Let me ask you a question: why are you here? I don’t mean why are here on this earth. I mean, why are you here on this blog, reading these articles?

I’m assuming it’s got something to do with the fact that you’re either curious about becoming a freelancer or solo professional or, you’re curious about how to make improvements in some area of your current business.

But, why, specifically are you interested in that?

Why don’t you just go out and get a job?

I’m serious. For most of us, that is precisely what we have been taught, conditioned and trained to do. That’s why the vast majority of us do just that. (Although… the scales are rapidly tipping as more and more people find themselves exploring the freelance life either by force or by intent.)

But back to you. I want to ask you one more time… WHY are you so diligent, persistent, curious or smitten about the idea of working for yourself?

The reason I keep asking is not because I’m nosy, or because it’s important for me to know. The reason is because it’s important for YOU to know.

So back to the question: Why are you here?

When we visit blogs, buy books, watch instructional videos, listen to podcasts… etc. often it’s because we’re consumed by the pursuit of the HOW of it all. We may have a goal or, at the very least, a curiosity about a new direction for ourselves, and this sparks all kinds of “HOW” type questions, like:

HOW do I start my business?

HOW do I get clients?

HOW do I make more money, balance my life, schedule my time…? etc.

Each HOW question leads us to another, and another, and before we know it, we’ve got a hard drive stuffed full of ebooks, MP3 files and other things that get lost in our eternal quest to learn more about the HOW.

Forget About the How – At Least for Now

I’m suggesting you take a moment, right now, to forget about the HOW. Just forget all about HOW you are going to achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself and instead, spend some time asking yourself WHY you want to achieve them.

Try this exercise…

1. Ask yourself, WHY do I want to be a… [freelancer / consultant / solopreneur / whatever term you like]? Write your answer down.
2. Look at the answer you’ve just written down and ask yourself, WHY is that important to me? Write your answer down.
3. Repeat step 2 many times, maybe even 10 or 20 times, or until you feel like you’ve arrived at an answer that feels authentic, positive and powerful – and maybe even a little surprising.

Once you’ve arrived at that authentic answer… put it up in your office or carry it in your wallet, somewhere where you’ll see it every day.

Tomorrow, or maybe even later today, your mind may again become obsessed with finding answers to new versions of the question of “HOW do I…” do this or that. That’s fine. And finding answers to the HOW questions is, of course, very important if you are to achieve your goals.

But I’ve come to believe that the HOW questions are not as important as the WHY questions.

The WHY questions help you drill down to the source of what is really important to you, what really matters, what really motivates you. If you’ve taken the time to get clear on your own WHY questions, I’ll bet you’ll agree… your answers suddenly bring greater clarity, excitement and efficiency to your consumption and execution of the HOW.

If you did the exercise above, your answers may be very personal, so I’m not about to ask you to share them in the comments. (But, if you didn’t actually do the exercise above… permit me to ask… WHY not?

*

Pete Savage is co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and An Enviable Lifestyle. Now available at bookstores everywhere.

Well… that’s it people. I think it’s pretty much case closed now.

Economists, academics, thought leaders, bestselling authors… it seems just about everyone has weighed in on the topic of the new economy and the fact that self-employed professionals are taking center stage.

But this month, freelancing or “working independently” or being a “solopreneur” (no one has quite settled on the catch-all phrase to describe us yet) was officially ordained as the way of the future by the mainest of mainstream media…

It’s right there in black and white, on page 42 of the July issue of O Magazine…

“Stop looking for a staff position…” “…package yourself as an independent contractor for hire on a project by project basis.” – Suze Orman O Magazine, July 2010

O My!
Let’s just pause for a second and appreciate the gravity of this… here you have Suze Orman, perhaps the most recognized personal finance expert in America, in one of the nation’s leading magazines, telling millions of readers to eschew the traditional J-O-B and go solo.

Um. That’s HUGE.

You can read the full article online for the proper context, but basically Orman’s advice came in response to a reader (someone with a master’s in HR) who was frustrated with job hunting after 40 applications turned up crickets .

