“It’s too late!”…and other unhelpful things we tell ourselves

Let’s talk about the feeling that “it’s too late” to make progress on your freelance goals. Here’s how this shows up in my own freelance career, and when I talk to other freelancers:

• The feeling that you’ve waited so long to do something, that it’s no longer worth doing. “I’ve been planning to redo my website for two years, so maybe I’ll just forget about it.” “I’ve been saying for the past three years that this is my year to start working with direct clients; I’ve waited so long that it’s never going to happen.”
• The feeling that a goal will take so long to achieve, that it’s not worth starting. I experienced this (big-time!!) in my own freelance life, when I “thought about thinking about” going back to school for interpreting for fifteen years before I actually did it. By the time the stars aligned (my kid grew up, remote interpreting was more of a thing, I had the option of doing a conference interpreting Master’s without relocating), I thought is this worth doing at age 48, or should I just shelve the ambition?

Here’s the truth:

• We need to embrace the Chinese proverb, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” The months/years that you’ve spent not doing something are water under the bridge. If you find a way to change the past, let me know. Otherwise, start today with, let’s say, 15 minutes of effort on a business-related project that you’ve been putting off. Investigate what it would take to get that new certification or degree. Contact two people on LinkedIn who might need a translator like you. Dredge up the e-mail from that web designer whose work you really liked. Create that retirement account. Acknowledge that you didn’t do this when you planned to/should have, but that literally doesn’t matter. Do it now!
• We also need to embrace the idea that time passes at the same rate, no matter what you’re doing with it. When I was contemplating going to interpreting school, people told me two very helpful things: 1) Every expert was once a beginner. The only choices you have are to start from where you are, or to never pursue this goal; and 2) The time is going to pass anyway. If it takes you, let’s say, a year to get your skills to the point where you have a reasonable chance of being accepted to an interpreting program (side note: it actually took a year and a half!), and then a year to do the program, those two years are going to pass anyway, whether you’re sitting on your hands or pursuing this goal.

I’ve actually found multiple advantages to pursuing long-delayed freelance goals. First, it feels so amazing to finally get it done (whatever “it” is), perhaps even better than if you had just done the task when you meant to. If getting a certification, or finally setting up a retirement account, feels good when you do it right away, it feels really, really good when you’ve achieved it after years of avoidance!

Also, when you pursue a new line of business and you’re not 22 years old, clients immediately think that you have a level of experience commensurate with your age. You don’t want to lie, but you don’t need to correct them! If you’re a newly minted freelancer who’s middle-aged, and clients assume you’ve been doing this job for 25 years (this has happened to me multiple times with interpreting), just smile and nod and thank them for their trust. By this I don’t mean misrepresenting your experience, but I do mean that when, let’s say, it’s your first time interpreting for a deposition, and one of the attorneys says (actual example…) “Impressive! You’ve clearly been doing this for a while!” your only job is to thank them for the compliment.

And now, go get it: chip away at something you’ve been avoiding! It’s not too late!