The first step to achieving greater freedom in your life is to understand WHAT freedom means to you.
This is exactly what I did last night, in a fascinating online workshop by Corey Wilks: a creator coach who has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry: Ali Abdaal, and even Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole.
First, we had to define our top 3 core values.
Unsurprisingly, almost all people chose “Freedom” as their top.
Surprisingly, all of them defined “Freedom” in a very different way.
Some defined freedom as living a location-independent lifestyle (traveling).
Others defined freedom as arranging their time as they wished (autonomy and flexibility).
Others defined freedom as having many options (abundance).
Freedom means different things to different people at different life stages.
One core value, with many different interpretations.
It made me question: What does freedom mean to me?
Freedom for me is:
Freedom to choose the pain I enjoy the most (thank you, Mark Manson)
Freedom to approach any stranger I want, and say hello (social and romantic freedom)
Freedom to choose where I live and travel (physical freedom)
Freedom to choose how I spend my time (autonomy)
Freedom to choose with whom I spend my time
Freedom to decide how much I work (financial freedom)
Freedom to express myself verbally and musically (emotional and artistic freedom)
It turns out that freedom is actually 10-20 other possible core values. The mother of all of them.
Freedom for me is also:
Freedom from the 9-5 rat race jobs that slowly killed me (thank you, Radiohead)
Freedom from commuting every day during rush hours
Freedom from being told what to do most times
Freedom from scarcity (which leads to compromise, mediocracy, and resentment)
These are different sides of the same coin.
If you want to live a life of true freedom, you must first take the time to reflect on what that means to you.
To Freddy Mercury, it’s breaking free from the ordinary, routine, grey housewife life.
To George Michael, it’s about shaking out his old grey image, and creating a new, visionary, and innovative one.
What do you mean when you say “I want to obtain more freedom”?
To which freedoms do you relate the most?