Are you ready for the best year of your career, freelance writers?
January is always a time of so much hope, for everyone who has a dream in their heart to be their own boss and earn doing what they love.
But often, those dreams seem to flame out about as fast as those New Year’s Eve fireworks.
How can you stay on track? It begins with your mindset.
To help you make 2019 the year you earn what you deserve from your writing, I’ve put together a little inspirational message for you. I talk you through some practical suggestions for ways to follow through and keep your freelance-writing dream alive, all year.
Hope it helps you earn more! Here’s the pep talk:
Listen: My New Year’s Audio Pep-Talk for Freelance Writers.
Show notes for freelance writers who dislike audio:
Here’s why I decided to start a new tradition and send out a New Year’s message to freelance writers. Tell you a secret – January is always the biggest traffic month at Make a Living Writing.
That’s because so many people have New Year’s resolutions to quit their jobs and become freelance writers! And so many working freelancers are sitting themselves down and saying, SERIOUSLY. This is the year I need to earn some REAL MONEY from my writing.
Enough starving! And they start reading this blog.
And then, a couple months later…traffic goes back to normal. Because so many writers have already given up on themselves. They’re back to accepting the status quo. They think:
“I make $10,000 a year writing, and it’s a myth that anybody makes more.”
Or…
“I’m stuck in this day job.”
Or…
“I guess $20 an hour is all I can make as a writer.”
The negative self-talk creeps back in, and all the excitement and energy and commitment writers have today…it fades away.
Even though there has never been more opportunity for writers online than there is right now.
So the big thing I want you to know heading into the new year is the marketplace is NOT saturated. I’ve never coached a writer who does serious marketing and doesn’t get clients! The problem isn’t in the marketplace – the problem is between your ears. So let’s fix that with some mindset changes for the new year.
I want to head off the despair that often quickly sets in post-new year’s resolutions, and derails many writers’ new-year goals by giving you some actions to take to help you stay on track and achieve your writing goals this year. Let’s make this your year. Does that sound good?
These action ideas are all going to help you create a positive climate where your writing career can thrive.
Start by banning negative-self-talk and create affirmations that you deserve to be a well-paid freelance writer. If you can’t stop yourself from comparing yourself negatively to other writers, being down on your potential, you need to tune into that. And then, you need to stop.
Here are some ways to build that positive climate for yourself and support your writing success:
8 Strategies for building confidence
1. Affirmations. One technique that’s worked for a lot of my students is to post positive slogans by your mirror such as “I deserve to be well-paid as a writer,” or “Writing is my superpower.”
2. Gratitude. If you feel like you’re facing big obstacles and life has dealt you a raw hand, you can start each day with a gratitude list.
3. Mindfulness. Slow down, do a breathing exercise or a meditation to get centered and remember who you are. You’re a writer.
4. Avoid negative people. Another place the air tends to go out of the tires is talking to negative people who’re down on your writing dreams. Commit to NOT spending time with friends or relatives who don’t understand how important this is to you and that freelance writing IS a viable career. Commit to being around people who will support your goals.
5. Practice forgiveness. Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself for not being where you wish you were in your writing career – let me assure you, nobody is.
Accept that it’s OK to be right where you are now. We can only move forward from this place.
6. Know that you will use it all. Remember that everything that’s happened to you in your life has helped give you the writing talent and the drive to be creative for a living that you have now. Trust me, you will use it all, being a paid writer.
Nothing you’ve done has been wasted time – and I speak as someone who was an entertainment legal secretary for many years, to pay my bills. As a writer, my ability to be organized, to talk to celebrities and CEOs, and my fast typing speed, all come from that period and helped me move up. The same is true for the life experiences you have.
7. List your strengths. Another action you can take is to make a list of all the strengths you bring to the table, to post near your computer. I want you to build up your sense of how wonderful and unique your gifts are, because that will help you project that worth to clients and help you build confidence to ask for pro rates.
8. Find support. Finally, stop trying to do this alone. What we do is very isolating, writing by ourselves in our house. Get accountability to help you move forward. Whether you join a local group for solopreneurs, a writing group, a national association, or a support like my writer community, try to find an accountability buddy you can call weekly to discuss your progress.
My experience is that will make a HUGE difference in whether you’re one of those writers who gives up on their resolutions in January, or you’re a writer who’s going to persist and achieve what you want in the new year.
May the New Year bring you the opportunity to use your writing skill to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Here’s to great freelance clients that pay on time!
How will you move forward with your writing in 2019? Leave a comment and let’s discuss.
