Out with the old, etc.
22 Dec
Last year, I worked at a job where Christmas was A Big Deal – the biggest deal of the whole year, in fact. I spent much of December traveling, working late and eating poorly. Surprising no-one, I was more stressed out than I’d ever been in my life. I was overworked, spread too thin and highly unfulfilled.
In 2009, I started freelancing full-time. I’d been a freelance writer for several years, but always when I had time left over after my day job. I was always afraid to commit full time to freelance writing. I loved it, I was great at it, but there were always excuses – primarily money-related.
One day this year, my husband and I were walking to our respective jobs. We were almost at the street where we would part ways and I was talking about how the thought of turning down that street was tying my stomach into knots. It wasn’t a new topic of conversation. In fact, it was so frequent it was bordering on annoying for the both of us. Except on this day, instead of listening and trying to calm me down, my husband told me that my happiness was worth more to him than the salary I was working too hard for every day. He told me he would support me if I wanted to try freelancing full-time.
In the days that followed, we worked out budgets and discussed my plans. I revamped my existing website and got started. I was lucky enough to find a few clients pretty quickly, and they were great clients. I got to work with them on projects they were passionate about, projects they were starting to help others. One of these clients even offered me a part-time writing job. That was not only a source of steady income, but made me feel pretty good about the quality of work I’d done for them.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all smooth sailing – I got stiffed on a $30 invoice, for instance – but it’s been worth it. This year, I finally got to do something I’ve always wanted to do but didn’t believe possible.
I’m excited about 2010. I’ve been discovering what I’m good at and what I’d rather not do. I’m making plans for the next year. Nothing earth-shattering, but it does involve a site revamp, because I can spend many happy hours looking at Wordpress templates. I plan to have that done as early in January as possible and I’m excited!
Here are a couple of other year-end posts I’ve been reading:
- Annual Review: 2009 Life Lessons at the Art of Non-Conformity.
- Don’t Wait Until January 1st to Plan Your Freelance Writing Strategy for the New Year at the FWJ Network.
What are you planning for 2010?
