Why Not Wednesdays
On audacity, ghosted inboxes, and doing the scary thing anyway.
When it comes to a calm nervous system, consistent income and a life that radiates stability, peace and something you can confidently build upon…being a freelancer in entertainment is NOT it. I have at least one ‘Menty B’ a week which usually centres around an identity crisis questioning WHY I am still not where I want to be, if I’m even good enough to get there and then of course the stress of how I will pay my mortgage. Gotta love the battle of paying the bills and working on ‘the craft’.
Then there’s the additional load of the fact that despite being a freelancer you are anything but. You take on every role within an infrastructure of a well oiled company - agent, accountant, recruiter, admin, people, HR, as well as of course the joys of being an attention seeker that mean you are people facing every day. So in my case: presenter, comedian, script writer, editor, videographer, director, researcher…I’m bored writing the list. Basically, we do a lot us creatives, with little credit and a lot of rejection *blows pity trumpet.
The perks being? We get to do a job we love which honestly, even in this economy, is irrevocably always worth it. That feeling of sitting behind a radio mic sharing stories and encouraging people around the UK to forget about being a serious, weighed down by the world adult and be silly for a moment - it’s priceless. But the cost, the rollercoaster, the mental health struggles and the Christmas quizzing from your distant aunt about getting a real job? I’d like to leave them in a box in the loft to be honest, gathering dust and maybe haunting my exes someday.
ANYWAY, I’m not here to be depressing, it’s hard, we know it, but we do it anyway because like I said the bliss of hitting the top of that mountain you’ve spent years climbing? It’s something even the latest version of Iphone camera couldn’t capture. The hardest bit isn’t the rejection, if anything it’s great practice for any city dating scene (I bounce back better than a bouncy ball on a trampoline) it’s the AUDACITY that’s the challenge. AKA having the big, hairy balls to put your name in rooms, inbox’s and folders that you feel like you have no right (or experience) to be in. And as a working class girly from a small town in the West Midlands (the Black Country if you’re from there) the only thing I can consistently rely on is delulu levels of passion and hustle, thrown in with a healthy sprinkling of outright audacity to throw my name into the ring whenever an idea springs to mind, knowing fair well ghosting will most likely be my inbox response.
UNTIL IT ISN’T.
Which is where ‘Why not Wednesdays’ enter the chat!
Consider this your Spring reboot to chuck it in the f*ck it bucket and make it happen. I’m also using this as a personal reminder that I have been slacking on my ‘Why Nots’ and instead been sitting far too comfortably in my ‘Wallowing Wednesdays’ so let’s all have a firm kick up the butt. Now I want to insert a very important caveat, as this is not another ‘add to the hustle list, you aren’t working hard enough, you don’t want it enough thing’. Consider it a friendly reminder, like a notification from your dentist to get your hygienist booked in, you don’t need to be doing it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (your gums would be screaming) but a regular check up is always good. Keep the molars happy.
My rules for ‘Why Not Wednesdays’:
You must have the AUDACITY - like Henry VIII level audacity (this man created an entirely new religion after pining over a woman for 7 years, defied the church, only to marry her and get her beheaded. The AUDACITY! And hustle tbf Henners, blimey!) Because your world is only as big as you choose to make it, so EXPAND, or at least go into different rooms in the house that’s the microcosm of your life.
This is not solely for your career. Over the last few years, my why not’s have very much been centred around saying ‘no’ (any recovering people pleasers will understand this terrorising concept.) And also around allowing myself to rest, to LIVE and step off the hamster wheel and give myself permission to go out there and experience the wide world I love to talk about so much! Plus it’s nice to mix them up, tick off challenges in different areas of your life because your work is not your entire personality (my Instagram says otherwise but I promise I’m a hoot with other weird and wonderful hobbies.)
But if it is about your career, I want you to do something that makes your belly feel like you’ve eaten a big bowl of chips and jumped straight into the pool. Email that person for feedback you’ve been too scared to ask for, DM someone you desperately would love to pick their brains for advice, put your big, premium adult pants on and ask to be paid what you deserve. Whatever it is, just send/do the one thing - this makes it manageable and not like you’re setting your entire life on fire (I once left my job with no job to go to and left my long term boyfriend in the same week, wouldn’t recommend for your poor nervous system.)
Once you’ve done the above, expect nothing. Yes we want the big magical result, but the whole purpose of Why Not Wednesday’s is training your brain to not think it’s being eaten by a lion because you put a 30 day payment notice on the bottom of your invoice.
REMINDER - the worst thing that can happen is they say no, your application get’s rejected, or someone is annoyed you cancelled the plan to take care of yourself. Honestly, the more you do it the more you realise it’s really not that deep, we’re on a floating rock that’s just frolicking around space for goodness sake.
Review at the end of each month. Give yourself a performance review like damn, I did 4 hard things this month and didn’t spontaneously combust (please tell me why spontaneous combustion was a genuine fear instilled into me as a child, I feel this has not been dissected by psychiatrists enough.) Oh and get yourself a lil treat. Could be a sweet treat, something on your ‘to buy’ list, a fancy beveragino? You get the drill. Reward yourself for doing 4 hard things a month, despite having to deal with the daily dilemma of being a human 24hours a day and figuring out how you want to human and what kind of human you want to be. Eurgh, humaning is a lot!
I didn’t really know what to put here but 7 is a lucky number so felt wrong not to end on it. I think the main thing is once a week, I want you to keep a promise to yourself. To live your life how you want to live it rather than merely letting it happen to you or even worse, letting society dictate what your ‘happy life’ looks like.
So let’s activate our premium adult subscription, and have the darn audacity! BONUS tip, romanticise the ritual (my Why Not Wednesday this week was writing this in the corner of a coffee shop in Glasgow, with a maple matcha I’m gonna have dreams about for the rest of 2026.) Sometimes, it’s the little things.
Send this to your bestie that needs a reminder of how badass they are!
I’m not just deep, I’m funny too - follow me on Instagram @chelseaisalittle and TikTok @chelseatellme if you need a lil doom scroll every now and then.