It’s that time of year when we take stock of the past and give thanks for all the blessings we’ve received.

I know, this post is late for Thanksgiving, but it’s always a good time to focus on the good things that have come to us. It helps put things into perspective and makes us open to accept more of the positive.

The 10 things I’m most grateful for in 2011 are:

1. My clients

Of course, clients are what every freelancer covets, and I’ve got some of the best ones. A client who first hired me in 2008 became a retainer client this year. Another client I’ve had since 2010, and her resulting success amazes and inspires me. This year I’ve also gotten new clients who blow me away with their talents. I’m humbled to be writing copy for them.

2. Becoming a partner at Solo Masterminds

This year I became a partner at Solo Masterminds, formerly known as Mom Masterminds. This mastermind group of women entrepreneurs helped me get started as a freelancer — not just any freelancer but a freelance copywriter who actually earns an income. I consider them my sisters in business. We share everything with each other, even personal heartaches. What a privilege to play a more active role in this group!

3. Meeting business owners in person

One of my goals this year was to begin working with local businesses in my city. As a result, I’ve joined my very first networking group, the Women’s Economic Forum. I’m grateful for the hospitality the board members have shown me, the camaraderie I’ve seen among the members, and the extremely talented and generous members who inspire me with awe.

As an introvert, live networking events tend to terrify and exhaust me. However, I always find WEF events fun and relaxing. I’m happy to have the chance to get dressed up, put on makeup, and socialize with like-minded women sans husband and children.

4. Guest blogging at Freelance Folder and International Freelancers Academy

This month marks my second year anniversary writing for Freelance Folder. Also, this year, I became a contributor for International Freelancers Academy. I’m grateful for these opportunities to reach more freelancers. I’m grateful to my editor, Laura Spencer, for being so patient and helpful. I hope my writing inspires the readers of Freelance Folder and IFA to persevere and succeed in their freelancing business.

5. My first local and B2B clients

Almost as soon as I announced I was going to start working with local and B2B clients, I started getting them. The opportunities came from unexpected places, and for that I am grateful. They have encouraged me to continue going in the direction I’ve chosen.

6. Passive income

It’s always a good idea for freelancers to have multiple streams of income. After all, there will be times when projects — and therefore our income — are slow. I’m grateful that my other income sources, such as affiliate marketing and advertising on my other blogs, have increased significantly this year. Unfortunately, they’re still not enough for me to quite freelancing altogether but at least I know that if I ever had to stop working altogether, I can count on some of these other income sources to at least cover my costs (e.g., web hosting, Internet access, etc.).

7. Support from my husband and children

My husband has been a tremendous support in my freelancing. Since the beginning, he has been behind me all the way. He even picks up some of the household chores I neglect when I’m busy with client work. Do you know of any other husband who, after a full day’s work, would be willing to do the dishes or the laundry? Mine does and for that, he deserves a big appreciation in this post.

My children have also been very understanding when Mommy needs quiet time to chat on Skype with a client. They love being able to see me when they get home from school, often with a freshly baked batch of cookies. This experience alone makes freelancing worthwhile.

8. Flexibility of the freelancing lifestyle

I’m grateful to be able to attend school events at 1 in the afternoon, do my Couch to 5K workout any time I want, take naps when DS’s eczema has kept me up… pretty much plan my work around the rest of my life. It used to be the opposite. I had to schedule family time, fitness, hobbies etc around my office schedule. Not any more.

9. My webinar guests

I didn’t do as many webinars in year as I’ve done in the past, but you gotta admit, my lineup for webinar guests in 2011 were stellar: Pam Slim, Steve Slaunwhite, Jeanna Pool and Kenn Schroder.

Webinar subscribers always thank me for the excellent information they get from my webinars, but the truth is, I learn just as much as you do, if not more. I admire my guests, because they’re gracious enough to pay attention to me, even though I don’t have a gazillion subscribers. I know it’s because, as much as they want exposure, they also sincerely want to help freelancers succeed.

Kudos to them!

10. My readers and webinar subscribers

Last, but certainly not the least, I am grateful to you, my readers and webinar subscribers. You have grown to over 3,500 in number this year, even though I didn’t make a big push to build my lists this year.

