December, 2017 - Sprinterventurer

It may not sound like much, but I just overcame an extreme obstacle this evening.

Let me set the stage. Christmas Eve 2017. I spent most of the day writing and working on my websites. My stomach was feeling a bit uneasy from too much coffee. Being late December, the days are very short. It was dark and cold, and it had just started to rain. I was warm and snug on the boat. I even reclined wrapped up in a blanket and was idly reading the news. Here’s the kicker: I had a fresh Sixer of DC Brau The Corruption IPA in my cooler. It’s an excellent beer, and it fit my mood!

But then I thought “Hey, I haven’t run yet today!” Ugh. I really didn’t want to. “I’ve been good all week, running every day! I can skip today,” a voice whispered.

I sat there for a few minutes. Dreading the run. It would be so easy to skip a day. But skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next. Tomorrow is Christmas. Who runs on Christmas? (Sorry for the rhetorical question, “I” run on Christmas.)

Then I used a trick I’ve learned recently. It’s called the 5 Second Rule. Not the one that allows you to snarf food that hit the ground if you pick it up within 5 seconds. This was from a book called The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins. I’ve been listening to the audiobook version for the last few weeks.

Basically, whenever you find yourself lacking the willpower to do something, you count backward from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO! There’s a bunch of science to back it up. I’ve already used it to wake up without a billion presses of the Snooze button, and today, to force me to go for a run. Some shy people use it to talk to people they are attracted to, some people use it to speak up at work meetings. The applications are endless.

Today, I used it to get up from my snug and warm seat. I thought “But I really don’t want to run today. It’s dark and cold and it’s Christmas Eve, and I have a sixer of delicious beer here.” The 5 Second Rule works great for getting yourself off your butt. But if you are not vigilant, you can convince yourself to sit back down. Which I did. I then broke up the problem into smaller parts. “What if I, no commitment here, Steve, just collected the clothes I would theoretically wear for a cold run in the rain? I’m not actually going to run because that would be silly! It’s warm here! But I’ll just get the clothes out.”

So I got out the clothes.

Then I said “I’ll just put the clothes on. I don’t actually have to run.”

A couple minutes later, I was wearing my cold weather clothes, winter hat, gloves, and Brooks Cascadia Shell.

“Well it would be really stupid if I don’t run now, I have all my clothes on and I’m ready to go!”

I told myself I would just run 3 miles, but I hit the 3-mile turnaround and didn’t even notice, I didn’t start to think about turning around until I hit the 4 mile. The next part of my route leads through a normally desolate part of Baltimore, and it was especially devoid of humans on Christmas Eve. I listened to the voice in my head that said turn back, because I generally trust my gut instincts.

So I ended up with a 4 mile run when I could have easily run none.

You can use this strategy to give your willpower a boost and accomplish a great many things beyond getting in a run when you don’t want to. Try it!

Sold another article!
Don’t worry, I won’t be boring you with an announcement when I sell each article on the freelance writing site Textbroker!

I just wanted to update you with additional things I have learned.

By the way, this is the second article in a short series on my adventures in Freelancing. You can read the first one here.

Rather than choosing a highly technical computer HOWTO article like the first time, I wrote a personal finance piece. It required very little research, and I invested 2-3 hours into it. Yes, 3 hours for a $9 payout is below minimum wage. It is easy to be discouraged. In fact, I was discouraged after the first one, and that is why I didn’t write any articles for quite a while. But my friend Chip says I should think of it as a paid internship. People are paying me to learn how to write professionally. Sure, you might think anyone with the help of Grammarly can write well. It takes more than that.

The customer will usually have requirements about what voice to use.

They often have keywords they want you to use, and at what density. Often they want you to write in a certain voice. Ideally, they will put all this information in the job description.

In this article, they wanted me to write an article that closely mimicked the style of another article by a competitor. It felt slightly shady, but I did it anyway. I mimicked the style of the article. I used the first person, as that is what the source article was written in. I rewrote the headings but the content under the headings was totally my own.

I submitted it, and the customer came back with a request that it needed to be in the third person as it is going on a business website for a mortgage company. WTF? If you have a requirement that important, it needs to be in the initial instructions! I was turned off at first and was going to walk away, but I thought about it and decided to rewrite it. It only took another 20 minutes to change from first to third person. I have heard that some customers demand endless rewrites to get several free versions of the articles they can use on different websites. Since they are rewritten, they are unique enough to pass a plagiarism check. Thankfully, this customer accepted my rewrite. I assume that they may be new to hiring freelance writers and it was an honest mistake.

What am I going to do going forward? I actually wrote this article weeks ago, but I didn’t publish it. I have written a grand total of 2 articles as a freelance writer. It is hard to find the motivation to write for less than minimum wage. I could go flip burgers for more money. I have decided I should just write for my own sites. There are fewer rules to follow, and I am building a business. The difference between $3 an hour and $0 an hour is negligible. But in the long term, writing keyword-focused content for my own sites should pay off more.

I may continue to write for Textbroker or another marketplace, but not enthusiastically.

My next article in this series will be with another freelancer site. Stay tuned! I’ll link it here.

Archives for December 2017

Using the 5 Second Rule to go for a run on a miserably cold wet and dark Christmas Eve

Second article sold on Textbroker