An Epiphany...Don't Roll your Eyes at Me!

Yes, I've had an epiphany. I chose the word carefully because I was afraid you'd just roll your eyes and move on to something else, but there is not other way to describe it.


It's not only changed my freelance writing schedule, but it seems to have started a trend of improved finances and has eliminated a whole lot of stress from my working days, which as you all know seems to be seven days a week.


It's all about self imposed deadlines. We were all told years ago that the successful person, no matter what they do for a living, set goals and impose deadlines and stick to them. Although I don't usually consider myself a sheep, I admit I said "baahhhh" and followed the herd.


I know I'm taking a big risk sharing this with only 2 weeks worth of results, but the whole thing just seems logical now that I see it with fresh eyes and have put aside decades of habit.


Each evening, more so as the end of the week approached, I'd look at those deadlines and get worried that I wouldn't be able to meet them. Then, I'd get a vulnerable feeling that I would fail in all of my goals,  tighten my jaw in determination to get through the daily schedule and grind my teeth until I got a headache and had to give up in frustration.


Guess how much sleep I'd get in the few hours left of those nights.


So.....on to the epiphany. I took a look at my schedule and highlighted deadlines that were imposed by clients. Then, I highlighted deadlines that were set for work with upfront payments I needed to pay my bills. Then, with a different color highlighter, I highlighted self imposed deadlines that I had set for p/v sites so they always had updated articles or because I had committed to so many articles a month.


So my three top priorities were all highlighted and what hadn't been accomplished was squeezed into the planner for the next day, filling it up. I went back and discovered that the items I couldn't find time for were my blogs, website and fiction. With no time scheduled away from the computer!


Duh. Snap.  What's the word of the day?


Isn't the whole idea of struggling to be a freelancer the goal of working for yourself?
It was time for some self examination. What did I really expect to gain from this whole freelance writing world I had committed myself too?

1. To be able to set my own deadlines.
2. The freedom to change my own schedule to meet my needs.
3. The freedom to just be able to write.
4. To be able to support myself doing something I enjoyed.

Duh. Snap. What's the word of the day?


It's epiphany.


I rearranged my list to read:

1. To be able to support myself doing something I enjoyed.
2. The freedom to just be able to write.
3. The freedom to change my own schedule to meet my needs.
4. To be able to set my own deadlines.

You see, number 4 on the list was getting in the way of what now is, and should have been number 1 all along, but somehow lost ranking along the way. Just like my blogs, website and fiction fell to the bottom of the priority list every day because of my self imposed deadlines.


But, deadlines are deadlines, and I'm supposed to set deadlines. My mind was fighting with my gut. Luckily my gut won out.


My private clients and upfront payment work all had strict deadlines and so did the due date on the bills that work paid for.


My blogs, website and fiction had self imposed deadlines, but were both urgent and important in my long term goal of getting paid for what I enjoyed. Change it to a strict deadline.


The work I did for p/v sites all had self imposed deadlines. Sure, they have the possibility of paying off really well in the long run with attention and luck. There is the risk of the site still being in business down the road. The numerous streams of income is really nice, even though it's a trickle, together they may someday merge into a river. But push come to shove, it's still working for someone else for just a bit of money when I really need to devote the time to other priorities. They have to stay on the list, and they stay with self imposed deadlines.


So, in a moment of absolute brilliance I changed my meaning of the term self imposed deadline to mean reminder.


Not only do I have a lot less stress, at the end of the day I've accomplished my set in-stone deadlines even when I've had to be flexible.


To top it all off, the stats on my blogs and website continue to trend upward.


The best part of all is that I've been sleeping at night and not dreaming that I was still on the computer.

All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.