015: Hey Freelance Friend

Welcome to episode 15 of FreelancerOS.

Let’s dive right in:

1. “When we have a goal, dream, or plan, there is no measure of intent. It is only whether you did it or not that counts”

We all have that thing.

The thing we wrote down or told people about in January.

It keeps cropping up on our to-do list for the week or day, but it’s a “will do if I have time” kind of thing.

A “I’ll do it after all my client work is done” thing.

A “I’ll do that when I’m not tired” thing.

Even though it was something we thought about, imagined what it would be like when we did it, and spoke out into the world.

It just stays there, gathering dust, not actually getting done.

Why?

Well, our brains are designed to thrive on familiarity and comfort.

Doing something new? Even if it will be transformational for us, our income and our business?

Your brain isn’t a fan.

It would much rather keep doing the same client work, staying at the same level of income, and sticking to what we know.

Not to mention the fact that you might fail, and that the idea you have constructed of yourself in your head which releases dopamine when you think about, might actually be proved to be false.

This is incredibly scary for your brain.

It is also inertia inducing.

So, how can we combat this, and do the things we want to do like:

• Learn a new skill

• Offer a new service

• Create a digital product

• Elevate our business

Well: Periodic reviews are crucial.

If you plan and review things once a year, you will go a whole year before you see on last years vision board “Build a new service offering and launch it”

Quarterly planning and reviews? Well, you will only ever go 3 months while coasting along, mindlessly sidetracking your dream.

Monthly? That’s better.

Want to supercharge this?

Organise monthly check ins with your partner, best friend, mentor, coach, business partner, or someone from the internet (there are a lot of accountability groups out there)

Want to use psychology to help?

It is often not enough fuel for us to follow through on our dreams by simply thinking about the positive benefits of completing the thing.

An exercise to do is to also to think of the “hell scenario” (to go along with that heavenly one), which would be to think and take note of:

what it would be like if you didn't achieve your goal.

This gives your brain not only something to move towards, but also something to run away from (which, as animals, can often be more motivational)

2. “Pride is often involved in many of our worst decisions”

Pride and ego are catalysts for some of human history’s most devastating events.

When people get into positions of power who have too much pride or ego, bad things happen.

This phenomenon impacts all of us, and the results are usually at best not good, and at worst extremely detrimental.

Ask yourself this question:

“If you posted something online about your profession, and another person from your field commented and wasn’t in agreement with you, and rather gave another viewpoint which contradicted yours, how would you feel?”

Some of you may already feel heat in the back of your neck just thinking about this scenario.

Also, this is happening in front of all of your peers too.

Most people would feel a flurry of emotions at this and have thoughts such as:

“I need to think of a response which discredits their view, and reinforces my own”

“they think they are smarter than me”

“this makes me look like I don’t know what I’m talking about”

“how dare they”

Alarm bells have went off in your brain and you feel under threat.

From an evolutionary psychology perspective, this would be a threat to your position and worth in your tribe.

But thankfully, we aren’t roaming around in tribes any more, so you can relax.

Rather, you can (and should) welcome such discourse as an opportunity to learn.

We would all like to see ourselves as the best, infallible, unquestionable people in our chosen field of expertise.

The fact is though, we aren’t.

If the only voice and expertise you listen to is your own, then you have the power of one brain and one set of experiences to draw from.

If you are open to accepting the knowledge of others and crucially, open to being wrong, then you open up an unlimited avenue of possibilities to grow and become a better version of yourself.

If everyone just kept their expertise in a silo of self importance, nothing would ever get done.

The smartphone was not the work of one person.

Technology progresses incrementally because those that create things accept that improvement is always possible, and they seek it, rather than shy away from it.

The designer of the iPhone 14 had to be immediately ready to accept that it is possible that it can be bettered, and so the design for the iPhone 15 started immediately.

In fact, it was not one person, it was never one person, and the design is a continuous process. There would have been a million check points and various people giving their input and expertise to make the worlds leading piece of consumer technology.

The days of succeeding as an individual and being above feedback or input are well and truly over.

Those who succeed don’t do it alone.

Those who succeed the fastest often open themselves up for constant criticism and feedback from others. Those who ‘build in public’ and listen to what everyone has to say.

Those are the people who make it big.

So when going about your Freelance life, embrace feedback, open yourself up to other points of view, put your perspective out there and welcome contrarian viewpoints, engage in discussion, and most importantly, leave your pride and ego at the door.

3. “Give yourself credit for everything you’ve overcome that you never thought you would, and everything you’ve built that you never thought you could. You’ve come so much farther than you think, and you’re so much closer than you realise”

Throwing back to part one.

You may feel, upon your monthly or quarterly reviews, disappointed that you haven’t achieved what you wanted.

But equally, you need to be conscious of the work you have put in, and the progress you have made.

You also need to celebrate this, somehow.

Look, even corporations do this all the time, they reward performance and make a song and dance about it.

It isn’t because they are super nice, it’s because they know we are animals and reinforcing productive behaviour makes it more likely that we will repeat the trick.

We are mice with cheese, dogs with treats, dolphins with fish.

Rewarding particular behaviour reinforces that behaviour.

As Freelancers we often do not do this, ever.

Even our crappy boss from our old job would sometimes say “good job” in front of people and we would subconsciously take that and want to get that acceptance and social boost again.

So, what you need to do is reward yourself for the good work you are doing.

(Yes, I felt that little guilty self admonishing thought crop up….”but I’m not doing so good”)

You are.

Even by virtue of you sitting reading this newsletter, I know you are someone who is doing things to better yourself as a Freelancer.

You are also still in the game.

You are doing great.

Since it’s the end of the month, take some time to review what you have done, think of something nice, and reward yourself for it.

Then plan for September the reward you will be running towards.

Take it a step further by writing out the position you will be in if you do not do the things you plan.

Then you have a heaven scenario to work towards, and that hell scenario to run from.

THINGS ARE CHANGING AROUND HERE

FreelancerOS will be changing to a bi-weekly / fortnightly newsletter.

I put a lot of effort into this newsletter.

It takes many many hours to research, plan, write, re-write, record the audio, contact potential guests (remember them?!), follow up with guests, find cool bonus stuff, review tech etc etc

I simply was not able to do the best version of the newsletter I know I can, hence why it will now nestle into your inbox every two weeks, instead of one.

I will be bringing back the Freelancer Feature, the audio option and more bonus stuff.

I am also very open to any and all suggestions on what you would like to see, so please do send your feedback!

The next issue will drop on THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 11:00 UK TIME

ONE LAST THING

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