I’m often thinking about the mix of freedom and pressure in creative work, self-employment and freelance life. A lot of people I work with are worn down — no crippled — by the pressures, yet every bone in their body is still crying for out freedom. ⁣

When we get to work on taking personal and practical measures to alleviate and manage the pressures, we can actually start to enjoy and celebrate the freedom we are creating and desiring.⁣ I love how practical we can get with a concept as personal, intangible and evolving as freedom. Perhaps because the call for freedom runs central to my own values.

THE FREEDOM TO...

• be yourself⁣

• have creative autonomy

• choose who you work with⁣

• choose when you work⁣

• choose where you work⁣

• choose how you work⁣

• make all the decisions ⁣

• change your mind, change direction or change pace⁣
  ⁣

THE PRESSURE OF...
⁣

• Being yourself means getting to know and accept ALL of yourself.
  There’s nowhere to hide and no one to pass the buck to when the going gets tough. Without compassionate curiosity & a support network, ‘being yourself’ can be a very lonely place.⁣⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Managing the nuts & bolts of business can be overwhelming.If we don’t design systems and rhythms that support us and our creative process, we end up drowning in emails, IT or admin with less and less time to do the thing we actually came into business to do.⁣ Our creative output can quickly feel compromised if the nuts and bolts are shoddy or unattended to.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

• Finding work and generating income can feel wildly uncertain.
  If this uncertainty goes unmanaged, it’s unbearable. We know our choices are shut down when our basic needs (finances being one of them) don’t feel secure or steady. Without a strategy to both earn and manage our money AND cope with uncertainty, there’s a risk of ending up in constant fight or flight mode. ⁣We know all too well that our creativity thrives when we feel safe and grounded.

• Constantly having to make decisions is ⁣actually really mentally tiring. Have you heard of decision fatigue? All those choices and decisions that we are free to make require a decision making process and a container in which to anchor them. Without this we end up spending valuable creative energy on a multitude of minor decisions (in addition to the energy you inject into your creative ideas!) and this can lead to a decrease in productivity and an increase in exhaustion. It’s a fast lane to burnout basically!

The kind of freedom you desire and the kind of pressure you’re prepared to handle is absolutely a personal choice.

As a daily practice, start asking yourself…

“Where am I putting on the pressure today?” This is not a case of, ‘am I or aren’t I’, you will be because we all are so it’s a case of figuring out what your go-to pressure traps are. Whether it’s piling on too much work, or taking a rest but never actually switching off your mind, or setting your expectations too high across any area of your work and life — whatever your vices are, you’ll want to figure out where and how it’s manifesting in your day-to-day. Get curious.

Then ask yourself…

“How and where can I alleviate some pressure today?”

Stay open and playful as to how you might answer these questions. And remember, the direction we are steering towards is freedom — which is oh so worth it!