decided that Dronacharya was his teacher. He picked up the dirt that Dronacharya had stood on, and from the dirt he made a small statue of Dronacharya.

‘You will be my teacher,’ he said.

Eklavya went and worked as a builder. He saved money and bought a bow and arrow. Every afternoon he went and stood by the castle walls. In the garden of the castle, Dronacharya taught the princes archery. Eklavya could hear his words over the wall. He shot arrows into a tree, and took Dronacharya’s advice. The advice was for the princes, so it was difficult. In the day time, Eklavya grew strong at his job, and at night, he went into the forest and hunted small animals. Every night, before going to sleep, he prayed to the statue of Dronacharya.

Eklavya became better and better at archery. When he was in the forest at night, he could hear an animal move behind him, and shoot an arrow into its heart. People began to talk about the strange man, who was so good with a bow and arrow. Still, he did not become rich or famous, because he had no teacher.

Some people said that Eklavya was even better than the princes and kings at archery. Prince Arjuna heard this and decided to go and find the man. He had heard that he practised in the forest at night, so he went there to find Eklavya.

‘You are very good at archery.’

Eklavya saw that it was the prince, and jumped. ‘Your majesty!’

Arjuna smiled. ‘Do not worry. I am not here to hurt you. I want to see how much you have learned. Let us have a competition.’

Arjuna was sure that he was a better archer. His teacher was Dronacharya. But when they started shooting arrows, Eklavya was much better. Arjuna got angry, and he couldn’t hit a lot of the targets. Eklavya hit every one easily.

‘Who taught you?!’ shouted Arjuna.

‘My teacher is Dronacharya.’

This made Arjuna even more angry. He took Eklavya to the castle, and went to Dronacharya’s room. The man was asleep, but Arjuna woke him up, shouting, ‘What is this? This man tells me that you are his teacher. You taught this man and now he is better than me. You broke the law!’

Dronacharya yawned, and looked at Eklavya with his cold eyes. ‘I know this man. He came to the castle years ago, and asked me to be his teacher. I told him no.’

‘Teacher,’ Eklavya said. ‘I stood by the castle walls every day and heard your words. I built a statue from the dirt you walked on, and I prayed to it every night. You are my teacher, even though you did not know. Please don’t be angry.’

Arjuna was white with anger. Dronacharya looked at Eklavya for a long time, and said, ‘Well, a student must pay his teacher. It is the law of the country. You have taken my words, but you have not paid me.’

‘Of course. I will do anything!’

Dronacharya laughed. ‘Then cut off your finger. On your right hand.’

Without his finger, Eklavya would not be able to shoot arrows. Arjuna was very happy about this.

Without waiting, Eklavya said, ‘Of course. Do you have a knife?’

He cut his finger off right there, in his teacher’s bedroom. Then he thanked Dronacharya and the prince and left.

Without archery and without his finger, Eklavya could not live in the capital city. So he returned to his hometown. The people there had heard stories about him. They could not believe that he cut off his own finger.

‘Why did you do it?’ they asked.

‘Because my teacher told me to.’

Eklavya sat in the street and people gave him money. He talked to people about his story. They thought it was interesting and sad. People came to visit him and to hear his story.

‘You are the best student to ever exist,’ a man told him. ‘You show us how to be good students.’

People forgot that Eklavya had been an archer. Instead, they remembered him for his message: how to be a good student. He could not be a hunte, or an archer, but he did not worry. He travelled through the country, and showed students everywhere that they should listen to their teachers.

THE END

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As I'm sure you know, a global pandemic is affecting the health of many people and also our daily lives. I had planned to do another topic this week, but I think it's worth talking about this instead so that we can learn and practice relevant vocabulary. I thought it would be a good idea to review the indications and recommendations that health authorities give us to prevent the spread of the virus. So in today's episode, we're going to learn some useful and relevant stuff. Before continuing, and as a disclaimer, the only purpose of the episode is to learn English, not give medical advice. Today's episode is not intended as medical instruction or guidance. For any questions or concerns, please contact a doctor or the health authorities in your country. Okay, now we continue :) Wash your hands I'm sure you've heard many times how important it is to wash your hands patiently. Apparently, you have to spend at least 20 seconds washing your hands. Yeah, I know 20 seconds seems like a lot, but you should do it just in case. We have to wash every single finger and not forget the fingertips. It is especially important to wash regularly and particularly after coughing and sneezing. Soap and water are the most effective. Alcohol-based disinfectant gels can also be used, but it is preferable to use soap instead. Avoid touching your face. I often touch my face without realizing it, and this is not good. We can become infected if we touch our face, especially when we have previously touched a contaminated surface. In particular, try not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Some people have a habit of biting their nails. Please try not to do that. In any case, wash your hands. Cover your mouth. An important aspect when we sneeze or cough is to cover our mouth. A tissue is enough, but if we don't have one, we can cough or sneeze into our sleeve. If we do this in the air, we will be releasing the virus into the same space the others are breathing. Therefore, we have to be cautious. Keep your distance from other people. Maintain a distance of at least 3 feet (0.91 m) from other people. If you or someone else is sneezing or coughing, you should keep even more distance. As a matter of common sense, the less contact we have with other people, the better. Every country is taking similar measures, so we have to respect what the authorities say. Wearing a mask I think wearing a mask is important, but I've seen people walking down the street practically alone and wearing masks. You only need to wear a mask if you are caring for an infected person and if you have a cough or sneeze often. Remember that we have to combine this with the above measures. Ah! And remember to wash your hands before touching the mask. When traveling With everything that is happening, I recommend not to travel. Besides, there are so many controls, and some countries are even closing their borders. If you really need to travel, take some masks and gloves with you in case you need them. And try to cooperate with the police and all the airport staff. These people are probably more tired than you are, so it is best to try to help by following their instructions. When you cook When we handle food, for example, when we prepare it before cooking, it is important to disinfect the surfaces where we put it. Also, clean all utensils, such as knives. And although it is obvious to remember... wash your hands before doing anything. When should you seek medical attention? Finally, if you have a fever, cough, and difficulty breathing, it is best to seek medical attention. Call as soon as possible. Also, if you are over 60 years old and have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or a respiratory condition, you should take the precautions described above and try to avoid spaces with other people. I hope this lesson has been useful, especially for learning English. Hopefully, all this will pass soon, and we can get back to normality.

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The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd In Heaven there were seven goddesses. They were sisters. Each sister had her job. One goddess mixed things in a pot to make fire for volcanoes. She was called Fire Maker. One goddess pushed together cotton to make snow for the mountains. She was called Snow Maker. One goddess cried tears that became dew in the morning. She was called Dew Maker. One goddess painted the stars so that they shone in the night sky. She was called Star Painter. One goddess threw salt in the ocean so that the fish could live there. She was called Sea Salter. One goddess painted the trees orange in autumn. She was called Tree Painter. Finally, there was one goddess who wove together silk to make the clouds in the sky. She was called Cloud Weaver. One day, the seven sisters sat in Heaven. They were bored. Fire Maker said, ‘Sisters, let us go down to Earth. It is more interesting there.’ Snow Maker said, ‘No, Earth is not our place. We must stay in Heaven. If we do not stay here, who will make the snow? Who will make the clouds? Who will paint the trees? Who will cook the fire for the volcanoes?’ ‘That is true. And the humans must not see us,’ said Star Painter. ‘If the humans see us, Mother will be very angry.’ ‘I have heard of a lake,’ Dew Maker said. ‘It is near some mountains. There are no people nearby. It is beautiful, and very warm. We could go and bathe in the lake.’ Sea Salter said, ‘We should bathe in the sea. It is much nicer.’ ‘I agree,’ said Tree Painter. ‘There are no humans in the sea. There are only fish.’ ‘No!’ said Cloud Weaver. ‘The sea is too salty. Let us go to this lake.’ Snow Maker, Star Painter and Tree Painter didn’t want to go, but all the other goddesses did want to go. So they planned to go down to Earth. Cowherd hated his name. He had a real name, but everyone called him Cowherd. The people in the village said, ‘You only talk to your cow. Are you in love with it?’ He did love his cow, Bessie, of course. Without Bessie he could not live. She helped him work the fields. She gave him milk. She was his friend when he was alone. Many days, Cowherd sat with Bessie. He looked up at the sky and said, ‘Bessie, who do you think makes the clouds? They are so soft and beautiful.’ Bessie could not answer, because she was a cow. But she liked the clouds, too. Cowherd and Bessie both had to work hard to live. Cowherd came from a small family. He only had a brother and a sister-in-law. When his parents died, his sister-in-law said, ‘Leave our house. There is not enough food for three people, only two. We don’t want you.’ She had always hated him. So he left and took Bessie with him. He walked for many days, and found the field where they lived now. Bessie grew older, and work became harder for her. Finally, she was so old that she could not work at all. Cowherd sat with her, and looked up at the sky, and asked her the same question as always, ‘Bessie, who do you think makes the clouds?’ But that day, Bessie answered him: ‘I know who weaves the clouds.’ Cowherd was amazed! ‘Bessie, you can talk!’ ‘Yes. I am a magic cow, but until today I could not talk. Listen to me, Cowherd. The girl who weaves the clouds is a goddess from Heaven. Today, the seven goddess sisters will come down from Heaven. Tonight, they will bathe in the lake. It is a few hours east of here. They will fly with their wings, but they will take off the wings to bathe. If you steal Cloud Weaver’s wings, she will not be able to leave. You can make her your wife.’ ‘Bessie, is this true?’ ‘It is. And now, I must leave you. I have lived a long and happy life, but it is time for me to die. Keep my skin. When you need me most, my skin will help you.’ And then Bessie closed her eyes. She had died. Cowherd cried and cried. But he took Bessie’s skin, as she said. Bessie’s story interested him. Cowherd knew about the lake. It was hard to get to, but he could go there on his own. So he walked east, and the sun started to go down. As he walked, he thought about Bessie. Did she really talk? Or did he imagine it? But when he arrived at the lake, he heard women laughing. He looked and saw seven beautiful women in the lake. One of them was very beautiful, and her laugh sounded like a song. Cowherd knew that she was Cloud Weaver. Next to the water, their wings were on the ground. Cowherd could go and steal them. The goddesses would not see him. Cowherd went up to the wings. One pair of wings shone white, like clouds. He knew it was Cloud Weaver’s, but he could not steal them. He felt love for her, and he could not steal from her. ‘Hello?’ He looked up and saw Cloud Weaver in front of him. ‘Goddess, I am sorry!’ He fell to his knees. ‘Why are you sorry?’ she said softly. ‘I…’ He had not stolen anything. But he could not lie. ‘I wanted to steal your wings, so you would stay on Earth. But I could not…’ Cloud Weaver laughed. ‘I want to stay on Earth, anyway. Shall we go for a walk?’ Cloud Weaver and Cowherd fell in love, and they lived together on Earth. They had two beautiful children together, a boy and a girl, and they were very happy. But one day, Cloud Weaver woke up and cried. ‘My love, what is wrong?’ ‘I had a dream. My mother knows I am here.’ ‘I don’t understand,’ said Cowherd. ‘You have been here for many years. How did she not know before?’ ‘Time is different in Heaven. One day on Earth is a hundred in Heaven. We have had more time here, but she has only had a month. But now that she knows I am here, she wants me back in Heaven. Someone must weave the clouds.’ Without Cloud Weaver, the sky did not have beautiful clouds in it anymore. But Cowherd did not care, because Cloud Weaver was more beautiful than any cloud. ‘Oh, but I don’t want to go!’ she said. ‘Then don’t go,’ said Cowherd. ‘You don’t understand. My mother is extremely strong. If I do not go, she will come and take me. And she will kill you.’ ‘You can’t go!’ said Cowherd. But in the night, Cloud Weaver left. Cowherd woke up and cried and cried. He had lost Bessie and Cloud Weaver. Then he remembered what Bessie had said. When he most needed her, her skin would help him. He took his children, and they all wore Bessie’s skin. Magically, they started flying. The skin was like Cloud Weaver’s wings. They left the Earth, and moved upwards, towards Heaven. ‘Wait for me, Cloud Weaver!’ Cloud Weaver’s mother heard his shout. She saw him and was angry. ‘Cloud Weaver! Why is this human coming to Heaven? Did you make him wings?’ ‘No, mother! I didn’t make him wings!’ Her mother moved her hand. A great river appeared in the sky, made of stars. The river was miles wide, and very deep. Cowherd put his foot in the water, and it fell very quickly. So Cowherd put Bessie’s skin on the water, and climbed on with his children. But they fell even more quickly. ‘I don’t understand!’ said Cowherd. ‘How can I cross?’ Cloud Weaver’s mother laughed. ‘This is the River of Heaven. It separates humans and gods. You are not a god, and you will never cross it. Your body is too heavy. You took my daughter, and you must pay for it.’ She moved her hand, and Cowherd’s children flew into the air. ‘No!’ shouted Cowherd. ‘Mother, do not hurt them!’ said Cloud Weaver. ‘He did not take me. I chose to stay on Earth.’ Her Mother looked angry, but she let the children go. ‘Go back to Earth, Cowherd. Heaven is not your place. Humans and gods must be separate.’ But Cowherd could not leave Cloud Weaver. He stayed there in the sky, between Heaven and Earth. Many years passed. He shouted and shouted to Cloud Weaver on the other side of the River of Heaven. Their children cried and cried to see their mother. Finally, Cloud Weaver’s mother changed her mind. She saw that Cowherd really loved her daughter. But he was not a god, so he could not enter Heaven. So, one night each year, she let them meet. This night is called Qixi. On Qixi, thousands of birds fly together to make a bridge over the River of Heaven. Cloud Weaver, Cowherd and their children meet on the middle of the bridge, and for one night, they are together. People say that, on this night, if you stand by a certain lake, you can hear Cowherd and Cloud Weaver talking to each other. Their words are quiet, and full of love. THE END

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Appreciation of Hard Work

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth’s academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, Never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, “Did you obtain any scholarships in school?” The youth answered “none”.

