“One more revision won't hurt — I don't want to seem difficult”

The polite person who never asks for moreYou tell yourself this is just the courteous thing to do. One more revision, a tiny color shift, a softer headline, a little rearranging of the sections — nothing dramatic. If you keep the tone easy and agreeable, the project stays smooth and you stay easy to work with. The hidden myth is simple: being flexible proves you are the kind of person clients want.

Why the small ask keeps getting biggerThe trouble is that the work already comes with a script. In spec work and scope creep, free extra effort gets treated like a preview of what you’ll always do. The more you absorb without naming it, the more the request feels normal — not because it is, but because you made it look painless. That makes the next 'tiny' revision arrive dressed as common sense.

A ten-minute test with no audienceOpen the current project notes or a blank document and write three lines only: what was asked for, what has already been revised, and what would count as a new request. Then mark one item as 'outside the original ask' without sending it anywhere. You are not proving a theory; you are checking whether the word difficult is doing more work than the actual scope.