Then they see my work history and they think I'm throwing it all away...
If you get jobs without it, who cares? Maybe you can get the better gigs with it.
I have problems finding motivation to do any of my own projects, and end up helping all my peers instead.
Hear you on that one. I used to be a lot like that when I was pushing to get more experience under my belt. For me doing production sound and editing there's a fair bit of demand. With you doing grading, there's a demand for quality colorists. Someone has to fix up the coloring jobs I botch, right? lol