Freelancing is generally not long term work.
The most important lesson I've learnt is the difference between freelancing, contracting, consulting, and beyond.
It is possible you are trying to be a freelancer and desiring the stability of a contractor / consultant.
You have to find long term customers who need regular ongoing work.
To do this, you'll have to do things that are closer to the creation of value in a company, rather than at the edge. For example, someone that is doable by many people is not as valuable. If you help them with strategy as well as implementation, that is value.
Many small businesses would pay $1000/month for someone for ongoing work when they cannot afford a full time person. Get 10 of them and you have steady work. This is how I started in 1999 when there were far fewer people online. The need is much greater today.
Lastly, about your point on patience, you are right. Everyone seems to want to magically reinvent their lives in 6-18 months. That happens for outliers who are willing to learn and do whatever it takes. The above advice that I've helped my own friends implement in their lives is relative to execution, dedication, patience, commitment, resilience, and remembering how you add value.
You are now a business. You have to do the work of a business whether you like it or not. The health of any business is how good it is at getting new customers, and keeping/growing existing ones. Applying this to a smaller freelancing/consultant scale is doable and quite beneficial to review regularly.
My advice would be to find opportunities where you add the highest value, and seek some sort of a monthly retainer that is affordable for the customer and meaningful for you x10.
Once there is stability, there is an opportunity to pursue prosperity. Too many people try to thrive before learning to survive, and actually make more money than they need to use for growth. It's the single biggest important lesson for business and startups.