This is the second of a series exploring Jon Kabat Zinn’s 9 Attitudes of Mindfulness as they relate to freelancing.
The first post explored ‘Non-Judging.’
This time, we are going to explore the idea of ‘Patience.’ You can watch Zinn discuss patience in this short video.
Learning to work with the natural rhythms of freelance life.
There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes with freelancing:
Waiting for a response.
Waiting for payment.
Waiting for anything to happen.
Freelancers are rarely short of things to do, but much of our work involves trusting that something will come eventually.
The gig. The client reply. The breakthrough idea. The bank transfer.
Patience is about making space for all of it.
Not rushing to fill the void.
Not assuming a delay means something has gone wrong.
Not believing you’re behind just because someone else seems ahead.
Freelancing isn’t linear – and neither is your growth.
Patience means allowing the seasons of feast and famine, of fast and slow, of clarity and confusion. It’s understanding that building a freelance career, one that’s yours, not someone else’s idea of success, takes time.
It unfolds on your timeline.
When I’ve been impatient in my freelance life, it’s often come from fear. Fear that nothing’s coming. That I’ve failed. That I’ve been forgotten.
But time and again, something has come. And usually, it’s been better than what I’d have gotten if I’d forced things too soon.
This week, I’m trying to bring more patience to the table. With clients, with projects, with myself.
Maybe you can too.
4 Principles to Apply
- Freelancing is a marathon, not a sprint – We underestimate how much time it takes to build relationships, trust, skill and a reputation. Social media loves to hype an ‘overnight success,’ but in real business, big success seldom happens overnight.
A sustainable freelance career takes time. Sometimes a long time. So don’t panic if you don’t experience early success.
Patience means you view the ‘long game’ and focus on taking the next steps on your own, unique, freelance journey.
Building a reputation, client base, or brand takes time and it’s built one step at a time. Focus on your current step – that’s the only one you have any control over. - Practicing patience in feast or famine cycles – Feast or famine is frequently experienced by freelancers (though regular and consistent marketing can help to smooth this out).
Patience is needed to weather the quiet periods without catastrophising or scrambling for low-quality gigs.
Cultivating patience allows us to recognise the cycles of planting, cultivating, and then harvesting. Harvest is followed by a fallow period, before planting again and the cycle repeating. If it feels like nothing is happening in your freelancing, it might be that you are in a fallow period.
Practice patience and trust that the cycle will start again when the time is right. - Letting clients and projects unfold – Rushing outcomes or forcing client decisions often backfires. Patience, instead, builds trust.
Taking a beat, a pause, a moment sometimes creates space for more creative ideas to surface.
Our freelance work is not linear. Patience allows room for the twists and turns that define freelance creative work. - Respond, don’t react – Sit with discomfort, whether it’s waiting for payment, feedback, or opportunity, without rushing to control it.
Discomfort can be a great teacher.
Pay attention to what you are feeling without leaping into action. In time, a more considered response will arise – one that takes in all the nuance and opportunities of the situation.
Comparison to others is a fast track to frustration — patience reminds us that our timing is our own.
Patience isn’t passivity — it’s presence without panic.
Reflection prompts:
- Where are you rushing in your freelance life right now?
- What areas would benefit from a longer-term perspective?
- How can I use quiet times productively instead of panicking?
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