With her advice to look for project-based contract work, Orman adds her voice to the chorus of people like Seth Godin, Dan Pink and countless others who’ve been telling us for years (many years, in Pink’s case) that freelancing, or whatever you want to call it, is increasingly how we roll in North America now. (Seth Godin even refers to himself a freelancer, in this recent video interview.)

Seeing advice like this in the pages of O, from a mega-high profile author like Orman will be a wake-up call for a lot of people. If you thought “going solo” was just a trend, watch what happens now, and in the next few years to come.

Who stands to profit from this? YOU!
If you’re reading this blog, odds are you’re already an indpendent professional, consultant, freelancer, solopreneur, whatever-you-call-yourself or you’re working toward that vision. So… if you’ve been hesitantly dipping your toe in the warm waters of freelancing, now is the time to take the plunge. FULLY. Get ahead of the wave, go all out, and build your solo business. NOW is the time.

*
Pete Savage is co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer and doesn’t quite know how to answer, “Why were you reading Oprah Magazine, anyway?” so don’t ask.

Courtesy Remara on Flickr

You’re on deadline, and the project just isn’t coming together. You fuss, polish, tinker, and do just about everything you can to make it gel, but despite your best efforts, you just can’t seem to make any meaningful headway.

So you stop. You quit for a day and get a good night’s sleep.

Next morning, the thing comes together beautifully, seemingly without a hitch.

Why is that?

Some months ago, I interviewed a sleep scientist for an article in a science magazine. The doctor’s words came back to me as I read a section in Chapter 9 of The Wealthy Freelancer, entitled “Take Time To Incubate.” It’s the part of the book where Steve, Pete, and Ed point out that time away from a project—sleeping on it—often works wonders.

It does, and here’s why.

Our brains are compulsive digital recorders. They collect information about every single experience we have. You meet a client over coffee to hash out details for an upcoming report. While your conscious mind deals with the business at hand, your unconscious mind slavishly records everything around you: Your client’s body language. The light levels in the coffee shop where you meet. The music on the loudspeaker. The weather. Every freaking thing.

This is a wondrous ability, but you don’t need to remember everything. You just need to remember the important stuff.

“Remembering the important stuff” is called learning.

The sleep doc used this analogy. “If I teach you how to shoot baskets,” he said, “and I test you after you practice a few hours, chances are you’ll retain a certain level of skill. But if you go home and sleep, the next morning you’ll be better at it than when you finished your practice. It’s not just that time has gone by. Improvement happens when you sleep. If you don’t sleep, you don’t improve.”

Scientists think sleep has a pruning effect. As you sleep, your brain prunes unimportant memories—experiences, colors, sights, sounds, false starts, dead-end concepts—like the dead branches of a tree. Your brain decides what to discard and what to keep.

The goal of sleep is to organize your thoughts and consolidate learning.

You may bristle at the suggestion that you are still learning. But competent freelancers know that projects that push them into new territory help them grow.

The temptation as a freelancer is to ruthlessly push yourself to finish a task, even if it’s not going well, because your income is tied to how quickly you can finish up and invoice.

But you might work smarter if you consciously enlist your unconscious to do its job.

Want to consistently land high-paying projects and clients? Want to raise your income? Want to improve, work efficiently and prosper?

Go to bed.

——

Freelance writer Joseph D’Agnese is co-author, with Denise Kiernan, of The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed: The Only Personal Finance System for People with Not-So-Regular Jobs (Random House/Three Rivers). Follow them on Twitter @The_Money_Book

Courtesy chb1848 on Flickr

“We’d like to offer you a $5,000 a month retainer for one project a month, plus a few hours of consulting time. Will that work for you?”

The comment was music to my ears. I had been working on this client for the past 4 months. And now, finally, here was the offer… and it was a good one. I knew that one project would only cost me about 10 hours, or about $500 an hour. At the time, that was good money for me and I was ecstatic.

