Today I interviewed the treasurer of a local university for their alumni magazine, and at one point in the conversation he said, “Your processes are geared towards getting you the results you’ve been getting. If you don’t like the results, then your processes are no good.”

I love this. It makes a lot of sense for the freelance writer: If you’re not getting the work you want, then you need to tweak what you’re doing.

The statement also resonated with me personally. Lately I’d been wanting to attract new magazine clients and mentoring/e-course clients, but felt stuck. How could I expand my business? My usual M.O. wasn’t working as well as I would have liked.

I had been viewing social media as a distraction to be used as little as possible, but by chance Eric got me a book called The Zen of Social Media Marketing from the library. As I read it, I realized that this is what I’d been missing. I can connect with people through this blog, but the way to bring people to the blog is to actually, you know, get out there and build my expertise on other platforms. I definitely need to keep tabs on the amount of time I spend on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but I’m excited about this change in direction and look forward to connecting with writers in new ways.

I call situations like this, where you suddenly take a leap into a new way of thinking and working, mind shifts. It was a mind shift in the summer of 2009 when I decided to cut my workweek down to two days (while maintaining the same income), and it was a mind shift two years ago when a coach talked me into offering phone mentoring (when I was previously scared of the idea).

Sometimes mind shifts come on of their own accord, but there are ways to help spur a mind shift when you feel stuck. So if you’re having trouble finding article ideas, thinking up new markets, or dreaming up new ways to sell your writing, here are some ways to force a mind shift.

Meditate. Sometimes we get stuck because we spend so much time running around putting out fires that we have no time or mental space to tackle the big issues. When this happens, I force myself to take a few minutes to lie on the floor and meditate. I often come up with fresh new ideas as, ironically, I’m trying to not attach to random floating thoughts.

Sometimes, opening yourself up this way brings on benefits without your even trying. The other day I was feeling harried and worried about not having enough work, so I shut my laptop and lay down on the floor. When I got up a little while later and checked my e-mail, there was a message from one of my favorite editors asking if I’d like to write a column for her magazine! That night before bed, I did a guided meditation from The Meditation Podcast. When I woke up in the morning, there was an e-mail from a custom publishing company I had written to weeks before, saying they were looking for freelance writers and would be in touch. I checked the time stamp and realized the e-mail had been sent at 10:30 pm the night before — the exact time I was doing the meditation.

Ask a coach. Whenever I feel like I’m stuck in low gear and need a mind shift, I set a session with my life coach. She’s the one who talked me into teaching e-courses even though my initial market research was less than positive. And it was a coach at The Yoga of Writing retreat who finally convinced me to start phone mentoring even though the very idea scared me out of my wits. These were two pivotal points in my career. Sometimes you need an outside perspective on how you can get unstuck, and coaches are trained to spot sticking points and help you work through them.

Get crazy. As fast as you can, make a list of every idea you have on how to fix whatever problem is bugging you — for example, say you’re looking for new ways to sell articles. Don’t censor your ideas…just let them flow. Then go through them one by one and seriously consider what would happen if you gave these ideas a try. The ones that sound crazy could be just the game-changing tactics you need to get out of your rut. Maybe you decide to start pitching editors by phone, build relationships with editors on Twitter, or find out which editors went to the college you attended or hail from your area and use that connection to break the ice. Those ideas sound crazy at first, but are they really? (My take: No.)

Like my wise source said, you can’t get radical new results using the same old tactics. Have you ever had a mind shift related to freelancing? Did it come on naturally or did you need to force it? [lf]

If you liked that post, you might also like:

• 3 Ways to Escape the Content Mills and Earn More as a Freelance Writer
• Kickstart Your Brainstorming Process
• 5 Ways to Put the Beginner’s Mind to Work for Your Writing Career
• Write More, Worry Less: How to Beat Perfectionism
• Are You an Overwhelmed Freelancer? Marla Beck Tells You How to Beat the Overwhelm & Kick Butt