Stories are a ridiculously powerful force in our lives.
For example… when you were young, which kind of kid were you?
The clever one? The slow one? The sporty one? The geeky one? The troublemaker?
Other people told those stories about what kind of person you were.
And those early stories about “who you were” maybe stuck with you for decades.
Perhaps they still have an influence over how you feel about yourself today.
These stories can be particularly strong and “sticky” when first told by someone we look up to. Someone in a position of authority. Like a parent, older sibling, teacher or coach.
If a teacher tells us we’ll never amount to much, that’s a story we are unlikely to forget. The same is true if she tells us we’re destined for greatness.
The stories other people tell about us… and the stories we tell about ourselves… have a huge influence on our lives.
And here’s a funny thing… although it’s not really funny at all…
As a default, we tend to believe every story we hear.
Humans are uniquely vulnerable to the power of a good story.
When we hear gossip about someone around the water cooler, we tend to believe it. Even when it’s malicious.
When politicians tell us stories about how “those other people” are the source of all our problems, we believe them.
When marketers tell us stories about how we can lose weight in just 10 weeks, we believe them.
The point being, when information is packaged in the form of a story it has enormous power over us.
In life, very few things are facts. Mostly things are just stories.
Gravity causes apples to fall from trees. That’s a fact.
But most things aren’t facts at all. They’re just stories.
As a freelancer, here are a few of the storylines you may have heard.
“Companies aren’t going to hire you if you don’t have a portfolio of work to show them.”
“You have to start working with small companies first, before you can even think about pitching yourself to a large company.”
“With so much competition out there, you have no choice but to reduce your fees.”
“If you want to be successful as a freelancer, you have to model yourself on what other successful freelancers are doing.”
There are no facts there, just stories. And you don’t have to believe a single one of them.
If stories are that influential, why not just rewrite your story?
“What’s that, Nick? You really think you can change your life just by telling a different story about yourself?”
Absolutely I do.
In fact, I’ve driven some very dramatic changes in my own life simply by changing my story.
Sometimes I’ve had to rewrite stories that were told about me by other people.
Other times I have had to dig deeper and change stories I was telling about myself, to myself.
The point being, you CAN write a new story for yourself… and develop a better, stronger narrative for your freelancer business.
Like I said, we are uniquely vulnerable to the power of stories.
But we are also able to change and rewrite those stories.
And that’s a true superpower.
So yes, if you don’t like the story of your freelance life so far, you can rewrite it.
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