I say good money, but I should actually say “outrageous” money. It was way more per hour than I’d ever made in my life.

So, on the outside it was all joy and rejoicing.

But, on the inside, the mental demons of doubt, fear, and unworthiness began at once to go to work.

Over the past 5 years, as I’ve spoken with, coached, and presented to thousands of freelancers, I’ve come to realize that I’m not alone in harboring a few pesky mental demons.

These little terrors are masters at self-sabotage. Let me show you what I mean…

Within a month, I took that super-sweet contract of $5,000 a month and botched the first project. The company was even patient with me, giving me very detailed feedback so I could get it just right. But my internal system just couldn’t handle that kind of dollar to hour ratio. I had to get rid of it.

So, I did. And I did it in a way that I could blame them… at least at first. But the truth was, I was at fault not theirs. It was my mental demons sabotaging my own success.

The most common mental demons I find sabotaging freelancers are named fear, doubt, and lack of self-worth.  Have you seen them hanging about your place as well?

The biggest question is not do you have them (of course you do…) but how do you defeat them so you can land big clients, make great money, and do it all in 30 hours or less each week so you have time to enjoy all that income?

I have three very specific actions for you…

1. High Definition Marketing Plan – Fear is overcome by action. Action is produced with clarity. Clarity is the result of a little bit of mind work in creating a HD self-marketing plan. Here’s what I mean…

Sit down and define the exact amount of money you’d like to make this year. Now paint the picture of how you can do that. How many clients, who, how much per project, per hour, etc…

Now, ask yourself this key question: “What is the very next physical action item I need to accomplish to get one step closer to my goal?”  It could be “Call Bob at XYZ Company and discuss proposal”.

Now take that step and break it down even further. “Find Bob’s number. Schedule exact time to call. Put a tickler in calendar. Mentally review conversation. Simulate desired outcome. Tweak numbers to make the project irresistible.”  etc….

This kind of mental clarity wipes out fear. Why? Because it takes big projects and puts them in simple, easy, fearless terms.

2. Things as They Really Are. To overcome the doubt you should do two things:

First, take off the rose-colored glasses. You’ve been raised in a very hierarchical society. We practically worship doctors, gurus, CEO’s, and the like. We do the same with clients. They are above us and we are below. And, worst of all, we do it with other freelancers.

Sit down with 10 of your favorite magazines in your field, take off the rose-colored glasses, and really examine the articles, ads, reports, press releases, etc… You’ll find that 95% of the stuff out there is garbage. It’s just junk. Go to 100 websites in your industry and you’ll find even more pathetic work. My guess is, you’ll discover that you are way better most the people out there.

Second, base your confidence in the systems you have and the training you’ve received. If you are like the other freelancers I know, you’ve been to dozens of seminars, have a mountain of books and “how to” products, and have spent a small fortune on getting “good enough”. Well, you are good enough. The systems you’ve got work and are proven, so rely on them and confidently move forward.

3. “I’m so proud of you son!” I’m out of time to deal with the self-worth issue, but I can tell you it probably stems back to your family system and venturing into new waters.

The day I made more than my parents and siblings combined, I realized I was outside my family system and it tweaked me really hard. I didn’t feel worthy of all this month. So, at the suggestion of a good friend and mentor, I went to my mom and siblings, sat them down, looked them in the eyes, and said, “I made over $300,000 this year working less than 40 hours a week. Do you hate me? Will you still love me if I’m exponentially richer than you? Can we be friends still?”

They thought I was crazy.  My mother said, “I’m so proud of you son. I always knew you could do great things.”  It was just what I needed to feel comfortable doubling and tripling my income. In fact, it removed many of the barriers I had in my head.

There is some system inside your world that is holding you back. Go confront it head on and defuse it.

The bottom line is this:  95% of your income is NOT attached to techniques or skills or training. It is on the battlefield of the mind that you secure effortless riches or persist in a life of struggle and frustration.

Aufero obex – Destroy the Barriers.

