Choosing Your Freedom

What does it mean to be free?

I’ve asked some difficult questions during this series, but that one might take the cake. The concept of freedom can mean so many things to so many people. So before we jump into today’s lesson, let’s keep the pattern going and start with a definition.

Freedom /ˈfrēdəm/ noun – the state of being free, the absence of constraint in choice or action, not having necessity or coercion, the opportunity to pursue one’s happiness.

In my book, Blue Collar Cash, I’m more worried about true freedom. I want you to be free in your mind, in your outlook on life, free to choose how you want to spend your time and your money. And, most importantly, free to choose how you want to live your life.

If you look back at what we’ve learned about comfort and peace, you might be able to see how each one lends itself to freedom. Remember your life drawing? You can decide what things you want to surround you in your life which, in turn, gives you a lot less to think about. With those choices made, all of your stresses, anxieties, necessities, and coercions are behind you. Remember our talk about planning? You’re living a life where all you have in front of you is the anticipation of every opportunity and milestone that you’ve laid out.

That sounds pretty freeing to me.

I’d like to submit that the feeling of freedom is an emotion, and a very powerful one at that. Imagine living your life with so little negative energy that you allow your spontaneity to live and breathe. Or that you’ve got that much more bandwidth for love, affection, creativity, and charity to move in and stay as long as they’d like. How do you think your daily decisions would change if you had those guests staying upstairs instead of things like fear, anger, jealousy, or depression?

The reality is that good feelings beget good feelings. Freedom begets freedom. When you start making those deliberate decisions for yourself and how you spend your time, you’ll start to notice that you’re doing things that make you feel freer. And after taking stock of what you’re doing, you can start focusing on what you want.

There’s an incredible amount of freedom in living a life you’re in charge of. And the best part is that you already have everything you need inside of you. And you also have time. Your ultimate path to requires you to acknowledge the preciousness of your time. As short as our time on Earth may be, we’ve all got the same 24 hours in a day. You can do whatever you want with your “free time”  once you put your plan into action. You and only you get to decide what you do with that time.

You get to decide what feelings and experiences you want to have.

You get to choose your ultimate path to freedom.

Remember that.

If you’re new to this series, be sure to check out the articles on Comfort and Peace for the whole picture. And if you’re interested in some more hands-on work with my Blue Collar Cash mindset, be sure to check out The Path.