Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
It’s hard being a freelancer, I don’t care what others say. As Laura Spencer points out it’s mostly Myths, Half-Truths and Lies anyway. I’ve only truly been at it a couple of weeks but even I can tell that this is not going to be easy.
Stevenson’s quote probably holds more true for freelancers than any other business. It’s easy to neglect the TV, the computer games and even the house chores when you have to work in an office, but how much more difficult to neglect are they when you are working from home. Worse yet, when your spouse or partner returns from work and says “You’ve been home all day, why haven’t you done the hoovering/dishes/laundry?”
Thankfully there is a lot of help and advice out there, from inspiring articles as penned by Laura to freelance e-books such as the recently released “Unlimited Freelancer” from Freelance Folder. It’s all good but it does bring an old saying to mind (and one of my all time favourites).
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
~ Bruce Lee.
It’s good advice and something we must all strive to achieve, myself included but the key to all this is perseverance.
If At First You Don’t Succeed
Perseverance for me has got to be the one defining aspect of a successful freelancer. You can learn whatever skill you want and outsource the ones you don’t but if you cannot persevere you will never make it as a freelancer.
I must admit, perseverance has never been a strong trait of mine and it scares me to write this. On the other hand I know the only way to conquer my fear is to face it head on. And what better way to face it than declaring it openly on the Interwebs!
I don’t want this to sound like doom and gloom though. Perseverance is a state of mind and as such can be nurtured. One of the ways I’m doing this is to actually pace myself. Rather than try to do everything in one go I’ve set some limits and boundaries.
As an example: Get a posting schedule and stick to it not just when you are short of a post but when you have an abundance of posts. It’s very easy to write a lot and publish it in one go but you only have to work harder when you are struggling to find something to say later on. It’s also very easy to give up when you are struggling to find inspiration. By forcing myelf to write within a time limit I’ve found it that much easier to persevere when all I want to do is give up and go watch the TV or play World of Warcraft.
I’m still learning however and would very much appreciate some more tips on nurturing perseverance. What do you do to motivate yourself? How do you get things done when you’re feeling particularly lazy? Add your tips to the comments below.
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I’m glad you are finding Freelance Folder to be useful.
Best wishes in your new freelancing career.
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