I’m Not Passionate About Your Freelancing Project, Here’s Why That’s Okay

As a freelancer in any field, you deal with a lot of different projects and a lot of different clients. If the money and work balance is right, anyone is going to accept the project on the table.

But here’s a secret: “No, I don’t have any passion for your project or your business.”

I’m not passionate about your business and, no, when our project ends I don’t care what happens afterward. I’m not being paid to care anymore.

This is not what you’re supposed to say when you work as a freelancer. You’re supposed to gush about how much you love the client’s business and how much you’re looking forward to working on their project.

Of course, I do this, but if I’m being honest with myself I don’t really care. That’s one of the reasons why I spend so much time on Medium. I want to write and make money doing something I actually care about, like writing these articles.

It’s Only a Job

I’ve met freelancers who complained that they couldn’t get behind the projects they were working on. For a beginner, it can easily lead to imposter syndrome.

Maybe you weren’t supposed to be a freelance writer?

I can tell you this is a perfectly normal feeling in the beginning. No, I have no passion for the auto insurance company I’m currently working for. It’s a job. If we all did the things we loved, we would never call this a job in the first place.

Always bear in mind that this is just a job. Do it and get paid.

You’re Not an Employee

Freelancers, by their nature, only work for a specific brand for a certain period of time. You’re brought in to follow instructions and complete the job. You don’t share in that company’s success in the long-term. You don’t get any employee benefits.

I’d argue most employees couldn’t care less about the company they work for, let alone the freelancers working for them. It’s only a salary to most employees and they’re not fulfilling their ambitions by working there anyway.

As a freelancer, you’re not asked or expected to care about that company.

It Doesn’t Impact Your Ability to Do Your Job

Passion doesn’t go hand-in-hand with proficiency. You can be proficient at something without necessarily being passionate about it.

I’m proficient at building websites and I can work with WordPress, but it doesn’t mean I care about doing those things. I detest building websites and working with WordPress, but, if necessary, I can do it.

Understand that passion can impact motivation. You may be unmotivated to work on a specific project, but that has nothing to do with your ability to work on that project.

That’s why I look at other things to motivate me when I have no passion to do something. For me, personally, I focus on the money I’m going to be paid. Money has always been a huge motivator of why I do what I do.

This money is what saves me from ever working for anyone else or having to work in a static location. Being forced to work as a normal salaried employee is one of my greatest fears in life. I never want to be pushed into that world.

I Still Love Writing

Just because I don’t like what I’m writing doesn’t mean I don’t love writing. The act of writing is still a joy, even if the subject on the page is not.

No matter how many awful projects I work on, I’ll still always love writing.

Besides, you can look to the future. Think about that great project you’re going to be working on later. I look forward to the next article I’m going to write on Medium when I get a great idea.

Like I said above, it’s all about finding that motivation to cut through the less interesting parts of your profession.

How do you get the motivation to work on projects you don’t care about?