A life of anxiety followed with hesitation (6)
I believe the answer is:
career
'a life' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'anxiety followed with hesitation' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'anxiety' could be 'care' (care is a kind of anxiety) and 'care' is present in the answer.
'hesitation' could be 'er' (sound used when hesitating) and 'er' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for career that I've seen before include "Progress in occupation" , "Vocation; rush" , "pursuit" , "Progress of working life" , "Mad rush" .)