Back in the beginning of 2016 I decided to take that leap of faith, quite my dreaded 9 to 5 office job, and become a full time freelancer.
I had about $4500 saved up to help cover my expenses in case I couldn’t find any work, but I knew that I couldn’t stay at a soul-sucking office job where there was no creativity involved.
So even with all of the fear and all of the thoughts of “What if this doesn’t work out?”… I did it.
I submitted a 2 weeks notice and got the heck out of there.
I was free!
Instead of waking up early, putting on office clothes, and spending my days looking at spreadsheets, I was now getting up early, reading a book at Starbucks, and spending my day working on design projects.
I had so much excitement and inspiration bubbling up inside of my chest every day. I got to make art every day. I controlled my own schedule and worked as much (or as little) as I wanted.
I know a lot of artists never do much with their degree, but that isn’t me.
I was making a living with my art! I was living the dream!
Or so I thought…
Things started to change… and not in a good way.
After roughly 2 months of full-time freelance work I started to get burnt out.
I started to procrastinate my client work and fall behind on deadlines.
Just a little bit at first… but then it became a serious issue.
The idea of working on my freelance projects became more and more painful to the point where It took some serious effort and agonizing just to get myself to work on anything Creative.
The deadline was approaching for one of my bigger clients (a $2,000+ job), and I had barely started.
I was illustrating a map of the city to be handed out in an upcoming marathon.
I told them that it wasn’t quite where it needed to be, so they told me to take my time and do it right. They would rather have a quality map to be used in the coming years instead of rushing to get it done for this year.
That’s all I needed! Just a little bit of extra time, and I would deliver the project and get paid.
My savings were running low and $2000 was enough to cover rent for another 4 months.
Long story short, I never finished the project…
I ended up breaking my leg while skateboarding, couldn’t walk or drive for 3 months, and quickly became really depressed.
As much as I wanted to finish the project, I just couldn’t get myself to do it…
So I admitted defeat, contacted my client to cancel the contract, and got this letter a few days later:
“Dear Mr. Paul,
I find your requested compensation of $700 a bit excessive. Not only did you not deliver us a final project, the work you showed us was nowhere near a place where we would have approved it.
For this reason I’ve included $300 to compensate you for your time.”
Ouch.
I was crushed. I couldn’t believe I disappointed my client so much. I kept telling myself that it was okay, and that I needed to learn from my mistakes in order to grow… but really I was ashamed of letting someone down and failing so bad.
How could this happen?
I was like the all-star artist when I was in college. I’m not the kind of person that just gives up on a project and gets defeated.
So what went wrong?
Looking back there were some key elements working against me…
These 3 Things Will Help You Avoid Burnout and Failing Miserably when Freelancing Full-Time
The story you just read was from early 2016. I’m writing this blog post in early 2018, and I’ve grown a lot since then.
Though I’m not proud of making mistakes, it is the mistakes that help you to grow and make improvements.
Looking back there were quite a few “rookie mistakes” that I would do differently if I were to do it again.
Here are 3 rules (that I follow) that will make your freelance life easier and avoid burnout:
1) Have A Schedule
One of the biggest mistakes that rookie freelancers make is not setting work hours for themselves. Since you love your work so much it is tempting to just work all of the time, but trying to do art for 60 hours every week will lead to burnout and exhaustion.
In the article I wrote about tricking my brain into writing 23,975 words with ease, I outline how I was able to be more productive than I ever thought possible by simply sitting down and writing for 1 hour every single day.
Humans are creatures of habit. Having a set time to be creative every day helps you overcome the resistance and actually get your work done… regardless of how you feel or if you feel inspired or not.
If I were to do freelance full-time I would set aside 2 blocks of time each day where i could have 2 to 3 hours of uninterrupted focus to work on my projects.
Confining yourself to a strict block of time actually helps you to stay focused and get the work done when you need to get it done.
This also gives you the appropriate amount of time away from your desk so you can recharge and take care of other important life tasks.
The goal here is longevity.
You may be tempted to pull all nighters, work for 18 hours straight, and be a binge-artist (this was me in college…), but this isn’t sustainable.
I promise you will have much better results if you just show up every single day and put in the time.
If you show up ever day for 2 years, then your results start to compound and you get a lot more done than you even imaged that you could.
Just think about it. In the beginning of 2016 I had less than 1,000 instagram followers and no plan or direction. After 2 years of putting in work consistently I now have over 30,000 followers, a blog with over 1k monthly visitors, and dozens of past clients I can call on when looking for more work.
It you’re serious about your work then you’ve got to set healthy boundaries like this.
2) Spend Time With People
I’m the kind of artist who loves to lock myself in a room for a week and remove all distractions so I can think only about the art.