The director asked, “Was it your father who paid for your school fees?” The youth answered, “My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees”. The director asked, “Where did your mother work?” The youth answered, “My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect”.

The director asked, “Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?” The youth answered, “Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me”.

The director said, “I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother’s hands, and then see me tomorrow morning”.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid. The youth cleaned his mother’s hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother’s hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother’s hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother’s hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time. Next morning, the youth went to the director’s office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth’s eyes, asked: “Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?” The youth answered, “I cleaned my mother’s hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes”.

The Director asked, “please tell me your feelings”. The youth said, “Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, By working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship”.

The director said, “This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired”. Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company’s performance improved tremendously.

Moral: If one doesn’t understand and experience the difficulty it takes to earn the comfort provided by their loved ones, than they will never value it.The most important thing is to experience the difficulty and learn to value hard work behind all the given comfort.

The end

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Train Your Brain to Think in English If you spend a lot of time with English speakers, you'll start thinking in English. You won't have to translate in your head before speaking. This can help make your speech more fluent.

Thinking in another language takes a lot of practice. But the good news is that you can practice even if you don't live in an English-speaking country.

Think in single words

Look around you. In your head, try to name each object in English. If you do this many times in different situations, you'll eventually start to think of objects by their English names.

Another tip is to label objects in your home to help you remember the English names.

Think in sentences

The next step is to practice thinking in simple English sentences. For example, if you're sitting in a park, you can tell yourself, "It's such a beautiful day" and "People are playing sports with their friends." Once this becomes easy, you can try more difficult sentences.

Don't worry too much about whether the sentences are correct. The important thing is that you're not translating from your first language.

Describe your day

Another helpful exercise is to describe your daily activities. For example, you can think to yourself, "I put on my clothes" and "I drive to work."

You can also describe your plans in the morning. For example, "When I leave the house, I'm going to get a coffee. Then, I'll take the train to the library and study there."

Practice every day

Most importantly, try to practice these exercises a little every day. The more you practice, the more fluent you'll become!

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The Little Mermaid

A long time ago, merpeople existed. They lived in the sea, and they were half-fish, half-human. They were human down to their middle, and then they were fish. They had long, beautiful tails, and they swam through the water using their tails.

One mermaid was called Ariya. She was the daughter of the king. She had five sisters. When they became sixteen, they could swim up to the top of the sea and look at the human world. Ariya was the youngest, so each year, one of her sisters went up and saw the human world. She wanted to see it so much, but she had to wait.

The first sister swam up and saw a city. She said the sounds and lights were magical. The second sister swam up and watched the sunset. She said the colours were unbelievable. The third sister swam up a river and saw a castle. She saw children playing in the water, and a strange black animal called a “dog”. The fourth sister was shy, and stayed in the sea, but she saw many impressive ships, and jumping dolphins. The fifth sister had her birthday in winter, so when she swam up she saw large pieces of ice in the sea. She sat on one piece of ice and watched a storm. The ships ran away from it, and it was beautiful and scary.

However, Ariya’s sisters became less interested in the human world. They swam up less and less, and stayed in the sea. But one day every year, they swam up together and sang songs to ships. The men in the ships fell in love with them, and some even jumped into the sea and died in the cold water. Afterwards they laughed about this together.

Ariya watched her sisters leave and felt very sad. Mermaids cannot cry, so they feel sad more than humans. Of course, Ariya’s parents did not like their daughters singing to human men.

‘You are very bad, to kill men like that. You are just like the sea witch, Olghra, and she is the worst thing in the sea.’

Finally, Ariya’s sixteenth birthday came. She was so excited to swim up to the human world. But first, her grandmother put pearls on her tail.

‘Grandmother, it hurts so much!’ said Ariya.

‘Yes. We cannot be beautiful without pain.’

When they finished, it hurt less, and Ariya swam to the top of the sea. When she came out of the water she saw a ship. On the ship, there was lots of music, and people were dancing. She did not want them to see her, so she stayed under the sea. She swam past windows. She looked in one of the windows, and saw a man. He looked very special. Everyone was singing to him, and he had a large cake.

“It must be his birthday,” Ariya thought. The people sang a song, and she heard the number sixteen. He was the same age as her! And he was very handsome. He had to be a prince.

There was a loud sound above. The water went dark. Ariya swam up and saw that there was a storm. It grew quickly. It was beautiful to her, but lightning hit the ship, and it broke in two. The men shouted and ran, and many fell into the water. Ariya looked everywhere, and saw her prince fall into the sea. He had passed out! She took him and swam to the beach.

She kissed his head and said, ‘Please wake up!’

He started to move, and she was shy, so she went back into the water. She hid behind a rock and watched. The prince woke up, and some girls came and helped him. He was safe! Ariya happily swam back down under the sea.

Her family had been waiting for her for a long time. She told them about the ship and the storm, but she did not talk about the prince. She thought her sisters would laugh at her. But every night, she swam back up and went to the beach. His castle was nearby, and sometimes she saw him in the window. Sometimes he even walked down to the beach and looked at the water.

She heard other humans talk about their world. It was very strange. They had kings and buildings like the world under the sea, but there were lots of other things. She didn’t understand most of them, but she was very interested. She wanted to be in that world, and not under the sea. Her sisters said that the sea was more beautiful than the human world, but Ariya thought they were wrong.

‘How can I live in their world?’ said Ariya. And then she had an idea.

One night in the sea, the king held a ball. Ariya had been waiting for this. When everyone was dancing, eating, and talking, she left the castle. Nobody was around, so they did not see where she was going. She was going to see the sea witch, Olghra. She had heard many stories about Olghra, but she was the only person who would help Ariya.

Olghra’s home was a cave. The way there was very dangerous. In the floor of the cave there were many sea snakes. They looked like plants, but they moved. They moved slowly, and tried to touch her. Ariya swam carefully into the cave, so that they did not touch her.

Inside, Olghra sat on the floor. The snakes were sitting on her face, on her hands, on her head. She treated them like pets, and called them “her little chickens”.

‘So, you are here because you want to be a human, correct?’

‘How did you know?’ said Ariya.

Olghra laughed. ‘My chickens tell me many stories. Today is a good day for you. I can help you.’

‘You can really help me?’

‘Yes. I will make a drink. It will change your tail into human legs. It will hurt a lot. It will be like a sword. But you will be beautiful. However, every step will hurt you. It will be like walking on knives.’

Ariya remembered her grandmother’s words, and said, ‘I will do it.’

Olghra smiled. ‘This drink uses love. Love is the strongest magic. It will connect your life to the prince’s. You must sleep with the prince, and then you will be human forever. But if he sleeps with another, you will turn into seawater and die.’

Ariya thought of the prince. He often looked at the sea, and she thought that he must love her.

‘I will do it.’

‘Good. Now, you must pay me. Nothing is free, dear. You have such a pretty face, but what I want is your tongue.’

‘My tongue?’

Ariya loved to sing. Without her tongue, she wouldn’t be able to sing. But she would have legs! Beautiful legs. Did she need to sing?

‘I will do it.’

Olghra cut off her tongue with a knife. Then she mixed the tongue with some of her own blood. She cooked it over the fire, and put it into a bottle.

‘Here. Go now. You must drink it before sunset.’

Ariya took the drink and swam up. It was almost sunset. She did not have time to say goodbye to her family. She sat on the beach and drank the drink, and then passed out.

She woke up in the sun, and her whole body hurt. But the prince was there! He had clothes for her. She wanted to say hello to him, but she couldn’t talk without her tongue. So she smiled.

‘Are you OK?’

She nodded, but showed her mouth.

‘You can’t talk?’

She nodded again. They walked along the beach together. Every step hurt. It was just like walking on knives. But she was still very beautiful, and the prince smiled at her.

In the castle, they gave Ariya beautiful clothes and delicious food, but it was strange. Because she couldn’t talk, they treated her like a child. The prince liked her, but she could not say anything, so their conversations were strange. Still, over the months, they became close. She slept in a room next to the prince. They went horseriding together. They went mountain climbing together. They danced together. These things hurt Ariya’s feet very much, but she never showed this to the prince. In the evening, she sat on the beach and put her feet in the cold sea water. This made them hurt a bit less.

Ariya wanted to marry the prince very much. Before she just wanted to sleep with the prince. Under the sea, merpeople did not get married. But living in the human world, she saw a wedding, and she thought it was so beautiful that she wanted to get married. But even though she was close to the prince, she could not get close enough, because she could not talk.

The prince often talked about a dream he had. He dreamed about the storm on the ship, and he said that a woman saved him, and she looked just like her.

‘That is why I find you so lovely,’ he said. ‘You are like an angel. You saved my life. Or at least, I feel like you did. But of course, I could never marry a woman who can’t talk.’

Ariya was broken. In the world under the sea, love was the most important thing. But for humans, other people could tell you who to be with. Many people who were married did not love each other. Ariya did not understand it.

Finally, the prince told her he was going to get married. His mother, the queen, had chosen a princess from another kingdom. The princess travelled to the castle, and she was just as beautiful as Ariya. The princess sang to the prince. Ariya knew she could sing better, but she could not sing without her tongue.

On the day of the wedding, Ariya felt sadder than ever before. But she could not show it. She smiled, and watched the prince and the princess’ wedding. She knew that that night, she would die.

After the wedding, they all went onto a ship to have a party. There was music and dancing and wonderful food. Ariya joined in. It would be her last dance. The prince was very happy with his new wife.

“At least he will be happy,” she thought sadly.

The prince and the princess danced until the morning, and then went into the ship. Ariya sat by the water, and she saw something below. It was her sisters! They swam up, but they had no hair.

‘Ariya! We have spoken with the sea witch, Olghra. She took our hair, and gave us this.’

They gave Ariya a knife.

‘If you kill the prince with this knife, you will become a mermaid again. You must kill him before sunrise, and his blood must fall on your feet.’

The mermaids swam away. Ariya held the knife and looked at the sky. It would be morning soon. She went through the ship, and went to the room where the prince and his wife were. She put her ear against the door.

‘Oh, my love,’ said the prince.

‘Who is that strange girl? She was looking at you all night.’

The prince laughed. ‘She doesn’t even have a name. One day she just appeared on the beach. Do not worry about her. She cannot talk.’

‘What a poor thing! She is so beautiful, but she cannot talk, or sing…’

‘Shh, she is not important. Tonight is for us.’

They kissed, and Ariya’s heart broke. She ran up to the top of the ship, and threw the knife into the sea. Then she jumped into the water and swam. But as she swam, her body changed. She was turning into seawater. Within a few minutes, her whole body had gone. The sun rose over Ariya, daughter of the sea.

Ariya did not die, though. She could still see and hear. She moved through the water, slowly going down to her family home. They cried and cried for her, and her heart broke again. But at least this way she could be with them, even if they did not know.

Ariya never went to the human world again.

