If I haven’t mentioned it to you before, I train in a combat sport…Brazilian jiu jitsu actually. I’ll tell you more about that later, but the important point here is that it’s a sport and that people in every sport love t-shirts. Since it’s a sport made up of mostly young, rough guys, the t-shirt scene was almost completely dominated by images of angry animals, chains, bleeding fighters…that was until a new artist “popped” onto the scene.

He broke the mold with bright colors, beautiful florals, and playful, graceful animals. He’s an artist I support to this day because when I started as a blogger in that industry (the place I learned a LOT about doing stuff online) he was supportive from the very start.

I put “popped” in quotes back there because if you weren’t paying attention you’d think the man was born drawing ornate peacocks and graceful warriors. One day on Facebook though, he posted a before and after…on the left was a drawing from 5 years before and on the right, his newest creation (I think it was for a jacket.) The difference was mind blowing. Everyone…even people like me who’d been around and up close almost the entire time…was amazed by the transformation. His before was good, but it was average drawing — nowhere near the beautiful pieces he creates now.

What was most striking though, is that even he was a little surprised at his progress.

Placing those two pieces side by side allowed him to the see the truth of his growth as an artist, but it did something even more important — it was a powerful reminder of just how much he accomplished with a little practice on the side every day. Those reminders are the kind of motivation that keeps you pushing through the valleys and hills of freelance life.

I want you to be able to do something similar, which is why I put together this self assessment that I use myself. I really want to urge you to try it once…I did it about a week or so ago and the difference I saw in only three months got me fired up enough to push even harder and sign on a couple of new, great clients. Do your future self a favor and check it out.

Resource Reminder