Oh honey, I feel this in my bones. The constant anxiety? Yeah, that's the sound of playing every game at once. A few years back someone on LinkedIn dropped a framework that sorted my head out, and I've been passing it around to every frazzled freelancer I meet. There are six career games, and most of us miserable sods accidentally try to win all of them.
Game one - Money. That's the default scoreboard society shoves at you. More comp, more assets, bigger net worth. Nothing wrong with it, but it's a trap if you don't know the others exist.
Game two - Altruism. Service, causes, being the change. Points are internal. Feels good, doesn't pay the rent.
Game three - Influence. Changing minds, reach, persuasion. Thought leaders and podcasters. The world looks different because of you, supposedly.
Game four - Mastery. Being world-class at your thing just for the hell of it. A black belt, an eight-seat omakase joint booked out for months. The silent pursuit.
Game five - Stability. Peace, predictability, a steady paycheck and family time. To some it's lack of ambition, to others it's conscious choice.
Game six - Autonomy. Total control of your time. Founders, bitcoin maximalists with three passports, fractional workers who swear they'll never go back to full-time.
The secret? There are no good or bad games. The only mistake is playing the wrong one or trying to win them all. Pick your number one and number two - no more than two - define what winning looks like, then design your life to achieve it.
It's not a magic bullet, but it stopped me from burning out trying to be a money-making, altruistic, influential, masterful, stable, autonomous legend all at once. That's basically what we try to do as solo freelancers, and it's bloody exhausting. Figure out which two games actually matter to you, and let the rest fall away. Might help you decide whether to keep the agency or not.