THE END

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Sleeping Beauty Far away from our world, there were the Blue Castle and the Red Castle. In the Blue Castle, everything was soft and blue, and Izod was the softest fairy of all. Izod loved her land, and the land loved her. It was a happy place, but at times it was very sad. When one of the High Fairies died, all the people cried for days. Izod cried more than everyone else. She had a big heart, and beautiful wings. They called them her “wings of water”. Because of this, she was chosen to be queen. She was afraid at first, but she was also excited. She had to wait until she became sixteen. But on the day of her sixteenth birthday, the men from Red Castle came. It was the first time that Izod had seen them. They wore red. Their eyes were red like fire. And when they attacked, the Blue Castle turned red with blood. They killed and killed, and Izod cried and cried. When they found her, she had cried every tear from her body. But the Red Men did not kill her. They did something much worse. They hit her, pulled out her wings, and left her alone in the Blue Castle. All alone. Her beauty was dead, and her magic was gone. Della loved her land, and the land loved her. Her father and mother, the King and Queen, smiled whenever they saw her. She had beautiful red hair. People called it her “hair of fire”. The people of the Red Castle brought her presents every day. In the Red Castle, everything was bright, and everyone was strong, and Della was also bright and strong. When a gladiator killed another man, she cheered. She would be queen one day, and she would be a strong queen. But on Della’s sixteenth birthday, everything changed. The day started with beautiful sunshine, but quickly turned dark and wet. Many people had come to celebrate Della’s birthday, and now they all stood inside the castle. They were wet and cold, but still, they were happy for Della. Della sat and received each present one by one. There were many things: cakes, jewellery, paintings and dresses. Finally, Sir Galen came up. He was the head of the guards. He wore bright red armour, and he was very strong and handsome. He gave Della a very interesting present. ‘These are wings, your majesty. They are from a fairy, and they have strong magic. I wanted to give them to you before, but you were too young. Be careful with them. They are dangerous.’ And then, the doors to the Red Castle opened by themselves. A strong wind blew in, and the rain came inside. ‘Shut those doors!’ shouted the King. The guards did so, but with the wind, something had come inside. Not something, but someone. It was a tall person, wearing a black cloak. Their face was hidden. The people looked afraid, and moved so that the cloaked person could move forward. ‘Who are you?’ asked the Queen. The person took off the cloak. It was a woman, but she looked very bad. Her face was dark blue, and her eyes were as white as milk. She looked soft and sad. She looked like the rain turned into a person. Della had heard of the Blue Castle, and the strange blue people who lived there. But they had all died, years ago. That was what her parents had told her. The woman looked at Della. ‘Give me back my wings. I need them to fly.’ She was quiet, but nobody in the castle spoke a word. Della was afraid, but she did not show it. ‘These are not your wings,’ she said. ‘Sir Galen gave them to me.’ The blue woman just shook her head. ‘The wings are mine. Give me back my wings. I need them to fly.’ ‘Guards!’ said the King. ‘Take this woman!’ But the guards did not move. In fact, nobody in the room moved. It seemed like nobody could move. The blue woman said again, ‘Give me back my wings. I need them to fly.’ She sounded like she was going to cry. Della stood up. She picked up the wings and looked at them. They were hers, because they were a present from Sir Galen. But this woman, this strange woman, wanted them so much. Della knew that if she didn’t give her the wings, her birthday would be bad. So she walked towards her. ‘No!’ shouted Sir Galen. ‘It is Izod, the bad fairy of the Blue Castle!’ Della stopped. There was a moment of quiet, and then the blue woman’s face changed. Her face turned to anger. She tried to move towards the wings, but the guards ran forward. They held her back. ‘Then she will suffer like me!’ shouted the blue woman. ‘If I cannot fly, then she must sleep. Tonight, she will fall asleep, and she will never wake up again.’ Then, Izod was gone. The cloak fell to the floor. The Red Castle was quiet. Outside, the sun shone again. That night, Della did not sleep. She did not sleep the next night, either. Every night for a week, she did not sleep. The King and Queen found entertainers—musicians, clowns, and dancers—to keep her awake. But each day, Della grew more tired, and one night, she fell asleep at the dinner table. The King and Queen tried to wake her. They shook her. They brought delicious food and drinks. Musicians played music. But nothing worked, so they carried her to her bed. The King and Queen sat by her every night and told stories. But finally, they were suffering too much, and even they left her. Della lay alone in her room. She was a Sleeping Beauty, and nothing more. Izod slept as well. Without her wings, her magic was not strong. To keep Della asleep, she had to sleep as well. In their dreams, they met. At first, Della ran away. But as the years passed, she could not keep doing this. Finally, they talked. ‘Why did you do this?’ Della asked. She did not sound like a child anymore. She was a suffering woman, now. Just like Izod. ‘I had nothing left.’ Della shook her head. ‘But you got nothing from this. Now we are both asleep. You do not have your wings. Does it make you happy, to see me suffer?’ ‘Of course it doesn’t. I know how you are suffering. I feel your pain.’ Della started to cry. She could not stop the tears any longer. ‘Then why did you do this?’ ‘You know the history of our lands.’ Della could not look in Izod’s eyes. It was true. Her people had gone to the Blue Castle and killed them. They had killed families, and killed the land. And they had taken Izod’s wings. ‘I know it was wrong. But being King is not easy. My father has to do many things he doesn’t want to do. And your people were dangerous. You have magic.’ ‘One time, we all had magic.’ Izod smiled. ‘But they did not tell you that story, did they? One time, we were all one. Blue and Red were together. And then we broke ourselves up, and killed one side of ourselves.’ Della shook her head again. ‘I don’t understand.’ ‘There is a way to wake up, but you will not like it. Still, it is my only hope. It is the reason I did this.’ ‘Tell me.’ Della woke up, but she was not Della now. She was Izodella. She had her wings of water, and she had her hair of fire. Her mother and father were dead now, and Sir Galen was king. The land was Red, red with fire and blood. There was no happiness, only suffering. Izodella did not wait. She killed the king. Then she flew above the land. She held out her right hand, and fire rained down. It ate the Red Castle, and the remains of the Blue Castle. It killed everything and all. Then she held out her left hand, and water rained down. It cleaned the land, and ended the suffering. The fires died, and the rain stopped. The land slept. Izodella cried, and her tears fell on the earth. And where they fell, something new woke up. Green. The end

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Arachne, the Spider Woman

Once, in Old Greece, there was a woman. Her name was Arachne. Arachne’s father was a shepherd. He was called Idmon. Idmon was a good shepherd, and they had many, many sheep. The sheep made much wool. They made so much wool that Idmon could not sell all of it, so their house was full of old wool. Arachne liked to play with the wool. Slowly, she learned how to make thread. Over time, she turned all the wool in the house into thread. But she could not weave, because they did not have a loom.

One day, Idmon came home from town. He had sold much wool. He was carrying something big.

‘Father, what is that?’ said Arachne. She went to help her father. The thing was very heavy.

‘It is a loom. We have so much thread, so why don’t you weave as well?’

Arachne fell in love with the loom. Every day she sat with it for hours. At first, she made many mistakes, and she broke all the thread. But slowly, she learned how to weave, and she made pictures with the thread.

As Arachne grew older, her talent grew as well. She got better and better at weaving. Arachne did not know any other weavers, so she did not know that she was an excellent weaver.

One day, Idmon took one of her pictures to town, and the people of the town loved it. They had never seen such a beautiful picture. They asked him where he had bought it, and he told them that his daughter made it.

The next day, many people came to see Arachne.

‘Oh dear. Have I done something wrong?’

‘No! We want to see you weave.’

They did not believe it at first. A young girl could not weave such beautiful pictures! But they watched her weave, and it was true.

After that, people came every day to watch Arachne weave. They told her her pictures were beautiful. Her father started selling them, and they made lots of money. He stopped selling the wool from the sheep, and gave it all to Arachne. Arachne wove day and night, and she was very happy.

Athena was the goddess of many things. One of her things was weaving. So naturally, she heard about Arachne. One day, she made herself look like an old woman, and she came to visit. She saw the girl working. “She is amazing,” she thought. “No human should be so good.” Athena was jealous, so she went up to the girl.

‘You are an amazing weaver!’ she said.

‘Thank you,’ said Arachne, smiling.

‘You weave even better than the gods.’

Arachne smiled, and said again, ‘Thank you.’

Athena changed her form. She showed her true form. Arachne gasped, and stopped weaving.

‘Athena! You are the goddess of weaving. Thank you so much. I love weaving.’

‘You should not thank me,’ said Athena. ‘You should be saying “sorry”! You said you were better than the gods. You are a human! You are too proud.’

‘I am sorry, Athena,’ said Arachne. She looked truly sad. ‘I do not really believe that I am better than the gods.’

‘We will see. Let us have a competition. We will each weave a picture. If your picture is better, I will agree that you can weave better than the gods. But if my picture is better, I will punish you.’

Arachne waited for a moment, and then said, ‘I accept.’

Athena pulled out her loom. It was much brighter and prettier than Arachne’s simple loom. They both sat down with lots of threads and started working. Everyone from the town came and watched.

Athena moved quickly, and soon she was making a beautiful picture. In her picture she showed the gods punishing humans. Zeus punished Ixion, because Ixion fell in love with his wife, Hera. Demeter punished Erysichthon, because Erysichthon cut down Demeter’s trees to make a table. Finally, Apollo punished Marsyas, because Marsyas lost a competition against Apollo. The people all thought the picture was very impressive.

Arachne worked much more slowly. But as her picture grew, it was also very beautiful. Arachne also showed the gods. But in Arachne’s picture, the gods were hurting humans who had done nothing wrong. Arachne showed the gods abusing their power. Zeus tricked women and attacked them. Pluto took away Persephone. Finally, Apollo punished Marsyas, because Marsyas lost the competition against Apollo. The last part was the same as Athena’s picture. But Athena was saying that the human was wrong, while Arachne was saying that Apollo was wrong.

When they looked at both pictures, it was clear that Arachne’s was better. The style and colours were nicer. More than that, though, the picture was much more interesting. All the people gasped at Arachne’s picture. It was a very dangerous thing to do.

Athena was very, very angry. Arachne had won the competition. She could not say that she herself had won. But she stopped her anger, and smiled.

‘You think all the gods are bad, do you? We all abuse our power, and hurt humans, do we?’

Arachne smiled and said nothing. She did not have to say it. Her picture said it.

‘Fine, then. I will do what you want, and abuse my power.’

Athena clapped her hands. Suddenly, Arachne started changing. Her body grew smaller, and her legs grew longer. In fact, she grew six extra legs. Her arms and legs grew very hairy. Her skin turned black. Four more eyes grew on her face.

Athena had turned her into a spider. The first spider. Athena laughed at Arachne, who was smaller than her hand now.

‘There. I abused my power. Are you happy? But I am not that bad. You can still weave. There is thread in your stomach. Go, and weave your little pictures.’

Arachne ran away. She wove a web and lived inside it. After Athena left, Idmon looked at his daughter and cried.

Arachne was the first spider, but she had children. Throughout time, Arachne and her children wove webs. They never wove beautiful pictures, but they never stopped weaving completely. Because even the gods cannot stop humans from making art.

THE END

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Strange Friends

Once there was a cat and a mouse. Usually, cats eat mice, and mice run away from cats, but this cat and this mouse liked each other very much. They liked each other so much that they lived together. They made a nice little house in the city. Everyone called them the “Strange Friends”.

‘We must think of winter,’ said the cat. ‘In winter, it will be cold, and there will be little food. We should save something for winter, so that we are not hungry. After all, you are a mouse, and if you look for food in winter, a cat will eat you.’

The mouse agreed with the cat. So they bought a pot of fat, but they did not know where to put it.

‘We can keep it in the house,’ the cat said.

‘No, no,’ said the mouse. ‘If we see it in the house, we will want to eat it. Let us put it in the church, under the big table. Nobody will steal from the church. And if we cannot see it, we will not want to eat it. We will not eat it until we really need it.’

So they put the pot of fat under the big table in the church, and they continued their happy life together.

But the cat was a selfish animal. A few weeks later, she had a strong desire for the fat. She imagined how it would taste, and she got very hungry.

The cat said to the mouse, ‘Dear mouse, I have to ask you something. My cousin has had a beautiful son. He is white with brown parts. My cousin wants me to be the godmother, so I must go to the christening. Will that bother you? You will have to look after the house alone.’

‘Of course not!’ said the mouse. ‘Go, and if you find any nice food or drink, bring some for me. At christenings the wine is very sweet and delicious. Bring me some christening wine.’

However, the cat was lying. She had no cousin, and nobody had asked her to be a godmother. She went to the church, went under the table, and opened the pot of fat. She licked the top of the fat off.

Then she walked on the roofs of the city. She looked for other food and drink, but did not see any. So she lay down in the sun. When she thought of the pot of fat, she licked her lips, and she came home only in the evening.

‘I’m sure you’ve had a lovely day,’ said the mouse. ‘How was the christening?’

‘It went very well,’ said the cat.

‘What did they name the child?’

‘Top off,’ said the cat.

‘Top off!’ said the mouse. ‘That is a very strange name. Is it common in your family?’

‘It is not a strange name,’ said the cat. ‘You have a godchild, yes? He is called Big Nose. That is just as strange a name.’

A week later, the cat felt a desire to lick the fat again. She said to the mouse, ‘You must help me. Once again, I have been asked to be godmother. This child has a white ring around its neck, and it is very pretty. I cannot say no. Will you look after the house alone, so that I can go?’

The mouse said yes, but again, the cat went through the city to the church. This time, she ate half the pot of fat. ‘It tastes much better when you are alone,’ she said to herself.

When she went home, the mouse asked, ‘What did they name this child?’

‘Half-done,’ said the cat.

‘Half-done! Is that true? I have never heard of that name. I don’t think it’s in the name books!’

A few days later, the cat desired the fat again.

‘Good things go in threes,’ said the cat. ‘I have been asked to be godmother again. This child is black, but it has white hands. This is a very strange thing. Will you look after the house, so that I can go?’

‘Top off! Half-done!’ said the mouse. ‘They are such strange names. They make me think.’

‘You sit at home,’ said the cat. ‘Oh, you have so many ideas, because you do not go out in the day. You sit at home and look after the house.’

While the cat was gone, the mouse cleaned the house. It made the house very nice and clean. While the mouse cleaned, the cat ate the whole pot of fat.

‘It is good to finish food,’ said the cat. She was so full that she did not return home until nighttime. The mouse asked what they had named the third child.

‘You will not like it,’ said the cat. ‘He is called All-gone.’

‘All-gone!’ said the mouse. ‘That is the strangest name of all. I have never read that name, and I have never heard that name. What does it mean?’ The mouse was very confused, and went to sleep.

After that, nobody asked the cat to be godmother. When winter came, they didn’t have any more food. So the mouse said, ‘It is a good thing we have that pot of fat. Let us go to the church, and enjoy our food.’

‘Yes,’ said the cat to herself. ‘Or you could lick the air. You would enjoy it as much.’

When they arrived at the church, the pot of fat was there, but it was empty.

‘Oh no!’ said the mouse. ‘I see what has happened. I thought we were friends! But you ate all the fat when you were “going to christenings”. First Top off, then Half-done, then—’

‘Do not finish,’ said the cat. The names were making her think of the fat, and she was getting very hungry. ‘If you say one more word, I will—’

But it was too late. ‘All-gone!’ said the mouse. She said the words, and the cat jumped on her and ate her.

Because that is the world. Cats eat mice, and cats get fat.

THE END

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Little Red Riding Hood

There was an illness in the world. It went everywhere. It went into cities, towns and villages. It went inside houses, inside factories, inside people’s thoughts. The people could not see it, but they felt it. At first, it felt like a light wind. But days passed, and then weeks, and the illness started working. It hit men and women, and made them sick for weeks. It took the old and the weak. Everywhere, people were afraid, and cold.

The worst illness of all is fear. The illness killed people, but it was fear that took away their life. Everyone was afraid of everyone else, because anyone could have the illness. No place was safe. Nobody was safe. So people hid inside their houses and waited.

Strangely, children did not get the illness. They were safe and healthy. But the fear was all around them, and they became sick in their hearts.

Little Red Riding Hood lived alone with her mother. Her real name was Martha, but everyone called her Little Red Riding Hood, because she wore a long red coat. She was “Red” for short.

‘Red,’ said her mother to her one day. ‘You love your grandmother, don’t you?’

‘Of course!’ said Red.

‘Can you bring her the food this week? I cannot go outside. I might get sick.’

Red’s grandmother lived alone in the forest. Once a week, her mother took bread and fruit to her.

Red’s mother gave her a bag of food.