Your personal stories and questions inspire me to continue building The Savvy Freelancer as a source of useful content for freelancers. Your emails, tweets, and other messages of appreciation fuel me to go on, even when client work is heavy and I’m tired.

Most of all, I appreciate you giving me your time and attention. By now you know that I always say, “Time is more valuable than money, because money you can earn again. But time, once spent, is gone forever.”

Thank you for choosing to spend your time reading this blog and my emails, posting comments, sending responses, attending my webinars, and letting me know how you’re getting along.

Writing this list has made me see what a good year 2011 has been for me as a freelancer. Sure, I had setbacks, frustrations, and disappointments. But looking at this list, I know the good outweighed the bad.

What’s on your 2011 gratitude list? Share them below and let’s celebrate the closing of 2011 together.

 photo credit: kelsey_lovefusionphoto

One of the hardest parts of being a freelancer is experiencing rejection.

Freelancers get rejected when cold calling. When presenting proposals and quotes. And when submitting finished work.

Our egos take a real beating! How do freelancers survive?

Rejection And Me

Most of the time, I have a thick skin. But not when it comes to my writing.

I can be thrown into a tizzy by comments like, “The email didn’t convert as well as I’d thought.” Even when the client says she loves my writing otherwise.

Proposals and emails that don’t get responses can have me wondering for days:

“Should I follow up one more time?”

“What was wrong with the proposal?”

“Did I totally misread what the prospect wanted?”

When this happens, I find that time is the best healer.

Pretty soon, other projects come along. Positive feedback comes to heal my self-esteem.

I’ve found it also helps to vent to people I trust, especially people who are also freelancers, or used to freelance, and who understand what I’m going through.

And, although it’s hard, the best thing is really to not take rejection personally. Maybe your prospect or client is just having a bad day. Or is PMS’ing. Maybe he and his wife had a fight. Maybe he’s worrying about how to pay you. It could be anything totally unrelated to you.

Finally, I remind myself you simply cannot please everybody. For example, recently, a friend of mine posted on her Facebook wall that someone said she can’t write.

My friend teaches English in university. Is a published author. And recipient of writing awards. Even she couldn’t please that one person.

We just can’t please everyone all the time. And, besides, nobody can be brilliant 24/7.

Rejection Can Actually Be A Good Thing

I remember a boss I had many years ago. Whenever I gave her a draft, my heart would pound. You see, they always came back “bleeding” — with plenty of corrections and comments in bright red ink!

But those adjustments made my written pieces much, much better. I definitely learned a lot from her (in fact, I can often still hear her voice inside my head, telling me things like “Tell them what they stand to gain” or “Do everything humanly possible first, before telling me it cannot be done!”).

That boss of mine, because she is so brilliant, moved on to bigger positions in the organization.

My next boss was a very kind lady who almost always accepted all my drafts. Without any suggested improvements.

While that was much easier on my ego, my mind felt shortchanged. I didn’t learn how to improve my writing

How About You?

How do you deal with rejection?

Share your experiences and advice below, and help out your fellow freelancers.

photo credit: bastique

Freelancing seems to have become popular nowadays. Technology has made it easier than ever for people to become self-employed service providers.

But it takes a certain kind of person to become a successful and happy freelancer. In this blog post, I list 10 characteristics freelancers must have in order to succeed and actually enjoy freelancing. Let’s see if you agree with my list, and if you can think of even more essential qualities of freelancers.

10 Must-Have Characteristics of Successful Freelancers

1. Independence

When you freelance, you no longer have a boss. Sure, you still have clients with their needs and demands. However, in your day-to-day work, there’s nobody setting priorities for you, checking to make sure you’re on track to meet deadlines, or constantly monitoring the quality of your work.

You never knew a boss was actually so valuable, did you? And now, you have to do all that yourself. And that includes castigating you when you mess up.

2. Discipline

In a freelancer’s world, bundy clocks don’t exist. Office hours are nebulous, and even your work space is constantly being redefined. It takes discipline to manage yourself and make sure your client work is completed on time, your bookkeeping is up to date, and your bank balance is healthy.

If you’re not disciplined enough to resist distractions, for example, you’ll have a hard time getting a lot of work done. This can lead to unhappy clients and, eventually, an unhappy freelancer.

3. Flexibility

Many freelancers have eschewed corporate life precisely because we want more flexibility — in terms of when we work, where we work, how we work, what type of work we do, and whom we work with. However, other people thrive on predictability and routine. They want to know what to expect every day, every month, every year. If you’re the type who can’t work when your routine is disrupted, then freelancing may not be right for you.

4. Sociable – not

Freelancers should be able to live without a lot of face-to-face human interaction. I have to admit, I’m an introvert. Socializing drains me. So I’m perfectly content to stay in my home office all day until the noise and chaos arrive with my hubby and kids in the afternoon.

If this type of existence would drive you crazy, of course, you could still freelance. You’ll have to design your work so you get the interaction you need. Perhaps in the form of face-to-face meetings with prospects and clients, working in the client’s premises or a shared office, or arranging other opportunities to socialize.

Still, freelancing entails a certain degree of isolation. It isn’t for everybody.

5. Moneywise

This quality isn’t necessary if you want to be a poor freelancer. I’m assuming you don’t. I’m assuming you want to have all the money you need to pay your bills, send your kids to university, go on trips, buy CDs and books, get nice furniture for your house (heck, you want your own house!), and so on.

We’re not talking about becoming a millionnaire and sunbathing by a pool all day. We’re talking about just having enough. If you want that, you need to able to manage your finances wisely. You no longer have an employer automatically socking away pension funds for you, or saving enough to give you separation pay, IF you should ever need it. No, you need to be doing all that for yourself.

If you can’t or won’t do it, then get a regular job.

6. Carefree

To be a happy freelancer, you mustn’t freak out with uncertainty. Freelancing means, quite possibly, earning $500 this month and $5,000 next month. It could mean having more clients than you can handle during the summer, and almost no clients at all in winter.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in freelancing. Even your job description is not written in stone. Could you live with the uncertainty? Can you live with less control and more faith? If not, then think twice about freelancing.

7. Confidence

When you’re a freelancer, your first task is marketing your services. That means, getting out there, meeting people, and talking yourself up. Selling yourself and your services. This requires absolute confidence in your abilities.

If you’re second-guessing yourself, if you’re the least bit doubtful about your ability to deliver to your clients, your prospects will pick up on that. It’ll reflect in the quality of clients of attract and the fees you’re able to charge and get paid for.

8. Courage

When you’re self-employed, fear is your constant companion. You fear failing. Then you fear succeeding. You fear going broke. Then you fear having too much money. Fear is a given. Expect it. Embrace it. Learn from it. It’s how we humans like to sabotage ourselves when we’re doing something that could possibly change our lives and help us finally find joy.

What freelancers need is the courage to keep moving forward — in spite of all the fears we may be experiencing. If fear paralyzes you, then you’ll fail. If fear motivates you to work harder, strive more, and accomplish more than you thought possible, then you’ll succeed.

9. Entrepreneurship

Hello, freelancer, you’re now a business owner! You better believe it. When you decided to freelance, you didn’t become an artisan, creating for the sake of beauty. You became a writer/artist/designer/programmer/(fill in the blank) for hire. You’re an entrepreneur first and foremost. You either make money or you go get a job.

Fortunately for us, business skills can be learned. The more difficult thing is accepting that you’re a business owner and need to run your freelancing career like a business. Once you’re over that hurdle, you can manage the reset.

10. Dogged Determination

Persistence will get you through the initial overwhelm that hits every novice freelancer. It’ll get you through the loneliest moments, the times when a client’s stinging feedback smashes your confidence into pieces, and the times when bills keep you awake at night. Without persistence, you’ll give up before you have the chance to succeed.

Bottom line is, if you want to be a successful freelancer, you must be committed to it. How much time will you give yourself to succeed? Or how much income do you really need to make to make it worthwhile? Set your parameters then stick with them.

Because if the smallest setbacks will make you lose hope, then you don’t have what it takes to be a freelancer.

Do You REALLY Want To Be A Freelancer?

After reading all the essential characteristics of a successful and happy freelancer, do you still want to be one?

If you examine yourself, do you see most of these qualities?

Can you think of other qualities I may have missed?

Let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below. Freelancing is hard enough to go through alone. Let’s go through it together.

photo credit: Helga Weber

A ghost writer is someone who gives their writing talent to someone else in exchange for money.

It sounds crude, but that’s the truth. I get paid to put together words into a coherent whole, and the one who paid me gets to put their name on the final product as their own writing.

Anything can be ghost written. We often think of books, especially, biographies, as being ghost written. But nowadays blog posts, articles, speeches, web pages, emails, and even Twitter tweets can be ghost written.

Looking back, I’ve been ghost writing ever since I began working right after university. I wrote copy for posters, radio spots, brochures, press releases, speeches, Power Point presentations, forewords, donor reports and funding proposals — and none of those ever bore my name as the author. Instead, the name of the organization I worked for, or any of the agencies we worked with, or any of the top executives’ names, appeared as the author.

Nowadays as a copywriter, I ghost write sales pages, marketing emails, “About Me” and other web pages, squeeze pages, and blog posts.

So why did I suddenly find myself feeling down the other day? I must have been experiencing the ghost writer’s dilemma.

What Dilemma?

Here’s the thing. If you’re a writer, you of course, want to do a good — no, a GREAT job.

And when you do, your clients will reap the rewards of your terrific writing. They’ll get all the credit — and the profit — for it.

There’s the rub. They’re YOUR words and, sometimes, even YOUR ideas, and yet… someone else is enjoying the limelight and the $$$.

This is why I found myself feeling annoyed, jealous, a victim of some injustice, and not a little disappointed in myself that I had sunk this low.

(I must clarify that I had these feelings only about the blog posts I have ghostwritten. I think it’s because most blog readers assume a blog post is written by the blog owner, or whomever is cited as the post author. In the case of a sales page, on the other hand, most people assume a copywriter has been hired to write it.)

I don’t know, maybe I was just in a funk and wanted to get some credit for a job well done.

Now, as I write this, I’m asking myself, “Why don’t you feel the same way about emails you’ve written for other people? Those are very lucrative for your clients!”

Honestly, I don’t know the answer.

Quit Whining!

I do know I need to quit whining and put on a different perspective.

The bottom line is this: I write for a living.

And to continue to make a living, my writing has to bring my clients acclaim, status, fans, customers/clients — success. Therefore, the more accolades (and profits) my clients make, the happier I should be. It’s a testament to MY great writing.

I just need to keep reminding myself of this, and to not take things so personally, dagnabit!

Besides, I’m writing in another person’s voice, not my own. My words have the impact they have only because they’re associated with my clients’ personas.

Really, if I published those same posts in my own blogs, they would NOT have the same impact. After all, I’m not considered an expert in X, Y, and Z. And having done the research to create articles in those topics does NOT make me an expert.

Finally, I need to harness all these negative emotions and use them to motivate me to nurture my own writing. The one I do with my name as the author.

At the very least, this means never neglecting my blogs, no matter how busy I get with client work (right now, Blog Energizer is helping me keep this and my other blog active and updated).

This should also motivate me to keep creating my own information products, and package up my own expertise.

Your Thoughts?

Have you ever felt like this? How do you cope with it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

photo credit: Victor Bezrukov

The other day, I did something I’d been terrified of, succeeded, and am now reaping the rewards of that success.

And it’s all thanks to this blog.

That’s right. It was writing this blog that motivated me, no pushed me, into doing what I dreaded doing.

You see, a month ago, I planned to write a post about doing something even if you’re afraid to do so… in order to grow as a person, a freelancer and an entrepreneur.

I was going to challenge you to do the one thing you knew would make you a more successful freelancer — even if it’s darn scary.

At that time, I knew I had been going courageously after my goals… but I couldn’t in good conscience write the post because I knew there was a fear which was paralyzing me in my PERSONAL life.

So I didn’t write the post.

I did, however, go and do what I had been most afraid to do. Sort of like an experiment for this blog.

What was I so afraid of anyway?

Now, don’t laugh. It may sound trivial and mundane, probably even silly.

Here goes: I was afraid to take my Ontario driver’s road test.

Since moving to Ontario almost three years ago, I hadn’t been driving. Even though I had driven over 20 years in Manila, I knew it was different here. Many Filipino immigrants with plenty of driving experience fail — sometimes two times or more — before finally passing the road test.

I didn’t want to be one of them. I didn’t want to be a failure.