________________

Joshua Boswell is a freelance marketing consultant, business development coach, and copywriter. His clients include thousands of freelancers and companies like Sony, Corel, Google, Microsoft, St. Jude Christian’s Research Hospital, Agora, and dozens of others. You can find him at www.JoshuaBoswell.com

The opportunity to make a great living doing what you love has NEVER been better.

I’m not saying it to pump you up. I’m saying this in response to the scarcity, fear-based mentality I’m continually seeing out there. A mindset which can be summarized as follows:

•    The economy sucks
•    Jobs and opportunities are scarce
•    Everyone is scared
•    No one is spending money
•    Therefore, I can’t make a good living doing what I’m passionate about

Ironically, many of these same people are turning to the WRONG place for answers. They’re looking for a job. They’re seeking refuge with employers — the very same sector of the economy that has shed more than 8 million jobs over the last two years.

Corporate America. Not exactly a bastion of job security.

Here’s the thing, folks. This economy demands a different level of thinking. If you want to survive and thrive now and in the years ahead, you have to change your game. You have to look at your passions, skills, value and markets differently.

You have to think long and hard about what makes you different. What kind of value you bring to the table. Who could benefit from your skills, knowledge, talents and experience.

Because if you think of yourself as just an artist, graphic designer, writer, photographer, videographer, developer, engineer or virtual assistant, you’re toast.

You’ll be playing a game that has no winning end. A game filled with daily struggle, fear and scarcity thinking.

You Have to Change Your Game

In his book Career Renegade (one of the best books I read last year), Jonathan Fields explains this better than anyone. He writes:

The simple truth is you can turn nearly any passion into a big, fat heap of money. However, it often requires mining aspects of those passions you never knew existed or bringing them to life in markets and ways that defy the mainstream.

Jonathan offers example after example of real people who took their passion in a different direction. Most of them simply redeployed their talents in hungrier markets — markets that were willing to pay more, and markets where there was less competition.

For instance, he tells the story of Liv Hansen, a fine-arts major who struggled for years after college to make a living as an artist. With her bank account running near empty, she decided to help out her mom in the family’s newly acquired bakery, the Riviera Bakehouse.

For a recent grad, this is not exactly a dream scenario: moving in with your parents and working on a business that has nothing to do with your passion.

But as Liv began decorating cakes and pastries, something interesting happened. She began to see them as much more than baked goods. To her, they were mini-canvasses upon which she could let her imagination run free. Jonathan explains:

Wedding cakes became opportunities to mesmerize, and kids’ birthday cakes turned into storyboards. Through this process something very unexpected began to happen, she was actually starting to have fun.

Demand for Liv’s cakes grew rapidly. People were traveling from other towns to admire and buy her works of edible art. And soon after, Liv and her mom moved their bakery to a building that was nearly four times the size of the old location.

Since then, Liv and the Riviera Bakehouse have appeared in a number of books and TV shows. And its success has enabled Liv to be a mom while making a good living doing something she loves.

Granted, Liv is not a freelancer. But I wanted to share this story because it takes things away from the world of freelancing for a minute and allows us to focus on the bigger idea here.

Which is simply this: If you want to do well as a freelancer or solo professional today, you can no longer position yourself generically and expect to succeed every time. You can’t just say “I’m a freelance videographer and I expect to succeed by shooting commercials.”

In this economy, you can’t always expect to make a great living doing things the way they’ve always been done. You may have to get creative. You may have to look for ways to turn your skills and passions lose in unexpected places. You may have to create other income streams to supplement your main line of work (via information products, teaching, or other related offerings, for example).

That’s especially true if you’re working in a profession that’s been badly hurt by the recession.

Yes, this takes work. It takes a lot of thinking. A lot of creative brainstorming. The answers may not come to you overnight.

But I have no doubt that if you put forth the effort and are smart about how you go about it, you’ll succeed.

What do you think? Am I delusional? Overly optimistic?

Have you been able to turn your business around by changing your business model, your approach or your offerings? If so, how did you do it?