‘I’m afraid, Mother,’ said Red. ‘There are no people outside, and there is the illness…’

‘You are a child. The illness does not hurt children.’

‘But there are many scary animals in the forest, like dogs and wolves…’

‘You are friends with all the animals!’ said her mother. ‘Please, Red. Go for me. I must go and sleep, now. I am very tired.’

Red’s mother went to bed. The girl sat and thought. She did not want to go outside at all. There were no people out in the town, and everything felt cold and dark. And it was a long walk to her grandmother’s house—several hours. The forest was dangerous.

TAP TAP. Red jumped. There was a sound at the window. It was a small bird. She went and opened the window.

‘Hello, Red!’ said the bird.

‘Hello, Chirpy,’ said Red.

‘I am sorry. I heard you talking to your mother. She wants you to take food to your grandmother.’

‘Yes…’

‘Well, you can’t go!’ said Chirpy. ‘There is the illness.’

‘But Mother said that children can’t get the illness.’

‘Oh no, you can get it. Simply, when you get it, you don’t get sick.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said Red.

‘Hmm, let me explain… Let’s say that you are wearing a black dress, and your friend is wearing a white dress. You both eat spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner, and you both get food on your dress. Your friend with the white dress, her dress would be all red from the sauce. But your dress, because it is black, would look clean. But really, it also has sauce on it. That is what the illness is like. You might not feel bad, but you still have the illness inside you, and you could give it to someone else.’

‘Oh no!’ said Red. ‘Do you mean that I could have the illness already?’

‘Yes, but don’t worry. If you stay inside, you will not give it to anyone. So, you cannot take the food to your grandmother, because she could get sick and die.’

‘But what can we do?’ said Red. ‘If I do not take her food, she will die as well!’

‘Ah, don’t worry about that!’

Chirpy called, and five more birds flew to the window.

‘We will take the bag for you,’ said Chirpy.

So Red handed the birds the bag of food and told them where to go.

That evening, Red made soup and brought it to her mother in bed.

‘How are you feeling, Mother?’ said Red.

‘Fine,’ she said. But her voice was hoarse. ‘Did you bring the food to your grandmother? I didn’t hear you going out.’

Red smiled. ‘Do not worry. I did not want to bring the illness to Grandmother, so I gave the bag to my friends. They took it to her.’

‘Your “friends”?’

‘The birds!’

‘Oh, Red, don’t play games! You know that birds cannot talk, and they certainly cannot bring a heavy bag of food into the forest. What did you really do with the food?’

‘I’m telling you! The birds took it to her.’

‘Red, you can’t play games at a time like this!’ Her mother looked very red and angry. She sat up in bed, and she sounded very tired.

‘I’m sorry, Mother. But the birds told me that I can carry the illness. Even if I do not get ill myself, I could give it to Grandmother.’

‘That’s not true! Oh, you are a bad little girl! If your grandmother dies…’

Red started crying, and ran to her bed. She didn’t want her grandmother to die. Of course she didn’t! That was why she had sent the birds. But her mother didn’t want to believe her!

The next day, Red went to make food for her and her mother. Her mother was still in bed, and now she looked very red. Red thought she had the illness, but her mother didn’t want to talk about it.

When Red went to the cupboard, there was no food there.

‘Mother,’ she said. ‘We have no bread, no cheese and no vegetables. What can we do?’

‘Here,’ her mother said. She went under the bed and found some money. ‘Go out and buy food. No, wait.’

Slowly, she got out of bed, huffing and puffing. ‘I don’t know if you will actually do it. I will go and get the food myself.’

‘No, Mother, you are too sick!’

‘I am just fine!’ said her mother. ‘Stay here and be good, and don’t go and talk to any of your animal friends.’

So Red sat downstairs and waited while her mother went and bought food. Her mother was very weak, and she could make other people sick… But Red couldn’t do anything, so she just sat and waited.

TAP TAP. There was a sound at the window. Red ran to it. She thought she would see all six birds, but there was just Chirpy there. Chirpy had a big cut on his body—he was hurt!

‘Chirpy, what happened?’ asked Red, opening the window.

‘We took the food to your grandmother, but we were attacked. There is a Big Bad Wolf in the forest. He waited, and after we left the food, he attacked us. He took the food and ate it all up! I watched him for a while. Red, it is terrible! He waits outside your grandmother’s house. He knocks on the door and says, “Hello, Granny! It is Little Red Riding Hood. I have food for you!” ’

‘Oh no!’ said Red. ‘The wolf wants to eat her.’

‘Yes,’ said the bird. ‘But there is a wood-cutter, in the forest. He can help you. He can kill the wolf. Oh, I feel so tired. I am just going to sleep for a while…’

Chirpy closed his eyes, and he did not wake up.

‘Chirpy, Chirpy!’

Red started crying. She cried and cried. She ran into her bed and cried even more. She cried for hours, but her mother did not come home.

‘Oh, what am I going to do? Chirpy is dead, and the Big Bad Wolf wants to eat my grandmother. And Mother is gone! What can I do?’

She wanted to go out and find the wood-cutter, but she was afraid. The Big Bad Wolf might find her and eat her up! And she probably had the illness. She could give the wood-cutter the illness, and he would die before he killed the wolf!

But she could not do anything else. So she got out of bed and pulled on her red coat.

‘Red, let’s go and save your grandmother,’ she said to herself.

Carefully, she opened the door of the house. She looked around, but she saw no people. Everyone was hiding in their houses. So she walked out, and went into the forest.

It was dark and cold there. She had walked through the forest many times, and she always thought that it was beautiful. But now, the flowers and the trees all looked horrible. She did not want to be there. The Big Bad Wolf could be hiding anywhere.

She didn’t know where the wood-cutter lived, so she looked all around, very carefully. Finally, she saw a wooden house, far away.

‘He must live there!’ she said.

She ran to the house, but then she heard a growling noise. She stopped and hid behind a tree.

Then she saw him. The Big Bad Wolf. He was twice as big as a normal wolf, and his teeth were twice as long. His eyes were red, and he was horribly hairy. He was walking around the wood-cutter’s house, banging on the walls.

‘Open up, open up, Mr. Wood-Cutter! It’s the Big Bad Wolf. You want to kill me, don’t you? So do it! I’m here. I’m waiting.’

‘Go away!’ shouted the wood-cutter from inside.

The Big Bad Wolf laughed. ‘You are a weak little man. But don’t worry. I will eat you in the end. Even if the illness kills you first, I will eat your body. Yum yum.’

And the wolf ran away into the forest.

Red felt sick, but she had to keep going. The wolf was probably going to her grandmother’s house.

Red ran to the wood-cutter’s house and knocked on the door.

‘I’m sorry, Mr. Wood-Cutter? I’m Red. My grandmother lives in the forest, and the Big Bad Wolf wants to eat her. My friend told me you could kill him.’

‘Do you think I’m stupid?’ said the wood-cutter.

‘What? No!’

‘I know it’s you. You’re the wolf again. You can change your voice, but I know it’s you.’

‘I’m not the wolf! I’m just a little girl!’

The wood-cutter came up to the window and looked out. He was a tall man, but he looked weak. His face was all red, and his eyes looked very tired.

‘What are you doing here? The wolf will eat you!’

‘Please help me! I know you are strong. You can kill him!’

‘I’m not strong,’ said the wood-cutter. ‘Nobody is strong. This illness is killing us all. Now go home, little girl.’

And the wood-cutter closed the curtains.

Red didn’t know what to do. If the wood-cutter couldn’t help her, who could? She walked around the house, and almost started crying, but she stopped herself.

‘Be strong.’

And then she saw something. Behind the house there was lots of wood that the wood-cutter had been cutting. And in one of the pieces of wood was his axe.

‘Well, he doesn’t need this.’

She took the axe. It was heavy, but she could carry it with both arms. She ran away from the house.

‘Hey, that’s my axe!’ shouted the wood-cutter, but Red didn’t listen to him.

She ran to her grandmother’s house as fast as she could. She looked around the house, but she did not see the wolf. So she went and knocked on the door.

‘Grandmother, Grandmother, it’s me, Red! Please open the door!’

Her grandmother’s voice came from inside. It was low and hoarse. ‘How do I know it is you, Red?’

“Oh no,” thought Red. “Her voice is so hoarse. She must have the illness!”

‘Come to the window and look,’ said Red.

So her grandmother looked out and saw that it was her. She opened the door.

Red’s grandmother looked very strange. She was wearing a long white dress and white gloves. She had a big hat on, and it was hard to see her face.

‘My dear, what a big axe you have,’ said her grandmother. ‘Come inside and put it down. Did you run here? You look very tired.’

Red was so happy to see her grandmother. For a moment, she thought that everything was going to be OK. She came and sat down, and she put the axe on the table. Her grandmother made her a cup of tea, and they sat and talked.

‘Oh, Grandmother, you must be so afraid. That wolf wants to eat you! Where is he now?’

Her grandmother laughed. ‘He is just a little dog, really. I shouted at him and told him to go away. He will not come back.’

‘Really?’ said Red.

Her grandmother was so strong. Of course she was fine. Red had worried and worried, but Grandmother had stopped the wolf on her own.

‘I’m so happy to see you,’ said Red. ‘Oh, I was so worried. Mother went to go and find food, and she didn’t come back. And Chirpy came to see you, but the wolf attacked him, and he died.’

Grandmother was putting on white makeup. That was strange. Normally she didn’t wear makeup.

‘Who is Chirpy?’ she said. ‘That is a strange name.’

‘Oh, you know Chirpy! My friend who is a bird.’

‘A bird?!’ said Grandmother.

‘Yes, Grandmother. You know I can talk to animals.’

‘Oh yes, of course… Drink your tea, dear. It will get cold.’

Red drank her tea, but she felt strange. Her grandmother was being… strange.

‘Grandmother, your voice sounds hoarse. Are you sick?’

‘Oh no, dear. I am just a little tired.’

Red looked more carefully at her.

‘But Grandmother, what big ears you have!’

‘All the better to hear you with, my dear.’

‘But Grandmother, what big eyes you have!’

‘All the better to see you with, my dear.’

Her grandmother smiled.

‘But Grandmother, what big teeth you have!’

Her grandmother laughed. ‘All the better to eat you with, my dear!’

Her grandmother jumped up, and her hat fell off. In fact, it was not her grandmother at all, but the wolf! He was wearing her clothes, and had white makeup on his face, but it was the Big Bad Wolf!

Red took the axe off the table and attacked the wolf. But she was not strong enough, and all she did was cut her grandmother’s dress.

The wolf laughed, and picked her up. ‘Stupid little girl! You cannot kill me. Mmm, I think you will be much nicer than your grandmother! She was too sick. I don’t like my food to be sick!’

‘Grandmother is alive?’ said Red.

‘Yes, but you will not live to see her!’

The wolf went to eat her up, but Red said, ‘Wait!’

‘What?!’

‘I am friends with all the animals. You like to eat cats and dogs, don’t you? And birds and fish? I can give you all the animals. They will not be sick. You could eat and eat and eat!’

‘Hrmm,’ said the wolf. ‘But I will still eat you in the end, you know?’

‘I know. But please. I just want to see my grandmother before you—’

BANG! The wolf let go of Red and fell to the floor. Behind him was Red’s grandmother, holding a big frying pan. She had hit the wolf on the head, and now he was sleeping on the floor.

‘Grandmother!’ said Red, and she went to kiss her.

‘No, no!’ said her grandmother. ‘You could make me sick.’

‘Oh, of course!’ said Red. ‘So you are not sick already?’

‘No.’ Her face was red, but she put some water on it, and it came off. ‘I just put on some makeup and talked in a hoarse voice. I knew the wolf would not want to eat me if I was sick. He came in and put me in a cupboard, but I got out. Oh, my lovely Red! Let us drink some tea. But first, we need to do something with this wolf.’

So they put the wolf in a cupboard, and then they sat down and drank tea, and Red told her everything that had happened.

‘That wood-cutter is a very stupid man,’ said Grandmother. ‘He always says he is so strong, but really he is very weak.’

‘Grandmother, what can I do? I think Mother is dead. I can’t go and live alone.’

‘Well, if she is dead, then you will come and live here.’

‘But I might make you sick!’

‘Of course you won’t! I will put you in a room for two weeks, with lots of food and drink. When we are sure that you are not sick, you can come and talk with me, and play games.’

‘But how will we get food?’

Grandmother laughed. ‘You are the friend of all animals, aren’t you? You can go and get food from them. They will not make you sick. This illness is for people, only. I live in the forest, and I have not seen a single sick animal.’

So Red went home the next day. Her mother was not there. But Red did not cry. She had already cried enough. She took her things, said goodbye to the house, and went and lived with her grandmother.

And no wolf, big or bad, came to hurt them ever again.

THE END

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The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats

Once there was an old goat. She had seven little goats. She loved them a lot. One day the mother goat went into the woods to find food for them. Before she left, she spoke to them all.

‘Dear children,’ she said. ‘I am going out into the wood. I will be gone for a while. There is a big bad wolf who lives near here. Be careful. If he comes inside the house, he will eat all of you. He often changes how he looks, so remember this: he has a deep voice and big black feet.’

‘Dear mother,’ said the little goats. ‘Do not worry. We will be safe.’

So the mother said goodbye, and went to find food.

A few hours later, there was a knock at the door.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

But the little goats knew it was the big bad wolf, because his voice was deep.

‘We won’t open the door!’ they cried. ‘You are not our mother. She has a sweet voice, and your voice is not sweet. You must be the wolf.’

The wolf thought about what to do. Usually, children were not clever at all, and he could eat them up without any problem. But these goats were quite clever. So he went into town and bought some honey. He ate the honey, so that his voice was nice and soft. Then he went back to the goats’ house and knocked at the door.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

The voice was much higher and sweeter than before. So the oldest goat looked under the door, and saw two big, black feet.

