Excuses can Hold Back your Progress
As a freelance writer, it is not difficult to find excuses that will save you from completing certain tasks. For instance, if you don’t want to cold call it is easy to say that you have no time or that your cell phone has no minutes left. And while there are times when excuses are legitimate, they are few and far between.
Simply put, you want to avoid excuses at all costs. If you always have a reason of why you cannot do something you will find progress hard to come by. And when this happens, there is a good chance that your career will suffer and you will eventually decide that freelance writing is not the path for you.
Every so often I hire a professional to work with me in some capacity. This has been everybody from a designer to a coder and many others. And although I take my time when hiring these people, a few of them have been full of excuses. “I cannot turn in the work when promised because my computer broke.†“I got sick and I won’t be able to complete the job at all.†I have heard many excuses, including these two, time after time. As noted above, there are times when an excuse is needed because of a bad break. But of course, there are some who use every excuse in the book whenever possible; this is what you are trying to avoid.
There are two types of excuses that you may be tempted to use: those that allow you to lie to yourself, and those that you use when dealing with clients. In both cases, you are hurting somebody. In the former, you are not doing your career any favors. With the latter, you are not only hurting yourself but you are also damaging a client relationship.
Excuses can and will hold back your progress as a freelance writer. If you avoid making excuses you will find your career advancing at a nice pace.Â
