How To Become A Better Freelance Writer By Understanding The Three Principles Of Krav Maga

By Dan Smith

I’m not a particularly sporty person, nor am I overly aggressive. I play pool and snooker on occasion, have a kick about with a football now and again and enjoy watching a range of different sports.

Like many guys, I also like to think I can handle myself should the need arise.

Lately, though, I’ve become fascinated with a type of combat known as Krav Maga.

Developed in Israel and taught to, amongst others, the country’s Special Forces, the idea behind Krav Maga is to give the person the ability to overcome an opponent in close quarter, hand-to-hand combat.

I’ve spent the last few days in particular researching Krav Maga and watching videos on YouTube, mainly sitting there in awe of the experts in it.

After a little research, I came across the three main principles of Krav Maga and realised that they, somewhat strangely, relate to freelance writing and how you can further your career as a freelance writer by abiding by the combat’s three main principles.

Threat Neutralization

Although you’re unlikely to have heard of this phrase in relation to freelance writing before, the idea here isn’t to think that you have to go out and neutralize every other writer who’s posing a threat to you in a violent way, but in a way that sees you stand out above the rest of the crowd.

Think of it from a client’s perspective.

They’re looking to hire a writer to produce some regular work and are looking at half a dozen writers, consisting of you offering to complete the work at the going rate and five other writers saying they’ll do the same job but on a considerably reduced rate to what you’re proposing.

How do you neutralize this threat from the other five writers? If you simply leave it for the client to decide, chances are they’ll choose a cheaper writer.

Produce samples of your work. Provide references. Explain how the investment in quality writing will always prevail over cheaper content.

It may not work every time, but as with Krav Maga, if you’re prepared for a situation where you need to neutralize a threat, it will ensure that you have every chance of succeeding.

Simultaneous Defensive and Offensive Maneuvers

The ability to be able to act on both a defensive and offensive foot is imperative in most situations in life, whether that’s while facing an opponent when practicing Krav Maga, controlling an entire military army or in a corporate business environment and it’s exactly the same for freelance writing.

Being in charge of your career and income, you need to have a pro-active approach to gaining clients, working on new projects and continually developing yourself, pushing your career forward so that you don’t fall into a rut where you find it difficult to get out of.

Similarly, however, it’s important that you’re prepared for the times where things don’t go as planned, whether that’s clients failing to pay or what seems like a temporary saturation in the market, with next to no work being available.

It’s here when your defensive tactics come into play, with the basic theory being to dig in, hold tight and do what you can to survive until this temporary blip in your career progression passes.

Aggression

I’m not an aggressive person and I much prefer to live an easy life than have to get into any type of confrontation, but aggression and a pro-active approach are imperative to anyone who wants to succeed as a freelance writer.

Being aggressive doesn’t mean that you have to intimidate clients into giving you work, but more that you’re willing to fight — in the theoretical sense — for a project.

If you apply for freelance writing gigs that you see online, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll be the only one applying and you need to be confident enough in your writing ability that you could hold your own against the other applicants and prove to the client that you’re the one they should be hiring.

The theology behind Krav Maga is to be able to survive in situations that you aren’t comfortable in and which don’t come naturally. While you’re likely to have a certain place that you feel comfortable in when it comes to freelance writing, it’s always recommended that you’re striving to continually move forward, out of your comfort zone and it’s here where understanding these three techniques really proves to be useful.

Image: geekcraft (Flickr)