‘We won’t open the door!’ they cried. ‘You are not our mother. She has small, pretty feet, and your feet are big and black. You must be the wolf.’

The wolf thought about what to do again. These children really were very clever. The wolf was very hungry, and he wanted to eat the little goats very much. So he went into town and went to the baker.

‘Baker,’ he said. ‘I have hurt my feet. Can you put some dough on them?’

The baker covered his feet in white dough. But the wolf still had big black hands, and he knew the children were very clever. So he said to the baker, ‘Baker, I have hurt my hands, as well. Put some dough on them.’

By now, the baker thought the wolf had a plan. Everyone in town knew about the wolf, and they knew that he was bad.

‘I won’t do it,’ said the baker.

‘If you don’t do it,’ said the wolf, ‘I’ll eat you up!’

The baker was afraid, so he covered the wolf’s hands with dough. And that shows you what men are like!

Now the wolf came to the goats’ house for the third time and knocked.

‘Open the door, little children. Your mother is back, and she has some nice food for you.’

‘First show us your hands,’ said the goats. ‘Then we can know if it is really you.’

So he put his hands on the window, and they saw that they were white.

‘Let us open the door,’ said the youngest goat.

‘No!’ said the oldest goat. ‘I want to make sure. Dear mother! Show us your feet. Then we can know if it is really you.’

So the wolf put his feet under the door, and they saw that they were white.

By now the little goats were quite hungry, and they wanted their food. But the oldest goat was still worried.

‘I don’t think it’s our mother. She doesn’t talk like that.’

‘Be quiet!’ said the others. ‘If we don’t open the door, mother will be very angry.’

So the oldest goat went and hid inside the big old clock in the house. The other goats opened the door, and when they saw it was the wolf, they ran away. One ran under the table, the second got into bed, the third got into the oven, the fourth went into the kitchen, the fifth went into the cupboard, and the sixth went under the sink.

Of course, the wolf saw them, so he went and ate all of them, one by one. He ate them all except for the oldest goat, who was hidden inside the old clock. The wolf was very happy and full now, so he went and sat under a tree outside and slept.

Less than an hour later, the mother goat came back from the wood. She couldn’t believe it! The door was open. All the furniture was on the floor. Everything was dirty. She looked for the children, but could not find them. She called out each of their names, and only the oldest spoke.

‘Here I am, mother,’ he cried. ‘In the old clock.’

So she helped him out, and he told her about the wolf. She cried and cried, and held the oldest little goat.

When they went outside, they quickly found the wolf sitting under the tree. The mother goat looked at him carefully, and saw that his stomach was moving.

‘Oh my! It looks like my children are still alive.’

So they went and got a pair of scissors, and a needle and thread. She cut the wolf’s stomach open, and all six little goats jumped out. They were all alive! The wolf had eaten so much that he slept and slept, and did not notice all of this.

‘Shh!’ said the mother. ‘Go and find some big, heavy stones.’

The little goats did not understand, but they did what she said. They brought her the stones, and she filled the wolf’s stomach with them. Then she used the needle and thread to put his stomach back together. The goats all went inside, and watched through the window.

When the wolf woke up, he felt very thirsty. So he went to the river. As he walked, the stones inside him made a loud noise. The wolf sang to himself:

‘What is this inside me

Hurting all my bones?

These animals are so lively

They were goats, and now they’re stones!’

The wolf did not really think they were stones. He just liked to sing. But the goats did feel much heavier than before.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘a good meal is a good meal. I won’t be hungry for a week after this.’

The wolf arrived at the river, and went to drink. But the stones were so heavy that he fell into the water. He tried to swim, but he couldn’t—he was too heavy!

‘Help! Help!’ said the wolf.

But nobody came to help him.

When it was over, the seven little goats ran to the river and sang, ‘The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead!’

They danced around with their mother. They never had to worry about big bad wolves ever again.

THE END

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The Great Race

Buddha had lived a long life on Earth. Soon, he was going to leave Earth. Before he left, he said goodbye to all his friends. He stopped to stay goodbye to all the trees, as well. After this, Buddha was tired. He wanted to say goodbye to the animals, but he did not want to go to them. So he called the animals to come to him and say goodbye.

However, animals are generally quite lazy, and they are busy looking for food and running away from other animals. So in the end, only thirteen animals came to say goodbye to him. First came the dragon, who was fast and beautiful. Next came the horse and the rabbit, who were good animals, but not very clever. The tiger and the ox came next, two very strong animals. The goat, the monkey, and the chicken all came together, because they were good friends. The dog came with the pig, as they were both lazy. Finally, the cat, the rat and the snake all came, the worst animals of the group.

Buddha had wanted to see the giraffe one last time, but he did not say this.

‘Oh great animals of the world!’ he said. ‘Soon I will leave Earth. Because you have come to say goodbye to me, I want to give you something. We will have a Great Race. I will name a year after each of you. The first year will be named after the first animal, the second year will be named after the second animal, and so on.’

The animals liked this. They all wanted to be famous, so they did what Buddha said. He told them to stand in a line by a river, and he stood on the other side.

‘You must cross this river and come to me. Go!’ he shouted, and the race.

The rat turned to the cat and said, ‘Let’s work together. We both hate the water, but the ox is a good swimmer.’

So they went and asked the ox if they could ride on his back. The ox was very kind, so he said yes, and they jumped on. He moved quickly through the water. However, just before they got to the other side, the rat pushed the cat off the ox.

‘Have fun, stupid!’ he said.

The cat fell into the river, and the strong water pulled her away. The rat jumped off the ox’s back and ran to Buddha.

‘The first year will be named after the rat, and the second year will be named after the ox.’

Although the rat had cheated the ox, the ox didn’t care, because he was so kind.

Next, the tiger swam up to the Buddha. He was a strong swimmer, but the water was very strong as well, so the ox was faster than him.

‘The third year will be named after the tiger.’

The rabbit came next. The Buddha was surprised.

‘You are a fast animal.’

‘Yes. I jumped on rocks to get here. But at one point I fell in the water. Luckily, I found a piece of wood, and it took me here.’

‘The fourth year will be named after the rabbit.’

The dragon came next, and the Buddha was amazed. The dragon was such a fast animal, and he could fly!

‘Why did you take so long?’ he asked.

‘On my way here I saw a village,’ said the dragon, ‘and the people were praying for rain. So I stopped to make it rain for them. Then, when I was flying over the water, I saw the rabbit holding on to a piece of wood. He was in danger, so I blew some air at him to help him.’

The Buddha was amazed at his kindness. ‘The fifth year will be named after the dragon.’

Next came the horse. He was also a fast animal, but he was not very clever. As the horse came near, the snake jumped off him. The snake had been hiding under the horse’s foot. When the horse saw the snake, he jumped because he was so afraid, and the snake got to Buddha first.

‘The sixth year will be named after the snake, and the seventh year will be named after the horse.’

As I said before, the goat, the monkey and the chicken were good friends. They were not good swimmers, so they needed to find another way across the river. The chicken found a long piece of wood in the grass, and some rope. They put the rope on the wood and used it to ride across the river. The chicken sat on the boat, and the goat and the monkey pulled it.

‘Very good work,’ said the Buddha. ‘The eighth year will be named after the goat, the ninth year will be named after the monkey, and the tenth year will be named after the chicken.’

The next animal was the dog.

‘Why did you take so long?’ asked the Buddha.

‘I needed a bath,’ said the dog, ‘and this river is too dangerous. So I went and took a bath in another river. Sorry!’

The Buddha just laughed. ‘The eleventh year will be named after the dog.’

Finally, the Buddha heard an oink oink, and the pig came walking up to him.

‘I got hungry during the race,’ said the pig. ‘So I stopped and ate some apples, and then I felt very tired, so I went to sleep.’

The Buddha was not surprised by this.

‘Well, I think that’s everyone,’ said the Buddha. ‘Well done, all of you.’

But then a sound came from the river. A very wet, very angry cat climbed out of the water onto the grass.

‘Oh, the cat,’ said the Buddha. ‘I forgot about you. There were only twelve years. I’m sorry.’

‘That isn’t fair!’ said the cat. ‘I fell into the water because the rat pushed me.’

‘It’s not my problem,’ said the rat. He was very happy that he had the first year, and he didn’t care about the cat at all.

So the cat ran and jumped on the rat, and the rat ran away. Even now, the cat still hates the rat more than every other animal.

‘Well then,’ said the Buddha. ‘My work here is done.’

And so Buddha left Earth. The twelve animals now make the Chinese Zodiac, and help us all remember the years.

THE END

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The Three Snake Leaves

Once there was a poor man with a son. The man could not look after his son anymore, so the son said to him, ‘Dear father. Things are bad here, and you have to work hard to look after me. Let me leave, and I will look after myself.’

The father agreed, and said goodbye to his son.

At that time, the King was at war, so the young man went to war. He was strong and fast, and did good work. The King wanted to thank him for his work. So he gave him much money, and said that he could marry his daughter.

The problem was, the King’s daughter was very strange. She said that she would only marry someone if they made a promise.

‘If I die before you, and I am buried, you must be buried alive with me.’

When the young man asked her why this was, she said, ‘If you love me so much, you will not want to live afterwards. That is true love. Of course, if you die first, I will be buried alive with you.’

This strange promise had stopped everyone else from marrying her, but the young man thought she was so beautiful that he didn’t mind. Anyway, he had fought hard in the war, and he was probably going to die first.

So he made the promise, and the two were married. For a while, they lived happily together, but one day the new Queen got ill. She had a strange illness that nobody had seen before. The young man, now the King, called all the doctors in the country to see her, but none of them could help her.

Finally, she died, and the young King remembered his promise.

‘I don’t want to be buried alive!’ he said.

But he kept his promises, so he joined her in the mausoleum. He told all his men, ‘If I try to leave, stop me.’

So they took the King into the mausoleum and locked the door behind him.

Next to the Queen’s body there was a table with four loaves of bread and four bottles of wine. When these ran out, the King would die of hunger. So every day he ate just a little piece of bread and drank just a little bit of wine, but still every day he felt death come nearer.

One day, a snake came into the mausoleum. It went up to the Queen’s dead body. The King thought the snake wanted to eat her, so he took his sword and said, ‘You will not hurt her!’ and cut the snake into three pieces.

A few hours later another snake came in, and when it saw the dead snake, it left again. A few minutes later it came back with three green leaves in its mouth. It put one leaf on each piece of the snake. Suddenly, the three pieces of the snake joined together again, and the snake was alive. The two snakes ran away and left the King alone.

They left the leaves there, and the King had an idea. If the leaves could bring a snake back to life, could they work on a person?

So he picked up the leaves and took them to his dead wife. He put one leaf on her mouth and the other two on her eyes. Suddenly, she moved and sat up, and said, ‘Where am I?’

‘My dear wife! You are with me.’

‘But I was dead…’

‘You were dead, and I brought you back to life.’

He explained the leaves, but his wife did not seem happy.

‘So you didn’t want to die with me.’

‘Nobody wants to die,’ said the King.

‘You said you would die with me, if I died. You made a promise.’

The King couldn’t understand. She was alive again, and they should be happy.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, and she went and banged on the door of the mausoleum. ‘I’m alive!’ she shouted, but she didn’t sound very happy about it.

The King’s men came and opened the door. They were very surprised that the Queen was alive, but they were mostly very happy. The King took the snake leaves with him and gave them to a man who worked for him.

‘Keep these safe, and bring them everywhere. You never know when they will be useful!’

Over the next few months, the Queen became colder and colder. She seemed to hate the King, but he could not understand why. Whenever he asked her, she just said, ‘You should know,’ so finally he stopped asking.

But still, because the Queen was so cold and sad, the whole castle felt sad. So, one day, the King decided to go and visit his father-in-law, the old King. It was a long journey by sea. While they were on the ship, the Queen fell in love with the captain. So one night, while the King was sleeping, she called in the captain. They picked up the King, carried him upstairs, and threw him into the sea.

When they had finished, she said, ‘Let us go home. We will say that he died on the way. I will tell my father how wonderful you are, and he will marry us.’

But someone had seen what they did. It was the King’s man, who looked after his snake leaves. So he took out a boat and rowed after the King, while the Queen and the captain went home. He pulled the dead King out of the water and put the snake leaves on his mouth and eyes. For a few minutes, nothing happened, and then the King woke up, gasping for breath.

‘I can’t believe she did that to me! Where is she now?’

‘My King,’ said the man. ‘They are going to her father, and she will tell him that you are dead.’

‘Then we must go after them!’ said the King.

They rowed with all their strength. They rowed through the day and night. They rowed so quickly that they got to the old King before the Queen and the captain. He was surprised that they were alone, and asked what happened. When they explained what his daughter had done, he said, ‘I cannot believe that she has done this. Let us find out the truth.’

So the King and his man went into the next room and listened. Soon the ship arrived, and the Queen came straight to her father with the captain.

‘Why are you alone?’ he asked. ‘Where is your husband?’

‘Oh, dear father,’ she said, ‘I am so sad! He has died. He became ill during the journey, you see, and he died. His body was dangerous. If we kept the body, we would be ill, too. So we threw the body into the sea. Oh, it is so sad!’

The old King stood up and said, ‘Well, let me bring the dead back to life!’

He clapped his hands, and the two men came from the other room. When the woman saw her husband, she could not believe it.

‘You did not die this time, either! You just want to live, live, live. When will you let me live?!’

The old King said, ‘He was ready to die with you, and he came back to life, but you killed him while he slept. This cannot be.’

‘Wait, father,’ said the young King. He looked at his wife. ‘I still don’t understand. Why did you do this?’

She started crying. ‘I told you! You were going to die with me… but you couldn’t. You didn’t want to. I thought you would love me forever. Don’t you understand? When you brought me back to life, my love for you died.’

‘And when you killed me, my love for you died.’

