Demand Studios Progress, Week 1, Part 1

I'm going to start my DS weekly goals on Friday, since that was when I received my first payment. As I mentioned in my previous post, the payment schedule breaks down like this:

Articles approved by 11:59 PM PST (2:59 AM EST) Sunday will be paid on Tuesday.
Articles approved by 11:59 PM PST (2:59 AM EST) Wednesday will be paid on Friday.

Here is my progress so far:

Four $15 articles accepted = $60 - These will definitely get paid on Tuesday.
Five $15 articles under Copy Editor review = $75 - Pending rewrites and/or approval, these may or may not make the 2:59 EST cutoff, but will definitely get paid on Friday.

So I just need one more $15 article to make my $150 goal. That's in three days of writing!

Friday - Four articles
Saturday - Four articles (technically two were written after midnight Sunday, but I'm counting it as Saturday because I hadn't gone to sleep yet)
Sunday - One article (so far)

It's looking like four articles a day is good for me right now. It may get harder when I go back to school, but now it's pretty easy. I've been having some trouble finding good titles today, but I'm going to take a break and maybe give it another shot later. I think if I want to expand this goal to $300 a week, I will either have to write five or six a day, or write earlier on Wednesday to make the 2:59 AM cutoff.

And because I don't want people to think DS is a scam (and as motivation to keep writing), here are my earnings for the year so far (click on the picture to view it full-size):



So there you have it! This is how I will be funding my trip to L.A. and paying for my textbooks!

P.S. I know this is supposed to be a spiritual blog, but I think there is a link between spirituality and money, whether good or bad. I've been very stressed out about bills and not having a job that it has made it hard for me to focus on my spirituality and trust my insight like I would if I had no financial concerns. Who knows, maybe the money I save from these articles will help fund my trip to Sedona, AZ, one of the spiritual centers of the world!

Setting Goals

I've learned the hard way that it is easier to achieve something by setting a goal instead of jumping in with no plan. When I decided earlier this week that I was going to start writing articles for Demand Studios again, my initial goal was to get $150-$200 by July 24, which is tomorrow. What I didn't take into account was 1) There is a cutoff for when to receive payments on either Tuesday or Friday and 2) I wasn't pushing myself hard enough to complete the 10-15 articles required to reach that goal.

So now I have to wonder if it's easier to set daily, weekly, or monthly goals. Do I set general goals (i.e. I want to make $500 by the time I go back to school) or specific goals (i.e. I want to make enough money to be able to pay my phone bill for the next two months)? Obviously if I set a daily goal of at least $100, my weekly goal would be $500-$700 (if I write on the weekends), which would make my monthly goal $2,000-$2,800. That's practically a full-time job, and if I could pull that off, I wouldn't worry so much about finding a real job! But I think setting a weekly goal of $500 or more is more realistic than setting a daily goal of $100, for the simple fact that I go out during the day and come back late at night, and probably won't want to bang out 6 articles after waking up or before I go to sleep.

I just received $60 for four articles, the first two which were written on Tuesday, and the second which were written on Wednesday. So I was $90 short of my goal, unless I want to get technical and say, "Well, I didn't mean it had to be in my account by the 24th, I just want the articles approved for payment by then." This would allow me to make up that $90 by tomorrow, but it would mean getting six articles approved by then! This is actually entirely doable, as I have two under review right now, and could easily knock out four more if I gave myself a late deadline.

In light of everything that I need to do (pay bills, buy textbooks, and save money to go to L.A.), I think I am better off setting weekly goals. But it gets a little tricky, since the payments are twice a week. Anything I write between Thursday and Sunday at 11:59 PST will get paid out on Tuesday. Anything I write between Monday and Wednesday at 11:59 PST will get paid out on Friday. I think the best thing for me to do is set a cumulative goal, instead of a biweekly goal, which I think will put a lot more pressure on me. That way if I don't reach my goal for Tuesday's payment, I have a few days to make up for it.

Taking into account the two articles that I have pending right now, I'd say 10-20 $15 articles is pretty reasonable. That would net me $150 on the low end, $300 on the high end by next Friday, with the potential for more if I can push myself to knock out more than 20 articles. I think it's possible. No, I know it's possible! Hopefully, I'll remember to update as the week progresses. Wish me luck!

For tips on setting your own writing goals, check out these sites:

Setting Effective Writing Goals

Setting Your Writing Goals

Here's some shameless self-promotion to one of my articles about goal setting:

Achieve Your Goals with a Wish Jar: Setting and Achieving Goals, Wishes Creatively

Today's Goddess Guidance - Aine (Leap of Faith)

"Take a risk, and put your heart's true desire into action!"

This is the message of Aine, a Celtic goddess of healing, fertility, protection, and prosperity.

Why does this message matter for me?

I have so many goals, so many dreams, and yet I tend to abandon them because I think they are impossible to achieve. I guess I either underestimate my ability, or I just don't believe that it is meant to happen for me. And I know I need to stop thinking that way. Considering that my principle for today is, "Let go of worry," I know that the Universe is definitely trying to tell me something. As Aine's message says, it is time for me to take a risk, and have faith that the Universe will take care of the rest.

Of course, this is all easier said than done. I have been getting in my own way for too long, and it's time to stop. I need to take that leap of faith, and trust that everything else will fall into place.

Dreams of Being Chased, A Wake Up Call

I have unusual dreams most nights that, from what I recall in the morning, often involve me being chased. The first thing anybody asks me when I tell them about these dreams is, "well, are you running away from something?" And the first thing I tell them is, "well, not that I can think of."

And that's the honest truth. I came into this year knowing that I had to let go of and change a lot of things. I needed to start rebuilding relationships, and cutting the ones that were getting toxic. I took time to admit to myself everything that I was unhappy with in 2009, and am actively trying to make 2010 the year that I achieve many of the goals I let fall through the previous year. I know it's going to take work, but I do not want to repeat the mistakes that I made in '09.

With that being said, I can't think of anything that I could be running away from. But, I know that dreams are often more involved than we think, so I went to my favorite site for dream analysis for help. Dreammoods.com does a great job of analyzing the most common meanings behind chase dreams, but, of course, the answer isn't always so black and white. From what I remember of the dreams I've had, they tend to involve more than one attacker, usually people I don't know, and being chased through either a really public place, a supermarket in at least two cases, or the middle of nowhere, a forest in at least one.

I don't have all the answers right now, and I probably never will, but I'll take these dreams as a sign that I'm not out of the woods just yet... I still have something or somethings that I need to face. I just have to figure out what they are.