Elementor #158
As a freelance writer, I love the freedom of working from home with my dog by my side, but I used to struggle to find a balance between my life and work schedule. I was missing the types of goals individuals set for success.
I needed actionable goals with clearly defined steps to reach them. Without those, I would never have achieved the success I have today. Whether you’re in the same boat I was as a freelancer or running your own business, here’s how to unlock your potential with a few simple steps.
Sections
The Difference Between Means Goals and End Goals
Don’t know ends vs. means? Most people have an end goal in mind. Maybe it’s a financial goal for the year, maintaining a certain number of sales, or finally seeing yourself succeed as an entrepreneur. It’s great to set your sights high, but you need more than a final goal to achieve results.
My mistake when I started writing, was only seeing the ending goal, which was being financially stable as a writer. What I neglected were means goals. So, what’s the difference?
An end goal is just that, the end of the line where your vision comes to fruition. Means goals, on the other hand, are stepping stones on your way to reaching your final goal. Differentiating and creating these two types of goals is vital to an entrepreneurial mindset. You need both to succeed.
Let’s say your ending goal was to create a successful website that generates passive income. What steps would you take to get there? Those are your means goals, but there’s another aspect to these goals that many entrepreneurs overlook.
Multiple Means
Means goals are essential to achieving results, but there’s no single path to your big, ultimate goal. If purposeful content is a vital part of your website, then there are plenty of ways to achieve your means goal. You can write the content yourself if you have the talent, hire writers to do the work for you, or use a content creation service to outsource your articles.
Once I defined these types of goals for myself, having a successful writing career was more straightforward. I wasn’t pining away at an ever-distant final goal anymore. I had weekly and monthly means goals to help me accomplish what I wanted from my career. If those fell through, I could always find other means.
Setting Both Ends and Means
My means goals are simple. One is setting a specific amount of time each day aside to meet my deadlines. During that time, I focus solely on writing for my client. That means no social media, setting my phone to silent, and only taking a break for emergencies.
Others include lifestyle goals that help keep my mind sharp like drinking plenty of water, eating healthy, and getting a solid eight hours of sleep each night. These every day goals propel me towards my ultimate goal of being a financially successful writer.
Setting these goals can be challenging at first; trust me. I had a lot of anxiety about achieving my dreams when I started writing. It was helpful to take the time to think about what I truly desired. Envisioning not only a successful career but one I would be happy doing helped better define my ending goal.
From there, it was any means to end for a while. That worked for a few months, but clearly defining what means I could take to reach that end worked wonders on my productivity and helped advance my career as a writer. Now, I create content and work on my website while promoting it on social media. Those are three means to my end goal.
My Why Statement
Your why statement breaks down like this:
“My why statement is to _____________, so that ____________.”
Filling in those blanks is tough at first, but there are a few things you can do to help. First, visualize a specific scene in your mind. What is the big picture, or ultimate goal, and how would it feel to be in that place and time after achieving your results?
For me, the big goal for my career is to be a financially successful writer. What motivates me to write is helping entrepreneurs find success and fulfillment in their imperfections, which is what I needed when I started this journey.
Perfectionism and self-doubt used to crush my dreams, causing me to squander my time and nearly give up on my path altogether. The ability to help people overcome some of the same issues as I have is an enormous driving factor. My WHY is rooted in my belief that anyone can positively develop themselves and achieve their goals through any failure.
My desire (or vision) to help entrepreneurs strengthened my tenacity and resolve, helping me take the initiative to achieve my goals. This is the core of entrepreneurial thinking. It’s what makes us successful in our pursuits despite the hardships this lifestyle comes with.
So, my WHY is to help entrepreneurs achieve success and fulfillment in imperfection so that they can live their best lives. In doing so, I’m aiding them in their journey and myself as I create a stable, financial writing business.