By Cynthia Rosi

It can be overwhelming for a new freelancer to pick a target market – like eating a mountain of ice-cream, with the attendant brain freeze. Do I set up a blog? Pitch service pieces? Trade pubs? Write essays? Or create an e-book to establish expertise?

Visualization can be the ace up a freelancer’s sleeve. Instead of a scatter-gun approach to your career, visualization creates focus. Instead of overwhelm, you bring calm.

There are two types of visualization that help writers. The first is trying out different goals to see which works for you. The second is picking a specific goal, and energizing your subconscious to act on it.

I Can’t Visualize! My Mind Won’t Shut Up. :-/

Everybody’s ADD these days. But there’s an ancient breathing technique called “alternate nostril breathing” or nadi sodhana that instantly calms the mind, creating the state you need for visualization.

Here it is on You Tube.

Resolve Thorny Decisions

Say you get discouraged. The bills need to be paid, and the freelancing doesn’t seem to take off fast enough.

You get offered a “real job” but you’re worried about how you’ll keep those new-to-you editors happy if you have to work a 40-hour week.

Here’s how to use visualization to try out the situation:

Sit quietly with your feet flat on the floor and your arms uncrossed, a position which helps your body to relax. Keep your spine erect, which helps your mind to clear. Use alternate nostril breathing if your mind bounces around.

Now put yourself into the new environment. Does it feel good? Freeing? Uncomfortable? How much money do you have?

How much time do you have? What changes do you need to make to keep writing? Can you sustain that?
Keep asking yourself questions until you receive a clear picture.

Get Up and Walk

If it’s difficult to sit and focus on a problem, use your body’s wisdom to help you.

Holding one option in mind – in this scenario the potential job – get up and walk across the room. How does your body feel? Where does it feel tense? Where does it feel free?

Then visualize the opposite scene – like remaining a freelancer – and walk back. How does that make your body feel? What were the differences you noticed?

The scene that feels best is probably the one that should become your goal.

The Magic Formula

Once you know your goals, you can really pour energy into them.

In The Intention Experiment, author Lynne McTaggart details how intention affects our physical bodies, and includes data on plant experiments where intention affected their growth. For current experiments: http://theintentionexperiment.com/the-experiments.

Here’s a snapshot of the process outlined in the book:

1. Create a specific aim
2. Visualize that it has occurred
3. Hold a mental picture of it occurring at the moment
4. Engage all five senses
5. The centerpiece of the visualization is the moment you achieve the goal
6. Let go of the outcome

I’m Not a Plant

What use is this formula to a freelance writer? It helps you to create a specific aim, and to focus on achieving that.

In the array of options in your freelancing meal plan, which looks most delicious? Do you love blogging? Want to find an outlet for those essays?

Pick the entré that seems the most nourishing for you, both as a writer and as a bread-winner.

Try It!

Once again, sit quietly with your feet flat on the floor and your arms uncrossed, keeping your spine erect.

Then begin to build a mental picture. See yourself at your desk, working for the target market. How does it feel when you are doing this work? How will you feel different? What are the objects that surround you?

Use All Five Senses

See the color of the room, hear the sounds of your environment, and recall smells like your breakfast coffee.

See yourself looking out from your eyes, creating the work, and receiving your payment.

Focus on how you feel now that you’ve made your goal, and that you continue to receive employment this way.

Now Let Go

After the six-step process, it’s time to relax, enjoy feeling hopeful, and trust that your scenario will arrive, given time and work.

When you “let go,” you release the conscious mind from taking you from A to B in its linear way, and allow the sub-conscious mind to grab solutions from every direction.

These solutions later bubble up as inspiration, dreams, co-incidence and synchronicity – the stuff writers need to make their work unique.

The Bigger the Goal, the Longer It Might Take

If you visualized writing for $1/word markets, it may take time for the subconscious to direct you to the steps you need to bring in that level of business, and sustain it.

So you may be inspired to take classes, sign up for mentoring, join notice boards, or read an old blog post that’s right for you.

Once you receive those inspirations, it’s important to act on them. Visualization brings you the ideas, but you must put in the work to achieve results.

A Smooth-Running Day

I use visualization every morning to sort through my goals. I try out different scenarios for the day, to see how they feel and fit together. Sometimes I ask to see a picture of the best order in the day, and then let a “movie” unfold in my mind like a dream sequence.

On other days I know what I want, and I use the six-step process to energize a specific aim, like breaking into a target market.

Your mind is your most powerful tool. By harnessing the power of visualization you can pull in the information you need to take your next steps to success.

Cynthia Rosi practiced energy healing for ten years, and taught it for three. She’s a freelance writer in Columbus, Ohio where she covers art, wine production, news and features, and would be happy to guest post for your blog. “Like” her at http://www.facebook.com/ColumbusFreelanceWriter or visit www.cynthiarosi.com.

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• Faith and Focus
• 7 Steps to Freelance Writing Success Through Positive Thinking
• 3 Pitfalls that Keep Freelancers From Landing Better Writing Assignments (And How to Avoid Them)
• Are You an Overwhelmed Freelancer? Marla Beck Tells You How to Beat the Overwhelm & Kick Butt
• Create a Video Vision Board to Keep You On Top of Your Freelance Writing Goals