Hello all my almost non-existent followers, here I am, back again. I must say that today, I am blogging in a probably futile effort to stop feeling like I am wasting so much time fiddling around on the Internet. I suppose that it MIGHT be possible that the hours I have been spending tweeting, reading others' blogs, promoting myself by every possible means, and of course, wasting time on Facebook, have not been all in vain, but today, I feel like they have been!! I troll through ProZ every single day looking for jobs to bid on, but I am losing faith that I will ever GET a translation assignment this way. I HAVE ostensibly been recruited by 4 agencies through the site, but as yet, none of these purported recruitments have resulted in any work.
I did go to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, with my expenses paid for by the World University Service of Canada, to work as an interpreter at their Forum. It was a great experience!! In fact, as I write this....I remember that I have not followed up with the contacts I made there. Aargh!! Am I falling into the trap of going down rabbit holes on the web, and not doing the things I should actually be doing to concretely promote my business?! Why am I so distractable??? On the other hand, my very distractability does lead me to some interesting discoveries.
One thing I noticed recently during my "research" on the Internet was an article about hope. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/hope-better-predictor-academic-achievement-intelligence-191430642.html
If it's a great predictor of academic achievement, it must be so as well in business. Perseverance is ALSO touted as one of the main ways to succeed. I posted something about that on Facebook a couple of months ago and in my stronger moments, I remind myself that it's one of the main predictors of success.
In fact, I have no fewer than 10 business leads right now. I just need to figure out how to make them come through!!
And I need to keep myself in that hopeful state, and keep on persevering. It's easier to give this advice to others sometimes than it is to follow it myself.
Another good tip I just got from David, my partner, when he dropped in unexpectedly at lunchtime and found me wallowing in my distractibility....if you have approached 10 people and gotten 1 result, but you need 10 results...get going and approach 100 people!! If you don't ask for it, it won't fall into your lap.
All good advice. Be hopeful, be upbeat. Persevere. And put yourself out there!
OK. I'm ready to get back to work now. I love how writing clarifies my thoughts. Back to the grind!!
I did go to Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, with my expenses paid for by the World University Service of Canada, to work as an interpreter at their Forum. It was a great experience!! In fact, as I write this....I remember that I have not followed up with the contacts I made there. Aargh!! Am I falling into the trap of going down rabbit holes on the web, and not doing the things I should actually be doing to concretely promote my business?! Why am I so distractable??? On the other hand, my very distractability does lead me to some interesting discoveries.
One thing I noticed recently during my "research" on the Internet was an article about hope. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/hope-better-predictor-academic-achievement-intelligence-191430642.html
If it's a great predictor of academic achievement, it must be so as well in business. Perseverance is ALSO touted as one of the main ways to succeed. I posted something about that on Facebook a couple of months ago and in my stronger moments, I remind myself that it's one of the main predictors of success.
In fact, I have no fewer than 10 business leads right now. I just need to figure out how to make them come through!!
And I need to keep myself in that hopeful state, and keep on persevering. It's easier to give this advice to others sometimes than it is to follow it myself.
Another good tip I just got from David, my partner, when he dropped in unexpectedly at lunchtime and found me wallowing in my distractibility....if you have approached 10 people and gotten 1 result, but you need 10 results...get going and approach 100 people!! If you don't ask for it, it won't fall into your lap.
All good advice. Be hopeful, be upbeat. Persevere. And put yourself out there!
OK. I'm ready to get back to work now. I love how writing clarifies my thoughts. Back to the grind!!
