Setting 2017 freelance writer goals

If you’ve already signed up for the 2017 goal-setting challenge for freelance writers, watch the video below to get yourself ready.

Otherwise you can click here to register for the goal-setting challenge: www.rebeccalweber.com/2017goals

If you’re not feeling like looking back at 2016, scroll below to read about my own resistance to this exercise.

When it came time to make a list of this year’s accomplishments, I kept putting it on my to-do list. And then moving it ahead a day.

I knew that this was a valuable part of the goal-setting process, and that if I skipped ahead to rattling off a list of 1001 things I wanted to do in 2017, that it would be harder to clarify what I really wanted and needed to focus on. I wanted to harness the excitement of the promise of the new year to make a plan that would work once the shine wore off, but I didn’t actually want to take what appeared to be the fun first step of celebrating my wins.

The reason for my own resistance was pretty obvious. It hadn’t been a great year in many respects, and looking back at all was going to remind me of things I hadn’t achieved: pitching story ideas that I’d been nursing in my ideas folder, teaching three sessions of my ecourse, updating my website. I could go on, but you get the idea.

So rather than starting off with goals I had achieved, I began focusing on highlights of my year that I hadn’t imagined at all last January. Some of these were from my personal rather than professional life, and some were really wee little victories.

Then I started adding in the portions of stated goals that I had completed. Instead of looking at this as glass half-full/glass half-empty, think of it as glass has increased from zero to 50 percent capacity.

Take a look at the video above for more thoughts about this foundational step.

And then register to join me and other writers from around the world for the 2017 goal-setting freelance writer challenge (a.k.a the 7×17 Challenge). You’ll get a daily prompt via email, as well as access to a private Facebook group with fellow writers and videos to keep you on track.

The challenge is free to join, but we start next week, so sign up today: