The Real Reason You Haven't Launched Your Freelance Career

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues." – Edward "Duke" Ellington

This, for me, was a powerful quote.

It's powerful for many reasons, but the main one has to do with you. Yeah...YOU. The wanna-be freelancer who is sick and tired of the J-O-B.

You...the one who has a gift to offer the world, but you're too damn chicken to pull the trigger.

Newsflash...pretty much everyone has problems or will run into them.

The question you need to ask and answer for yourself is what the heck are you gonna do about them?

Are you gonna take it on the chin?

Roll with the pain and hope you're better on the other side?

Maybe you'll use that negative block as energy to push harder?

If you're stuck doing something you aren't fired up about and not doing what you know you're destined to do, you need to have a heart-to-heart with a mirror and ask yourself this.

Why not?

The reason why the quote might be impactful for you is because while many folks will whine, cry, and post on social media why life sucks. Some will take that same energy and create. Much the way Duke Ellington did.

You have a choice.

You can align with others who are moping around life, cursing the ones who are successful. Or you can find the tribe of folks who are waking up under the same damn sun that you are and winning each and every day. You have a choice on how you spend your energy.

Some folks choose to wallow.

They instead find other folks in that same despair. They share that negative vibe and become codependent on one another. They actually begin to believe that this is their lot in life. In a sense, they've basically surrendered to the hand life has dealt them.

A sadder truth is that some people can live this way comfortably.

They can pay their bills, send kids to school, and have a nice dinner here and there. But deep down, they're not living their truth. They settle for a mediocre existence and live an UNchallenged life.

And therefore never satisfied.

Never fulfilled.

These are the folks who talk about their big dreams. These are the folks who will leave this earth waiting for that "one day when I'll actually do it." These are the folks who congregate together and live like sheep in wolf's clothing and tell one another that it's ok.

That they did the best they could.

But inside, they know they had more.

The building moral to this story is that the same effort it takes to cry about what you don't have is the same effort it takes to make shit happen.

Your choice.

Truth is, I love to binge Netflix with my wife. I could probably do it several times a week. But instead of the several times, I'll buckle down and hammer at the keyboard. Once I hit a particular milestone, I'll plop down next to her on the couch.

She knows it too. She knows that I gotta do the work, and we both don't mind it.

Writing is my passion...my dream. I make intentional time for it and have been doing so for years. My mind may wanna grab a beer and chill, but my soul guides me to where I need to be.

So the challenge is...what if you could recycle the energy you're currently expending on negativity and re-purpose it to live your dream?

I'll spill the beans on one simple way.

Instead of complaining, posting on this social site or another... about how much you dislike your boss, your job sucks, or the state of the economy...go create something. Anything. No holds barred. Create something that another human might find value in and share that instead.

Now imagine doing that instead of crying about your lack of everything.

What I'm asking you to do is to take that negative energy and twist it into something positive.

It's totally possible.

If Duke Ellington can turn the blues into incredible music, imagine what you can do.

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