Life events and accomplishments sometimes share the same playing field, especially when the person doing the task measures the results, like Michael did during his freelance editing career. You see, Michael offers his editing expertise to clients who hire him through WordsRU, a professional editing and proofreading services company. Possibly you’re thinking to yourself, “What’s so great about Michael working as an editor?” But the real question should be, “What was he measuring, and how does that relate to tracking milestones through life events and accomplishments?” Here’s his story.
Freelance Editor, Michael
When Michael became a freelance editor at WordsRU, he was given his first assignment. That editing gig paid him a specific amount of money, per word, based on the number of words in the document. He completed the editing job, sent the revised version to the client, and waited for the client’s response. After a few back-and-forth tweaks to the written document, the client signed off on the project, and approved of the final revised edit.
The client left a five-star review for Michael’s editing expertise. (Five stars is the highest rating any editor can receive from a client.) At the end of the month, Michael reviewed the tally of editing assignments that he had completed for clients, and he looked forward to receiving payment for his services.
The following month, Michael accepted more and more editing jobs, and that’s when he decided to begin tracking the number of words that he edited for every job. Returning to the prior month’s invoice, Michael recorded the number of clients he had completed editing work for, along with the initial word count for each job.
Tracking Number of Edited Words
Michael didn’t think much about how many words he had edited until quite a few months had passed. That’s when, out of curiosity, he noticed that a sub-total amounted to a little more than 300,000 words. Before the year had ended, Michael was amazed to see that he had edited more than one million words. Now, maybe to you, it makes no difference how many words one freelance editor edited and wordsmithed to please the company and his clients. But, when I heard this story, it reminded me of how everyone around the world tracks performance with numbers.
For example, you may have heard about FitBit, which has an app and several types of devices that lets you track how many steps you’ve walked within a twenty-four-hour period. It also measures your health and fitness numbers. Or, how about stats that are accrued for every sports figure around the world? Students in every type of school imaginable receive grades and points based on their performance.
The point is that we are about to step from one year of goals for 2014 into a new year of 2015 goals. Have you thought about something in your life that you could measure and keep track of that will amaze you at the end of next year? Maybe you’re not a “numbers” person, and you feel that keeping track of something is a waste of time. But, like Michael, who tracked the number of words he had edited, it gave him a feeling of accomplishment. He matters to the world, and so do you!
Tracking Your Milestones
If you’ve never tracked anything before, the task might sound daunting, and you might have no idea where to begin. If that’s you, then WordsRU has a gift they would like to give you, yes, at no charge. Just click this link: Tracking My Success to download a PDF file that you can save and print out. Just fill in the headings for what you would like to track. Keep the document handy and record your stats. Before you know it, you will be amazed at how well you’ve become at tracking your milestones.
Sharing Your Results
If you’d like to share your personal results with us, or tell us what area of your life you’re planning to track, just leave us a comment below. Oh, and if you’d like to acknowledge Michael for his celebration of editing one million words, you can say hello to him in the comments field below, too.
Until next time, I’m wishing you success with tracking your milestones.
Candace, Contributing Editor