The King felt very sad, but he could not let his wife live. They put her on a boat with many holes. The boat went out to sea, and because of the holes, it went slowly under the water, and the Queen died just like the King had.

The King threw the snake leaves into the sea and went home.

THE END

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Change Yourself and not The World:

Long ago, people lived happily under the rule of a king. The people of the kingdom were very happy as they led a very prosperous life with an abundance of wealth and no misfortunes. Once, the king decided to go visiting places of historical importance and pilgrim centres at distant places. He decided to travel by foot to interact with his people. People of distant places were very happy to have a conversation with their king. They were proud that their king had a kind heart. After several weeks of travel, the king returned to the palace. He was quite happy that he had visited many pilgrim centres and witnessed his people leading a prosperous life. However, he had one regret. He had intolerable pain in his feet as it was his first trip by foot covering a long distance. He complained to his ministers that the roads weren't comfortable and that they were very stony. He could not tolerate the pain. He said that he was very much worried about the people who had to walk along those roads as it would be painful for them too! Considering all this, he ordered his servants to cover the roads in the whole country with leather so that the people of his kingdom can walk comfortably. The king's ministers were stunned to hear his order as it would mean that thousands of cows would have to be slaughtered in order to get sufficient quantity of leather. And it would cost a huge amount of money also. Finally, a wise man from the ministry came to the king and said that he had another idea. The king asked what the alternative was. The minister said, "Instead of covering the roads with leather, why don't you just have a piece of leather cut in appropriate shape to cover your feet?" The king was very much surprised by his suggestion and applauded the wisdom of the minister. He ordered a pair of leather shoes for himself and requested all his countrymen also to wear shoes. Moral: Instead of trying to change the world, we should try to change ourselves. The end

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Stories of Elves

The First Story

Once there was a shoemaker. He had a hard life, because there were many shoemakers in the city. Over the years, his business went very badly. He became very poor, so poor that all he had left was some leather. It was just enough leather to make one pair of shoes. So in the evening, he cut out the shoes from the leather, ready to make the shoes the next morning. Then he went to bed.

In the morning, the shoemaker went to make the shoes, but he did not find the leather on the table. Instead, there were two clean, bright shoes. He was surprised, and didn’t know what to think. He looked at them closely, and they were very well made indeed.

A few hours later, when the shop opened, a customer came in. He saw the shoes, and liked them very much, so he paid extra for them. With the money, the shoemaker could buy leather for two more pairs of shoes.

So once more, he cut the leather out in the evening, and the next morning, when he went to work, he found both pairs of shoes already made. Once more, customers came and paid extra for them, and this time he had enough money to buy leather for four pairs of shoes. He cut them out, and the next morning, he found four pairs made, and so on and so on. Every night, he cut out the shoes, and every morning, the shoes were there to be sold. The business grew, and the man became quite rich.

One evening, when the man was cutting out the shoes, he said to his wife, ‘I have an idea. We should stay up tonight and see what happens. Someone is helping us, and I want to know who.’

His wife liked the idea, so they hid in the corner and watched. When it turned midnight, two little naked men came out. They sat down at the table and started working on the shoes. They worked so quickly and skillfully that the shoemaker could not believe it. They did not stop until they were finished, and then they quickly ran away.

The next morning, the shoemaker’s wife said, ‘The elves have made us rich. We should thank them for it. They run around without any clothes on. They must be cold. I think I’ll make them little shirts, and coats, and trousers and socks. And of course, you should make them two little pairs of shoes.’

‘What a brilliant idea!’

So one night, when everything was ready, they put their presents on the table and hid in the corner. At midnight, the elves came in, and they were surprised to see the clothes instead of their work. They laughed and jumped up and down. They dressed themselves quickly and sang,

‘Now we boys are so fine to see,

Why should we still shoemakers be?’

Then they danced around the room and, finally, they danced out of the door. After that, they never came back again, but the shoemaker and his wife lived comfortably and happily.

The Second Story

Once there was a poor girl. She worked in a house, and she spent all day cleaning. Every day she swept the floor and put the pile of dirt in front of the door. One morning, when she was going to work, she found a letter on the pile of dirt. She could not read, so she took the letter to her employer.

‘It is an invitation from the elves!’ he said. ‘They want you to be a godmother and go to a christening.’

The girl did not know what to do. She was just a poor cleaner. Why should the elves choose her as godmother? But her employer said that she must go. It was the polite thing to do. So finally, the girl agreed.

On the day of the christening, three elves came and took her to a mountain. A door opened up, and the mountain was empty inside. There, the elves lived. Everything was small, but very beautiful. There were bright rocks everywhere, and all their houses were pretty and colourful. At the christening, the baby sat in a bed of gold.

The christening took place, and then the girl wanted to go home again. She did not feel comfortable there, because she was so much bigger than all the elves. But the little elves said, ‘Don’t go! Don’t go! Stay with us for three days.’

So she stayed, and they looked after her very well. They gave her lovely food, and they played wonderful games together.

At the end of the three days, she got ready to go back home. The elves first gave her lots of gold, and then took her out of the mountain. When she got home, she wanted to begin working. But her employer was not in the house, and instead there was a man who she didn’t know.

‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ said the man.

‘I don’t understand. I work here!’

‘No you don’t. We already have a cleaner.’

‘But I was gone for just three days!’

But as she spoke, it became clear that she had not been gone just for three days. She had, in fact, been gone for seven years, and her old employer had died. In the elves’ mountain, time passed more slowly than here. Three days there was seven days here.

So the girl turned around and went back to the mountain, and lived with the elves for the rest of her life.

The Third Story

Once there was a mother. One night, the elves came into her house and took away her child, and put an elf in its place. The elf had a big head, and it did nothing but eat and drink. The mother went to her neighbour and asked her what to do.

‘You must take the elf into the kitchen and put it by the fire. Then, take two egg shells, and boil water in them.’

‘Boil water? Why?’

‘Just do as I say.’

So the woman took the elf into the kitchen and put it by the fire. She took two egg shells, filled them with water, and boiled them.

The elf started laughing. It laughed and laughed and laughed, and said, ‘How funny! I have never seen someone boil water in an egg shell!’

He laughed for several minutes, and then suddenly several elves jumped in through the window. They took the elf away and put the human child in its place.

THE END

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The Little Frog with the Big Mouth

Once there was a little frog. He lived in the forest next to a river. He was very small, about the size of a tennis ball. But his mouth was very big. When he smiled, his smile went from one ear to the other. Everyone called him the Little Frog with the Big Mouth.

Every day, the Little Frog with the Big Mouth ate flies. In the morning, he woke up at seven o’clock and had five flies for breakfast. At one o’clock in the afternoon he had fifteen flies for lunch. Then he slept a bit, and at seven o’clock in the evening he had ten flies for dinner. There were lots of flies in the forest, and the Little Frog with the Big Mouth was good at catching them.

But flies do not taste very nice, and when you eat the same thing day after day, you start to get a bit bored.

One day, the Little Frog with the Big Mouth woke up and thought, “I don’t feel like eating flies today. I have eaten flies every day of my life. Enough! I want to eat something different.”

But the Little Frog with the Big Mouth had never eaten anything else before. He didn’t know what other food there was. So he went through the forest, hop, hop, hop, to find other food.

The little frog came out of the forest and found a farm.

“It looks like there is lots of food here,” thought the frog. He thought the house must be food, because it was pretty and red. “But I can’t eat that. It’s too big!”

The Little Frog with the Big Mouth hopped around the house until he found another animal. The animal was small and white, and had a red thing on its head. Actually, to the frog it looked quite big, because he was only very little.

‘Who are you?’ said the frog.

The white animal looked down. ‘Buccaw! I am a chicken.’

‘And what do you eat?’ said the frog. ‘I eat flies. Well, I have eaten flies every day, and I don’t want to eat them anymore.’

‘I eat worms!’ said the chicken.

‘Worms? What are worms?’ said the little frog.

The chicken smiled and put her head in the ground. A moment later, she came back up with a big, fat worm in her mouth. She ate it up and said, ‘Mmm, delicious!’

‘Eww!’ said the frog. ‘Worms might be nice for you, but they are not nice for frogs like me.’

So the Little Frog with the Big Mouth hopped around the farm until he found another animal. This animal was very big. It was brown, and had long black hair, and it looked very strong.

‘Hello!’ said the little frog. ‘Who are you?’

‘Neeeeeeigh! I am a horse.’

‘And what do you eat?’ said the frog.

‘I eat hay,’ said the horse.

‘What’s hay?’

The horse went into a box and ate some long yellow things. They looked very dry.

‘Eww!’ said the frog. ‘Hay might be nice for you, but it is not nice for frogs like me.’

So the Little Frog with the Big Mouth hopped around the farm until he found another animal. This animal was pink and very, very fat.

‘Hello! Who are you?’ asked the frog.

‘Oink oink. I am a pig.’

‘What do you eat?’

‘I eat lots of things,’ said the pig. ‘But my favourite food is shoes.’

‘What are shoes?’ asked the frog.

The pig picked up a big heavy black thing in his mouth. It said Doc Marten’s on the side. The pig ate it up very quickly.

‘Eww!’ said the frog. ‘Shoes might be nice for you, but they are not nice for me.’

So the Little Frog with the Big Mouth hopped away from the farm.

‘I don’t think I will ever find nice food!’ the little frog said to himself.

He hopped into some long grass. There he did not find an animal, but an animal found him. It was very long and had no arms and legs, but it did have a long pink tongue. It didn’t look very nice.

‘Who are you?’ said the frog.

‘Ssssssss. I am a snake.’

‘What do you eat?’ said the frog.

‘I eat little frogs with big mouths,’ said the snake.

‘Oh!’ said the little frog. He made his mouth very small, and said, ‘I’m a little frog with a little mouth. There are no little frogs with big mouths here. Bye!’

And the frog hopped home as fast as he could.

“You know what,” thought the frog, “maybe flies are not that bad.”

So he ate flies for dinner, and he continued to eat flies for the rest of his life, and never again did he complain about his food.

THE END

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Three Drops of Blood Once upon a time, there lived a husband and wife by the sea. They loved each other very much, and they wanted to stay together forever. The husband was a fisherman. Every day, he would go out and catch fish. Then he would sell the fishes to buy food in the market. Their lives were poor and hard, but they were truly happy. But one day, the wife got sick. The husband was so worried that he spent all of his money to ask for the help of the best doctor in the village. ‘Doctor, there must be a cure!’ ‘Of course! There is a cure for everything.’ The doctor gave her all kinds of strange plants and drinks, but she only got more sick. ‘This didn’t work, that didn’t work… but I can try something else. I just need more time… and more money.’ In the end, the husband sold all of his things to pay for the doctor. But still, his wife couldn’t get over her sickness, and finally she died. The man cried day in and day out. He had no one in the world to love anymore. After she died, he put her body on a boat and sent it out onto the sea, as the fishermen of the village did. ‘Sleep well, my love. I will see you again in Heaven…’ Meanwhile, Buddha was sat high above, in Heaven. At that moment, he looked down and saw the man crying by the sea, and the boat with his dead wife on it. Buddha saw that the man loved her greatly, and felt very sad. ‘What can I do to help him?’ he said. So he became an old man, and went down to the sea. He went up to the man, and said, ‘My dear man, I see that you are crying. What makes you so unhappy?’ ‘Leave me alone! Go away!’ he cried. Then he stopped crying for a moment, and looked at the man. ‘I’m sorry… Please don’t go. I’m all alone now, and nobody will listen to me.’ ‘I will,’ said Buddha. The man sighed. ‘My wife died of an sickness. She is the one on that boat.’ ‘I have travelled to many places,’ said Buddha. ‘I know a cure that could save her.’ ‘No more cures!’ screamed the man. ‘That doctor gave me cure after cure, but none of them did anything.’ The old man took his arm and looked him in the eyes. ‘This one will work. But you must make a sacrifice.’ The husband answered at once, ‘I have nothing left to lose.’ ‘Good. Go out to that boat. Cut your finger, and put three drops of blood on your wife’s mouth. She will come back to life. However, remember this: your wife will have a debt to pay. If you ever leave her, or she leaves you, she must give three drops of blood to you. Then the debt will be paid.’ ‘I understand.’ The husband took a stone and jumped into the sea. He swam through the water to the boat, and climbed on. Then he cut his finger with the stone, and let the blood drop onto his wife’s mouth. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, her hands moved. ‘My love!’ She opened her eyes and laughed. ‘Hello, dear.’ For a while, they just kissed and hugged, and said nothing. Then the man turned around, because he wanted to thank the old man, but he was gone. The husband and wife returned to their home. Their lives were still poor and hard, but the man was just as happy as before. But something was different. As the months passed, the man’s wife became prettier and prettier. She was bright with beauty, and every fisherman in the village looked at her. In particular, one fisherman heard the strange story about how she died and became interested. He was the richest fisherman in the village, and he wanted to marry her. He waited and, one day, the husband went travelling. Then the fisherman came to the house to visit the wife. She was amazingly beautiful. He said sweetly, ‘You are such a beautiful woman. Why do you live such a poor and hard life here? I am rich. I could look after you and give you whatever you want. Won’t leave this man? Won’t you marry me?’ The woman thought for a while and answered, ‘You are right. I have lived a very hard life, and then I died. Now I live again, and things are harder than before. I will be your wife. But first, I must pay my debt, and give my husband three drops of blood.’

A week passed, and the husband returned home. His wife was quieter than before, but she did not say why. One night, they were walking on the beach. She fell on a rock, and a ring fell out of her pocket. She quickly picked it up and put it away.

‘Where is that ring from?’ he said. They had never had money for rings.

‘Somebody gave it to me.’

‘Who?’

‘I… I wanted to wait—’

‘What is going on?!’ the man cried.

