Living with Clariity is a site dedicated to supporting and equipping moms to be better parents and family CFOs as they navigate the many monumental changes in life: getting married, having kids, buying a new home, changing jobs, putting the kids through college, etc.  I am really excited to be a part of this new project!

Read my first 2 posts on the Clariity blog:

Relationships and Money: Combining Finances After Marriage

Planning an Outdoor Wedding

If you have any requests for topics you would like to see covered that are of particular interest to newlyweds or engaged couples, leave me a comment!

When I first started doing freelance writing, I wasn’t sure if I would end up specializing in anything, or what that specialty would be. Green living? Yoga? These were some of the topics that got me started, and I still do some work in these areas. I’m even still working for AltGlobe, my very first client. But gradually, I realized that what really excited me were assignments related to health and wellness. I started moving more and more towards work in this area, and feel very fortunate to have secured my work with My Big Life and Healthy Theory.

Eventually, I started giving up the clients that weren’t related to health and wellness. It’s amazing to think that a year ago, I was taking any and every freelance job I could get that paid a decent wage. I wrote a lot of difficult articles on subjects of little or no interest to me. I had to hone my skills, learning how to write faster; how to construct a solid outline before writing; how to write first, then edit. I believe that my writing and time-management skills have improved tremendously over the past year. And having a part-time job has allowed me to do it all without the stress of supporting myself solely on my freelance earnings.

But now that I’ve secured more work in the health and wellness industry – and landed my highest-paying gig yet – I’m feeling a familiar itch. My thoughts are completely preoccupied with ideas about articles. Being at the office is torturous because it is taking time away from my writing. I feel like I’m ready to take that step and move into freelancing full time.

I know when I tried it before, it was difficult. I had trouble staying on task, and didn’t always enjoy being at home alone all day. I craved structure and social interaction. But now, my situation is different. Instead of a cramped apartment, I have a house with dedicated office space. I’ve been more disciplined with my schedule (evidenced by the fact that I’ve been getting up to regularly attend a 6 a.m. yoga class). I have work that I really, really enjoy. And I have a new goal: to become a certified holistic nutritionist so that I can continue expanding my knowledge and services in the health and wellness industry and add more credibility to my writing.

So I’ve decided to give the new gig two weeks to make sure I enjoy it as much as I think I will, and though I haven’t given my notice yet, I have a target date for resigning from my part-time job. Here’s to the year ahead … may it be as full of growth and opportunity as the past twelve months.

After that’s finished, I’m planning on building an affiliate storefront, which will contain books, yoga gear, and other products related to mind-body fitness, wellness, and eco-sensitive living. I’m really excited about creating the new site — I bought a fantastic domain name, and the store will be closely integrated with Have a Namaste. In the meantime, I have some books showcased on my Recommended Books page. I’ll be keeping this page updated with books that I’m reading as well as others that I find to be of value in the health and wellness arena.

Work is also going very well. After negotiating a rate increase with one of my clients, I have shifted my daily work plan around, and have been very happy about the income I’ve been earning this month. As far as writing goes, I’ve found that the subjects I’ve been exploring for Healthy Theory have all been fairly research intensive, so I haven’t been posting there as often as I’d expected. But I do have four articles up on the site now (see below). Though they are a bit time-consuming, writing for Healthy Theory allows me to learn more about topics I’m interested in anyway, so I don’t mind putting in the extra time. I would still like to post to Healthy Theory more frequently when (or if!) my other creative projects wrap up. But knowing how plans can change, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m immersed in some new projects before long. (I do still have that wedding album to put together ….)

Healthy Theory articles:

Corn-Fed vs. Grass-Fed Beef

The Health Benefits of Quinoa

The Dangers of High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Not All Sugars Are Created Equal

To that end, I’ve come up with a new work plan that will allow me to stay on track and make the best use of my time so that I can meet my income goals for the year. It breaks down into:

• 5  hours a day at the part-time job
• 2 hours freelance web content management for mybiglife
• 3 articles (for any of 5 different clients, which include Demand Studios, New Hope Bariatrics, and Healthy Theory, a new client for whom I will be writing health and wellness articles)

With my new work plan, I can make $155 a day ($755 per week, or just over $40k a year), and I should be able to get it all done in 8-9 hours a day. And that’s not including any time I put in on weekends, or my occasional bookkeeping gig, which brings in about another $100 a month.

I’m pretty excited about having a plan in place, because my ultimate goal (once I have a little more debt paid off), is to become a certified holistic nutritionist. I’m looking into a program with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and the curriculum looks awesome. The 8-month program covers nutrition concepts, modern health issues, anatomy and physiology, health counseling, healthy eating and living, and professional practice. My dream is to do part-time nutritional counseling while continuing to write about health and wellness issues (and with a certification, I can command a higher rate and even write for magazines and other publications).  Though that’s all probably a couple of years away, I’m very excited about my new goals and really looking forward to learning more about health and nutrition. Until I can afford to enroll in the program, I’m devouring all the books I can by holistic nutrition and wellness experts like Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Mehmet Oz.  I’m also continuing to move my writing career more in this direction by finding new clients like Healthy  Theory, and focusing my Demand Studios efforts on health-related topics.

Last night mom & I went with some friends to the “Spiritual Comedy” presentation by Andy Dooley, who spoke about visualization and the law of attraction, so I’m pretty excited right now to putting some of these practices into place to make my goals a reality. It’s all stuff I’ve been reading and learning about for a few years now, but it always helps to have a refresher course!

But I did read a very encouraging article on Freelance Writing Jobs yesterday about finding work on Craigslist. The author, Carly, says she makes more money and works fewer hours than she did when she had a full-time job, and all of her work comes from Craigslist. She spends one hour a day searching through and applying to job ads in all major cities. So I decided to try it today. It took me more like an hour and a half, and in the end I had only found two jobs I felt were worth applying for. But if I’m diligent about applying for jobs every day, I should start seeing some results. I also e-mailed one of my favorite clients to see if they had any opportunities for more work in a different area.

So I know it’s possible to make this work. I just have to keep plugging away. Productivity and career growth are things you have to work at every day.