Freelance Writer’s Guide to Achieving Goals

A number of years back, I decided to set a reading goal on Goodreads. I was going to read thirty books in a year. I figured I’d reinvent my reading habit and get to some of these thousands of books I have (not exaggerating).

I did it. I read 30 books. And you know what?

I don’t remember a single one.

That’s the problem with setting goals without thinking about them. Had I bothered to look at my reading habits at the time, I’d have set a goal that was much more manageable. I might have tried for 20 books or even 12 books (one a month isn’t a bad goal).

This illustrates well today’s post, which is about you, freelance writer.

How many resolutions did you make this year?

Whoa — that many? You realize already that you’ll not achieve most of them, right?

Tough to hear (and tough for me to say). That’s because resolutions are often just promises we make with our eyes to the sky, hoping to see that rainbow we’ve been waiting for.

Yep. It’s that sappy.

So do yourself a favor:

Make this the year your resolutions become goals.

You can set goals pretty easily, right? You want to save for that vacation, that new laptop, or that replacement car. What’s your natural thought process when you make those kinds of goals? I bet I know the next thing you think:

What do I need to do to save up for that?

That’s where goals and resolutions often take different roads. Very few people vow on January 1st to lose that extra ten pounds, then actually change a habit or two to make that happen. It’s one thing to wish for it — it’s an entirely different thing to get off your ass and exercise. And put down the chips and dip.

So what are your business resolutions this year?

If you said something like “I want to make $90,000 this year!” congratulations. No, not for resolving to do it, but for failing right out of the gate.

See, some of the problem, aside from not planning a damn thing, is setting a goal without any bumpers, so to speak. Can you make $90K this year? Sure. But if you start out thinking that’s your target, you’re going to miss that goal entirely if you keep having $4,000 months instead of the $7,500 month you need.

So plan for it. What will it take for you to “save up” for your $90K year? You’ll have to make that monthly $7,500 (or more) pretty regularly. That leads to your next question: How?

Think about what types of clients you’ll need to attract. Then think about how you’ll go about attracting them.

That $90,000 is a little more within your reach now, isn’t it?

Will you succeed? That depends on you. But know this — if you miss your goal by say $9,000, are you going to feel like a failure?

I kind of doubt it — you’ll have earned $81K. That’s not chump change. Any effort toward a goal, to me, is a successful approach to your freelance writing business.

But what if you do miss your goal?

That’s when you examine what you did right — and what you did wrong (if anything). Look at your efforts with a critical eye.

And when do you do this?

Every month.

Every. Single. Month.

How else are you going to correct yourself and maybe still hit that goal?

[bctt tweet=”Make small, manageable goals to help you reach the bigger freelance goal. #freelancewriting” username=”LoriWidmer”]

This year, I set a goal for myself. However, I kept it manageable. The goal is to write one poem per day in January. That’s it. I’ve given myself permission to write anything that comes to mind — sometimes the best writing comes out of experimenting.

Will I continue into February? I hope so. In fact, I’ve already told my accountability partner about it.

And there’s your other key to achieving your freelance goals:

Be accountable to someone regularly.

Joy Drohan and I report in every month. Most months, Joy reaches out to me first. And she said it best in our December assessments email: “I truly think it helps to be accountable to someone.”

Why it works: when you have to report back to someone once a month about how you did, a few things happen:

• Your mind stays on the target, knowing you have to report back
• You try harder, hoping to have a good assessment to report

I started doing Monthly Assessments here on the blog years ago. I’m about to bring that back (as soon as I figure out how to create a separate page just for that). You’re welcome to use that as your accountability, but I encourage you to find someone to whom you can report directly. It’s a simple thing, but the impact is major.

It doesn’t matter what your business goal is. If you break it up into smaller goals, you won’t be overwhelmed by the thought of it. A small victory, even if every goal isn’t a victory, is much more encouraging than looking at a large, looming goal every day.

Writers, how do you set achievable goals? What do you do to ensure you’ll meet those goals?