Self-inflicted wounds.

During the trench warfare in WWI, it was a not-uncommon phenomenon for soldiers to take their rifles and literally shoot themselves in the foot. The troopers would claim that the shooting was accidental. They were hoping to get sent to the hospital and thus excused from duty. They did this to avoid the carnage that was waiting for them when the order came to go “over the top,” i.e., to mount out of the trenches and charge across no-man’s land into the machine-gun fire of the enemy.

In the military, to deliberately inflict injury upon oneself so as to avoid service is called malingering. It’s a court-martial offence that is punishable, in some armies, by death.

The habits and addictions of the amateur are conscious or unconscious self-inflicted wounds. Their payoff is incapacity. When we take our M1903 Springfield and blow a hole in our foot, we no longer have to face the real fight of our lives, which is to become who we are and to realise our destiny and our calling.

~ Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro

The following is a list of self-inflicted wounds that freelancers tend to inflict on themselves:

Choosing an audience that's reluctant to pay and ignoring the ones who are desperate to pay.

Not working on a schedule and waiting for inspiration before we sit down to work.

Pricing too low which doesn't allow us the room to delight our audience and to grow our work.

Not taking care of immediate expenses (by earning enough income) and building on debt thinking that one big payoff will let us off the hook.