‘I loved you,’ said the woman, ‘but now I do not. I am sorry. You looked after me well, but we are so poor. I want a better life! Let us end this now.’ She picked up a stone, and cut open her finger. ‘Take my blood. I will pay my debt.’

She lifted her finger to his mouth, but the man moved away. ‘I won’t!’

A strong wind blew, and three drops of blood flew from her finger and went into the sea. Suddenly, she was not there anymore. She had disappeared.

The man looked all around him, and cried out, ‘Hello?’ But his wife was gone forever. All he could see was something small and black, flying over the sea. It was some kind of insect.

Weeks passed, and the other villagers spoke of the insect. It made a horrible buzzing sound, and it liked to bite people, and drink their blood. People called it the “mosquito”. Just as the mosquito flew around the village, so did the story of the two fishermen and the woman between.

‘It is a lesson,’ said the people of the village. ‘You must stay with your man.’

The poor fisherman lived without his wife, sad and alone. The mosquito never visited his home, and the debt was never paid.

THE END

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The Three Languages

Once there was an old man who lived in Switzerland. He was very rich, but his wife had died young. They only had one son, and he was very stupid. His name was Eric. One day, the father said to Eric, ‘Listen, my son. You are not the cleverest in the world. I try to teach you many things, but I can get nothing into your head. It is time for you to leave home. I will send you to a famous teacher, and he will teach you until you are clever. Then we will see what we can do with you.’

So Eric was sent to a strange town, and lived there for a year. His teacher was kind, and tried to teach him mathematics, geography, history and English, but Eric did not remember any of it. However, there were many dogs in the town, and every day after class he went and played with them.

After the year, he went home again, and his father asked, ‘Eric, what have you learned?’

‘Father, I have learned the language of the dogs. When they bark, I understand what they say.’

‘My goodness!’ said the father. ‘Is that all you have learned? I must send you away again, to a better teacher.’

This time, he was sent to a small village on the top of a mountain. There were very few people, and his teacher was very unkind. Every time Eric made a mistake he hit him, but it did not matter, because not a single thing stayed in Eric’s head. Still, every day he walked around the mountains, and many birds flew around him, and he listened carefully to their songs.

When he returned home, his father asked, ‘Eric, what have you learned?’

‘Father, I have learned the language of the birds. When they sing, I understand what they say.’

‘My goodness!’ said the father. ‘The second time has been no better than the first. I will send you away one more time, but if you learn nothing, then I will stop being your father. You will have to go out and live by yourself.’

This time, Eric was sent to a very big school. He lived, ate and slept in the school, with all the other students, and they could never go outside. Every day, they studied and studied, and all the students learned well, except for Eric. One day, the teachers were so mad at him that they threw him outside. Eric ran into the forest, and found a family of frogs. He stopped and listened to them croak, and he lived in the forest for the rest of the year.

When he came home, his father asked, ‘Eric, what have you learned?’

‘Dear Father, I have learned the language of the frogs. When they croak, I understand what they say.’

‘Enough!’ shouted his father. ‘You are not my son!’ He called some men in, and said, ‘This man is no longer my son. Send him into the forest and kill him.’

They took Eric out, but they could not kill him. They knew him well, and he was a nice boy, even though he was very stupid. So they cut the eyes and tongue out of a pig and took them to the old man. They said that they were Eric’s eyes and tongue.

And so Eric left home and travelled on his own. First, he came to a castle, and spoke to the King.

‘Please, sir, may I stay the night here? I have no home.’

‘You can sleep in the old tower,’ the King said. The tower was different from the rest of the castle. It was breaking apart, and it looked very cold and wet. ‘But you must know. In that tower live many dogs. Every night they bark endlessly, so you will surely not be able to sleep. And sometimes they even eat men. I am sorry, but this is the only room I have for you.’

‘That’s OK!’ said Eric. ‘Can I have some food for the dogs?’

‘Of course,’ said the King. He looked very surprised, but he gave Eric some dog food, and the boy went into the tower.

When he came in, the dogs did not bark or attack him, and were even very friendly. He threw the food to them and they ate it, and at night he slept with them so that he was nice and warm.

The next day, he went back to the King. The King and all his men were very surprised. They thought the boy would be dead.

‘I had a nice talk with the dogs,’ said Eric. ‘They told me why they live in the tower, and why they bark so much and attack men.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said the King. ‘How can you talk to dogs?’

‘I speak their language,’ Eric said. ‘Anyway, they told me that there is a great treasure at the bottom of the tower. They look after it, and they will bark and attack people until the treasure is taken away.’

‘We must go at once!’ said the King.

‘Wait! Only I can take the treasure. The dogs will attack everyone else.’

‘Oh,’ said the King. ‘Of course.’

‘But I will bring it here, to say thank you. You let me sleep in your castle when you could have thrown me outside.’

‘Brilliant!’ said the King. ‘Bring me the treasure and I will give you half of it.’

So Eric went and got the treasure, and the King was very happy. The dogs went away from the tower, and Eric took his treasure and went travelling again.

This time, he went to Rome. On the way, he went through a forest. Many frogs sat there croaking. He listened to them croaking, and understood their message.

“Oh no!” thought Eric. “That is a strange message indeed. I hope it is not true.”

He went on to Rome. When he got there, everyone was crying in the streets.

‘What is going on?’ asked Eric.

‘The Pope has died!’ cried a man. ‘And there is nobody to replace him. We need a new Pope!’

Eric went into the Vatican, where they were discussing the problem.

‘We need help from God,’ said a man. ‘Please, give us a sign, God!’

Just then, two snow-white doves flew through the window and went down to Eric. They sat on his shoulders. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, not saying a word.

‘Uh, hello,’ said Eric.

‘This man! This man will be our new Pope!’

‘I don’t know about that…’ said Eric. Usually, everyone told him he was stupid, but now they thought he should be Pope?

One of the doves went to his ear and whispered, ‘Coo, coo. You must be Pope. You are the right man. God has chosen you.’

‘I don’t believe it,’ Eric whispered back.

The other dove then spoke, saying, ‘Coo, coo. God sent us. You are the right man.’

‘Oh, alright then,’ said Eric.

Everyone in the Vatican started cheering, and they began the ceremony to make Eric into the Pope.

The frogs had been right. The frogs in the forest had said that a man called Eric was going to be Pope. That was why Eric was so worried when he heard the frogs. He could not believe their message.

But it was true. Eric was the new Pope. And after the ceremony, they sang hymns.

‘Just one problem,’ Eric said to the doves. ‘I don’t know the words to these hymns!’

‘Don’t worry,’ whispered the doves. ‘We will tell you the words.’

So the doves whispered the words into Eric’s ears, and he sang his first hymns as Pope.

THE END

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Old Sultan

Once there was a farmer, who had a dog called Sultan. Sultan was a great dog, but now he was old. Before, he had guarded the house, but now he had lost all his teeth, so he could not eat easily. He could not bite food, or bite people. None of the other animals were afraid of him anymore.

One day, the farmer was talking to his wife, and said, ‘Tomorrow I will kill Old Sultan. He is no longer useful.’

His wife felt sorry for the animal, and said, ‘He has been in our house for so long. He has guarded us so well. Can we not let him live?’

‘What?!’ said the man. ‘Don’t be silly. He doesn’t have a single tooth in his mouth. No animal or man is afraid of him. He has no use for us. Yes, he has guarded us well, but we gave him food and a home.’

But Old Sultan was lying outside in the sun, and he had heard everything.

“I don’t want to die tomorrow!” he thought.

Luckily, Sultan had a good friend, the wolf, so he went into the forest that night to see him. He told the wolf what the farmer had said.

‘Don’t worry, Old Sultan,’ said the wolf. ‘I will help you. I have an idea. Tomorrow, early in the morning, the farmer will go to work with his wife. Usually, they take their child with them, and the boy lies in the sun. Lie beside the boy, as if you are guarding him. Then I will run out of the forest and take the child away. You will run after me, and take the child back. I will give it to you, and you will take it back to the parents. They will think that you saved the child, and they will be so happy that they won’t kill you. In fact, they will be so happy that they will be very nice to you!’

The dog liked the plan, so they did it just as the wolf said. The father shouted when he saw the wolf running away with the child, but when Old Sultan brought it back, he was so happy. He said to the dog, ‘I can’t hurt you now. You can eat my food as long as you live.’ He turned to his wife and said, ‘Go home and make Old Sultan some soup, and put some bread it in, so that he can eat it without teeth. And he can sleep in my bed if he wants!’

From then on, Old Sultan lived a very comfortable life. But a few weeks later, the wolf visited him.

‘I am so happy to see you like this,’ said the wolf. ‘So I am sure you want to help me as well. Your farmer has quite a few fat sheep, and they look very nice. I think I will take one away tonight. You will let me, won’t you?’

‘No,’ said the dog. ‘I must guard the sheep for the farmer. I cannot help you.’

The wolf thought, “Well, Old Sultan is a good friend of mine. After all, I helped him, and now he lives like a king. One sheep is not much…”

So the wolf came in the night and took away the sheep. But Old Sultan had told the farmer of the wolf’s plan, and the man caught the wolf and hit him many times. The wolf had to run away, but he said to the dog, ‘Just wait. You will pay for this!’

The next morning the wolf sent a pig to talk to the dog.

‘You, Old Suntan.’

‘My name is Old Sultan,’ the dog said, like a king.

‘Yeah, yeah. Come to the forest. The wolf wants to talk to you.’

Now Old Sultan was very afraid. He knew that the wolf and the pig wanted to fight, but he was not strong. No strong animal would help him. All he could find was a cat with three legs. As they went into the forest, the cat limped along.

‘Oh, it hurts! It hurts!’ said the cat. Her tail was high and straight in the air, because it hurt so much.

The wolf and the pig were waiting for them. But when they saw the dog and the cat, they thought that the cat’s tail was a sword. And when they saw the cat limping on three legs, they thought it was picking up a stone to throw at them.

‘I don’t know,’ said the wolf. ‘That cat looks strong. She has a sword, and she’s picking up a stone! Let’s hide.’

So the pig hid in the grass and the wolf hid in a tree.

The dog and the cat arrived, but there was nobody there. The pig, however, had not hidden himself very well. His ear could be seen in the grass. The cat looked around, and saw the pig’s ear. She thought it was a mouse, so she jumped on it and bit it.

‘Ow!’ cried the pig, and ran away, saying, ‘The wolf is up in the tree!’

The dog and the cat looked up and saw the wolf.

‘Well, well, well,’ said the dog. ‘The big bad wolf is hiding in a tree.’

The wolf jumped down, very embarrassed. ‘You showed me. I thought you were so strong, and I was all afraid. Can we be friends?’

‘Of course,’ said the dog.

‘You mean I can’t fight?’ said the cat. ‘I wanted to fight!’

THE END

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The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage Once there was a mouse, a bird and a sausage. They were friends. They lived together in a house. Each one had a job. The mouse’s job was to collect water from the river, make the fire and lay the table. The bird’s job was to go to the forest and collect wood for the fire. The sausage’s job was to cook. Every day, each did their job, and they ate dinner together. They were all good at their jobs, and they were very happy. One day, the bird flew to the forest to collect wood. She was picking up wood when she heard another bird. ‘Hello! What are you doing there?’ said the other bird. ‘I’m collecting wood.’ ‘You are collecting wood to make a nest? But that wood is so big! How big is your nest?’ ‘No, I’m not making a nest. I don’t need a nest. I live in a house.’ The other bird was very surprised. ‘You live in a house? Birds don’t live in houses.’ ‘Well I do. I live with a mouse and a sausage.’ ‘A mouse and a sausage! How strange!’ The bird was a bit angry now. She wanted to finish collecting wood and go home. ‘It’s not strange at all,’ she said. ‘I collect wood from the forest. The mouse collects water from the river, makes the fire and lays the table.’ ‘And what does she do after that? That doesn’t take very long.’ ‘Well, she goes to bed and sleeps.’ ‘I see. And what does the sausage do?’ ‘The sausage cooks the food. He waits by the pot and stirs it. When it is ready, he jumps inside and swims around.’ ‘How strange! Why does he do that?’ ‘To make it salty! It tastes much better that way.’ ‘And you collect wood for the fire? How long does it take?’ ‘Well, I can’t take all the wood at once. It’s quite heavy, you know. So I go to the forest, collect some wood, and then fly home. I make about three trips a day.’ ‘Three trips! You work very hard, you know. The mouse goes to bed and the sausage just stands by the pot and waits. You work harder than both of them.’ The bird felt strange. She had never thought about that. But it was true. She started collecting wood in the morning and finished in the evening.

