Learn to Deal with Worry or Give up Freelance Writing

I’ve always been a bit of a worrier. That is probably one of the main reasons for why I fell into alcohol abuse so easily during in my teens as it provided a temporary escape. There are always uncertainties to keep me awake at night, but worry is probably the most useless things we can do to ourselves. I know this intellectually, but I repeatedly fall into the same trap. Three years ago I decided to follow my dreams and became a full time writer. I don’t regret this decision at all, but it has undoubtedly given me a great deal more to worry about in life.

The Worry of Being a Freelance Writer

There are some great advantages to working as a freelancer. I get to set my own hours, and I can work where I want and how I want to. I very much enjoy this freedom, and I would struggle to work for a boss again, but this freedom comes with a price. This is a life that is full of uncertainty. A couple of months ago I hit a bad patch when the work just dried up for a few weeks, and I felt on the verge of ruin. I became a bit depressed. This was one of the most difficult periods of my life (definitely the toughest thing I’ve had to face since giving up alcohol six years ago). I managed to land on my feet, but it was a hard reminder of the uncertainty of this type of work. If I was still a single guy then this instability would be easier to deal with, but it is harder when you have a family depending on you.

How to Deal With the Worry of Being a Freelancer

I have two choices – I either learn how to live with the worry of being a freelancer or I find a more solid career. I’m a qualified nurse so I could probably return to that, but I don’t think that this is the answer. The reality is that a worrier will always find something to worry about. I remember the dark days as a nurse when I would leave the ward worried sick that I’d forgotten something or done something wrong. At least with writing my worries do not involve the possibility that I might have failed in my duty to other people who were in my care (unless of course you count my family).

I don’t want to give up working as a freelancer. I also feel it’s impractical and impossible to try to remove worry completely from my life. The only sensible approach is to learn how to manage it better. The one technique that has consistently worked for me well in this regard is to have faith that things will always work out. This is not a particularly scientific approach, but it is effective and so far in my life this way of thinking has never failed me.

I have faith that so long as I try to do the right things my life will take me in a good direction. The last six years have provided me with ample evidence that this is the case. My problems always begin when I question this faith – when I allow my inner skeptic to play the smart guy and promote negativity. This form of doubt is steadily declining over the years as the evidence that things will always work out becomes undeniable. It took me two decades of my life to become fully convinced that doing the wrong things causes the wrong things to happen to me but hopefully it won’t take me that long to understand that the opposite is true too. I also have faith that bad things happen for a reason, and at the very least the bad times are an opportunity to learn and grow.

So my answer to dealing with the worry of being a freelance writer is to just focus on doing my best today, and let the future take care of itself. This does not mean that I don’t prepare for the future only that I try to worry about it much less. If things are going to turn bad for me this will happen regardless of how much I worry about it now.