Are You Setting Lofty Goals? Take Baby Steps

Photo by Julien Haler (flickr)

I was sitting at my desk earlier last week, typing away at my keyboard and trying to meet an impossible deadline that (at the time) I thought was probable. I had my eBook Jump Start Your Freelance Writing Careeer all written, and I just needed to go through each section of the document, make edits, add images, and fix the layout.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, the process turned out to be more complex than I thought it would be.

I gave myself 3 days to finish writing the eBook. The first day – I woke up around 8 am, wrote until noon, took about 45 minutes to eat lunch, wrote until around 5 pm, ate dinner for an hour, and then wrote long into the night until 1 am. I took no other breaks other than to go to the bathroom and stretch out my legs.

And what did I accomplish?

Well, I managed to finish the cover, copyright, and table of contents pages. I was able to create a layout and eBook design that I was happy with. I also was able to perfect the first and second chapters of the eBook, two of the easiest chapters of the entire document.

There were still 6 more chapters to go. (more…)

Setting Up Your Dream Lifestyle: How to Prepare for the Life You Really Want

Photo by Jose Roberto V Moraes (flickr)

You’re going about your daily lifestyle, working like always and getting projects done for clients, when it hits you. This isn’t the life you want to live. You don’t want to constantly wake up early each morning only to work late into the night when the kids are already tucked into their cozy beds, dreaming sweet dreams while you’re hard at work. You don’t want to only make enough money to get by and still work your ass off day after day… month after month. Year after year. You don’t want to live like this 10 years from now… 20 years from now… 30 years from now, until you drop off the edge of the earth.

You once had a dream, but it was lost along the clouds. You once had goals and ambitions. You once had a well-thought out plan.

Where did it go?

Or maybe you didn’t dream? Maybe you just worked blindly, unsure of what you wanted and just figured that it would all come in time… if you just made more money… and if you just worked a little bit harder.

It’s time to come back to reality. You’ll never get the life you want working as you are… writing just to write… making money just to make money. You need a plan. You need to recapture your dream. Taste your dream. Feel your dream in the very core of your being. You need to live the lifestyle you’ve always wanted to live. (more…)

Do You Feel Tied Down to Your Goals?

Photo by green kozi (flickr)

Are you setting goals so tight that you can’t breathe, let alone work? This is how I felt several months ago after I made my schedule. I had so many goals that I wanted to accomplish and very little time to accomplish them. As a result, I felt burdened and my motivation to accomplish these goals plunged.

Don’t let yourself make the same mistake. (more…)