Freedom means different things to different people, yet as with anything in life there are always fundamental principles and core ingredients. In the sense of freedom, the core ingredients seem to be both having the time and money to enjoy life on your own terms.
For some people, this will involve travelling the world with a backpack, whilst for others, it will mean having more time at home with their kids and ensuring they are there to watch every sports match their children play.
Whilst the “freedom lifestyle” is often linked with the remote working movement, there is one component of freedom that cannot be overlooked, as it goes beyond time and money, which is that of autonomy.
To feel free, you must have a feeling of autonomy in the sense that you need to feel like you are in control of your life, and have influence on your world. When people feel like their life is not in their control, for a prolonged period of time, it can lead to chronic mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Unfortunately, with the feeling of autonomy comes a feeling of responsibility, and many people are reluctant to take complete responsibility for themselves and the results of their life. They prefer to see themselves as a victim of circumstance rather than a creator caught within the cause and effect loop.
Many people prefer to have sloping shoulders when it comes to taking responsibility for the cause and effect of their lives, blaming other people and external forces, but to have complete autonomy and therefore freedom we must accept total responsibility for creating our lives.
In this vein, Jack Canfield posits an equation of E+R=O. This stands for “Event + Reaction = Outcome”. It’s a simple framework that shows how powerful we are in terms of creating our lives.
For instance, if you were to want to live a life of freedom but felt frustrated because you didn’t have any money since losing a freelance contract – we could break it down as follows: the event was the loss of a contract, your reaction has since determined the outcome, which is one of frustration and being unable to travel due to low funds… yet, it was your reaction to this, not the event itself, that has led to that outcome.
At this point, it was like a crossroads in the sense that you could have gone out and contacted other companies and secured a contract that day, or you could have felt sorry for yourself, and resorted to watching Netflix to distract yourself from the worry of losing the contract.
The point being that with freedom comes full responsibility, and with full responsibility comes autonomy – which is the ability to respond to the situations in your life according to what you wish to create.
Now that we’ve covered that, let’s take a look at some of the ways to fuel the freedom lifestyle and what exactly we mean by the “freedom lifestyle”.
THE BALANCE OF TIME AND MONEY
Once upon a time “being rich” meant having a lot of money, whereas today, the New Rich as Tim Ferriss refers to them, value having time freedom and the financial resources to enable them to squeeze the most out of life.
It’s no longer about having a Bentley in the double garage, or a butler, it’s about being able to squeeze the most out of life – and for many people that comes down to being more mindful, healthy, happy and connected with others, in addition to exploring all the world has to offer in terms of travel.
We have all seen people amassing tons of money who are working themselves into an early grave, in that they never taking a vacation and are so time starved they barely get time to spend with their family or friends and enjoy life.
Similarly, there are people that seem to have all the time in the world, (mostly the unemployed and retired) but are limited financially, and therefore feel trapped in their situation and unable to squeeze the most from life.
The challenge with the way most people make money is that they are trapped in what people commonly refer to as the “rat race”, where they tend to be in a position of merely existing and getting by rather than squeezing the most from life.
When you are trading your time for money, it can feel very much feel like you’re spinning your wheels and many people dream of breaking free from the shackles of the corporate world, yet are unable to live without the income it generates.
BREAKING FREE
Almost everyone has felt the need to “break free” and escape the rat race of life, and for many, this is when they look to start a business or become their own boss as a self-employed person.
If you want to reap the benefits of the freedom lifestyle, money is the fuel that will enable the experiences you want in life and time is the factor that will allow you to enjoy them!
There clearly needs to be a balance of both factors, and one of the best ways to achieve that balance is to embrace the ‘remote working lifestyle’ as either a freelancer or remote business owner; which means a business that is mostly put on autopilot and can be managed from anywhere with an internet connection.
For instance, if you were to have a blog that sells an online course, or even hosts advertising – you can manage this from anywhere in the world, but the best aspect of this model, is that you have stopped trading your time for money in the conventional way.
You are now leveraging an asset that you can market many times over, from the comfort of your bed, hammock, or a mile high in the sky! When you make money by managing assets rather than trading your time for money, you can enjoy a life of true freedom – as this way, you will have both the time and money to squeeze the most from life.
Similarly, if you were to have a few properties that you rented out, and made a profit on each month rent was paid, you could have both the time and money to squeeze the most from life – as you have the freedom to travel anywhere in the world, safe in the knowledge that your assets are generating you income. Of course, you might have to pay a commission to a property manager, to take care of your properties and be on call should any issues arise, but this is a small price to pay for a life of freedom.
When it comes to online business, today, with the use of automated systems from phone answering services to digital marketing funnels, automated emails, social media post schedulers, and so on, you are now able to rely on technology to take out some of the strain of running your business; meaning you have much more time to focus on what’s important.
The alternative, of course, is freelance work that allows you to work from your laptop anywhere in the world – yet, it’s important to realise that you are still trading time for money with freelance work, so it’s not necessarily the ‘best’ option; it is, however, often the most viable option for the majority of people.
NEW PURSUITS
Whilst the freedom lifestyle doesn’t have to involve travel, for many people it will, as once you have created the fundamentals required to fuel a freedom lifestyle, your next question will be what to do with yourself.
Some people use this as an opportunity to take some time out, and study whilst travelling, for instance, you could pursue a distance learning course such as https://online.kettering.edu/programs/masters/engineering-management-masters-online that allows you to study online, whilst traveling the world.
The option to study in this way is very appealing to those that are looking for more freedom, as sometimes, you can have “too much” freedom in the sense that a little structure and feeling of progress can be helpful. All too often people go travelling in search of finding themselves, to find they lose themselves in the same day-in-day-out experience of hunting for food, accomodation, buses and parties. After a while, it gets old, so it can be good to have something like an educational course to pursue whilst on the road.
On the other hand, as mentioned above, a “freedom lifestyle” doesn’t have to involve travel at all – it could be more akin to having a closer bond with your family and nature – living a little more off the grid akin to the tiny house movement, or simply being with those you love.
It doesn’t need to be that extreme, in fact, it doesn’t have to be any different to your daily conventional life – it’s all about finding ways to have more freedom so that you can enjoy doing the things you want to do in life… whatever they may be!
