I guess the three most important resources for a freelancer are time, energy and goodwill. But emotions come close after. 

Your emotions aren’t a shortcoming to be overcome, or a fault to be lived with. They are a strength. They are how you direct your time and energy. 

Positive emotion means productivity and growth; negative emotion means stress and stasis. 

Feeling anxious or hesitant about a project or a client is like physical pain: a warning of danger. So listen to it. 

It’s telling you that if you go ahead, your emotional resources will be drained. And that will spread out to your other work too, dragging your whole freelance enterprise down.  

So if you’re staring at that eye-popping email thinking, ‘Wow, how do I move past this?’ then know that you don’t have to. 

Just get out. 

You don’t need a reason. But if you’re pressed for one, say you can’t meet expectations, or you don’t think it will work out. 

Normally, taking on blame would be wrong. But in this situation, it gets you where you want to be: clear of head, light of heart and focused on your next good thing. 

If you like this, check out The Freelance Introvert.