Last week I told you about my being unhappy with where I am in my writing career. It seems that everyone agrees that you need to focus, have a plan, and decide what to do to change your situation if you're miserable. So let's talk about that today...

5 Steps To Changing Your Life/Career

The beginning of the year is stressful for many. You've got a clean slate; a whole new year ahead of you. So what will you do with it? For some writers, this creates a sense of newness and excitement at the possibility of things to come. But for others, it's stressful because you realize (like I did) that you are nowhere near where you planned to be a year ago.

If you're in the last group of writers, chances are you'll do one of two things: change what you're doing, or continue doing it and keep getting the same results. When you finally get tired of going around in circles, here are five steps you can take to change your path.

1. Decide to change-once and for all. Until you can determine in your mind that you are going to change, things will continue on the same path they've been on. You have to make your mind up that no matter what obstacles present themselves, you are going to do things differently this time around. Don't wait for someone else to tell you what to do. You have to take matters into your owns hands.

Deciding to change is important because changing your mindset changes your whole outlook. When you create that mental shift, everything else starts falling in line.

2. Recognize your counterproductive behaviors. Before anything can be changed, you have to be able to stop and take a good look at what you're doing. If you don't even know what is working against you, how can you fix it?

Sit down with a notepad and draw a timeline of the past year or two. Break it down into 1- 3- or even 6-month increments (1 or 3 would be best). Write down everything you accomplished within each time frame. It doesn't matter how large or small the accomplishment. Just write it all down on paper.

After you write down your accomplishments, turn the page over and make a list of all the goals you made at the beginning of this time period. (If you can't remember what your goals were, then that could very well be your underlying problem.) Most people who set goals write them down, so if you did this, just pull them out and re-write them on the back of your page.

Now put down your ink pen and take a look at your page(s). How did your accomplishments measure up against your goals? Take a fresh sheet of paper now and write down everything you can think of that could be a time waster. How does this list measure up against your other two lists? Can you see certain patterns and bad habits that prevented you from reaching your goals?

3. Do something about it. Changing your mind and recognizing your bad habits are essential keys to unlocking your full potential. But if you do only those two things and don't apply some action behind it, you're still going to be sitting in the same spot another year from now.

I believe once you change your mind, you will automatically begin to change what you're doing. That's been my personal experience. I had one of these "AHA!" moments about my own goal setting. I was good at setting goals, but not so good at following through with them. My priorities were out of whack and I lacked personal direction. When I got sick enough of repeating the same things, I finally made my mind up to do something different.

One of the major issues for me was feeling very unsatisfied with my work. While I love writing, what I've been doing has been extremely unfulfilling. I finally reached a breakdown where I almost wanted to quit writing altogether. If a career in writing meant doing what I've been doing, and feeling the way I'd been feeling, then I was ready to say good-bye to it.

Julia Cameron once said that she prefers to call a breakdown a breath THROUGH, because when you reach this point, something changes. This proved true with me. I decided to stop waffling and take the plunge into copywriting. It's something I've dabbled in for a couple of years, but was too scared and insecure to actually leap into.

Fear is always the thing that stops us from doing what we truly want to do. I turned my fear into gasoline this time, by signing up for a copywriting course and opening my business.

Change happens when you get up and move.

4. Determine what works for you-then do it. Ordinarily, I'd set a list of goals for the entire year at the end of December. And at the end of almost every year, without fail, I'd look back to discover that if I'd accomplished any of them, it was very few.

This year I decided that wasn't working for me. I know it's good to have long-term and short-term goals. But if you know something isn't working, why keep doing it? So this year I decided to set one short-term goal at a time. Once I reach one goal, I'll set another one. I know what I want long-term. But to set an entire list of goals, only to repeat the same behavior as last year, what good would it do me?

I've already completed two goals this year...and we're barely in mid-January! Once I break into a running stride with my "baby goals" I'll sit down and do some more long-term planning again. But for now, I'm walking a good, steady pace.

Maybe what I'm doing won't work for you. Everybody has their own methods and ways of doing things. Find what will work for you and do it.

5. Be open to possibilities. Ask for help when you need it. I combine these last two thoughts because I think they are intertwined. Once you decide in your mind what you want, there is no stopping you. My family calls me hard-headed all the time, and they're right. When I decide I'm going to do something, nothing stops me. I'm determined and headstrong.

When you become determined, you will feel like you have purpose and a direction again. You'll find focusing on tasks simpler than it used to be. You'll be more productive and spend less time on wasteful tasks. Most importantly, you will become more aware of possibilities that surround you every day. You'll start believing in yourself and your abilities more.

As you step into this new arena of self-confidence, there may be just one more thing you have to work on: Asking for help when you need it. This is a biggie for me, too. I truly have a difficult time asking for help. I almost always do everything I can to figure things out or work it out on my own (I am, after all, quite an independent person by nature). Once I exhaust all resources-and am worn out and frustrated-then I ask for help. Are you the same way?

It's not productive to be so autonomous. Why spend four hours laboring over something, when you could ask for help and be finished with the task at hand in under thirty minutes?

I'm not telling you to be clingy or needy. That will only get you labeled as such, and you don't want that to happen! But if you know your knowledge is limited in a certain area, don't waste countless hours trying to do it on your own. Ask for help, stating clearly and specifically what you need help with so that you can get the job done.

What steps are you taking to change your life/career?

Share your story about how you changed your life or career at http://www.hopewrites.com/what-to-do-when-what-youre-doing-doesnt-work-anymore/ . Or visit Hope Writes for more writing tips http://www.hopewrites.com