Either way, I’d love to hear from you!

Image courtesy: Renatela on flickr

–

Ed Gandia is the co-founder of TheWealthyFreelancer.com and co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle.

Imagine that you’re having a tough day. Things aren’t going well. You’re feeling drained and unmotivated. It’s hard to paint a smile on your face. And when you do, it looks more like a grimace.

Of course, we all have days like these from time to time.

The problem is, as a freelance professional, feeling unmotivated can seriously affect your ability to do all the things you need to do that day.

You may not feel like starting work on that new client project, (you know, the one that’s due in just a few days), or making those follow-up calls, or getting those pitch letters in the mail, or updating your website.

That’s one of the challenges of being a freelancer. When you feel unmotivated, often
there’s no one else around to give you a lift. No colleagues to commiserate with. No boss to kick your you-know-what. You’re on your own.

So what do you do when you’re down in the dumps?

According to Steve Chandler, author of 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself, we all have personal motivation “ON” buttons that we can push at any time. We just have to know where those buttons are — and have them at our fingertips when we
need them the most.

Do you feel inspired when you read a favorite columnist or blog? (Like The Wealthy Freelancer!) Or upbeat when you hear a certain song on your iPod? Or less stressed when you sip tea at a favorite cafe? Or energized when you listen to a particular coach or speaker on a CD recording?

“Make it a personal commitment to notice everything that pushes your buttons,” says Chandler. “Make a note of everything that inspires you.” Once you do, you’ll have a repertoire of ways to feel motivated anytime you want to.

For example, if you’re working on a particularly tough freelance gig, and you’re feeling, well — let’s say less than enthusiastic — plug in a CD of your favorite music, pat your dog, or pick up the phone and chat with a close friend.

The point is to figure out what motivates you and then learn how to quickly turn that button on when you need it the most.

For example, I get a lift from reading inspiring passages from certain books. So I make sure I keep these within arms reach. I also have a few close colleagues I speak to (okay, bitch to) by phone from time to time.

What are YOUR motivation buttons? If you don’t know, find them. You can probably come up with a dozens ways to give yourself a boost anytime you need it.

And, as freelance professionals, we often need it. A lot.

———–
Steve Slaunwhite is the author of The Wealthy Freelancer, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Starting a Web Based Business, and 5 other books. You can find him here, at Starbucks, or at www.SteveSlaunwhite.com.

photo courtesy Flickr

I’ve tried a number of goal-setting programs and approaches over the years.

Some have been complex and required lots of coordination. Others were overly simplistic or lacked accountability elements that helped me stay on track.

But over the last few months I’ve been experimenting with a homegrown approach that so far has yielded far better results than anything else I’ve tried.

I call it the “Rule of 3” goal-setting program. Here’s how it works…

First, you need to identify the key goal-setting areas of your life. In my case, those areas are, in no particular order:

o    Health
o    Family
o    Business
o    Spiritual
o    Mind
o    Personal
o    Fun

From there, you then decide on only ONE goal for this year in each of these areas.

Why just one? While it may feel great to have 4 or 5 goals this year in each category, I’ve found that the more you have, the lower the chance of achieving ANY of them.

In the example above, even if I set only 3 goals in each area, I would end up with 21 goals to work toward this year.

Here’s the problem. Before you know it, life gets in the way. You get busy. The list begins to feel overwhelming. You’re not sure where to start. So you fail to act on any of the goals. Or you put in a half-hearted effort toward a few. It’s happened to me over and over again.

So this year, I’m down to 7 goals only. One for each of these key areas. Fewer goals means more focus. Which means I have a higher chance of accomplishing them all.

The Rule of 3

Next step, go through each goal and identify 3 things you’ll have to do this year to reach it.

Why 3? Because 1 or 2 is not enough. In most cases, it won’t give you the diversity you need (in terms of strategies and activities) to get significant results. And here again, having more than 3 can start becoming overwhelming and difficult to track.

