Your Mental Health is Worth “No”

Photo by Debby Urken on Unsplash

I had just landed a new client.

It was a quasi-religious consultancy run by someone I’d known in a previous life. The vision was grand (as most entreprenuers’ are) and the work was really interesting at first. Booklets, brochures, CD-ROM labels (remember those?), etc.

I was fresh-faced and new to freelance design, and hadn’t learned how to set boundaries for my clients. Every text/call/email was a request that I should have pushed back on, but didn’t. Partly because I didn’t know better, and partly <and I hate to admit this> I really wanted him to like my work.

And so the relationship continued. Even as I got new clients and more interesting work, this one client proved to be a major drain on my mental health. My design work was suffering because I was doing design work.

I came to realize that this wasn’t just a boundary problem — it was decision fatigue in disguise. Deep down I knew something was off, but I kept avoiding the decision that would have set me free. It came to a head when he started including his teenage children in the decision making process, and I finally decided I had to let the client relationship go.

I remember such a feeling of freedom! Was it initially good work? Sure. But was letting it go too long in coming?  Absolutely.

Clients will always come and go. You should be running your agency in such a way that you can say “no” when needed. If you don’t, burnout could be just around the corner. And the design world needs you too much for that to happen.