Prioritizing Actions That Further Your Goals

When Everything Seems Important

Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

Does this sound familiar?

You’re putting in a ton of hours to get your freelance business up and running, clocking in time before and after your day job, jotting down business ideas during lunch, maybe even getting out of bed in the middle of the night to tackle just one more thing on your to-do list. You’re tired, but you feel good. You’ve set your sights on big dreams and have been working like a boss to get things in motion.

But are you any closer to your goals?

When I officially started my freelance writing career, I put my dream out into the universe: to make a full-time living as a freelance writer in a creative and sustainable way. I set two very specific short-term income goals:

• Milestone 1: Hit $2,000/month by Christmas 2018.
• Milestone 2: Hit $5,000/month by one year (July 2019).

I did not meet either goal. Why?

Looking back, it’s because I spent too much time on things that seemed important, instead of the things that actually were.

I didn’t prioritize the actions that would yield the results I wanted.