Setting Freelance Goals that Work

Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday’.  Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers.  We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog!  If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

Tamara and I have written about goal setting  several times on this blog. We’ve even talked about making (and not making) various goals that we’ve set for ourselves. While neither of us is necessarily a “law of attraction” type, we’ve both realized the power of truly stating our goals. Tamara once told me that she felt like all we had to do was say something out loud, and it would happen.

While things haven’t truly been that simple, I think they have been made easier by the mere fact that we do set goals.  For us, they’re important so that we can recognize our own progress. If we’ve set a goal for making a certain amount of money or acquiring a certain number of new clients, then when we get to the end of the month, it’s pretty easy to see if we’ve succeeded or not.

• Give yourself measurable goals. “I will acquire X number of new clients by July 31st.” This gives you a timeframe to work under and makes you more productive.
• Use positive wording instead of negative. For example, “I will work only on projects I enjoy” instead of “I won’t work on projects I hate.” It’s a little thing, but it changes your focus and outlook and actually makes you more likely to reach that goal.
• Break bigger goals down into objectives. Instead of creating a goal in July that says, “I will finish a 90,000 word manuscript by Dec. 31st,” look at how you can break that down. Maybe consider writing a certain number of words a week until you’ve gotten to 90,000 and add in time for rewrites and edits. By Dec. 31st, you’ll have reached your goal with several successes in between.
• Don’t be too easy (or hard) on yourself. If you set goals that are absolutely impossible, then you are setting yourself up for failure. On the other hand, if your goals are too easy, you’re selling yourself short and won’t get as much as you can out of your performance. Set goals that are a little outside your comfort zone but that aren’t unattainable, and then work toward them.

I have a lot of other thoughts on the subject, but I don’t want to get all new-age-y and make Tamara roll her eyes. (Use visualization…there, that’s all I’m saying.)

Anyway, we really, really have seen the benefit of setting goals in the past. In fact, this Spark and Idea Thursday has made me think that it’s really time for us to go back and revisit those we set at the beginning of the year. If I remember correctly, this is the month that we’re supposed to set ourselves up a 401(k) plan…