What are your goals for 2009?
Every year around this time I set my goals. For the most part, I met most of my past goals. When I was freelancing more my goal each year was to earn $10,000 more than the year before. I’m happy to say this is a goal I always met. This year my situation has changed and therefore my goals have changed. As you know, I have a full time telecommuting gig and freelance a bit less. So do I still have writing goals?
Of course.
In 2009 I’m going to be concentrating less on freelancing goals and more on personal goals. I’m exploring more residual forms of income, for instance, ebooks. I have one I’ve been working on each night and I hope will be done before the end of the year. I also have ideas for several more ebooks. I’m also continuing to work on FWJ and this freelance writing community. I hope I’m on the right track. Because I have a day job it’s a slow process but to me that makes it more enjoyable.
I’d also like to take on more speaking, guest blogging and other opportunities where I can share what I know with other people. My friend David Peralty and I have an idea we feel is a great one, and hopefully we’ll bring that to fruition in 2009.
Professionally, I will continue to do the best job I can. I have the greatest job in the world and it’s a pleasure to give it my all.
As always, my biggest goal is to spend quality time with my family who will always come first. I hope to be the best possible example to my son and best friend I can be to my husband.
So share….what are your goals for 2009?
For the 2009 new year, I am going to be more confident in my ability to become an established writer. I am going to network and start pitching queries to get my name out there.
Good timing. I actually wrote down my 2009 goals yesterday. My goal is to make a certain amount each month of 2009. I also want to submit a query to a print publication each week and have 5 published print pieces by the end of 2009 (plus 2-5 more in the works for the beggining of 2010). My other goal is to have a good collection of clips and samples showcasing a variety of types of writing and subjects.
I haven’t sat down and formally written my 2009 goals (though that’s coming up soon…in the process of moving right now;)), but I’ve given them a lot of thought. The one thing I keep coming back to is that I’m not where I want to be and frankly, it’s my own fault. I didn’t do a single thing in 2008 to promote my screenwriting – which is one of my biggest goals. So, 2009 will be primarily dedicated to that. I’ve got several competitions that I have lined up to enter, as well as pitch fests, so the goal is to have several scripts finished and polished in time to enter. I also try to go to L.A. every three months or so for networking and that didn’t happen, so I need to get that back in gear fir 2009 as well.
Outside of that, there is my freelance writing. I’ve learned that not all freelance writing makes me happy. There are certain things I’m just not interested in. I was working as a full-time freelancer and I wasn’t enjoying it (I know, I know). So, I’ve decided to hang on to the gigs that I enjoy and go back to work full-time to work more towards my personal writing goals. I found I wasn’t doing that at all when I freelanced full-time. I have two specific websites that I write for that I plan to make more successful with better articles – including more research and more entertainment value, if such a thing is possible in finance.
Beyond writing, I have my education and healthy lifestyle goals that I’m just continuing from 2008. But, my biggest focus has always been my writing and since I don’t feel I gave it everything I had in 2008, I feel very enthusiastic about getting them done in 2009.
Best of luck to everyone in their goals!!!
Hiya Deb.
Those are great goals you have. One goal that I joined in with some of my writer buds at Absolutewrite.com is to get published in a glossy national mag in 2009. Another goal is to keep growing The Freshman Writer and promoting myself more to get my writing published. I’m keeping the list short because I also have a day job. That’s all from me now. I’m happy that I’ve done so much in 2008 that I want to keep the momentum going for next year. Thanks for letting me share!
I am branching out. I have 2 cash cows but finally came to the realization that they could go under at any time and that would leave me in a bad spot.
That being said, a job has asked me to submit a formal proposal/bid for a job (after a lengthy interview). I have never done that and cannot even find samples/templates to work from.
Any advice?
How funny, because setting my 2009 goals is what I’m working on as well. I’m happy to say I have met the majority of my 2008 goals, but there are a few that I didn’t and I’m in the process of examining why. Fear seems to be a big factor, and I really need to work to overcome that obstacle.
Some of my 2009 goals include diversifying my income streams which includes finding ways of generating passive income, moving into a new writing niche (I’m learning more about), querying print publications more regularly (and hopefully break in) and marketing my writing services more regularly. I also want to find a way to clearly show prospects the value they’re getting when they hire me.:-)Good luck to everyone!
I’ve been ill for several years now and it has adversely affected not only my social life, but my income generation and writing goals.
Although this past year my name was featured on the cover of a nationally used and well-known reference book that I helped to compile, I was published in my first glossy mag (albeit a local one), and wrote extensively for my local newspaper on a variety of projects, I didn’t write the book I had hoped to write or submit a manuscript to Writers of the Future as planned, I missed deadlines when I became ill, and instead of working exclusively with writing, I found myself trapped between a job to pay the bills, writing things I wasn’t particularly interested in and the inability to stop my health from interfering with it all.
My goals in 2009 are simple: write more, find ways to improve my schedule and organizational skills so that I can work around those times when I’m ill, always work with a contract in place and only accept gigs where payment is within a timely fashion, and complete at least 1 manuscript in an area that I enjoy. I could always say I want to earn more money…of course, that’s what I’d love to do and will strive to do, but I’m not setting any lofty goals–just take more tiny steps and build upon them.
I set my goals by school years, not calendar years. Odd, I know. But it works for me. I think because I spent the majority of my life living by the school calendar – as a kid, as a college student, as a teacher, I still tend to think of September as the start of a new year.
Anyway, this past September when my youngest went to school full time, I sat down and wrote down what I wanted to accomplish before the end of the school year in June 2009 when school breaks for the summer. Some of the goals:
getting one piece into print (which I just sent off yesterday – a piece in a book compilation)
making a certain amount a month – just signed a contract last month that exceeds that goal
working on my novel – completely blowing that goal
revamping my professional writer’s site – haven’t done that yet, but June is a long way away
I think setting goals is important, and I like your idea of striving for an increase in income each year.
Mine are to continue to grow the business, to contact prospective clients proactively and not just reply to listings, and to eventually cut back another “day” at my third-shift job.
My 2009 goals include increasing my income and finishing my novel. Robin’s comment is interesting because I always get a burst of goal setting energy in September. Realistically, though, I think I revisit my goals every quarter to ensure that I’m on track.
These are indeed great goals. I would also emphasize focusing not only on the future but also on what you have in the present because that is the springboard for your future, it is the foundation you build on. You have much more in terms of resources than you think. Do that inventory as well.