How Dedicated Are You To This?

Is freelancing just a hobby for you? Did you decide to do this for just a bit of pocket change? If that is the case and you’re happy with where you are at, then good on ya. If your intention is make freelance writing your career then you should know that your dedication level for this needs to be extremely high.

A lot of folks are attracted to the idea of being their own boss and owning their own business. Lots of benefits to that for sure. The amount of benefit is directly proportional to the work and the risk involved. Those who have been doing it a while know that it is tough work. Tough work that requires as much attention as a new-born baby.

As much as we don’t like to think of it this way, freelance writing is a job. As such, it requires the same (if not more) dedication that you would put into a 9 – 5 gig for an employer. Bunny slippers and mid-day naps aside, if you worked for someone else, you could hardly perform your duties half-heartedly and expect to be successful. Checking your email every ten minutes, chatting online with your Facebook buddies and searching iTunes all day for the latest and greatest apps will not win over your employer.

Your success as a freelance writer requires you to look at this not as a hobby or as a distraction, but as a real live job that requires your attention, substantial effort and a strong work ethic. Anything less spells failure. If your mindset at the moment is one of seeing clients as a hassle, the writing as an impediment to your World of Warcraft time and the initial pay as stifling your dreams, then you need to seriously evaluate your dedication. If you find that you just do not have the heart to dedicate yourself full time to being a freelancer, that is 100% okay. Give yourself permission to back out and maybe just do a writing side job now and then to satisfy your writing moods. There is no reason at all for you to not do this as a hobby if that is where your comfort meter is pegged.

If you have decided that you really want to tear up the web, writing for anyone on any topic, then go for it. Your unwavering focus should be to make every day, every writing job an outstanding success. Dedicate yourself to starting each and every day fresh. Your ability to keep things fresh will depend on being dedicated to yourself, your clients and your writing. Think back to when this tiny seed of freelance writing first germinated in your mind. What did you envision for yourself?  Did you clearly see your goals? More than likely you did, and those things are what motivated you to make the leap of faith and jump right in with enthusiasm and dedication.

Sometimes we lose sight of why we started doing this. Our dedication to it slips bit by bit over time and before you know it, you’re not returning calls and you are hooked on daytime soaps.  If this happens, remember that all is not lost!  Get back to the dedication that you had when you first began and your batteries will charge up, ready to do battle all over again.