What How I Met Your Mother Can Teach Freelance Writers About Finding Clients and Facing Fears

Here’s a quick fun fact about yours truly: I’m a huge fan of the show How I Met Your Mother. The sitcom will premiere its 9th and final season on the 23rd, and in honor of the event, I thought I’d share an important lesson that freelancers can pick up from the show.

In episode 4×20 (entitled “Mosbius Designs), Ted, the show’s lead character, decided to start his own architecture firm. He picked a name for his firm, debated on the “official” company pen, hired an assistant, and even scheduled a company retreat.

He did everything and took care of all these mundane details, but do you know the one thing that he didn’t do? He couldn’t bring himself to call prospective clients. (At least not until the end of the episode.)

Ted was so scared of screwing it up that he put off calling clients as much as he could.

Sound familiar? It does to me. For the longest time, I also put off taking action because of fear. Travnibarara I was scared that I wasn’t good enough, scared that I won’t get hired because I’m not a native English speaker, and like Ted, I was scared that I would screw up.

I procrastinated a lot and fussed over little details such as the font of my website or what my email signature should look like. My behavior was ridiculous.

I finally woke up and pushed myself to take action. I started approaching businesses, and fortunately, some of them responded and hired me. color generator Those results then pushed me to hustle and take even more action until, well… earth map the rest history.

Here’s the thing though: Sure, you could say I’m more confident now. And these days, I take action much sooner rather later because I’m not as scared as before.

But do you want to hear a secret?

That fear I had about screwing up never really went away. Yes, I found ways to push through it, but it still rears its head even at this point in my business.

Whenever I reach a new level in my career or get hired by a company that’s bigger than I’m used to, that fear of screwing up still nags me. But you know what, I’m perfectly okay with that.

And I want you to be okay with it too.

Fear can be a good thing. Fear helps you challenge yourself and go for things that are important to you. Doing things in spite of fear gives you a sense of accomplishment, and instills the confidence that you need to go further.

So wherever you are in your writing career, and whatever it is that you’re afraid of or procrastinating on-whether it’s calling up clients or telling people that you’re a writer-I encourage you to act on it. Stop procrastinating. Stop waiting for a sign. This is your sign. Just go for it.

Image: Kwintin on Flickr