Illustrating (Growing) Pains

My freelance job as a graphic designer slash illustrator slash photographer has been a bit of a ride for me. Sometimes grueling, especially when ideas aren't coming to me, but mostly, it's been one of self-discovery.

Some of the things I've learned and am continuing to learn:

1. I need a routine. 
2. I need to get out of the house. 
3. I'm better at qualitative than quantitative information. 
4. Sense of ownership is really important to me. 
5. I hate talking about money. 
6. Soundboarding, brainstorming, is important to me. I enjoy working on my own, but not by myself! 

I'm going through these challenges, but I really want to get better at it. To close, here is another interview I found with one of my favorite illustrators, Christoph Niemann, whom I really identify with. I could relate especially to his process. One thing I haven't gotten down yet, which I wish I need like, RIGHT NOW, is... well you can read it below...

What about anxiety for you personally? How do you deal with failure, if a drawing isn’t working?
At the beginning, for every single job, I was absolutely freaked out. But I feel that over time, it’s learnable to a large degree. For instance, with all business illustrations, I take them very seriously – it’s not like I do them with my left hand – but I know that there’s more of a mechanism to make what I call an un-embarrassing solution. Something that works, something looks right and sharp, and gets the job done. At this point, I think you can wake me up at 3 in the morning and I can do something on the Federal Reserve discussing interest rates and it will look right, and it won’t generate angry letters from readers.