Freelancing Mantra: Think The Right Way

The mind is everything.
What you think you become.
~ Buddha

Namaste Friends and Freelancers!


We think all the time, don’t we? Even when we are sleeping, our subconscious mind keeps thinking about things we see, feel or experience when we are awake. This is when we dream – happy, pleasant and calm. But we often see nightmares as well, which are the results of the negative thoughts, feelings or experiences. To avoid these and to have only pleasant dreams, we need to experience only the good things in life and you know for sure that is it not the case every time. We cannot control what we experience from the outer world. But we certainly can control what we want our minds to be busy with, inside us. We would want to think about the right and positive things rather than the negatives and wrongs.


It is very important to think right in life, not only in freelancing. When you think right, you tend to do right and when you do things right, the right things happen to you. It is a cycle of Karma and it is true in every facet of life.

So, today we are going to talk about preparing ourselves for a career in freelancing and we will start with that one thing that matters the most – thinking right.

Let’s see the various ways of thinking right and how these can help us in having a successful career as a freelancer. First thing is the mental attitude.

Mental Attitude:

Having the correct mental attitude is almost 90% of our freelancing success. As I tell to my students and friends from the freelancing fraternity, freelancing is not a ‘quick-earn-money-and-get-rich’ scheme. If you are not one of the luckiest blokes on this planet who gets to sell from Day One, your freelancing career will not take off with a blink of the eyelids. Having said that, there are few who are born with a silver spoon in their mouths, in the world of freelancing; while a few take years to earn their first legitimate dime. You cannot be weak mentally, thinking you have already gone far enough when you succeed in freelancing; and certainly, need to be mentally strong when you are starting and have achieved nothing, to be highly consistent, persistent and disciplined. Whatever your stage is, your mental attitude needs to be on top of everything. Knowing what is right for you and doing that right thing at all times – be it in lows or in highs of your freelancing career – is all that matters.

They say quality is doing it right when nobody is watching you. This is absolutely true. You need to carry a quality mental attitude at wherever you are and in whatever you do. Having big dreams when you are low and remembering your roots when you are high are the two key things to have a quality mental attitude which is so very important for your success as a freelancer.

The Right Feed:

If you sow an apple tree, you will get apples from it when it grows up. This is so simple to understand, but yet so tough to follow. We all know about it, but we fail to follow it in our daily lives – in action and in thoughts. To make the mind yield right, we need to feed the mind with the right things. If we feed wrong things to the mind, it will not yield the right things for us – will it?

Most of us are avid readers. Reading is very important. But be careful about what you read. What you read is directly fed to your mind. If you read the wrong things, you will let the wrong things be fed to your mind and then when it is harvest time, you will get only the wrong things out of the yield. Remember, Garbage In is Garbage Out. Do not read garbage!

Similarly, be careful about whom you meet and speak to on a daily basis. Positive people leave behind positive vibes and negative people leave their negative vibes behind them. And after they are gone, you would be floating on those and that will impact your thinking as well. Be with positive people – with those who smile, laugh and think as you do. They are a good feed to the mind. They will help you think right – now and every time.

Power of Association:

The last point also tells us that we need to be associated with the positive people, so that their positive vibes flow in to us and make our thinking positive and help us think right. Power of Association is very critical and important in your career as a freelancer. I will definitely like to talk about this at a later stage, but let me tell you now that being with positive people and those who think like you do, help us in a big way. When we see people around us doing things that we would like to do, it gets into our subconscious mind as well and creates a drive from within to work towards that goal. When we think alike, we tend to think right – that which is right for our common and individual goals. Just being with likeminded people help us come out of the languor we often get into and fail to perform or produce quality work. Sometimes it is the competitiveness and at other times it is the fear of missing out that works and lets us paddle through and forward.

Associate with other fellow freelancers you know – both offline and online. They may not be doing the same thing that you do, but they can obviously help you think right – in the right direction; and put your thoughts on the right path.

The middle path (Madhyam Marga):

One most important thing about thinking right is to take the middle path. This is coming straight from the books of Buddhism, which preaches us to always travel on the middle path – the Madhyam Marga. It is all about having a balanced thought. Thinking balanced!

Think of your success and dream about making it big, but do not forget about your starting point. This will help you to control your thoughts and not fall prey to false praises and appraisals. When you think right, fake admirations and accolades will not let you bubble up, filled with gas and become complacent and satisfied with what you have achieved. You will remember to strive even further to achieve even more.

Similarly, when you are starting and have achieved nothing, keep your dreams high and think about a time when you have reached there. Remember, to compete against the top in business you need to perform like them and if you keep thinking that you are small and cannot do what they are doing, then you will not be able to reach anywhere. This is where you should always keep your dreams big. Think like the big guys, act like you would, when you are successful. In management terms, they say, “Fake it till you make it!” Fake your thoughts; think as if you are the big achiever and you will see things slowly falling in place and pushing you to that direction.

As mentioned earlier, think big but do not forget your roots. It is important that we keep a balance in your thoughts as well. Take the middle road. Have a balanced thinking. Think big; dream big and you will soon be achieving what you were thinking all this while.

That’s all for today. I hope you are liking these preparatory articles. These are to prepare you and your mind and body for freelancing. Freelancing is a way of life and you need to be prepared both mentally and physically to take up the challenge and fall into the new lifestyle which may be little unknown and mysterious to you. Do let me know how you are liking these in your comments below. I will like to read about you and your thoughts. Thanks for reading mine!

Cheers!



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The Indian Freelancer 
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