Unless your vision is very basic, getting where you want to go is going to require more than skills and drive. It will require sacrifices. And the more elaborate your vision, the more you’ll have to give up to see it through.

If you haven’t thought about the sacrifices that will be required, you don’t really know what your journey is going to look like.

And, if you don’t know what the journey looks like, you reduce your chances of surviving it.

Say you’re tired of writing articles. You decide to quit freelancing and write a book. Your partner supports the idea and agrees to cover the bills.

Depending on his or her finances, you may sacrifice a lot more than having your own money.

Maybe you’re used to getting your hair and nails done, going to Starbucks every day, going out for drinks after work, or having the NFL season package. Those things may no longer be in the budget.

Although those may seem like frivolous concerns, it’s not that simplistic.

What you’re sacrificing isn’t a few personal expenditures. You’re sacrificing your lifestyle, one that you’ve grown accustomed to. You’re basically agreeing to learn to live another way, a less comfortable way.

Confronting the need to make a lot of sacrifices you aren’t prepared for can be a real culture shock. In the end, it could strain your relationship and jeopardize your mission.

See Also: Why Freelancers Become Failed Bloggers

I’ve sacrificed a lot to get to the point of comfortably freelancing full-time.

For starters, I’m one who gave up the stability of a full-time job. Like I explained above, that meant doing without a lot of things that I wanted because I wasn’t in a position to get them.

Even when people warned me that I put far too many miles on my old car and it was a matter of urgency to get a new one, I didn’t get it. I couldn’t. Being committed to a monthly car payment wasn’t feasible. Some months I barely had enough money to pay for the essentials.

And once I was more financially secure, the need to sacrifice didn’t stop. It intensified.

More work and higher paying projects required more time, which meant spending less and less time with family and friends.

It meant loosening the grip on my “me time.” I was going out less. I was working on vacation.

The busier I got, the more I had to sacrifice being in control of things. I had to allow other people to make decisions and trust them to do things that before I was only comfortable doing myself.

There were relationships that weren’t working with the direction and pace that I was moving, so I had to let them go too.

Some of these things, I knew in advance I was going to have to sacrifice. But some things caught me off guard.

At times, it came down to moments of tough decision-making. And sometimes, I made bad choices before I made the right choice because I was trying to avoid making sacrifices.

I wanted what I wanted, but I wanted it on my terms, which wasn’t realistic.

Now, when I set a goal, part of my planning process is to determine what I’ll have to give up to achieve it.

I try to be honest with myself about whether those are sacrifices that I’m willing to make. Not only for the moment but for as long as it takes.

If I have doubts or I know I’m not prepared to give up certain things or change certain things, I don’t pursue the plan.  Nothing comes without sacrifice, and either I’m about making them or I’m not.

So what about you? What have you sacrificed? Did you think about the sacrifices in advance? What are you willing to sacrifice now to accomplish your goals? Feel free to share in the comment section.