What Freelancers Fear

In the world of freelancing, entrepreneurship and artistry, fear comes with
territory. And there are certain fears that are unique to our profession.

Financially, we fear the empty
calendar.It’s
a visual reminder of inactivity and, often times, an indication of financial
instability. Butwe alone control the
amount of work we do. We alone determine how busy we are.And if the fear of the work
drying up becomes very real and urgent,we
have to change the pattern. We have to stir the pot, leverage downtime, cut our
own path and find work for ourselves. Whatever it takes toposition
ourselves as someone worth paying attention to.

Creatively,
we fear the blocked brain.Compositional paralysis has ended more careers than rotator
cuff surgery. And when our work hinges on the ability to sit down and whip something
out of thin air, day after day, we have to become masters of our disinclination.
When the brain goes blank, we have to explore places where we’re complete
strangers. Throw ourselves into unfamiliar situations that demand a response.
This type of displacement provides colorful new dimensions to our work,
refilling the creative palette.

Physically, we fear the depleted
constitution.That we’re going to burn out and get
used up before our time, blowing our chances at a lifelong career. But ambition
doesn’t have tocarry
us away to an abyss of chaos. Not if we pace ourselves. Not if we reserve a
portion of our stamina to recover rapidly from disappointment. And even we if
we do experience the occasional bout of exhaustion, it’s better to burn out
than have no fire in the fist place.

Economically,
we fear the unwanted offering. There’s nothing more frightening than the prospect of
irrelevancy. That we’ll bare our soul, only to have the marketplace yawn at our
efforts.That’s why we ought to take a few
minutes each morning to remind ourselves why we rock. That the workwe create is necessary, relevant
and valuable to the marketplace. Armed with that attitude, fear will eventually
howl in protest and find somebody else to annoy.

Individually, we fear the jailed
expression. None
of us would have joined this freelance circus if we weren’tferociously
independent. That’s why we hired ourselves in the first place, for the freedom.
For the ability to turn our desks into cockpits.But minute we start asking permission, our lives are no
longer our own. The minute we start merchandising our souls to the highest
bigger, we’re toast. All we can hope is to stay surrounded by people who don’t
ask us to edit ourselves.

Egoically, we fear the rejected
deliverable.Because
we’re true professionals, the product people ask us to deliver only exists
because we’ve invested the time, money and energy to develop our capacity to
create it. So if the client doesn’t like it, if their face screams not
impressed, it feels like a spike to the heart. But if we’re smart, we build
expectational clarity early in the process. We telegraph our reliability by
delivering a series of small promises consistently, sowing a seed bed of future
understanding and delight.

The
thing about fear is, it’s not meant to be ignored – it’s meant to be invested.

There’s
nothing wrong with being scared.

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What do you fear?

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* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Writing, Publishing, Performing, Consulting

[email protected]

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