There are moments in your career when you need to forget about the money. This might sound like a strange thing to say, so let me explain why.
As creatives it is nearly impossible to be creative if you are thinking or worrying about money. Have you ever tried to design something from a starting point of money concerns? If you have, you’ll discover that the creative part of you becomes stilted. You panic. You over analyse. And before you know it, you haven’t been about to design anything.
Creativity needs freedom. It needs to know that anything is possible and it needs to come from a starting point of passion.
In this week’s podcast I talk about ways of making passion your priority, and how and when you need to stop thinking about the money.
Money is an important part of our career and business, but it is important to know when to push it into the background.
Working from a place of passion
In order to work from a place of passion, you need to adjust what your idea of success is. Here is a list of ways to do that.
- Don’t focus on the money, focus on the projects instead.
- When you are being creative, create without thinking about the money. You can go back and adjust things later. The creative process needs to be as free as possible.
- Look at goal setting rather than money. Set achievable goals and make sure you mark them when you have completed them. Celebrate the small wins as they get you closer to the finish line.
- Measure milestones in moments not money. This is a saying I developed to help me to focus on achievements rather than the bank balance. Yes, we need the bank balance to be healthy, but there are times when we are building something when that isn’t the most important thing. The moments that keep us on the path to achieving our goals, are what we must remember to celebrate as well.No one thinks about their bank balance on their death bed! You’ll be remembering the moments you made.
- Understand what success looks like for you. Often we take on what we think other people want us to be. Whether that is to please a parent, a lover or fit in with our friends. It is important to take time to really think about what success means to you. It might not fit into their vision for you…and that’s ok.
What you don’t want to happen, is that you waste all your energy following someone else’s dream. - Be passionate! It is the passion that is going to help drive you forward. The passion will also help you to find commitment. Without commitment you have nothing. If you only focus on the money, then your passion is going to run out fast.As freelancers we do so much alone. If you don’t feel passionate about what you are doing or aiming for, it becomes too easy to give up before you have even begun.
A challenge for you!
This month write down 4 goals that you want to achieve. They need to be realistic, and ones that you can complete in the time frame. Make sure that they are written down somewhere, where you can see them each day.
Let me know in the comments below what they are, and why you want to achieve them.
Having something to aim for, keeps the passion flowing and keeps you going towards your goal.
Good luck!