I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Sure, I’m dating myself here with an A-Team reference in the title, but I don’t care. Since I’ve started along the freelance writing path, I recognize the value of having people who can send work my way rather than pour my time into hunting work down. It’s definitely worth it to let a middleman/woman take their cut so that you can spend more time being billable (as long as you feel like the cut you’re getting meets you needs, of course).

In the last month or so I’ve been tapped to write regularly for several different blogs (some articles under my name, some unattributed, just for the client’s needs). I’d been thinking to myself, “Self, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place where I could see what blogs were ‘hiring’? I could cut out the middleman and just get more gigs.”

As with many ideas I think of, someone else thought of it first. Ritu, One of my fellow authors at FreelanceFolder, just opened the doors to GhostBlogging.net. Bloggers are already posting available jobs there, so if ghostwriting - uh, ghostblogging - is part of your income strategy, then you should head on over.

I’m grateful to have a full plate at the moment when it comes to writing gigs, but when the well runs a little low I’ll definitely be crusing GhostBlogging to see what opportunities await.
Hope your weekend has been a good one,

Dave

Catch Yourself Making Excuses, Then Do Something About It

This is going to be the subject of a long, long post when the blog gets moved, but I wanted to give you something to chew on this weekend because I just got called on it myself.

Yesterday on a coaching call I mentioned to a client that excuses are something we tell ourselves to avoid taking action. We say we’re too busy, or we’re too tired, or it’s not the right time because X, Y or Z. Or worse: “I just don’t know where to start.”

“I call bull - - - -.” was my response. We do what we want to do - not what we say we’d like to do, but what we want to do - and we do it at all costs. Think about all the times you went above and beyond, when you did whatever it took, even when it was tough, embarrassing and/or painful - because you really, really wanted something.

Excuses are a simple way of absolving ourselves of taking action. It’s easier to make an excuse than push past our comfort zones, to face our fears, or to take responsibility for the fact that when it comes down to it, we just aren’t willing to take action. And that’s no way to live. No. Way. To. Live.

Allowing excuses to remain in your life is equal to planting the seeds for regret and watering them faithfully every single day. Don’t be a sucker. Do whatever it takes to push past them.

Why am I banging this gong so loudly? Because yesterday I got called out on it, as I had lunch with a friend who asked me why I hadn’t made progress on something that four months earlier was absolutely critical to my long-term happiness. I kept trying to answer, I could recognize that everything I could think of saying was nothing more than excuse.

So I ate my damn Chinese food instead, and then made a deal with him that I’d be accountable for emailing him every single day with a quick note on something I had done to push forward, no matter what. Sent the first email last night. Feels good. Damn good.

Now What Are You Going To Do?

Take your hands away from the keyboard and mouse and ask yourself this: What are you settling for simply because you’re making excuses? What do you need to tackle that’s worth tackling, no matter how hard it is? What matters most that you’ve been neglecting? Seriously, stop what you are doing and think about this NOW, before you let it slide and regret it for years … or forever.

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Now, get in touch with someone you trust and ask them to hold you accountable for proving you did something to move forward on a regular basis. You’ll know if you’re on the right track by how badly you’re squirming when you think of it.

You get one shot at this life. Don’t make excuses. Get accountable. Move forward. Don’t let another day pass you by.

Do something about this now. Not later, when you’ll conveniently tell yourself “I’ll get to it.” Do it now.

You’ll thank yourself for it.

Dave

3 Reasons This Blog Is Moving (And Improving)

You may have noticed a bit of radio silence on the blog lately. But my inbox, on the other hand, has been on fire. I’ve been trading phone calls, emails and instant messages with a number of people who run successful blogs, and they all have the same message for me: “Focus your blog, man.” And so I will.

The new focus of this blog will be more on productivity tips and time management for life/business rather than on business strategy - basically, how to manage your day (and your focus) better rather than how to get your business to make money faster. So in just a short while when I get the technical details worked out, I’ll have a new domain name and a changed feed for you to update to. Moving a blog isn’t a small undertaking, as I saw with James’ and Harry’s move just a few months back. Whenever you change a feed and domain name, you’re bound to lose subscribers who don’t update (which hurts), but their blog is more popular than ever and is growing like crazy (which makes it worth it).

3 Reasons Why A Move Is A Good, Good Thing

The move will be good for everyone - for you and for me, for 3 good reasons:

• First, you’ll be getting more targeted articles. My posts on time management, productivity, and “getting unstuck” consistently get more traffic than the ones on business strategy. So my blog audience (that’s you!) will get more of what it’s coming here for.

• Second, the move will help the blog grow as I’ll still be writing business strategy articles - I’ll just be doing it on other blogs as guest posts or regular writing positions. When I write articles on business blogs on business strategies, tasty 500+ Digg goodness ensues, which translates to more traffic here.

• Third, focusing on productivity will help me make sure my blog is fulfilling my core business objectives as Michael Martine outlines them - since this blog has been a great vehicle to my time management audio coaching course and my early riser program.

Now It’s Your Turn - What Topics Do You Want To See?

I’ll probably still keep this blog’s tagline: “Get Focused, Work Smarter, and Stomp Your Stress Levels Flat, Baby!” because that’s what I’ll be writing about. In light of that, what topics in that area do you want to see me cover first? Drop your suggestions in the comments section below and I’ll put it in the stack of topics to write about. Thanks, and I’ll let you know when the move is coming, Dave

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