How long do you spend looking at pictures online thinking ‘damn, I wish I had that’? Or ‘I want to be there right now’? Or ‘They have such a good life. I wish I was doing that’? Often enough, right. The problem with social media is it’s a highlight reel of images that people/companies want you to see. The whole algorithm behind media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook keep you fixed on images that make you want that instead of the reality in front of you. Ask yourself this… Do you actually want what is in those images? Or is what you actually want freedom?
I heard a psychologist state about people’s desire to be wealthy or rich as a confusion with the desire to be free. It doesn’t take a lot of research to find out that being rich doesn’t make you happy but what being lucrative in funds does give you is financial freedom, or so we think. Freedom is what most people want. This is something I want to talk about because I’ve been doing some thinking around it.
When I heard about the human desire to be free, I tried to analyse my own definition of what freedom means. I think a lot of people think freedom would be to have enough money and business that they could wake up every day and do whatever they wanted. However, I don’t believe this would make people happy. See, I strongly believe that all human beings need an occupation. I call it an occupation because not all occupations are the typical paid job, an occupation just refers to something that engages a human being in an activity – this could be anything from hunting and gathering food or a business job and everything in between. Without some form of schedule I think most human beings would lose the plot and fall into anxiety and depression. Any low point in my life was as a result of my routine and schedule being offset and therefore making me feel as though I had no control. In every low point of my life so far, I also felt under stimulated, mostly due to not having an occupation or a meaningful one at that.
From my own experience, research and observation, I believe the people who are happiest in life are those that own their freedom. They are not necessarily rich, famous, travelling a lot, business owners, etc. They are not people who wake up every day with no agenda and just do ‘whatever they like’. Instead, I feel the people who are happiest are those that have an occupation, a schedule, a routine that they own and have complete control over.
When I think about it, I feel like this is me. For the most part anyway. I don’t own a business, I’m not rich, I’m not constantly travelling but I do control what it is I do day. Luckily for me, although I do have a job with a manager and a timing frame that I have to adhere to, it is a time frame that suites me and within my job I get a lot of freedom – especially creatively. As a person, I need a framework to work with otherwise I tend to get lost or overwhelmed and my job presents this in a perfect format. The endeavours I undertake around my job I have complete ownership over – I run or swim every morning, I gym in the evening, I have the means and money to travel and socialise, I have the knowledge and time to dedicate to this blog, etc. I’d say that’s freedom which I is why I think I’m so positive and generally a happy guy.
What do you think then? What does freedom mean to you? How could you take more ownership of your freedom?
Peace & love people, thanks for reading.
BG
benedict. 