Do you set yourself goals to achieve as a writer?

If not, why not?

Let me tell you something.  I attribute most of my success as an online freelance writer to goal setting.  I am convinced that it would have taken me a lot longer than a few short months to reach full time status online if I hadn’t set goals to get myself there.

And yes, I still set them now too.  Every day.  Whenever a new job comes in I always set a goal to achieve it according to the amount of time I have at hand.  It is also a fast way to figure out if I can actually fit it in or not.  By using this method I am much less likely to take on more than I can handle – or at least, if it does happen I usually know about it first!

But of course that is just making sure a job gets done on time.  What about goal setting to get those writing jobs in the first place?

Goal setting works in all kinds of ways and has so many different benefits if you stick with it.  And the great thing is that if one goal doesn’t work or you don’t manage to achieve it, you can take another look at it and change it a bit before having another go.

The best thing I found with setting goals was that they give you a structure.  It’s like the 100 Articles in 100 Days Challenge on Ezine Articles that I am currently doing.  My goal there is simple – I need to write, submit and have published a hundred articles by the time the deadline looms in early November.  You can follow my progress on this by going to the section of my blog called A Writing Challenge.

Can you set your own goals to succeed as a writer?

But even if I didn’t meet this goal, I know I will have written more articles during that time period than I would have done otherwise.  That has to be a good thing, doesn’t it?

Structure is good when you are a freelance writer of any description.  Since you are your own boss, you need to be disciplined otherwise you won’t earn the money you need to earn.  Structure and goal setting together – once you learn how to make them work for you – can be the key to a successful freelance writing career, online or anywhere else.

My downloadable book on goal setting, “The 5 Secrets of Successful Goal Setting”, will get you started on the right track.  It’s available from Lulu and can be bought instantly via a secure shopping cart.  Enjoy!

No related posts.

Tags: freelance, goal setting, learning