Yesterday I was reading Loral Langemeier’s Yes! Energy: The Equation to Do Less, Make More, and she mentions that many people have a “be-do-have” attitude, meaning they feel they need to get their mental lives in order and do a lot of thinking before they can take action towards their goals.
I can see this in a lot of writers. They take course after course but never do the homework. They read blogs and ask questions and read books and make plans — but they never take action.
A better way to get started as a freelance writer is to adopt the mantra “do-be-have.” I’ve mentioned here that feelings don’t beget action…actions beget feelings — meaning that you don’t need to be inspired or in the right mindset to take action, but that if you take action, you’ll find that your mindset changes accordingly.
Steve Pavlina calls it “ready-fire-aim.” Many people — new writers especially — get ready, they take aim — and then they aim, aim, aim, without ever firing. Better to get ready, fire, and then re-aim as needed. You may make mistakes, but at least you’ll be moving along the path instead of stuck at the beginning.
Trust that if you just get started with writing up a pitch, building a writer site, or sending out sales letters or letters of introduction, you’ll be able to figure it out as you go along and deal with any issues that come up.
That’s what I did: When I decided I wanted to become a freelance writer, I consulted with one successful copywriter for one hour, read one book on how to write a query letter, wrote a query letter, and sent it out to several places I found in Writer’s Market. I hadn’t even read any of the magazines!
That first burst of action landed me a $500 assignment and launched my career, which has spanned 15 years and which lets me earn full-time income working part-time hours.
I challenge you: Stop thinking and take one step towards your writing goal. Don’t analyze, don’t ponder, don’t overthink, don’t worry — just bite the bullet and get something out there.
I’ll bet it gives you a motivational boost to put even more of your work out there.
Try it now. What happened? Let us know in the Comments!
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