04-06-2016, 02:09 PM
Hey Ara! :) The others have given you some very good advice. I probably won't be adding much new to it, but perhaps a few observations from my own experience might add some insight.
1. I used to see the day job as a prison before I went freelancing. Now I view the day job as a "simplification factor". By that I mean, it simplifies your life down. You get up, go to work for a set number of hours a day, you get paid, you pay your bills. Life goes on. Simple. In the remaining time, you can be very focused on what you want to do. Because you don't have a lot of free time, it is easier to be productive and not worry about money. You have a sort of weekly deadline that Work Monday will always come around. This can be a horrible feeling, but actually you can use it to your advantage if you are an ill-disciplined brat like I am.
So I guess I'm saying the doing a day job for money, while you focus on your own project is a good idea even better if -> see 2. below.
In terms of how to do this....set yourself dedicated achievable goals that have a deadline. Neo (thanks!) mentioned my vid on smart goals, it's definitely a good thing to do. Plan and prioritise the things you need to do, in the free time you have available to hit those goals. Do it before you begin the project, and then do it for the tasks for the week / day in advance as needed to reevaluate what tasks need to be prioritised up or down. Because needs will change, so you will have to be flexible.
The worst thing you can do with a personal project is to sit on it and sit on it until it languishes for years and becomes a might have been. It's better to get it out, because there is no way of knowing if it will be "worth" anything or not, whether people will like it or not, but there is literally only one way to find out!
I have always thought that doing a small stand-alone thing related to your larger project is a better idea than trying to go all in on something that might take years to finish. That way it is something to show as a proof of concept, can be used for crowdfunding if you go that way, and you will learn a lot just by finishing it. So something like doing a 2 minute trailer for a movie that doesn't exist but that you want to make. That kinda thing
2. Travel is the best thing. DO IT. It expands your horizon and feeds your curious exploratory human soul and introduces new things into your library to pick from as an artist. Travelling and working is even better, you get to really feel a place, and not just hit the tourist spots with your camera/sketchbook. You also realise that people are the same everywhere, and that is a good thing to realise.
3. Health.
I would say the biggest and easiest wins, will be in changing diet first. What you eat is infinitely important. You can improve your health a hundred fold just by cutting out bad things / adding good things to your diet. It is amazing what a difference can be made. The gut is a very complex nervous system of it's own and we are just learning how important it is to so much more than just our digestion, so you don't want to be treating it badly.
Exercise can take up a lot of time, but it doesn't have to at all. If you can do daily 15-20 minutes a day it will be better than nothing. Yoga is a good one that can be done anywhere and it definitely is a workout. A simple daily exerted walk, is great as well and gets you outdoors.
4. Saying "No" is a skill to learn and most importantly PRACTICE. You must realise that you aren't a bad person just because you say no. You aren't insulting anybody by saying no to them. Just because someone doesn't get what they want and they might be upset by it, the fact remains you aren't prepared to do it. I find that being incredibly direct but polite and respectful works. People will understand the vast majority of the time, and if they don't then they are the assholes, and they don'tdeserve your help.
In general, people pleasing as a trait stems from insecurity (I have had to deal with this too) and will get you into all sorts of trouble and enable people to take advantage of you. Your words are telling " I've just had to make so many other people happy". Without knowing all the situations the following may sound too general, but no you didn't have to. You weren't put on this planet to be somebody else's doormat. I think it would be a good idea to do some deep introspection on why you might be linking your self-worth to other people's opinions of you. Unlinking that is the key. Not an easy thing to do....I know, but all it takes is a true deep realisation that you are doing it to start making a change.
A bit about freelance fulltime. (I don't recommend it without adequate prep)
Freelancing is both incredibly rewarding and freeing AND incredibly frustratingly difficult and confining at the same time. You can set your own times be your own boss, etc, but unless you are getting paid AAA rates working on big IPs or working for big companies, you will probably have a very hard time making ends meet for a while and this is ridiculously stressful. Way worse than the feeling of being stuck in a hamster wheel of a day job. Working on client work may be lots of fun a lot of the time, but does still become a job you are doing for somebody else and will need to do according to their wishes and that doesn't always allow you time to explore your own things. So some things I would say before considering going into freelance if you ever want to do it fulltime is :
a. Reduce your outgoings to the absolute minimum you can
b. Make sure you have a good savings buffer (6 months to a year, the more the better)
c. Make sure you have researched the business side and what is necessary to market and promote yourself successfully.
d. Ideally already have some good clients under your belt.
e. Have a good social life / activities to do outside of art
I jumped into freelance with only two of the above...and I have found it very hard to make ends meet even though I do get some decent clients just not consistent enough at the moment. Also if you have a tendency like many artists to be introverted and hermit-like, freelancing will make you a dungeon beast. The solitude can be incredibly difficult and damaging to you. After a full week of stressing about money and finding work and rushing to deadlines, you have to then put yourself into a creative and positive space for your own personal project work. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is work on art after that! The stress of thinking about where your next job will come from will still be there! I don't want to be a downer, because obviously things can work out, and get better, but doing freelance is no promised land and definitely no cakewalk, at least for entry level folk.
