“Do not measure your life by your goals but what you are actually doing to achieve them.”
– Peter Drucker

“The ultimate goal of life is death — the experience of life is where the value is, not the results we achieve.”
– Anonymous

When people refer to productiveness, they usually refer to “busy-ness.” Positive productivity, on the other hand, is the result of doing what’s important and will hinge greatly on how well you adhere to this process of alignment. Alignment can also help you to discover not only what you need to do but also provide you with shortcuts as well.

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“Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes.”
– Kenneth Hildebrand

While statistics prove that 90% of heart attacks happen on Monday mornings, it goes to show that motivation doesn’t come from work. In reality, most people find themselves working in jobs they hate.

Some wake up in the morning feeling lethargic and hit the snooze button one too many times. Some work only “for the weekend” and take more time to prepare their vacations than they do their own lives. And some who become “workaholics” end up working themselves either out of a job or into a grave. In short, getting motivated by one’s work is impossible. In fact, getting motivated by anything outside of oneself is impossible.

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“Perfect self-expression will never be labor; but of such absorbing interest that it will seem almost like play.”
– Florence Scovel Shinn

In Succeeding Through Inner Strength, Dr. Nathaniel Branden says that people unconsciously lower their self-esteem through their goals.

They usually start by writing down some nebulous wish and may start working on it with the best of intentions. They may even know exactly what they want and work really hard in order to get it. However and more often than not, they quit and do so sometimes just as fast as they have written it down.

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“You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”
– Zig Ziglar

Again, the inner you is your conscience while your connection to it is your consciousness. While you can act in accordance with or in opposition to your conscience, you can’t betray your conscience for it is the wisdom of the highest that’s within. Therefore, if your goals ignore your conscience, they will unconsciously bring unnecessary turmoil in your life. But if your goals follow your conscience, you are then consciously purposeful.

If you’re like most people, you have certain needs and aspirations at this moment. You probably want to reach higher goals, get promoted, make more money, spend more time with your family, find a better job, lose 10 pounds or so, take that vacation in the Caribbean, start a business, etc. In other words, you want to improve your quality of life right now and not at some point in the future.

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“The secret of success is constancy of purpose.”
–Anonymous

I agree that, if one wants to achieve more, the most important tool for doing so in today’s world is time management. The challenge in dealing with an incessantly increasing demand on this scarcer commodity that we call time is prevalent in our society. People are busier than ever before and seem to never have enough time to do what they really want.

However, if you study truly successful men and women, you will recognize that they always seem to have lots of time. They live in the moment, are happy and love what they do, and are intrinsically very productive. Moreover, they have intense focused concentration on the task at hand and seem to manage their time almost instinctively. And they do so with passion, zest and fervor.

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Many copywriters, both new and experienced, struggle with how much to charge their clients. In fact, it is a problem that many in the service industry face.

The dilemma?

Charge too little and you risk losing credibility in the eyes of your customers and potential clients. Additionally, the quality of your work, even if it is worth 100 times what they paid for it, will be seen as having diminished value.

Worst of all, when you charge too little, you may begin to resent the project, the client, or even your chosen profession.

In short, charging too little doesn’t do anyone any good, least of all you.

On the other hand, if you charge too much you run the risk of losing a potential client. You may lose out on opportunities to work with clients who could open doors and provide you and your business with an abundance of work.

The solution?

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Last Sunday, a bunch of copywriters shot the breeze on the Nuts & Blogbolts talk radio show. At the end, Mike Sansone asked if we would individually respond on our blogs to this question:

"Writing for the visitor is more important than writing for the search engines. Can both requirements be met without sacrificing quality?"

Ryan Healy posted his answer on the subject. I agree with him, but only in part. This is not because I disagree with anything Ryan said, because he makes some great points. But because I think there are ways around it.

So my answer is both "yes" and "no." Here's why…

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