We all know that making important decisions is hard. The little decisions—what to eat for lunch, your next binge on Netflix, spending the day watching cat videos on YouTube—are easy. That’s because these aren’t potentially life-changing decisions.
But the ones that matter, the questions about your freelance life, can be hard.
But they don’t have to be so difficult. There are resources to help make them much easier.
Here we take you through two frameworks that help you look at your decision from different angles and give you a bit of perspective to help you know that the decision you make is the best one for you.
Framework 1: How does this decision stack up against your goal?
The first step is to identify the goal associated with whatever you’re trying to decide. Let’s say you need to make a decision about your career. What do you imagine you’d be doing? How much would you be earning? What does your day look like?
Once you have your goal in mind, you have just one key question to ask yourself: Does this move me closer to my goal (whatever that is) or further away?
Let’s say you’re looking to leave your full-time corporate job and enter the world of freelancing. Then, you get an offer to do some low-paying freelance work. You’re torn because it would be a little bit of money coming in and you don’t want to say no. (Nobody likes to say “no” to money, right?)
But does it move you closer to your goal of becoming a self-employed freelancer? No! In fact, it moves you further from your goal by taking up precious time you could be spending on your long-term goal.
Taking the low-paying work would be a decision motivated by fear and the deep-rooted, human desire to stay in your comfort zone. Turning down the work would be a decision that would move you closer to attaining your goal.
Framework 2: The 3 Key Questions
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins says, “Successful people ask better questions and, as a result, get better answers.” These three questions are designed to help you make decisions with greater clarity and confidence.
These questions come from a great book called The Right Questions by Debbie Ford. (If you’re interested, I highly suggest you read the book, too.)
When you’re evaluating a decision, ask yourself:
“Will this choice propel me toward a compelling future or will it keep me stuck in the past?”
“Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use it to beat myself up?”
“Am I choosing from my divinity or am I choosing from my humanity?”
(And by “divinity,” we don’t mean in the religious sense if that’s not up your alley. Think of “divinity” as choosing from your highest self—the best person you’re capable of being—while choosing from your “humanity” is making choices out of fear.
Our brains work very hard to keep us in our comfort zones. And that can often work against our greater interests.
These questions help you put fear aside and weigh your decision objectively against who you are and who you want to become. The last question also helps you figure out whether your decision is coming from that comfort-zone-seeking part of your brain that avoids fearful decisions or the part of you that knows you’re capable of more and wants to challenge yourself to achieve greater things.
The biggest, most challenging decisions we have to make are the ones that are usually forcing us out of our comfort zones—and down a more fruitful, more beneficial place. These questions help you think all of that through.
If you want to pursue your dream of creating a successful freelance career, overcoming fear will allow you to make the hard decisions.
Your Turn!
Was one of these frameworks eye-opening for you? If so, why? Let us know in the comments below!
Last Updated on July 1, 2023.