There’s another reason. I’ve found that in life and in business, you can achieve great success by taking massive action on just a handful of activities or strategies. Seldom does real success in any aspect of your life require impeccable performance with more than 3 or 4 strategies.

Force Yourself to Choose

Now, when it comes to narrowing down your options, think long and hard about each one. Don’t guess. Ask yourself: If I could only work on 3 things to accomplish that goal this year, what would they be? Force yourself to choose!

For example, one of my goals this year is to lose 10% of body fat. I’ve struggled with my weight for a few years. And this year, I’m determined to get back on track. So I asked myself: What 3 things do I need to focus on in order to reach that goal?

There are dozens of things I could focus on. But I decided to work on the following:

1)    Exercise: Start a smart and highly effective cardio program
2)    Weight Training: Start an intensive weight training program
3)    Diet: Cut back on refined carbs and eat better-quality lean protein

I won’t get into the details of why I chose each of these. But the point is that forcing myself to narrow down my strategies to only 3 is helping me stay focused. And the improved focus is making it easier to stay disciplined.

Will I do other things? Sure. But I’ve decided that these are the 3 things I’ll concentrate on the most.

If one of your goals is to increase your annual freelance income from $50,000 to $75,000, maybe you decide to narrow your options to:

1)    Implement a recurring direct mail strategy
2)    Become actively involved in planning committees of 2 local organizations that are rich with potential prospects
3)    Implement a steady lead nurturing effort to stay in touch with long-term prospects

Here again, this doesn’t mean you limit your efforts to only these 3 things. It only means that these are the strategies you’ll work on first. They’ll be the things to which you give the most energy.

To ensure you keep these strategies front and center, continually refer back to them often. Use them to create your monthly goals, weekly objectives and daily activities. Use them as your compass when making daily decisions. And if you find that one or more of them are not working as well as you hoped, make adjustments as needed. Or replace them with other strategies.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this approach.

Have you tried a similar approach with better success?

————–

Ed Gandia is the co-founder of TheWealthyFreelancer.com and co-creator of The “Launch Email” Technique: The Fastest Way to Attract Good-Paying Clients as a New Freelancer.

photo courtesy: Stewart Dawson on Flickr

Editor’s Note: If you’ve ever been told a freelancing horror story by a well-meaning friend or relative, this post is for you.

Professor MacDougall was an old marketing professor of mine.

He had a favourite catch phrase. And he was deadly, sometimes even menacing, with it. What I remember was the way he used to use it. Not really as a teaching aide, but rather like a weapon, which is why I remember this catch phrase, some 14 years after hearing it for the first time.

“NEVER a sample of one!” Professor MacDougall would scream, usually directly at a student, and always in response to the student’s attempt to support his or her argument, theory or idea with an anecdote; a story about a personal experience.

What Professor MacDougall was trying to teach us was, in marketing, it’s dangerous to let your own isolated experience (or the experience of any other one person) lead you to draw a general, sweeping conclusion about the subject matter.

Instead you should look around a little. Do some research. Get more info.

Ol’ MacDougall was right, of course. Relying solely on a “sample of one” is unwise. In marketing, it rarely serves us well. And in real life, it can be downright debilitating.

However, in real life, we allow a “sample of one” to sway us all the time…

The movie rental store employee says to us, “Actually, that movie was disappointing.” So we put the DVD back on the shelf, or decide to rent a second, different movie, just as a backup.

Your friend says, “Oh, Jeff and Allison went to that new place and the service was terrible.” So you decide not to take a chance, and make dinner reservations at your old stand-by instead.

Of course, the repercussions of movie or restaurant choices are rarely severe, but what happens when you start listening to a sample of one when it comes to bigger issues, like your career?

Perhaps you once told a friend or relative about your interest in becoming a freelancer, only to hear this motivating response…

“Oh, Susan’s brother tried to be a freelance photographer, I think, and he starved. Now he works at a camera store.”

How unfortunate for Susan’s brother… but who says that also has to be your fate?