This may work out for a week, but trying to do it for a month straight can take a toll on you.
Like it or not, humans are relational beings and have a need for community.
When I isolate myself from people for too long I start to become depressed.
But my crazy-full schedule doesn’t really lend itself to casual social interactions. Basically I’m not the kind of person that just wants to “hang out”.
So to address this problem I started scheduling a time for socializing each week: Taco Tuesday.
Yup! Every Tuesday night I would get together with friends to make tacos, drink margaritas, and just goof off for a few hours.
Every week I knew that Tuesday nights were my social nights, and I did my best to keep my schedule clear on those nights.
Having a set time for socializing each week was a stroke of genius.
Everyone wanted to be friends and spend time with each other, but adult life is so “busy” that finding the time to cultivate friendships seems to fall low on the totem pole in contrast to paying the bills and buying groceries.
So we did Taco Tuesday every week for 4 or 5 months (and then I moved down to Florida).
These social interactions were critical to helping me stay to stay positive and fight off the depression during seasons of intense art-making.
If you’re an introvert then this may sound like the opposite of fun and relaxation, but you’d be surprised how valuable this actually is.
Introverts still need the love and companionship of friendship, and having a set time each week for socializing gives you the time to mentally prepare yourself for being around other people.
Bottom line?
Make time for people in your life and your work will be better.
3) Discipline is Not Your Enemy
So I hear this a lot with artists:
“I can’t make art on a schedule because I never know when I’ll feel inspired. I don’t want to restrict myself by being too disciplined. I’d rather just feel it out as I go and act accordingly.”
Sound familiar?
If not then just skip to the next section.
If this sounds like you then you should probably pay close attention to what I’m about to say.
But first, a quote from Mr. Pablo Picasso.
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
-Pablo Picasso
If you are the kind of artist that really only likes to focus and get down to work when you are feeling red-hot inspired, then you may actually be limiting yourself from achieving your full potential.
Inspiration comes in waves and probably accounts for 5% of all of the work you do.
The other 95% of the time you should be cranking out ideas, working in your sketchbook, and getting all of the bad stuff down so that you at least have a starting point when inspiration hits.
I think Steven Pressfield does an excellent job illustrating the magic of discipline in his book The War of Art.
It’s probably best if I just let you read it for yourself.
Here is how Steven Pressfield fights of the resistance and uses discipline to get his creative work done.
WHAT I DO
By Steven Pressfield
I get up, take a shower, have breakfast. I read the paper, brush my teeth. If I have phone calls to make, I make them. I’ve got my coffee now. I put on my lucky work boots and stitch up the lucky laces that my niece Meredith gave me. I head back to my office, crank up the computer. My lucky hooded sweatshirt is draped over the chair, with the lucky charm I got from a gypsy in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer for only eight bucks in francs, and my lucky LARGO name tag that came from a dream I once had. I put it on. On my thesaurus is my lucky cannon that my friend Bob Versandi gave me from Morro Castle, Cuba. I point it toward my chair, so it can fire inspiration into me. I say my prayer, which is the Invocation of the Muse from Homer’s Odyssey, translation by T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, which my dear mate Paul Rink gave me and which sits near my shelf with the cuff links that belonged to my father and my lucky acorn from the battlefield at Thermopylae . It’s about ten-thirty now. I sit down and plunge in. When I start making typos, I know I’m getting tired. That’s four hours or so. I’ve hit the point of diminishing returns. I wrap for the day. Copy whatever I’ve done to disk and stash the disk in the glove compartment of my truck in case there’s a fire and I have to run for it. I power down. It’s three, three-thirty. The office is closed. How many pages have I produced ? I don’t care. Are they any good? I don’t even think about it. All that matters is I’ve put in my time and hit it with all I’ve got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance.
WHAT I KNOW
By Steven Pressfield
There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.
Sometimes the hardest part of being an artist can be simply getting yourself to sit down and actually do the work.
So in this regard, I have learned to welcome discipline into my life.
If you want to read more about using discipline to help you win your creative battles then I recommend these books:
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
(Note: In the spirit of full transparency I want you to know that these are affiliate links. I get a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you.)
A freelance career can definitely have its ups and downs, and if you want to excel as a freelancer then you have to anticipate mistakes and failures, knowing that they are a necessary part of the process.
So get out their, put forth a tremendous effort, and don’t be afraid to make a few mistakes along the way. Your failures help you grow.
And as always, make good art! See ya!
-Brandon Mikel Paul
(Note: All of the tips in this blog post can be really helpful if you’re struggling, but they are useless if you don’t know how to get your work in front of clients. Check out this blog post to learn how to get people to actually notice your art.)
If you have any questions then send me a message on Instagram @BrandonMikelPaul.
I do my best to reply to every single DM 🙂
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