The whole world seems to be becoming more acutely aware of the need for individuals to take care of their mental health, and freelancers are certainly no different. Anxiety can arise from many different aspects of freelancing; it can feel awful, and it’s really not surprising that people attempt to avoid anxiety completely. However, anxiety is a useful evolutionary tool that we can use if we can understand it better for our practical purposes.

Before going any further, the author IS NOT a psychologist (clinical or otherwise) and DOES NOT intend to attempt the diagnosis or give treatment for mental health issues. The following information is anecdotal and the application of presented information should be thoughtfully considered. If you suspect you may need help, please seek out a professional and medically qualified expert.

From anecdotal and personal experience, there seems to be different types of anxiety with extremely subtle differences. As they relate to freelancing, the types discussed are anxiety related to poor results and anxiety related to procrastination. Both don’t feel so good, and they sometimes can surprise attack you.

Anxiety From Poor Results

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that when you’re putting forth effort expecting a result, and the result doesn’t come when expected, it can be disappointing. It can make someone wonder why humans would even develop this characteristic in the first place. Did our ancestors suffer from this biological mechanism like we do?

Consider that our ancestors were primarily hunter-gatherers, herders, or farmers. All of them are understood to have this biological mechanism of feeling frustration when results are not what were expected. Entire books have been written about this trait to define and categorize it, but other books have been written that imply that humans either use the feeling or get abused by the feeling (especially in more modern times).

Our brains, being the super-computer-like organs that they are, make predictions of what result should occur by taking an action. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, taking a path might lead to edible plants or animals. The key word is “might” because taking the path might not also. Therefore, there is motivation to keep searching to satiate basic needs. In some sense, we know that there should be something that comes from that action whether by instinct, first-hand experience, or by witnessing someone else achieving results with similar actions.

We can apply this to freelancing such as in the case of writing proposals and getting none back. Each additional written proposal might be a catalyst of a feeling that taking the action isn’t working and anxious thoughts creep in. Our smart brains have developed all kinds of coping mechanisms such as avoidance - avoiding the action that relates to the emotional responses.

However, if we become aware of this happening in the moment, we can use our logical faculties to reason with ourselves. Rather than just avoid writing proposals altogether, we have paths before us to increase our chances of finding what we’re looking for. Here are a few:

1. Crafting our profile, client filters, and communication based on a niche.

2. Learn how to write more effective proposals that win clients.

3. Gain the insights of fellow freelancers who are already making it happen.

Articles are linked for 2 of the sample paths, but let’s think about the last one. If you were going fishing for the first time, don’t you think it would be wise to ask someone who goes there regularly where the best spots are? Now, you might think to yourself that experts might be secretive and wouldn’t tell you. This is true for a tiny percentage of people, and you’ll find that most often people are willing to share guidance with you as long as you approach them with good intent.

If your main freelancing platform of choice is Upwork, the author will tell you that proposal writing does indeed work. It works in conjunction with doing multiple things in the correct way. Don’t go wandering in unfamiliar waters without some guidance where the easy stuff is. Check out this blog article to learn how to get your first freelancing client.

Anxiety From Procrastination

If anxiety on its own from taking certain actions wasn’t a strange emotional response, anxiety by procrastinating from taking those actions is more confusing. The author can only dive into anecdotal experience and supply some insights to help with introspection of the root cause. Searching out the terms “anxiety” and “procrastination” no doubt wields thousands of results, enough to cause some anxiety.

Laziness vs Efficiency

The first thing to take note of is that the act of procrastination has a tendency to develop with highly intelligent people. Where this applies the most is those that exclaim or lament, “I’m lazy.” This is the mind trying to reason why something so easy isn’t completed right away. The more factual statement would sound more like: “I’m intelligent and efficient.” People like this forget that others may not find such an easy task as being easy.

Your brain is essentially queueing tasks and figuring out the most efficient way to solve them. And, people that think they’ve developed a problem with this workflow usually wait until the last minute or need some kind of external pressure like a deadline. In a lot of cases, if quality of life isn’t diminishing, this is an advantage. This is what real multitasking looks like. Do one thing with conscious effort while the unconscious mind is solving problems or doing relative scheduling of when to do other tasks.

However, if something occurs that throws all of this out of balance such as a major life event - bad things can happen. The anxiety grows out of control leading to some form of depression or not wanting to do anything at all. Symptoms of this state are those of not going to work, paying bills on time, or doing chores to keep living spaces sanitary. The single best formula the author has found that works really well in this scenario is the Just One Thing (JOT) Method in the book titled The More You Do The Better You Feel: How To Overcome Procrastination.

