As I’ve posted before, one of the tough things about branching off on your own is that, well, you’re on your own. As a new freelance copywriter working out of my home, I spend at least 12-16 hours a day completely alone. I strive to drink coffee with friends a couple of days a week, and sometimes I take a day off, but for the most part, I’m here in front of my computer, alone.

This working situation is tough on my personal relationships. I keep my poor sister on the phone way too often, and my past boyfriends have had to deal with my incessant babbling when we were in the same room because I had been starving for human contact. (Note that I’m very single now).

The other day I had a revelation. What if every time the phrase, “I feel lonely” passed through my head, I stopped myself and replaced it with, “I feel ambitious”? I truly am ambitious these days…. I want to make a living — a real living, not just staying out of debtors’ prison, as a writer. When I was a little girl, I dreamed of writing, not of a husband and a nice house and well-behaved kids. In my English classes, I imagined kids 40 years in the future struggling to pronounce my name as they studied my short story collections. So I’m living the dream I always wanted to live (although right now they only way kids are going to see my name in English class is if I ghost write their textbook or something).

Thus, each time I think lonely thoughts, I start thinking ambitious thoughts. I decided to try it with this phrase first, and then perhaps I’ll work on other phrases. So far it’s giving me real energy to keep going.