Post 10: Living in Freelance Fantasy

If you’re in the world of full time employment and feel as though your job is just a job to pay the bills and doesn’t offer you much else and you feel it’s time to throw it all in, then hear me out. If your work life is mundane, routine or too stressful and you day dream about escaping the grind on a daily basis, it’s easy to fantasize about what it would be like to just quit your job and free fall into a life where you are living your dreams, whatever that may look like to you.

You’ve thought about how amazing it would be to not have to be caught in the rat race, to get out of that mind numbing commute ( or job ) and take that leap into the unknown of the freelance world. In other words you want to live by your terms, do what you really want to do, to not work for a boss, to do what makes your heart and soul sing, not just exist and go through the motions. Maybe you just need a total 180 degree life change.  Don’t get me wrong though, there are plenty of people who have fulfilling work lives that serve them on multiple levels. They couldn’t think of anything worse than not being full time employed. Living the freelance fantasy only applies if that’s what you really want to do, something you’ve deeply considered and willing to work on. Maybe it’s even how you are hard-wired You crave freedom and flexibility. You crave change and growth and spontaneity. In other words you want the opposite of what a full time 9 to 5 kind of job offers. 

And the thing is we all have different interpretations of what a freelance lifestyle feels like and looks like. Maybe it’s dictating what work hours you spend your day on. Maybe it’s the ability to roam, travel and be a digital nomad. We all have different dreams, desires, talents and aspirations, and when you start living by your design it can take on a unique form. How I live my life as a freelance agent will be different to how you do it. But here’s the thing. There are some practical and earth dwelling things to consider. Before leaving the safety of secure income to escape the job you dislike there are a number of things to consider.

We can be enamoured by the dream or fantasy of escaping our current working reality. The societal system of employee/ employer. The structure of the corporate/business world. The programme of making ends meet, of clocking in and clocking out.  As I have lived and experienced both worlds, both sides of the coin so to speak, I can honestly say one side is not better than the other. It comes down to choice, preference and what you feel works best for you. It comes down to sacrificing certain things you get from being full time employed like regular income, structure and job satisfaction. But the thing is to take the leap from full time work, you got to have a game plan, a strategy to meet the day to day requirements of living in this reality. Obviously having money to survive is key. Do you have a business idea, another source of income? What exactly will your freelance day look like?. What type of work or service will you be actually doing?  Do you have a sideline job, part time gig to keep you going while you work on your freelance dream idea? As I say this looks different for everyone. You may work contract by contract. Have flexible hours. Work for a period then have a period of time off. It may be feast and famine with the workflow. The work life structure has changed so much. One size does not fit all.

There truly are pros and cons between having a traditional full time job vs living freelance and taking jobs as and when required, so that you are not “fixed” into one job. Let’s face it, we all need to survive. We can’t live in a fantasy world where we quit our jobs and then buy into the insta world of travel and adventure where “ my world is my playground” and life is just one long vacation. Where it looks so easy and it just all manifests by setting your attention and allowing “the universe” to work.I mean, how do you fund that kind of lifestyle? We have to be grounded in our desires to live in the fantasy of a freelance. It doesn’t mean you limit yourself. It doesn’t mean you can’t create the type of life, the things you do on a daily basis that fulfils you on a deeper level. It does mean there are realities of that life that we often don’t talk about or address. Like putting food on the table, having a roof over your head, paying the electricity bill, what do do to fill up your time etc. The allure of living fancy free comes with a price to pay. The price of still having to “make a living”. It’s about turning the fantasy part into a working reality part of daily living. 

So in essence, what I’m saying is there is always a balance to everything. That no one way is merely better for the sake of it. That by quitting your job you will suddenly be free of all those things you disliked. You will encounter uncertainty and existential anxiety if you find yourself in a liminal space if you go from the certainty of full time work to having all the time in the world. It takes deep consideration as to what you really want to get out of creating the life you want. Just remember, whatever life you want, you are creating it no matter what!

I hope my thoughts and feelings surrounding living the freelance lifestyle is helpful and enlightening on some level. I wanted to demystify it a bit. To get real about the fantasy we may have about it. It takes courage and overcoming fear and self limiting beliefs to jump into the unknown and start living from your authentic truth. It also takes resilience, discipline and commitment. It takes facing criticism and negativity as some people may envy or judge how your lifestyle looks from the outside. The same attributes required to work full time in fact. So, as I said, both paths have their merit. It’s up to you which one you take. 

Rob Ipsen