Building A Freelance Writing Career – Making the Dream Happen! 

Ok, so you’ve done the difficult task of defining your dream.

You know what it is you are trying to achieve!

Bravo! That’s not always an easy step. 

Now… how are you going to get there?

Because you DON’T get there by floundering along, bouncing from idea to idea, hoping you will eventually arrive at your goal. 

And yet, this is so often what we do. 

You might be feeling that you are a REALLY long way from achieving your goals, but rather than being daunted and overwhelmed by that feeling, start taking small steps to get there.

And the only way to get there is in increments.

With your end goal in mind, now identify a series of targets – smaller mid-way goals. These should be reachable targets, because we are motivated by successes and the feeling that we are making progress.

For example, you should be able to hit your first target within a month, if not sooner.

If that’s not realistic, set smaller shorter-range targets.

The more specific your targets, the more directed your actions become.

And therefore, the more likely you are to make tangible progress.

And targets make it possible to measure your progress.

Hitting your targets is how you will know you are making progress. 

And if, instead, you find that you can’t hit your targets, that’s important information too – it’s an indicator that you need to stop and figure out why.

Is your target too ambitious?

Did you take the time to identify the necessary actions to hit this target?

And did you DO the actions you identified?

Let’s say your first goal is to grow your newsletter subscription list. 

This is an excellent goal, but it is also extremely vague. 

What is growth, after all? 

Adding a single subscription is growth. 

Will you have met your goal if you add one new subscriber over the next week… the next month? 

What do you mean by grow?

Setting clear targets will help you get there.

For example, you might decide you are going to work to get 10 new subscribers to your newsletter every week for the next month.

10 new newsletter subscriptions is tangible. 10 is 10.

And, assuming 10 is not the amount that your subscriptions would grow organically if you did nothing at all, then you are going to need to think about what actions you can take to drive new sign ups so that you will hit your target.

Is there some helpful free resource you could offer to new subscribers? 

Are there groups on similar topics you could tap into? 

You get the idea. 

Your targets will help to keep you on track, and they help to prevent that troublesome habit of bouncing around from idea to idea. 

If you don’t identify targets, you won’t know where you’ve been. You won’t know where you’re going. And you won’t know if you get there. So, once you’ve defined your goal. Set targets. 

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