Self-motivating myself through freelance uncertainty
A motivational piece to keep myself going on this solo career path.
Writing it out
It’s easy to feel unmotivated when the work isn’t coming in, despite your best efforts to keep promoting yourself on social media, sending out dead-end emails and posting marketing packs to get little or no reward. It’s a journey to say the least. Bumpy, with lots of twists, turns, dead ends and reroutes.
It’s a worry for me, but that’s the game of self employment. It is hard but at times the benefits of freedom, being your own boss on your terms far out weighs the angst. Sometimes it doesn’t. Which is where I am right now and has led me to write this piece, to try and work it out in my head.
Dining on hors d’oeuvre
Don’t get me wrong I have work to do. It’s quite bitty though and irregular. I prefer meatier, bigger jobs for larger amounts of money, rather than the odd hour long jobs here and there. It is what it is though and I just because I’m working on hors d’oeuvre type projects at the moment doesn’t mean it’ll always be that way. I do feel blessed to have something and I’m very thankful. It keeps cashflow ticking over at least. Still, it seems a struggle every month to scrape everything together to pay myself. I also have a looming tax bill to pay in late July which I’m not worried about yet, but it will come soon enough.
I’m doing my best. Boy am I ever. I work a lot and having a positive mindset has always been a blessing in times of troubles to keep my brain on track.
Manifest it baby
I’m told sometimes to just manifest it and it will happen. A positive mindset is one thing, but manifesting your dreams into reality always seems a bit silly and unrealistic to me. I know… not very positive now am I??? Anyway, by this I mean, you can manifest all you like and despite your hopes, it could just as easily not work out. That’s the reality.
Regardless, whether this works out or not it won’t be through lack of effort. I’m going through it all swinging and smashing through the walls of despair, holding my head up high that I am doing my utmost to keep pursuing my dream. My knuckles are bloody from all the smashing.
But who knows, I could get lucky? Yes there’s an element of luck to it. But I also put in the hours, dam it! Luck isn’t an unpredictable thing anyway. The more you put in the more you get out I say.
Still, a positive mindset, manifestation, luck or keeping on keeping on… it could go every which way. But you know what? I’ll be fine every which way it goes.
If in the end this creative career path doesn’t work out, it’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. I’ll just find another path to pursue. Even if that’s a non creative 9-5 job. I’ll never stop doing my thing. It’s innate in me and alien to think I’d ever stop illustrating our being creative.
For the record, I feel it’s perfectly honourable to keep a roof over your head and pay your bills doing a non creative job if you have to. What am I going to do? Starve? No thanks, I like food too much!
For now I’ll keep pressing on, bloody knuckles and a dream in my back pocket. Let’s see what happens!
Thanks for reading. Pete :)