The will killer Defining targets in the freelance industry
DEFINING targets is a much underestimated element of growth. A target, however, by definition is an achievable goal you put your eyes on. It is a final product that is created in your mind to solve a problem at hand.
Whether you feel the need to improve a specific skill set or gain a specific experience, this goal nevertheless, is to make a difference in one way or another.
The most commonly defined of these goals is financial freedom, be that as it may, is not a valid achievable product – the existence of which can kill the human capability of defining any productive targets at all.
The freelance industry is filled with cases of “mass murdering” of these potential productive targets.
It is defined as an industry where “you are the boss of your own” and you work according to your will, in a manageable time routine.
However, this can be taken as a drawback in the professional community: in the absence of a boss, you do not have a senior figure to validate your capabilities, expertise and weaknesses.
Hence, by a great majority of new freelancers, the definition of this industry has been broken and glued into “I am an expert at what I say”.
This certain mindset neglects the imbalance caused by mixing financial freedom with an industry that has a self-made definition.
This imbalance, nonetheless, causes people to push themselves toward an undefined target, hence undefined objectives with an undefined effort made in an undefined direction.
When you define a target, you take certain steps towards achieving it.
These steps are further divided into smaller objectives and every objective has a defined direction that leads to the next objective.
Some objectives are independent and some are interlinked, which one by one lead to achieving the goal that we initially set.
The success of these objectives depends on the nature of the goal. For instance, if your goal is variable and changes over time, your objectives will keep changing with it.
In this way, you lose consistency, focus, determination and loyalty toward your goal. By time you have achieved your variable targets; you will realize that your objectives that were supposed to be interlinked are not even related anymore.
The term financial freedom makes people move around. Everyone tries to execute ways that make them more money.
These ways are usually introduced as trends on social media as, “Top 10 online ways to make money 2022”.
These top 10 ways would include legitimate ways of earning, but the content creator of that media would make it sound so easy to implement those ways that people will eventually get persuaded to initiate that ‘way’.
Some people, for instance, would want to initiate everything all at once from that video simultaneously.
The funniest question one can ask is: if you know so much about being a multi-millionaire, what are you doing on YouTube?
One can wonder where your Amazon Empire? People need to understand, for the sake of themselves, that it is extremely important for them to figure out their goals.
If your goal is to make money, your goal is wrong. It is not taking you anywhere. Look out for something you like doing and try to experiment with a few experiences.
It’s like Tinder, look at the potential liking, swipe left if you don’t feel it, and swipe right if you feel it.
Once you think you have matched a vibe with your new experience, get determined and start your journey toward contributing to self-growth and the growth of the industry.
—The writer is Harvard Rhetorician & Tech Entrepreneur based in Islamabad.