Yes, there are examples of people who, when they encountered failure, decided to give up and go work in a camera store. And many well-meaning friends and family have no shortage of these examples to share with you when you express to them your desire to “join the circus” as Chris Brogan calls it. (Read: start your own solo-business.)

But know this. There are plenty of examples of successful solo professionals out there. People who tried, failed, maybe failed again, maybe even went into debt (and perhaps more than once) and decided not to give up but instead to persevere. (You’ll find some of them have written for, or commented throughout, this blog.)

Forget about Susan’s brother, the freelancer who failed and gave up. That isn’t you. That poor sap’s story is merely a sample of one. Instead, set your sights on your own vision of freelancing success.

Look for people who have done what you want to do. Find out how they got there and learn from them. Do what they did to make their business successful, and then, count yourself among them… the serious, dedicated, shining examples of solo professionals who are, right now, enjoying success and living the freelance life.

Photo courtesy of: dullhunk on Flickr

—–
Pete Savage is the co-founder of TheWealthyFreelancer.com and co-creator of The “Launch Email” Technique: The Fastest Way to Attract Good-Paying Clients as a New Freelancer.

Tell me if you’ve ever been in this situation.

You’re in the early stages of building a full-time freelance business. Or maybe you’re trying to take your existing freelance business to a new level.

Either way, you have a big goal.

But you’re so far away from reaching it that you begin to question whether or not it’s even possible.

Maybe the income level you’re trying to reach sounds unbelievable.

Or perhaps the level of performance you’re trying to reach sounds impossible.

Or maybe you’re trying to maintain a high income but want to cut back on your hours by 30 percent.

It sounded like a good goal a few weeks ago when you wrote it down. But now that “reality” has set in, you’re wondering why you ever thought such a goal was possible.

So you either give up on the goal altogether. Or you shelve it for another time.

Sound familiar? I know I’ve done this countless times.

What’s the problem here? Why the self-sabotage? Why would we do this to ourselves?

Here’s my take: Most of us are obsessed with the “How.”

• HOW the heck am I going to reach that income level as a freelancer?
• HOW am I going to learn that new skill and promote it credibly to clients and prospects?
• HOW in the world am I going to sustain my current income level if I cut back my hours by 30 percent?

Well, I’m here to tell you that you need to chill out and forget about the “How.”

I don’t have all the answers. But here’s what I’ve learned over the last year:

Yes, you need goals. And yes, you need to craft a plan. That’s all critically important. But you need to be flexible. Because life doesn’t always work out exactly as you script it.

By setting a goal and drafting a plan for its accomplishment, you’re feeding your subconscious mind with a goal and a set of instructions. From there, your main job is simply to take “inspired action.”

Inspired Action is any action you take based on an inside nudge. In the words of marketing guru and coach Dr. Joe Vitale:

“…An Inspired Action is when you suddenly get a desire to drive to the store. You may have no idea why you need to go to the store right now. But something within you is urging you out the door. Follow that hunch. It may lead you to your goal. At the store, you may meet the right person. Or find the right product. Or pick up the right magazine that will lead you to completing your dream.”

Looking back at every major goal I’ve accomplished in life, I now realize that I achieved them using this very formula:

• I wrote down the goal
• I created a plan for its accomplishment
• I tried not to obsess too much about the plan’s details and instead…
• I took inspired action

For instance, I spent a little more than two years moonlighting as a freelancer before I finally quit my day job. I was earning a six-figure income as a sales professional, And I didn’t want to sacrifice that income when I went solo.

So I set a goal to earn at least $100,000 during my first year as a full-time freelancer. I had a plan. But frankly, that was a lofty goal. I had no idea what all the moving parts were going to look like. I just trusted that everything would all come together somehow.

And it did! Mostly in unexpected ways. For instance…

•    A chance encounter with a friend led her to recommend me to a friend of hers…who then recommended me to her boss…who hired me on the spot for a series of projects (and who’s still a great client, 5 years later).

•    An old boss got in touch with me and offered me a retainer agreement with his new company.

