The Meaning of Freedom

What is freedom? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.  

I’m a big believer in the importance of knowing your personal values – knowing what matters most to you. A few years ago, I did a lot of work do learn about mine, and I do a bit of refresher work regularly.

For me, my values are like my north star. Knowing what truly matters most to me helps me make decisions, it helps me get through difficult times, it means I know what I need to do when things are not going well, and it’s what motivates and inspires me to live my best life. 

Over the years, my values have changed a bit here and there. But one thing that never changes is that freedom is my highest personal value. Being free and independent matters more to me than anything else. 

But lately, just knowing that I value freedom hasn’t been enough anymore. 

I’ve been making decisions that have resulted in having less freedom (mainly working as much as I do right now). This seems counterintuitive when freedom is my highest value – and yet somehow, they felt like the right decisions to make at the time.

What happened? Did I not value freedom as much as I use to anymore? Somehow, that idea didn’t feel right either. 

All of this led me to think about the meaning of freedom.

What does it actually mean to live a free life? 

Freedom probably means different things to different people. But what is my personal definition of freedom?

It would be easy to say that freedom means being able to do whatever I want all the time. But that definition doesn’t really resonate with me. I decided there must be more to it. So here is what I came up with.

Freedom is having choices! 

Freedom isn’t about doing whatever I feel like. It’s about having options. Freedom is about being able to choose how I want to live my life – and being able to change my mind and choose a different path. Freedom isn’t just about living in the moment. It’s about having choices – today AND in the future. 

I’ve come to realise that, for me, this is a crucial distinction. Living life the way I want to today is great, but too often, living in the moment can come with a price to be paid in the future. What I want to do today isn’t always what will make me happy in the long-term. 

I love my current lifestyle. I love living in my van, getting by on little and living a simple life. But one of the reasons I love it is because it’s a choice. I don’t have to live this way. I choose to. If I wanted to move back into an apartment, I could at any time. If I just felt like a break from the van, I could book myself into a nice AirBnB for a few days. That, to me, is freedom.

I sometimes meet people for whom this lifestyle isn’t really a choice. Through bad luck, lack of foresight or other reasons, they live a very simple, nomadic life because they have to. Many are happy, positive people – but they also agree that life could be easier if they had more choices. 

I’ve realised that for me, freedom means making sure that I can choose how I want to live my life – today and in the future. 

But it’s a balancing act.

Too often, the things that will result in having more freedom in the future mean less freedom today. Some sacrifices today will certainly be worth it in the future, but how much is too much? 

I’ve been grappling with that question all winter, and I’ve got a feeling that it will continue to be on my mind. It’s one of those questions that doesn’t have an answer. No matter what I do, I’ll never know what would have happened if I had gone the other way. 

All I can do is make the best decisions I can, based on what I know today – and then simply decide to be happy with whatever happens and have no regrets. 

Spending some time analysing my highest personal value has been very valuable for me. I didn’t get all the answers I was hoping for, but it’s helped me feel more confident in the decisions I’m making right now. 

It made me realise that sometimes, living by my highest value of freedom in the long-term, means giving up some of my freedom in the short-term. 

Learn about your personal values

If you’re interested in learning about your personal values, you might find this exercise helpful. 

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