You know you’re doing great work. In fact, you’re working your behind off to get your creative gifts out into the world, but the world just isn’t buying. That’s frustrating, because it’s not as if you’re not giving it your all. You’re giving it your absolute best. How do you find actual customers? Is your work not good enough? Why will no-one open their check book? What is the magic formula for going from “One day I’ll buy something from you” to “When can you fit me in”?
When I was a little girl, I was conscientious, neat, smart, and capable. Achievement was valued in my world, and the need to impress and be validated became strong. I tried ever harder to keep up, to do well, to maintain the very neatest handwriting.
(I still have very neat handwriting.)
I would listen to the other kids playing outside while I obediently stayed in the classroom to try to finish my work. I fell further behind every day. I was near the top of the class, but I was Too Slow, because every word had to be just right. I learned that my role was to do more and play less than everyone else. A pleaser and a perfectionist were born.
What is there that you have been meaning to do “one day”, someday, when you have Spare Time(TM)? You need to pick a horse, pick something out of all the myriad things that you really want to do and just give it a go…
…and be prepared to absolutely suck at it. It’s only by being prepared to be a beginner that you give yourself a starting point to work from. Get in the game, get something out there, because once something is out there, then you can tweak, fiddle and iterate it into something better and better. But in order to have something to improve upon, you have to be prepared to get out there and be absolutely terrible for a while, if necessary.
However experienced you are, however many years you have been self-employed, you will always be making it up anew, every day. That’s the awesome thing about making your own money, whether you’re Google or whether you’re just trying to make a few bucks on the side – you get to be highly creative.