Your history doesn’t decide your destiny. The way you’ve worked so far feels comfortable because it’s familiar, not because it’s right.
A freelance career audit helps you see the difference. You look back over your work, sort the habits that helped you grow from the ones that held you back, and choose what to change. Nobody has to give you permission, and you can do it at any point in your career.
It’s worth doing before you set new goals, because old patterns have a way of quietly undoing new plans.
The illustration in the book has a white wavy line, labelled History, running from the left into a small circle. From that circle, turquoise arrows fan out in many directions towards the word Destiny. The wave is the path you’ve already taken: real, but finished. The circle is now. From here every direction is open, including ones that look nothing like the wave behind you.
Why your past starts to feel like a rule
Most freelancers don’t choose their working habits. They inherit them. You quote the way your first client expected. You work the hours your old job trained into you. You keep saying yes to a type of project because you once needed the money.
Over time those habits harden into “how I work”, and then into “who I am”. The book puts it well: the same path may feel comfortable or anchored in your identity, but you can change it at any time. The audit is how you notice which parts of the path you’re still walking out of habit.
The two lists from the book
The exercise in the book is simple. Analyse your career and make two lists: one with the things that have helped you develop, and one with the things that haven’t.
In the book’s example, the helpful list reads:
- Building a network
- Honing my craft
- Exploring the world
- Focusing on productivity
And the list of things that held growth back:
- Resisting new ideas
- Avoiding collaboration and feedback
- Charging per hour
- Undercharging
Notice how practical the second list is. Two of the four items are about pricing. That’s typical. The habits that hold freelancers back are rarely about talent. They’re about how the business is run.
Add a third list: start
Two lists show you where you stand. A third one tells you what to do next. Call the first two Keep and Stop, then add a column called Start.
For each item on the Stop list, write the opposite behaviour as one concrete action. Charging per hour becomes quoting a fixed price on the next enquiry. Undercharging becomes adding a little to your next quote and seeing what happens. Avoiding feedback becomes emailing one past client to ask what they’d change about working with you. Resisting new ideas becomes trying one new tool or method on a personal project.
Each of those is small enough to do this week. That’s deliberate. A Start list full of big resolutions gets ignored. One small action gets done, and the next one gets easier.
Where to look when you’re stuck
If the lists won’t come, walk through your career in order and ask one question at each point: did this help me, or hold me back?
Start with the jobs you had before freelancing. What did they teach you that clients value, and what did they teach you to tolerate? Then look at your first few clients, because they usually set your idea of normal for price, revisions and deadlines. Compare your best project with your worst. What was different about the client, the brief, the process or the price? What warning signs did you ignore?
Finally, look at an ordinary week. Where does the time actually go?
My own history includes freelancing at 17 for architects who passed off my designs as their own, factory jobs, stacking fireworks in bunkers and waiting tables. None of it looked like a design career at the time. Every part of it belongs on one of these lists.
Mistakes to avoid
Don’t turn the audit into blame. You’re looking for patterns, not a culprit, and that includes not blaming yourself.
Watch out for keeping things out of loyalty. A client or a way of working that suited you five years ago may not suit you now, and that’s fine.
Keep the Start list short. One or two actions are plenty. Change sticks when it’s small.
And don’t only audit your skills. Pricing, the clients you choose and the hours you keep shape your business as much as your craft does.
Try it in 15 minutes
- Draw three columns and label them Keep, Stop and Start.
- Spend six minutes filling Keep and Stop. Aim for four items in each.
- Spend five minutes writing one Start action for every Stop item.
- Circle one Start action and put it in your calendar for this week.
Run the audit again in six months and see which items have moved columns.
All Laid Back Freelancing lessons
Cover photo by Laura Fuhrman on Unsplash.
Build a freelance business that gives you more freedom. Get the complete Laid Back Freelancing book for £1 and work through the illustrated lessons, one step at a time.
P.S. Every lesson is built to take less than 15 minutes, so you can do one a day.
