Are you sabotaging your own freelance career? According to Lexi Rodrigo at Freelance Folder, your own mindset could be leading to your own setbacks in your career as freelance writer. She ruminates on her own life and how negative thinking has affected her own career. “I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the most important ingredients to success in freelancing–in life–is mindset. Mindset is the way you think about yourself, others, and the world around you. Often, we’re unaware of these thoughts. Yet they play in our minds every minute of every day and affect the decisions we make and how we behave.”
Here are a few tips on negative thoughts that can hinder your freelance career, from her piece Mindset Busters That Make Freelancers Fail.
“I’m Not Good Enough”
We freelancers like to put ourselves down for various reasons. We think we ought to have that degree or certification. We ought to have a long list of impressive clients, or more years of experience behind us. Whatever it is, there’s always SOMETHING that keeps us from being good enough.
This mindset is destructive, because it keeps you from trying anyway and finding what you are good at. It keeps you from stretching, and therefore reaching, beyond what you’re already capable of. Instead, you stick to projects you know you can accomplish with minimal chances of failure. While this keeps you safe, it also keeps you from growing.
Realize that you don’t have to be the best at what you do. You only have to be good, very good. And that’s something you can always work for.
“Success Is for the Lucky Ones, Not Me”
The problem with thinking like this is it tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Studies have shown we tend to act the way we believe ourselves to be. When schoolchildren were told they were special and smart, they performed better in school than their peers who had the same intelligence but didn’t receive the same “programming.”
Don’t program yourself to be a failure. When you see a successful freelancer and jealousy starts to rear its ugly head, try thinking instead, “What can I learn from this person that would make me successful too?”
“Money is the Root of All Evil”
Something got lost in translation here. The Bible, which is where most people think the quote is from, does not say this at all! What it does say is, “For the love of money is the root of all evils.” Having money does not condemn you.
Loving money can make you a greedy, selfish, shallow person. But simply having money means that money can be used for both bad or good purposes. With money, you can give other people jobs, support charities, and help your family and friends.
Read the rest at of Lexi’s piece at Freelance Folder.
