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How “Doing Something New” Can Make You More Money
by Yuwanda Black
[Want to start a successful career as a freelance writer? Click here.]

As I said in Post #38, “…this series (40 Days to a Successful Freelance Writing Career) is winding down, [so] I wanted to end with three observations that prevent many freelance writers from making the income they should be making.”

Post #38 highlighted the "little" blockers to success. Post #39 was all about how freelance writers should use technology more.

Here, in the last post, I wanted to end with habits – as in, breaking them to create lasting success.

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Breaking Old Habits to Create New Success

The other day, I inadvertently moved my toolbar from the bottom of my screen to the top. I don’t know how I did it, and I haven’t taken the time to figure out how to move it back.

For the first few days, every time I need to access the toolbar, I immediately moved my cursor across the bottom of the page. It seemed awkward having it at the top, and it interrupted my workflow.

As of this writing, it’s been about a week now, and you know what, I’m used to it being at the top now. I’m going to leave it there.

I tell this story to illustrate a point: As human beings, we are creatures of habit – whether good or bad. The flip side of that is that we are also adaptable and don’t have to remain slaves to the bad habits that inhibit our success.

There are steps to creating successful habits, like there are steps to breaking bad habits (think AAs 12-step program). So, how exactly do you form habits for success?

Forming Successful Habits

Goals: First, ask yourself what your goals are. Write them down and keep them within easily accessible range. You have to know where you’re trying to go before you can form a road map to get there.

So, if your goal is to make $100/day as a freelance writer, for example, you can now form a plan on how to get there.

Inventory: As in take inventory of daily habits, ie, know your work personality.

Using the example above, what do you do day in and day out that causes you not to reach your goal.

Do you spend too much time surfing the net?

Are you constantly being interrupted by IM messages from your friends, acquaintances, coworkers?

Are you easily diverted by other tasks (eg, updating your blog when you should be writing)?

Keep a daily activity calendar to chart how you use your time. Do this for a week.

Breaking Habits: Look back over your daily activity calendar to see where your time went. Then, start actively cutting those that keep you from your goal.

For example, I used to spend hours surfing the net, then find myself completing projects way into the evening. I had to first realize where I went wrong. My work personality is such that I can’t just log on and get down to work. I like to spend half an hour or so sipping my coffee and surfing before I get down to work.

So, instead of fighting it, I built half an hour of surf time into my morning ritual. Giving myself that time did two things: i) it allowed me to stop berating myself for something that was completely natural for me; and ii) it gave me a definite cutoff time for my “goofing off.”

After 30 minutes, I have to get down to work. Because I allow myself this time, I don’t feel guilty and am usually ready to get down to work when it’s done.

Like anything, breaking old habits and creating new ones can be difficult. Experts say that it takes about three weeks of constant repetition for something to become a new habit, so don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t happen right away. Stick with it.

If your dream/goal is as important to you as you say it is, you will gladly embrace new habits that lead to new success.

NEW SERIES: Now that this season has concluded, I’ve dubbed November Freelance Writer’s Technology Month. What’s this all about?

Quite simply, to make real money online, you have to embrace technology. I don’t think freelance writers do this enough, and why I believe we are some of the poorest internet entrepreneurs around, as I wrote about in this article, Why Freelance Writers May Be the Poorest Internet Entrepreneurs.

Last week, I spent the entire week researching how some people make so much money online. I spent 10-12 hours a day for a solid week reading, researching, querying webmasters and bloggers, etc.

I’m always trying to get freelance writers to think beyond “writing for a living,” to “creating a stable income – for life.” This goes way beyond simply writing.

So, over the next month, I will be talking about what I’ve learned. I will introduce you to some online techniques to drive traffic to your site, to increase your online marketing strategies and to increasing your online income overall.

Stay tuned, it will be fun!

Sincerely,
Yuwanda Black, Publisher
http://www.inkwelleditorial.com/
http://www.inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/
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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. Freelance success stories, e-courses, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Get the e-report, How to Make $100/Day as a Freelance Writer -- free! Log on to http://www.freelancewritingwebsite.com/ for details.
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Originally posted on 11/2/07

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