Avoidance Entrainment

We briefly touched on this in the section about anxiety related to poor results, but the anxiety experienced can be strengthened and influence you to further avoid actions that have an anxious association. Procrastination gets even trickier or clever in the scenario that a person is avoiding a task because of the anxious feelings. Unless experienced, most people will not realize there is a slight difference in the way procrastination feels as a tool for efficiency and as a coping mechanism.

The best thing anyone can do is begin to pay attention without judging the feelings of oneself while asking a question: “Am I procrastinating to avoid doing something that I don’t like doing, or am I procrastinating because when I attempt to do that thing I get anxious?” Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to be aware of this: the more intelligent you are, the more cunning your thoughts will be to evade you if it’s procrastination out of avoiding anxious feelings. Your ability to reason and solve problems is trying to do exactly that at an expert level.

Let’s look at how this undesirably strengthens the anxious feelings tied to a specific action such as writing proposals.

• The freelancer sends 20 proposals and doesn’t see any response.

• The freelancer starts to feel anxious while sending more.

• To cope with those anxious feelings, the freelancer procrastinates in sending out proposals.

• The freelancer attempts to write a proposal but feels this “invisible wall” that prevents them from continuing the action.

• The anxiety has now strengthened as a neurological reminder has been set that writing proposals doesn’t feel good. It seems like all pain and no reward.

• The freelancer continues attempting and the feelings get stronger.

• The freelancer avoids the task completely thereby affecting other areas of their life.

This pattern may sound familiar in a different sort of way. Those addicted to substances try to NOT do the action but eventually give in to the increasing desire. Addiction is an entirely different matter, but it's helpful to note that the biological mechanisms can make people do all kinds of things not considered the norm.

So what is the solution when you’ve trained these anxious feelings into a behemoth of a monster that prevents you from getting the things you want out of life? At the onset, it was stated that it’s wise to seek professional guidance, the author can only give anecdotal insights. What has worked for the author may not work for you, but there’s hope that there is something that will help.

Oftentimes counselors will introduce exposure therapy which asks you to do the thing you are avoiding to do. A main point to this approach is to get the mind to realize you can do things despite how it feels and eventually create a positive association. In our example, it may not be to craft a proposal and send it. It may be that a part of the process is completed to retrain the action. You might write 5 practice proposals without sending them. You might increase your knowledge about what an effective proposal looks like. You’ll do these things until it is comfortable to send it again with one important caveat, take the action imperfectly.

Perfectionism

One more crafty thought that tends to get freelancers, especially those that are inexperienced, is seeking perfection. Ever meet someone caught in “tutorial hell”? They just keep learning and learning the same things without taking any action to advance toward the goal. What’s actually going on? More than likely, an idea slipped in their mind that is not that dissimilar to plain avoidance. They think things need to be “just right” before getting started.

It’s not just the scenario of watching tutorials but also thinking that we need a portfolio, a website, a tool, a better time, or whatever that other external thing is. It’s perfectionism, and perfectionism is the destroyer of businesses. If there’s ever a time to take action, it’s as soon as that thought creeps in. Much like anxiety entrainment, perfectionist ideas are also trainable.

What’s a practical solution? Do the opposite of what perfection is telling you. Make this word a part of your vocabulary: iteration. Forget failure and perfection, take action on ideas and iterate. The more you do this, the more wins you will make in life, not just in freelancing. Because one of 2 things are going to happen if you go for perfect:

1. It will never be put out into the world.

2. It goes out into the world and is discovered to not be perfect after all!

If it’s the latter, an expectation is shattered and people are more likely to give up and hide. Rarely do they iterate on something that originally thought was perfect. But if the expectation is that the thing isn’t perfect and it can be iterated on until it’s good or great, then the chances of a successful outcome increase significantly.

Summary

Hopefully, this article is helpful to whoever reads it even if you’re one of the lucky ones that figures out that sometimes procrastination is just a sneaky way of being efficient and misinterpreted as lazy. The information is a collection of insights and experiences that, if nothing else, makes it obvious other people have gone through the same things you might be going through. Fortunately, people in general seem to be coming around to the importance of mental health. Take time to think about what you're experiencing and develop a game plan around that. It may be that you do need to seek professional help; do that if that’s the case. Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes.