Are you free? Do you have freedom in your life?
Freedom: Free to think, express, spend and decide
So what?
Per Wikipedia, freedom is defined as “either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfil one’s purposes”. With freedom, you will:
- Have less of meaningless relationships that don’t add value to your life;
- Be able to prioritise your daily demands;
- Have stronger core values and beliefs; and
- Inspire yourself and others to make a better world.
Disclaimer
This post is not meant to be political. I’m simply illustrating what freedom in your life means and why having certain freedom (to a degree) will enhance your life. Absolute freedom is not something that I’m advocating. Having certain freedom, within reason, will not only be beneficial for your mental and physical well-being but will allow you to have stronger and more meaningful relationships.
Thoughts
This freedom is about your right to have thoughts, ideas, conscience and viewpoints. It makes you who you are. Knowledge and concepts in your mind come from this freedom. Without the ability to think freely, have ideas without boundaries and be conscience will not only rob you of your being but you will be indistinguishable from everyone else.
Expressions
Why is freedom to express important? It’s because your voice matters. You should have the right to share information and speak your mind. Being able to agree or disagree and to express your visions, beliefs and opinions are central to living in society.
Spending
In practice, financial freedom is different for each every one of us. The meaning of financial freedom is sufficiently universal that we can define it as the ability to life the lifestyle you want for yourself and your family with the amount of wealth you have. At the core of financial freedom is the ability to spend. What got me thinking about the ability to spend is the recent news making the headlines surrounding BasicsCards. In order to even get the card, you need to be on Income Management by Services Australia. The reusable card is only accepted at approved businesses and your spending at these venues are monitored, controlled and limited. Imagine that you were forced into such arrangement. Me painting a picture and mentioning the BasicsCards is sufficient to illustrate how horrible lack of freedom to spend would be.
My experience
Whilst I’ve always lived in a democratic society where I have the freedom to think, express and spend, I’ve been imposing barriers and limits on myself. Whether it was because of my lack of confidence or the unachievable financial goals, I’ve held myself back from freely thinking, expressing and spending. It got to a point where I felt trapped and lost the ability to be present and make simplest decisions. This transgressed into a broken marriage and my wife feeling the same way. Not until we were living separately I realised what I had done to myself, my wife and our marriage.
What now?
- Have a think about what aspects in your life that you are lacking freedom in.
- Is the oppression internal or external? Are you placing limits on yourself?
- Ask yourself what you can do to have more freedom where you are lacking it.