The Money or Moments Problem
When a freelancer starts flying with its freelancing career, there can no stopping sometimes. The freelance world is a treasure chest full of big opportunities. When the demand is high, it is always tempting to forget all your other priorities and be lost in the virtual assistance world.
But life is not just about money. It is about living in the moments that we should treasure even before we’re frail and gray. Thus, the millions should be balanced out with evening walks with the spouse, touch and quality time with our kids, and pursuing the passions of our hearts.
In the opposite pull of earning versus living in the moments, here are some helpful tips on how to live a balanced life.
Secrets to a Balanced Freelancing Success
1. Go for high-paying contracts. Maintaining 5 clients at $2000 in total earning is more stressful compared to 2 clients at $1600 in total. Choose high-paying clients and give quality work. The stress level is low and you’re earning a good amount of income at the same time.
2. Have an allocated time for working. Always plan and schedule everything. Have a set time for working and time with other things (work, ministry, garden, homeschool). Make sure that you’re religious when it comes to this working time. If you compromise it with a little time to the market, chat with a friend, etc., it will mess up everything.
For our family, we make sure that our weekends involve time for prayer, homeschool, work, fitness, and a few hours at the church. We do our travels, ministry and catching up with friends on weekends.
3. Stick to the process. There will be ups and downs but be determined to just work with the pace. There are times when you are thrilled because your weekly income is higher than your friends’ regular monthly pay slip. But there are also time when contracts won’t work out because of preferences. No matter what, stick to the process. Grow with the changes. Adapt. Cry if you need to. Appreciate and be grateful often. As time flies, you will be more adjusted and can take in more client little but little. And your best reward will always be family. To see your kids grow. To be there for the people to love. To not be boxed with the four corners of the world and not having to enjoy life. That itself is a miracle to cherish.
4. Make everything planned and automated. Take advantage of technology. There are free applications like Hootsuite and Canva which you can use to plan and automate everything. Do a one hour planning and scheduling for your social media sites on weekends. So the rest of the week you won’t have to worry anything anymore. Prepare drafts of your emails. Make canned responses to it’s easy to respond to job interviews and job offers.
5. Redeem your time. Busy doesn’t mean productive. Thus it is important to embrace a disciplined lifestyle. Be virtual only when it is needed. Don’t get lost in Facebook for hours wasting your time that it compromises work and time with your kids.
Take advantage with the “waiting times”. These are times like waiting in line, during commute, etc. — you can use these in increasing your followers and responding to emails. I do that often from my mobile.
Best of Both Worlds
Freelancing is a blessing. It gives a lot of benefits. It is an avenue where we can enjoy the most important things in life like love, travel, family and faith and earn BIG at the same time. There will be struggles. But it’s all worth it. You just need to learn to keep the balance. You just need to get up and run again each time to feel down. This time wiser. This time more determined to make it happen. Because all success never come easy. They usually come with a price and a little bit of sacrifice. Just remember, the rougher the climb, the better the view on top.
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