So even though I could have taken my road test way back in August, I didn’t.

And then came this planned post.

I dared myself to take my own challenge and do what I was most afraid to do, even if it wasn’t business related (hey, I can perfectly run my freelancing business without ever leaving home).

I even considered writing about my personal challenge, but again, I didn’t, because if I failed then I’d look like a loser, right?

Anyway, here’s the ending to this story:

1. I listed every single step or task I needed to do to complete that thing I was most afraid of.

2. I completed each step.

3. Whenever I felt scared, I reminded myself that, if I failed, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

It also helped that my sister told me:

“Look, the sooner you fail, the sooner you can retake the test. The sooner you pass, the sooner you can enjoy the benefits of having your license.”

Makes perfect sense, but it took me months to realize it!

So finally, I booked my road test, arranged to have three hours of practice driving with a certified driving instructor, and took my test last Friday.

And, yes, I passed.

While waiting for the examiner, I told myself, “Lexi, this test is simply a measure of whether or not you should be driving here in Ontario. If you fail, it means you’re not qualified to drive safely. That’s a valuable thing to know about yourself and one that can be easily remedied by taking more driving lessons (sure, at $35 per hour!). And if you ARE a safe enough driver, then you’ll pass. It’s as simple as that.”

It was as simple as that.

Share your fears

How about you? What are you most afraid of that could enhance your life significantly? I challenge you to face your fear and do it!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

photo credit: *Zara

In this video, I talk about why it’s important for freelancers to set boundaries around their freelancing business. I also share some of the boundaries that I have for myself.

I work with a number of virtual assistants, all work-at-home Moms, and I respect them for setting clear boundaries and communicating these clearly with their clients.

One says something like, “I don’t respond to emails after such and such time” or “Because I value family time, I don’t work on weekends. If your project requires me to do so, I will charge you an additional fee.” Something like that.

It didn’t turn me off at all. In fact, it made me respect the VA even more, because I know that she has clear priorities. She’s one of the best VAs I’ve ever worked with and send her referrals all the time.

What are your boundaries? Do you think you need to set more boundaries in order to achieve more balance in your life?

Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you!

Today, I’d like to talk about inspiration.

What inspires you to keep freelancing?

I ask because freelancing isn’t always easy.

Why Freelancers Need Inspiration

Sure, we enjoy a lot of perks. Just the other day, for example, I got out of bed after 9 am. I can do that, because my work schedule is flexible. I can work anytime, anywhere I like, just as long as I meet my deadlines.

That said, freelancing isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be pretty darn hard.

For example, those of us who freelance from home can feel pretty isolated at lot of times. We don’t have co-workers to socialize with. No water coolers to hang out in for some small time. Sure, there’s Facebook and Twitter, but it simply isn’t the same.

And then there’s the constant need to hustle. We always have to be marketing and promoting our services.

I can go on and on about the disadvantages of freelancing… but that’s a topic for another blog post.

When the going gets tough, it helps to go back to our inspiration.

What inspired you to become a freelancer anyway? And what inspires you to go on?

My Inspiration

What inspires me is an ideal. It’s an ideal world where I can take care of my family–be there physically for them–while at the same time doing something I love and am passionate about.

My family and my professional life go hand in hand.

I don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. I don’t have to relegate the care of my kids to strangers in order to pursue my passion. At the same time, I don’t have to put my creativity and professional growth on hold to care for my family.

My children inspire me to model a different way of living. One that isn’t characterized by dragging yourself out of bed in the morning, because you have obligations to meet and bills to pay. One where being “out of the mold” is rewarded, not punished.

Other parents inspire me to prove that it can be done. It’s possible to be a good parent, a good provider and a fulfilled individual all at the same time.

Other moms and dads who have gone ahead of me and created their own freelancing lifestyles inspire me. People like Kelly McCausey, Lynn Terry, Alice Seba and Nicole Dean inspire me. They’ve living my ideal! They’re living proof that you can be your own boss and be a good Mom and support your family.

How About You?

Now it’s your turn.

What inspires you?

photo credit: Kyle Kruchok

Today my cousin posted on her Facebook profile: “Thanking the Lord for my second year in freelance editing.”

I congratulated her, and then realized that my own two-year anniversary had recently come and gone without notice.

