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Learning to wait and not to worry

Hi! Glad to see you here again ;-)

I'm going to share something personal with you this time. It's related to work, so I hope it will be useful to other freelancers as well.

The last few weeks have been challenging for various reasons. Since I became a freelancer 3 years ago, February has always been a tough month for me. But this time it was especially hard. I was worried because I didn't have enough work. Well, to be honest, I had work, but not nearly as much as I would like to have. The worst part was that my husband (he is also self-employed) didn't have any new projects. So I started worrying. We had enough money to last for a couple months, but I was still worried. I even wrote a blog post about it which I later deleted because the minute I published it I knew what was really wrong and what I needed to do about it. Plus I got some really good advice from one of my more experienced colleagues, Ewa Erdmann (Ewa, thank you very much!), which also helped me greatly.

First of all, I realized that it was my attitude to the situation that made it so tough. Worrying didn't do me any good, it just made my life more miserable. So I realized that I needed to change my attitude first. Since I am a Christian, I believe that the Lord cares about me and my family and that "every good present and every perfect gift comes from above" (James 1:17) and I need to learn to trust Him and His timing for everything in my life.

So I decided not to worry about work any more. That's what I did instead:
1) Of course, I prayed and gave the problem and my attitude to it to the Lord;
2) I relaxed and enjoyed my free time: went for walks with my daughter, tried some food recipes that had been waiting to be tried for ages, etc.;
3) I did even more marketing;
4) I did more networking through Tweeter, Facebook, Langmates etc.;
5) Every time I felt I was starting to worry, I'd do all those things all over again =)

February brought a valuable lesson to me. Hope you can use it, too ;-) As for me, my new attitude was rewarded last week with a very well-paid and interesting project. Hoping for more good gifts/projects/clients now :-)

Your enthusiastic translator

Comments

  1. Glad to know that you have changed your attitude. It does help when you do something that you know will pay off eventually, and it does pay off sooner than you think! I feel over the moon to be mentioned in your blog, I am really honoured, thank you. Wish you all the best. Let the Lord hear your prayers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Ewa, thank YOU for helping me change my attitude! Be blessed!

    ReplyDelete

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