1. I used to see the day job as a prison before I went freelancing. Now I view the day job as a "simplification factor". By that I mean, it simplifies your life down. You get up, go to work for a set number of hours a day, you get paid, you pay your bills. Life goes on. Simple. In the remaining time, you can be very focused on what you want to do. Because you don't have a lot of free time, it is easier to be productive and not worry about money. You have a sort of weekly deadline that Work Monday will always come around. This can be a horrible feeling, but actually you can use it to your advantage if you are an ill-disciplined brat like I am.
So I guess I'm saying the doing a day job for money, while you focus on your own project is a good idea even better if -> see 2. below.
In terms of how to do this....set yourself dedicated achievable goals that have a deadline. Neo (thanks!) mentioned my vid on smart goals, it's definitely a good thing to do. Plan and prioritise the things you need to do, in the free time you have available to hit those goals. Do it before you begin the project, and then do it for the tasks for the week / day in advance as needed to reevaluate what tasks need to be prioritised up or down. Because needs will change, so you will have to be flexible.
The worst thing you can do with a personal project is to sit on it and sit on it until it languishes for years and becomes a might have been. It's better to get it out, because there is no way of knowing if it will be "worth" anything or not, whether people will like it or not, but there is literally only one way to find out!
I have always thought that doing a small stand-alone thing related to your larger project is a better idea than trying to go all in on something that might take years to finish. That way it is something to show as a proof of concept, can be used for crowdfunding if you go that way, and you will learn a lot just by finishing it. So something like doing a 2 minute trailer for a movie that doesn't exist but that you want to make. That kinda thing
2. Travel is the best thing. DO IT. It expands your horizon and feeds your curious exploratory human soul and introduces new things into your library to pick from as an artist. Travelling and working is even better, you get to really feel a place, and not just hit the tourist spots with your camera/sketchbook. You also realise that people are the same everywhere, and that is a good thing to realise.
3. Health.
I would say the biggest and easiest wins, will be in changing diet first. What you eat is infinitely important. You can improve your health a hundred fold just by cutting out bad things / adding good things to your diet. It is amazing what a difference can be made. The gut is a very complex nervous system of it's own and we are just learning how important it is to so much more than just our digestion, so you don't want to be treating it badly.
Exercise can take up a lot of time, but it doesn't have to at all. If you can do daily 15-20 minutes a day it will be better than nothing. Yoga is a good one that can be done anywhere and it definitely is a workout. A simple daily exerted walk, is great as well and gets you outdoors.
4. Saying "No" is a skill to learn and most importantly PRACTICE. You must realise that you aren't a bad person just because you say no. You aren't insulting anybody by saying no to them. Just because someone doesn't get what they want and they might be upset by it, the fact remains you aren't prepared to do it. I find that being incredibly direct but polite and respectful works. People will understand the vast majority of the time, and if they don't then they are the assholes, and they don'tdeserve your help.
In general, people pleasing as a trait stems from insecurity (I have had to deal with this too) and will get you into all sorts of trouble and enable people to take advantage of you. Your words are telling " I've just had to make so many other people happy". Without knowing all the situations the following may sound too general, but no you didn't have to. You weren't put on this planet to be somebody else's doormat. I think it would be a good idea to do some deep introspection on why you might be linking your self-worth to other people's opinions of you. Unlinking that is the key. Not an easy thing to do....I know, but all it takes is a true deep realisation that you are doing it to start making a change.
A bit about freelance fulltime. (I don't recommend it without adequate prep)
Freelancing is both incredibly rewarding and freeing AND incredibly frustratingly difficult and confining at the same time. You can set your own times be your own boss, etc, but unless you are getting paid AAA rates working on big IPs or working for big companies, you will probably have a very hard time making ends meet for a while and this is ridiculously stressful. Way worse than the feeling of being stuck in a hamster wheel of a day job. Working on client work may be lots of fun a lot of the time, but does still become a job you are doing for somebody else and will need to do according to their wishes and that doesn't always allow you time to explore your own things. So some things I would say before considering going into freelance if you ever want to do it fulltime is :
a. Reduce your outgoings to the absolute minimum you can
b. Make sure you have a good savings buffer (6 months to a year, the more the better)
c. Make sure you have researched the business side and what is necessary to market and promote yourself successfully.
d. Ideally already have some good clients under your belt.
e. Have a good social life / activities to do outside of art
I jumped into freelance with only two of the above...and I have found it very hard to make ends meet even though I do get some decent clients just not consistent enough at the moment. Also if you have a tendency like many artists to be introverted and hermit-like, freelancing will make you a dungeon beast. The solitude can be incredibly difficult and damaging to you. After a full week of stressing about money and finding work and rushing to deadlines, you have to then put yourself into a creative and positive space for your own personal project work. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is work on art after that! The stress of thinking about where your next job will come from will still be there! I don't want to be a downer, because obviously things can work out, and get better, but doing freelance is no promised land and definitely no cakewalk, at least for entry level folk.