The mouse and the sausage didn’t work that long. That night, the mouse, the bird and the sausage ate dinner. Then the bird said, ‘I’ve had enough! I can’t do my job anymore.’ ‘What is wrong?’ said the mouse. ‘Are you sick?’ ‘No!’ said the bird. ‘I’m tired. I work from morning until night. I work much harder than you two.’ The mouse and the sausage looked at each other. They were worried. The bird had never talked like this before. ‘You do your job so well,’ said the sausage. ‘You always bring lots of wood, and it always burns well.’ ‘Yes, yes!’ said the mouse. ‘We need the wood to cook.’ ‘Well I don’t want to collect it anymore. Tomorrow, we’re going to change jobs. I will collect the water, make the fire and lay the table. You, Mouse, will cook. And you, Sausage, will collect the wood.’ Now the mouse and the sausage were very worried. They had never done those jobs before. But the bird was very angry, so they said yes. The next morning, the sausage went into the forest to collect wood, the bird went to the river to collect water, and the mouse stood by the pot and waited. And waited. And waited… ‘Where is that sausage?’ she said. The bird came home. ‘Oh, this water is so heavy! Is Sausage back?’ ‘No,’ said the mouse. ‘It has been a long time.’ The bird was tired. The water really was very heavy. But she was worried about the sausage. ‘I will go and find him.’ The bird flew to the forest. She looked for a long time, but she could not find the sausage. Finally, she saw a dog. ‘Oh, dog!’ she said. ‘I’m looking for a sausage. Have you seen one?’ ‘No,’ said the dog, ‘but I just ate a sausage. It tasted very good.’ ‘Oh no!’ cried the bird. ‘You ate my friend!’ ‘Oh, well,’ said the dog. ‘You had a very tasty friend.’ The bird started crying, so the dog went away. After the bird finished crying, she picked up some wood and went home. While the bird was in the forest, the mouse started cooking. There was a bit of wood from yesterday, so she could start. She made the fire, waited and stirred the pot. Thirty minutes later, it was very hot. ‘Now I have to make it nice and salty,’ she said. The mouse jumped inside the pot. Oh, it was hot! She started swimming, but it hurt so much. ‘I can’t do this!’ she said. She put her hand out, because she wanted to climb out. But the pot was wet and slippery, and she could not climb out. ‘Help, help!’ the mouse cried. But nobody came. An hour later, the bird came back with the wood. ‘Mouse, it’s terrible! Sausage is dead!’ The bird went through the house, but she could not find the mouse. ‘Mouse, where are you?’ She put the wood on the floor, next to the pot, and looked for the mouse. The fire under the pot was still burning. ‘Mouse, mouse! Oh, this is the worst day ever.’ Suddenly, the wood next to the pot caught fire. The fire grew, and the table caught fire as well. ‘Oh no!’ said the bird. She tried to run outside, but the house was on fire now, and she could not get out. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ cried the bird. ‘I will collect wood from the forest! I will never complain again!’ But it was too late. The house burned down, and the bird burned with it. That was the end of the mouse, the bird and the sausage. THE END

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"The Value of Open Source Intelligence in a Pandemic Environment "

The extreme and necessary measures taken to restrict the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) have impacted the day-to-day lives of everyone around the globe.  From schools and jobs to sports and entertainment such as restaurants, bars and movie theaters – all been closed or impacted.  The federal government has not been spared as the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has directed agencies to utilize telework to the maximum extent possible.

Many Federal agencies are able to adapt to this new paradigm and can provide provisions for their employees to access the necessary government networks from home using government furnished laptops and sensible security protocols.  Not to say there won’t be hiccups in this process.  The scale and speed of this shift to telework are unprecedented, and there will certainly be challenges as government workers and contractors shift to this new reality. What is certain is that the nature of work has changed for the foreseeable future.

What has not changed is our adversaries attempts to leverage and exploit this vulnerable situation for their own gain.  Recently, a cyber-attack on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by a presumed state actor attempted to overload the Department’s cyberinfrastructure.  As the lead agency in the pandemic response, HHS is the trusted source for the latest pandemic information.  When trust in the source is compromised or threatened, the public loses confidence and the results can be confusion at best, panic at worst.

The need for keeping our government networks secure is vital for agencies to accomplish their missions.

While many government workers and contractors are adjusting to remote work, there are several groups of workers that cannot.  These include our first responders, military members, medical staff and other critical roles that are essential to the day-to-day security of our nation.

Another large group that must continue onsite work are those in the intelligence community.  The critical work they carry out every day, often unseen and unheralded, must continue regardless of pandemics, natural disasters, or other events.  This work goes on in secure facilities and on secure networks that keep the information safe and to prevent such events as those faced by HHS.  As noted by Thomas Muir, the Pentagon’s acting director of administration, and director of Washington Headquarters Services, “You will not have the capacity, obviously, to log on to a classified system from your home, you will be required to perform those duties at the workplace.”

However, with these challenges comes an opportunity for our IC leaders.  How much of the work conducted in our nation’s most secure facilities must be classified?  Gen Hyten, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was addressing this question even before the pandemic by saying, "In many cases in the department, we're just so overclassified it's ridiculous, just unbelievably ridiculous."

Case in point, at the agency I support, I needed a parking pass for the visitor's parking lot.  This would allow me to park my vehicle a little closer to the building until my permanent parking pass became available.  I searched the unclassified or "low side" systems on the building's operations site but could not find an option to request or print a pass.  I asked a colleague if they could point me in the right direction, and she pointed me to the classified or "high side" system.  I must have had a perplexed look on my face because she just rolled her eyes and shrugged.  Keep in mind, this pass would not allow me access into the building, I would still need to pass multiple other security measures before I could get to my desk.

The path of least resistance in the name of security has caused simple items to become overly secured.  The still secure networks of the unclassified systems provide adequate security for mundane administrative tasks such as parking passes and numerous other similar items.  While this is a small example and only represents a minor inconvenience to me, it is indicative of a larger problem across the IC to default to classifying all information out of routine, on the side of extreme caution, or in some cases, simply convenience.  Of course, the challenges with over-classification are not new and have been documented in the past.  

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

With the explosion of publicly available information, there is more data available today than ever before and growing at an exponential rate.  Leaders and organizations are no longer looking for needles in haystacks, they are looking for specific needles in mountains of other needles.  Sifting through this data requires the assistance of computers through machine learning and artificial intelligence to find patterns and insights that were previously only available in the most classified environments. This is not your father’s open-source intelligence or OSINT. The days of the Early Bird emails and newspaper clippings are long gone.  The data available includes everything from shipping to industry financials to overhead imagery.  All of this is available to commercial companies that are able to pay subscriptions to data providers.  Hedge funds, insurance companies, and other industries that are assessing risk use this data on a daily basis to make financial decisions.  Our adversaries have much of the same or similar data available to them and are using it to make informed decisions about us. Not only is this information readily available, but it is also accessible from outside secured classified environments.  Work in the open-source community continues unabated as long as there is a reliable internet connection with sensible security precautions enabled and information from data providers.   Many long-time IC members will immediately scoff at the use of OSINT and say that it does not meet the rigor of the classified environment.  That may have been true years ago – however, with the speed of social media and availability of technology, events that used to take weeks to assess are now unfolding in the public eye instantaneously, and in some cases, real-time.  One only has to look at the Iranian shootdown of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 as a good example.  Iran denied the aircraft was shot down and challenged Western governments to provide proof.  Within just a few days, a Twitter user shared a video of what was clearly a missile hitting the plane, and the Iranian government quickly backpedaled and admitted they had made a mistake. This type of definitive proof was not something that was widely available even 10 years ago, yet is nearly ubiquitous today.  There must be a change in culture in the IC as new methods are adopted to supplement traditional methods and sources.  In his article "Open Sources for the Information Age," James Davitch succinctly captured these challenges, “As breaking the current paradigm is difficult, but essential, if the IC is to assume a more proactive posture. Barriers to this goal include organizational inertia, the fear of untested alternative methods, and the satisfaction of answering simpler questions, no matter how illusory their utility.” In addition to the cultural challenges, there are logistical and financial considerations that must be addressed.  A recent RAND study titled “Moving to the Unclassified, How the Intelligence Community Can Work from Unclassified Facilities” addresses many of the pros and cons of the tactical considerations and how leaders might address them.  Perhaps the most significant advantages are the intangibles that the RAND authors noted, “The advantages of remote-work programs include greater access to outside expertise, continuity of operations, and increased work-life offerings for recruitment and retention.” While OSINT is not the panacea for all intelligence challenges, it is a worthwhile tool for a leader to exploit this INT to its fullest potential.  As we adapt to the new realities of telework and ways of operating, it is a good time for our IC leaders to advocate for a new way to operate outside of the secure environment.

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The White Snake Once there lived a king. He was famous because he was very clever. He knew everything that happened in his country. Nobody knew how he knew everything. It was like the secrets came to him through the air.

However, the King did one very strange thing. Every night after dinner, a servant brought him one more dish. It was covered, however, and even the servant did not know what was in it. Nobody knew, because the King only took off the cover when he was alone. One day, the servant wanted to know very badly what was under the dish. So after he took the dish away, he went to his room with it. He shut the door and lifted the cover. On the dish there was a white snake, cooked carefully. “How strange!” he thought. “Why does the King want to eat snake? It is food for poor people.” But he knew there must be a reason, so he ate the snake. After eating it, he heard a strange noise coming from outside. He opened the window, and saw some birds on a tree. They were talking to each other, and he could understand their language. They were talking about what they had seen in the woods. ‘Hello, little birds,’ he said. The birds turned to him and said, ‘What do you want?’ He could speak to animals! The snake was magical. So the servant kept eating the snake in secret. He was never found, but it was hard to keep his secret from everybody else. He often heard animals talking, and thought they were people. One day, the Queen lost a beautiful golden ring, and got very angry. She said that the servant must have stolen it, ‘because he can go anywhere and he has a secretive look on his face.’ The King brought the servant before him. ‘It is a difficult situation,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you stole the ring, but my wife does, and she always has very strong beliefs. I will give you a chance. If you can find the ring and the person who stole it before tomorrow, I will save you.’ ‘But I didn’t do it!’ ‘I’m sorry,’ said the King. The servant walked around the castle, worrying about his problem. How could he find the ring and the person who stole it? He sat down by the river, where some ducks were playing, and started to cry. ‘Where have you been all day?’ said one of the ducks. ‘Oh, I had a very interesting morning,’ the other said. ‘But I ate something strange. I was so hungry, that I just ate without thinking, and there was a golden ring there, in the food! I ate it right up. My stomach hurts so much now.’ The servant jumped up and said, ‘Thank you!’ ‘Sorry?’ said the duck, but the man had already picked her up and was walking away. ‘Where are you taking me?’ said the duck. ‘Don’t worry,’ said the servant. He brought the duck to the kitchen and said to the cook, ‘Here! This is a nice, fat duck, and I think the queen will enjoy her very much.’ ‘Hey!’ said the duck. ‘You said, “Don’t worry”!’ But the servant did not listen to the duck. The cook cooked the duck, and the Queen had it for her supper, and inside it she found her beautiful golden ring. ‘You see,’ said the servant, ‘the duck ate it!’ The Queen was very happy that she had her ring back, and she thought the servant was very clever for giving it back in that way. ‘I want to say thank you.’ she said. ‘What can I give you?’ The servant thought for a while, and then asked for a horse and some money for travelling. He had always wanted to travel around the world. So the Queen gave him these, and he headed off on his journey. One day he rode past a river. Three fish were caught in the grass, and they were dying. ‘Oh, we are going to die!’ said the fish. ‘Oh, it hurts so much!’ The servant had a kind heart, so he got off his horse and put the fish back into the water. They jumped and laughed and said, ‘Thank you so much! We will remember this. If you do good to people, people will do good to you!’ The servant rode on, and after a while he heard a small sound at his feet. He listened, and saw that it was an ant. ‘Oh, these travellers with their big animals! That stupid horse has been walking all over us, and has killed many ants!’ ‘I’m sorry!’ said the man. ‘I didn’t see you. I will go down a different road, so that I don’t hurt you.’ The ant replied, ‘You are the first human to listen to us! We will remember this. If you do good to people, people will do good to you!’ Next, the servant rode into a wood, and here he saw two old ravens. They were standing in a tree, and throwing their babies onto the ground. ‘Get out, you weak little things! We can’t keep giving you food. You must find your own food now.’ But the poor young ravens lay on the ground and cried, ‘Oh, we are too weak! We cannot fly, so we cannot find our own food! What can we do?’ So the good young man got off his horse and killed it with his sword. He gave the horse meat to the birds, and they happily ate it up. ‘We will remember this. If you do good to people, people will do good to you!’ The traveller continued on foot, and after walking a long way, he came to a city. There, in a busy street, a man rode on a horse and said, ‘The King’s daughter wants a husband. If you want to marry her, you must complete an impossible challenge. If you do not succeed, you will die!’ Many men had already tried to complete the challenge, and died. Still, when the man saw the King’s daughter he thought she was so beautiful that he forgot the danger. He went to the King and asked to marry his daughter. So the King took him out to the sea, and threw a golden ring into the water. ‘Go and collect the ring. If you come up without it, we will throw you in again. You can try as many times as you like, but you cannot leave the water until you find the ring.’ ‘He can’t do it!’ said the people of the city. ‘No-one can! It’s impossible!’ They looked so sad, as if he had already died. The man stood by the water and thought about what to do. Suddenly, three fishes came swimming towards him. They were the fishes whose lives he had saved. One of them held the ring in its mouth, and put it by the man’s feet. He laughed and picked it up. ‘Here you go!’ he said, giving the ring to the King. The King could not believe it. The princess couldn’t believe it, either. She did not think this man was good enough to marry her, so she gave him another challenge. They took him to a garden, where ten bags of seeds had been thrown onto the grass. ‘You must pick up all these seeds before tomorrow morning. If even a single seed is there in the morning, you will die.’ The man sat down in the garden and thought about what to do, but he could not think of a way. It was impossible! He was very tired from his journey, so he lay down and fell asleep on the grass. When he woke up, he saw that all ten bags were full up, and there were no seeds on the grass. In the night, the ants had come and carefully collected all the seeds. The King’s daughter came into the garden, and couldn’t believe what she saw. But she was still not sure of him, and said, ‘Although you have completed both these challenges, I have one more. Bring me a golden apple from the Tree of Life.’ ‘Impossible!’ said the man. The Tree of Life was magical, and nobody knew where it was. Still, he left the city and went on a journey. He looked for it for three years, and he went through three countries. One evening, he came to a forest and lay down under a tree to sleep. Then he heard a sound in the tree, and a golden apple fell down into his hand. Then three ravens flew down and sat before him. ‘We are the three ravens who you saved before. When we grew up, we heard about your impossible challenges. So we flew over the sea to the end of the world, where the Tree of Life is, and we brought you the apple.’ The young man was very happy, and went back to the city. He gave the Golden Apple to the King’s beautiful daughter, and this time she said, ‘Amazing! You are a very special man. Let us get married.’ They cut the Apple of Life in two and ate it together, and they both felt a great love for each other. They lived together happily for many, many years. THE END