We were at the local coffee house open mic last night. One of the performers looked into the crowd and said, “Happy New You. I won’t say happy New Year because if you don’t change you, it’s going to be the same as last year, isn’t it?”
Light bulb moment.
We’re so busy looking at this clean slate of a year and wondering just how many significant and insignificant promises to ourselves we can cram into it that we fail to realize that without some actual movement from us, we’re not getting any closer to any goal. So if the goals you develop – the business plans and the diet plans and the plans to stop this bad habit and start that good one – are sound yet they never make it to fruition, the problem, my friend, is your approach.
When I first started freelancing, I had this mentality that every job was an alignment of my talents and friendship with a client and friend. Wrong. The minute you enter friendship into the equation, you lose your objectivity. You can’t add late fees to your friend’s invoice! You can’t push back on a friend and tell him or her that the idea is weak! And you can’t conduct business as it should be conducted – professionally. I had to stop being a friend and start being a business owner.
Maybe your problem is you doubt your worth. That’s a tougher one to overcome, but believe me, the moment you realize this is a job like any other job and you have something these clients need, it becomes easier to charge what you’re worth and push doubt aside. Nevertheless, there will be clients who criticize your work. And they may be right. Your job is to look at that criticism and determine where it’s coming from. Just don’t take it personally. This is not a personal endeavor – it’s business. If you can’t train yourself to think as a business owner, hire a coach (Lisa’s amazing) or take a business course so that you can start seeing this as something other than your life’s passion.
Or maybe the problem is you just don’t know how to market. That’s much easier to solve, for I’ve blathered on endlessly about how to do so effectively(check out the Marketing Series and Marketing tags on this blog), as have many of the folks whose links appear to the left of this blog (Anne Wayman in particular has devoted years of free time putting up articles on her site that answer nearly every question you could possibly have). There are book resources aplenty, and even a few webcasts if you search. I won’t do the searching for you. Some things you have to do for yourself. It makes the successes you’ll reap that much more sweet.
So what are your plans for reinventing you this year? In what areas do you need to change your mindset?
My plan is to give my writing goals a realistic schedule and stick to it.
Happy New Year!
I have a new PR client who has expressed concern about how much I’m charging for my services. Usually this would make me feel defensive, but I’ve been working on staying conscious of the fact that, as you put it, I have something the client needs, especially in this business environment. Instead of getting defensive, I’m trying to help them understand what I can do for them, and why it’s worth it.
Damn right, Kirk! You of all people have loads of experience – that kind of training and skill level isn’t cheap.
Got my writing goals set out publicly for a bloggy writer’s challenge, so I’m all set. As for the personal stuff, don’t wanna take up your entire comments section. 🙂
I LOVE that quote!
Hahaha… Happy new year is just a change of date / numbers.
Lori, I tried to follow your advice to “check out the Marketing Series and Marketing tags on this blog”, but I can’t find any such tags, maybe I just don’t know how to look. I find two tags that include the word “marketing,” but I don’t think they are what you mean.
I’d suggest using Blogger’s standard “Labels” gadget, it works like a charm and updates automatically. You may occasionally want to go through and prune some “one-off” tags that seemed to make sense when you created them.
Sorry, Kirk. I did mean labels. If you search those labels, you should find them.
Aw go on, Angie. Give us the list. :))
True enough, Willie. It’s just one more day. In fact, every day is a fresh start. We just don’t realize it.
Carrie, I’m glad you liked it. :))
First, thanks for your comment on my blog. 🙂 And thanks for pointing me to your New Years Resolution posts. I completely agree with the experts (and you) that too often we fail to work on the basics and that makes the end goal unattainable. Your posts are a good reminder (and a kick in the pants) to work on the little things–the “guts”–of the goals or resolutions to get to a New You. 🙂