I had been too focused on tracking my income, that I had lost sight of this milestone in my freelancing career. This is not good.

Sure, money is a big reason behind why I freelance, and I’m sure it is for you too. However, I’m also in it for other reasons, such as:

• personal and professional development
• modeling an “alternative” lifestyle for my children and those who dream of leaving their cubicles
• work-life balance

Certainly there are more “metrics” I should be looking at other than the bottom line.

Such as the fact that I’ve been freelancing for 28 months and am thriving!

Another Way to Track Your Progress

One good advice I read somewhere says something like, “To see how far you’ve gone, compare where you are today with where you were, say, a year ago. Or two years ago, five years ago… and so on.”

Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I heard this advice. (If you know, please share in the comments section below.)

Please indulge me as I share with you how I fare when doing this exercise.

Compared to two years ago, I now…

• know exactly what kind of services I want to provide and to whom
• charge at least four times what I used to, for the same or similar service
• have steady work month after month
• have a list of prospects for my freelancing services
• have a marketing plan to ensure that I get myself “out there”
• get a lot more done in one day
• feel overwhelmed a lot less often
• feel much more confident about my skills, experience, and ability to help my clients
• have information products I created and am selling, with more coming
• a number of networks to meet prospective clients and joint venture partners
• wake up raring to get to work!

More Challenges Ahead

I have to admit, though, that I still have a long way to go in terms of achieving work-life balance. It’s not that I spend a lot of time working.

On the contrary, because I have a preschooler at home with me, I have very limited time to work… which means I work every time I have the opportunity.

This means I’ve been neglecting those parts of me I wish I could nurture more, such as physical exercise, reading for pleasure, and crafting. Not to mention my children’s scrapbooks. And, uh, what’s a social life?

I hope this picture will improve when my youngest child starts Junior Kindergarten in the Fall. My biggest worry is that, I’ll get so caught up in my work that I’ll still neglect all these other things. It’s hard to achieve balance when you’re enjoying your work so much, isn’t it?

Of course, there’ll always be room for improvement in every area of our lives. If not, what would motivate us to keep growing?

How Far Have YOU Gone?

All right, enough about me. I’d really like to hear from you: How far have you come since you first started freelancing? Or if you’ve freelancing for a long time, then how do you compare right now to where you were two years ago?

Please share by posting in the comments below.

photo credit: ginnerobot

The getting of clients remains the number one challenge for freelancers today.

At least, that’s what I found when I surveyed the participants in my recent webinar with “the real” James Chartrand.

As you may already know, James knew all about the pain of struggling to get clients. In fact, that’s what drove her to take on a male persona.

Sadly, I found other cases of freelancers changing themselves for the sake of their freelancing biz.

For example, somebody told me she dyed her light blonde hair dark just to be taken more seriously.

How sad! I happen to be envious of blonde hair, and would probably bleach my hair blonde if it didn’t clash with my coloring.

People Judge: It’s A Fact

All this talk of having to change an aspect of yourself in order to get more clients worries me.

After all, I have a lot of things going AGAINST me:

• I’m female
• I’m Asian
• I have a hispanic family name
• I look young for my age
• I’m a work-at-home Mom

… and so on and so forth.

Should I create a different, more acceptable persona? One that does elicits more trust, credibility and expertise?

I won’t.

Here’s Why

1. The first reason is I’m just plain too lazy. If I changed my persona in any way, I would need to maintain it and exert so much effort just to keep my real identity from coming through.
2. My second reason is, I’m stubborn. I refuse to pander to the prejudices of those who let gender, race, hair color, age or whatever else affect their decisions.
3. And finally, I’m all about being authentic. Not to say that those who’ve changed their identities are not authentic. However, I would feel like a fake if I did.

I would feel like a traitor to “my kind” if changed my public identity in any way.

And besides, I really don’t want to work with people who would think less of me because my demographics.

WHO NEEDS THEM?

So that’s me.

Your Turn

How about you? How far would you go to get more clients? Or get paid more by your clients?

Be honest! No judgements here, just keeping it real.

photo credit: mark sebastian

How has 2010 been for you? Did you set goals? If so, what kind of progress have you been making? Are you on track?

