A story in the book I’m reading goes like this:
Once, a man who was just beginning his practice of Buddhism found himself in Japan, the home city of the SGI Buddhist organization in which he belonged.
One day, the man decided to ask for guidance from the SGI vice president.
As he walked into the vice president’s office, he was immediately ordered to lift a large table that was standing near the door. Somewhat surprised at the greeting, he nevertheless tried to oblige.
As the table was made of solid brass with marble legs, after two or three times he shook his head apologetically.
“I’m sorry, I can’t,“ he said. “It’s too heavy. “
“No,” the vice president corrected him. “It’s not too heavy – you’re too weak. The table’s weight is the table’s problem. The fact that you can’t lift it is yours.”
#BuddhaMicDrop
In other words, observes the author of the book:
And it works across the board.
For example, now, whenever my wife gets upset at me for getting something wrong, I tell her, “The table’s the table, my love. Not my problem you can’t lift it.”
Kidding. Probably not how that advice is meant to be used anyway.
As freelancers, though, the “Table’s the Table” advice does help shift how we look at the challenges we all typically face running our own businesses.
Problems like:
- Ideal prospects are difficult to attract
- Standing out as a freelancer is tough
- My business takes so much time to run that I don’t have time left for my family or fun
- Everybody needs what I’m selling but nobody seems to want to buy it from me
- Clients always end up wanting more than what I originally agreed to do
- Prospects just don’t use (FB, emails, copywriters, etc) anymore
Familiar problems, each.
Except the way they’re phrased, each is blaming something, anything, besides the freelancer.
Prospects are difficult, standing out is tough, my business keeps me too busy, nobody wants to buy from me, clients are guilty of scope creep and nobody uses what I have to offer.
Granted, those are some heavy “tables” right there, but geesh, at least re-phrase them so you don’t end up blaming your failures as a freelancer on how much all the “tables” happen to weigh, “tables” that every freelancer at one point must face.
Solid wisdom. Now here it is applied to all those same freelancer problems:
- Blame: Ideal prospects are difficult to attract
- Table’s the Table: I’m unsure of the best way to attract my ideal prospects
- Blame: Standing out as a freelancer is tough
- Table’s the Table: Without a specialty, I will never stand out as a freelancer
- Blame: My business takes so much time to run that I don’t have time left for my family or fun
- Table’s the Table: I’m unsure of how to run my business so that I still have enough time to enjoy life
- Blame: Everybody needs what I’m advertising but nobody seems to want to buy it from me
- Table’s the Table: I’ve not make my story of struggle and solution clear so it’s tough to KLT me enough to hand over money
- Blame: Clients always end up wanting more than what I originally agreed to do
- Table’s the Table: I have no idea how to clearly set and stick to boundaries with my clients
- Blame: Prospects just don’t use (FB, emails, copywriters, etc) anymore
- Table’s the Table: I’m unclear as to how to properly use (FB, emails, copywriters, etc) to my business advantage
Also notice that when you blame a factor outside of yourself (the “table’s too heavy!”) it makes the situation sound and seem a lot more hopeless than it has to be.
But when you own your part (“I’m too weak to pick up that table right now!”) the situation automatically becomes more hopeful because now it’s a doable challenge, especially if you’re willing to work even harder to get stronger.
More from the book:
“One of the natural consequences of the close link between problems and suffering is that people tend to confuse the one with the other.
“It’s not so much our problems which causes us to suffer as our inability to overcome them.”
New freelancers suffer not because they face challenges – we all face those, it’s an unavoidable part of the freelancer’s journey and solving those problems becomes part of the fun.
Newbies tend to suffer because they are clueless as to how to solve the multiple speed bumps that keep stalling their momentum. It’s frustrating every time something forces you to screech to a halt, but it’s even more unsettling when you you’re unsure of what to do about it.
When you encounter obstacle after obstacle on your freelancing journey, if you’re facing it all without a clearly defined plan that includes tools and proven methodologies and successful case studies to back it up, then it becomes way easier to blame the problem.
[Insider Marketing Note: If this were a sales pitch, this is exactly where I’d place the turn:
“Now what if I told there WAS such a freelancing plan? Yes indeed, it’s the two-fold birthchild of the copywriting legend himself, @KevinRogers, starting with a program for new freelancers called Escape Velocity and continuing on with the advanced program called Real Free Life.”
*said wearing straw hat while pointing long carny-cane in your face*
All hype aside, I wish I had either / both of those programs when I began my freelancing journey back in 1991. Would have saved me a ton of time up front, a huge amount of suffering along the way, and lots of money that I let slip on by. Plus, having a clear plan like that would have allowed me to shift and evolve as the business I was in did the same.
- Blame: Freelancing is difficult
- Table’s the Table: I’m clueless how to freelance and could use some proven help including a knowledgeable mentor and passionate co-coaches
Well, that’s the wise advice from the book I’m reading that I wanted to share.
Fun to apply ancient Buddhism to modern day life.
Makes me wonder if the Buddha had a decent sized mailing list…
Here’s to better freelancing,
Mike
[The book I reference here and highly recommend reading is called The Buddha in Daily Life by Richard Causton]