•    I volunteered to be part of a judging panel for a marketing executive awards event — something I almost didn’t get involved in because I was so busy at the time. But I did it. And after it was all over, one of the executives I interviewed called me about my services and hired me to work on a series of projects for his company.

Looking back, most of this happened very differently from my initial vision. Everything from the way I’d get clients to the type of writing I’d be doing. All the way to the type of business I ended up creating.

But I still reached my goal.

I tell you all this for a couple of reasons. First, if you have a big goal for this year, you need to write it down and draft a plan. But accept the fact that it may not materialize exactly the way you envision it.

Also, if you become too obsessed with the “how,” you may end up thinking that your plan didn’t work…just because it didn’t exactly follow your imagined script. Ironically, you’ll feel that way even if you DO accomplish your goal.

Just remember: at the end of the day, it’s not about how accurately your plan worked out. It’s about reaching your goal…and growing personally and professionally in the process.

How about you? Have you set a big goal but still have no idea how it will happen?

Have you accomplished something worthwhile that materialized in a way you could have never conceived?

As always, I’d love to hear from you in the comments area below.

(Editor’s Note: In this, our first article of the new year, we welcome Jason and Craig Womack, co-authors of The Promise Doctrine to help us kick off 2010 with advice on setting goals and keeping promises!)

When you set new goals, you take ownership of making positive changes in your life and you begin a journey to another level. To make the journey, you’ll need 1) a set of clear objectives and 2) a clear path to achieve measurable results.

We suggest that you start with a high-level, four-pronged “roadmapping” process. Your roadmap defines what you should be measuring and your vision for success in each area.

Roadmap Your Goals: 4 Key Areas

When building your roadmap, focus on answering questions in these four areas of your business:

1) Financial Goals – What is your expected revenue this year?

2) Customer/Market – Precisely who is your target market? And what is your plan to reach them?

3) Internal Processes – What are the internal, day-to-day resources and processes you will need to put in place, or commit to habit, to best manage and control your business?

4) People – Who will you need to get to know? Who can your mentors or partners be? Who can help to “coach” you, either personally or via coaching resources?

Measuring and Tracking

With your roadmap in place, what’s needed next is a way to measure and track your progress. Knowing what to focus on and commit time and resources to, is the single biggest challenge that solo professionals, freelancers and consultants have in business (and in life).

Goals are promises, and promises are commitments. They begin the moment you say yes to yourself or to others. But how do you keep track of all these yeses? And, more importantly, how do you ensure that these are the things you really should be spending time on?

First, write them all down! Capture all of your commitments, the ones you may have scribbled down on various lists, on your calendar, and the ones swirling around in your head. If you capture them centrally, you can begin to look at them strategically.

Many of us have a multitude of projects, to-dos and tasks on the go. Some of these commitments may even be prioritized. However, unless there is a strategic vision that overrides all of your commitments, the bigger, long-term promises and commitments may get sabotaged by smaller, less important tasks – tasks which always seems to soak up your valuable time, resources and mind space.

Here’s a simple, but powerful guidance system for measuring and keeping track of all of this:

1) Identify key promises/commitments – Looking at your newly consolidated list of projects, to-dos and tasks, which ones are key (that is to say, critical) to your roadmap? These are your top priority commitments – promises you make to yourself and/or others that will support your vision for success.

2) Develop milestones for achievement – For each of your key promises, develop due dates and milestones to track your progress. Specify target dates and, for those items where you are working with others, specify who will be responsible and what will be done.

3) Have a “check in” and “status update” process – On a regular basis (for example, once every week) take time to check in on how you are progressing with each of these key promises.

As a solo professional, freelancer, or consultant, YOU are your brand. Your personal and professional success is directly proportional to your ability to make promises and follow through on them.

Craig and Jason Womack are co-authors of The Promise Doctrine, a guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises. As a father and son team, they bring a unique blend of business and teaching backgrounds to seminars and workshops with companies large and small. Learn more at www.thepromisedoctrine.com