January 2023: Freelance resolutions
What are you planning and hoping to achieve this year?
Happy New Year!
I’m going in big for Jan 2023 - let’s talk about resolutions for our small businesses and freelance life.
Resolutions can get a bad rap. Setting unreachable goals? Making promises to yourself you can’t keep? It’s all very 'being hard on ourselves’, isn’t it? After all, can we flip overnight? Be stronger, better, more successful?
Of course not - but my worry is that the rejection of resolutions leaves us directionless, in a comfort zone of our own choosing, goals just out of reach and, therefore, also the worry of failure.
Well, I say it’s time to jump on in and make some clear business and freelance resolutions that you’ll stick to this year and for years to come.
The thing with resolutions is that the very thought involves change, changing yourself or your values or your very self.
But if you flip the idea of it being a resolution to change, and make it a goal to achieve something new, you open up a new area of possibilities.
For example:
I could resolve to keep my desk tidy all year. (Unlikely)
Or
I could set the goal of tidying/cleaning my desk before EOP every Friday/month
Try this one:
I could resolve not to work with clients who make me feel undervalued (hard to manage)
Or
I could set the goal of finding clients who have values that fit with mine by having a clear set of values for my business and making sure theirs and their brand fit with that.
Now, this all feels quite idealistic. Oh, just set a goal of working with really nice clients - who doesn’t want that? But setting goals - a bit like making resolutions - is about saying you will try. It’s about saying ‘I want that thing to happen’ and committing to making it happen as much as you can within your powers.
It might be your resolution is something huge - a rebrand, a move sideways in your freelancing, a new venture, a podcast, a new side hustle.
It could be that it’s smaller - to survive and thrive in your own way.
The important part is to say what you resolve to change or do, and find ways to make it happen. Ways that are in line with how you do things, and nobody else.
If this all feels like, well, a lot, then start small. With just one word. Spend the next couple of days choosing a word of the year for your business and freelance life. Then see where that takes you with resolutions, goals and plans.
Coming up this month:
CV workshops for freelance writers/journalists/copywriters and for professional coaches - all bookable on Eventbrite.
Freelancer Magazine Virtual Co-working Jan 11th
Child-friendly netwalking for Mums and Dads in business from Freelance Mum Jan 19th
If you’re local to Chipping Norton, come and join us for informal networking with Business Buzz at The Fox pub. It’s on the 2nd Tuesday of every month so the next one is Jan 10th. I’ve just become an ambassador for the group!