If you aren’t, you’ve got plenty of time to get on track to make 2010 your best year yet!

This month’s challenge will help you do just that.

The Savvy Freelancer’s April 2010 challenge is: Acquire a success mindset.

What’s Mindset Anyway?

Your “mindset” is made up of your attitudes and beliefs about everything: yourself, your work, the world.

It includes:

• what value you think you deliver to your clients
• what you believe your time is worth
• whether or not you believe that you deserve to be a six-figure freelancer
• how you define success and how it is achieved

… and many, many more!

Your mindset is the sum total of the inner monologue you deliver in your mind. All the scripts you’ve written from childhood and still carry to this day.

The Inner Game Is As Important As Your External Actions

I’m no Law of Attraction believer.

I do believe that our mindset influences our external behavior — and the effects they have on others and the world.

Maybe it’s the way our mindset shines through in the way we conduct ourselves, whether we do so with confidence and assurance or obvious self-doubt.

What I have observed in my own life is that, when I acquire a bigger mindset, bigger results follow.

Here’s an example:

If you will recall, I drastically increased my prices in January this year. This brought out a wave of self-doubt and insecurities. I didn’t feel I was deserving. I felt greedy and selfish and materialistic.

That’s when I realized I would never attract clients who are willing to pay my rates as long as I thought that way.

I needed a new mindset.

Slowly, I recognized the value of my services to my clients. I realized that I had an expertise they didn’t have, that would take them many months, maybe even years, and plenty of money to acquire for themselves.

I also decided that my freelancing was a real business. It’s not a “hobby business.” So I invested in getting the professional help I needed to make sure that the financial side of my business was solid.

I had to swallow hard at the cost, but strangely enough, the money did come to cover all of it — and more.

It helps, of course, that I’ve found new clients and have supportive contacts cheering me on.

Before I knew it, my mindset had changed. My confidence has increased and maybe, that has helped me to carry myself with more authority and professionalism, thus attracting higher-paying clients.

And now, guess what, I’ve increased my rates again!

So mindset is no airy-fairy-woo-woo stuff. It’s actually very practical.

Where Do I Find This “Success” Mindset?

Unfortunately, we can’t change our mindset as easily as we change hats.

In my experience, it changes slowly.

Here are some things that will help you “grow” your mindset:

• Awareness

Be aware of the inner monologue you have in your mind. Is it filled with put downs? Fear? Doubts? Judgement? False beliefs? Awareness is the beginning of change.

And according to my living-in-the-moment mentor, Marie Forleo, once you’re aware of your inner scripts, you don’t even have to do anything to try and change them. Just acknowledge them, and then go back to living in the present.

Say to yourself, “Oh here I am putting myself down again. Ok, I’m back (to the present and the task at hand).”

• Be the Best You Can Be

Ok, I know this sounds like a cheesy self-help book. What I mean is, be the best writer, designer, programmer, VA — whatever you are — you can be!

Invest time and money to sharpen your skills. Because when you know without a doubt that you’re good at what you’re doing, you can’t keep it a secret. It shows in your eyes, your posture, your writing, your words. And then the clients come.

• Get Inspired

Things aren’t always easy, not even for the smartest, best looking, wealthiest or most famous among us. Problems and challenges come. It helps to know that we can overcome these challenges and still come out on top.

For me, what really helps is to read about other people’s success stories. It’s inspiring to know that “overnight successes” actually took 10 years to happen.

Click here to download free motivational stories. (There’s an opt-in box on this page, but you can download the motivational stories without opting in, so enjoy!)

Final Thoughts

Acquiring a success mindset is actually a big challenge, and I don’t expect you to accomplish it in a month. For starters, at least become aware of what your existing mindset is.

For additional guidance about mindset, I recommend the following:

1. Breaking the Scarcity Mindset by Dave Navarro

2. The Strangest Secret for Succeeding in a Tough Economy by Ed Gandia

3. The Ultimate Key to Making Millions by Bernadette Doyle

How has your mindset been keeping you from being successful? And how do you plan to acquire a winning mindset? Do share in the comments below.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

PS: For mastering both the internal and external games necessary to succeed as a freelancer, I highly recommend “The Wealthy Freelancer” by Ed Gandia, Pete Savage, and Steve Slaunwhite.