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What Is Freedom?

Like any other word in the English dictionary, there is an official definition of freedom.

the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited:

^[1]Cambridge Dictionary

Freedom is made up of a range of civil liberties that many western countries are used to and have been for many years now. The bigger question, though, are we truly free, or is it perceived freedom? Anyway, that is way outside of the scope of this article. Perhaps the next on this subject will deal with that!

What Does Freedom Mean To You?

So, we know what the official definition is, but it is subjective, like many things in life. Freedom can be taken in a literal form, such as not being imprisoned or somehow restricted from being able to move around freely.

Those two examples are both fair and valid too, but for many, freedom means much more than being physically free from the likes of a jail.

Some may argue that simply being able to move your body freely and walk around your town unrestricted isn’t freedom. People may also feel that for them, freedom involves something spiritual or their religion to be truly free.

So, again, I ask – what does freedom mean to you?

Consider the question, reflect on your life – take in every aspect of it, the good, the bad and the ugly. Now, what does freedom mean to you?

What Does Freedom Mean To Me?

Freedom to me means everything I have already spoken about, including all our western civil liberties. However, for me, freedom is way more than that.

When I talk about freedom and wanting to be free, I want to include all aspects of my life, which I call the three f’s. Which are;

1. Time Freedom
2. Financial Freedom
3. Geographical Freedom

Time Freedom

Time is one thing we all have, and no matter where you fit into society, you cannot buy more. It is a commodity that cannot be traded.

So what is time freedom?

For me, time freedom considers that we all must try to earn a living to be able to live our lives, but this doesn’t have to be done at the cost of giving yourself to someone else for the majority of your life. Such as the employee vs employer relationship.

Typically, we finish our education and get a job working for someone else. If you’re lucky, you’ll work Monday to Friday, 9 – 5! Unlucky, you may work shifts – weekends, public holidays etc.

This is what society looks like and, ultimately, what has historically been expected of us.

To have true-time freedom, you would work when you want to, leaving time elsewhere to engage in other, more fulfilling activities or hobbies. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any employment opportunities that would allow for this level of freedom and enable you to work towards the other two f’s, so you would need to work for yourself and start your own business to achieve time freedom.

Financial Freedom

Yet another subjective term that will have personal meaning to every person. However, it could be defined at a high level as having enough money or financial means to sustain the lifestyle you want to live.

So, you want to live in that expensive neighbourhood in suburbia, buy a yacht and holiday once a month? That’s cool, but you will need some financial resources to sustain that lifestyle and thus have financial freedom. Of course, if that is your lifestyle goal, I am not belittling it, and it can certainly be achieved with lots of hard work – so go for it!

Geographical Freedom

Of course, the others are important to me, and without them, this f wouldn’t be possible to achieve, but this one is my favourite.

The ability to be completely free of any particular geographic location – sounds like a dream, right?

We all have family and friends that we couldn’t do without, but we can travel the world whenever we want, explore those fabulous places, and work from wherever we are. The only prerequisite is the need for a stable and fast internet connection. This is my goal. This is my view of geographical freedom.

How Do You Create Freedom?

So how do we create freedom? As I’ve already mentioned during this article, you define what freedom means to you, making it hard for me to tell you how to create your freedom.

However, if your view of freedom sits anywhere near my definition, I’ll happily share how I work towards these goals.

Over the last decade, I have been extremely fortunate as my wife and I reversed societal norms when we had our children. Instead of the typical wife staying home caring for the children, my wife and I decided that I’d be the stay-at-home parent while she retrained at university for her nursing degree.

So, in 2010/2011, I became a stay at home dad, the primary carer for my children and started my first business, working from home around my children.

In my view, this decision gave me immediate time freedom. Time I am incredibly grateful to have had—a priceless time with my young children. The time I would advocate that any dad should endeavour to spend with their children. A truly liberating experience and an opportunity to build a bond with your children that many dads miss out on.

At this point, I’d figured out the time freedom part, but how to address the other two f’s; financial and geographical freedom?

There is a statutory minimum wage of £9.50 ($12.36/€11.40) an hour for an adult over 22 years of age in the UK.

I am no mathematician, but I would have to work many tens of thousands of hours with no costs or expenses to accumulate meaningful wealth, let alone financial freedom. Plus, as I’ve highlighted, being employed would not allow for time freedom, and now we know it will not meet my goals for financial freedom either.

With all this in mind, it became apparent what the solution needed to look like. I realised that people need to stop trading their valuable time (remember, we can’t get back anymore) for money. I figured that I needed to own a business where I sell a solution to a particular subset of the population, which places a high value on this problem being resolved for them.  

I’ll happily provide an example for you.

I am a coach, and historically, people have paid coaches by the session (usually around an hour), again paying for a coach’s time. I decided that my business would flip this business model on its head, and instead of selling my time, I’d sell a package/experience/program that would take a well-defined client avatar from point A to point B.

Point A is a place/situation/circumstance that the client disliked or no longer desired to remain. Point B is where the client wanted to get to, which would better serve them and their goals moving forward.

Point B is enticing and has the client’s value upon it. Therefore, I could price my services within this bracket.

Let’s look at a particular client subtype example.

There is a man who is severely obese and has been for many years. His health continues to deteriorate, and despite his doctors and family pleading with him to lose weight, he can’t. He has now been told that he could die if he continues this path.

An extreme example, I know but unfortunately, not overly uncommon.

This client now has an obvious point A and an even more transparent point B or place he needs to get to, which is where his doctor can tell him he is no longer in immediate danger of death. The client is also incredibly motivated and doesn’t want to die, so point B is precious.

If we step away from the example for a moment, what value would you place on point B if you were in a situation like the example client above?

As coaches, we create experiences for our clients that would start them on their journey with their end goals in mind. Some coaches have a minimum length of time to work with a client. Mine, for instance, is three months, so around 12/13 sessions.

Finally, geographical freedom comes from the fact that I don’t have a physical practice and don’t see clients face-to-face – I am an online coach and work with clients via video and audio calls.

Therefore, providing I have access to the internet via a fast and stable connection, I can work from literally anywhere.

Final Thoughts

To wrap up this article and answer the question, can you create your own freedom, or is it just another buzzword?

I firmly believe that you can. I have tried to highlight this throughout my article with examples of how I am trying to reach my own freedom goals and how selling our time for money is not sustainable when trying to create freedom.

I have also discussed how working for a minimum wage employer will not give you financial or time freedom. Working a minimum wage job for 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 52 weeks of the year, would give you around £87,000 ($113,000/€104,000) a year before taxes. Unfortunately, working that much is impossible and would certainly not be known as freedom.

Lastly, I think that freedom can, at times be used as a buzzword and is often used to sell a dream to those who may be seeking something through desperation. Many marketing how easy and fast it is to achieve freedom. Whereas the likes of me, saying yeah, it is possible; however, it will take a lot of hard work and sacrifices to get you there. But just because something is hard and not everyone will succeed doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.

If you have the desire, the right mindset and the follow-through, go for it!