The FI community, or Financial Independence, is blowing up right now. Probably not saturated yet, but well on its way. In this article I’d like to make a case that they’re not totally hitting the nail on the head, and are instead leaving the most important aspect of independence, or freedom, as an assumption. And you know what happens when we assume…
So instead, let’s capture a longer view by pursuing Personal Freedom.
Financial Freedom
For starters, I’m using freedom and independence interchangeably.
Financial freedom, then, is the condition where your decision making, within reason, is not constrained by your financial means.
Some flexibility needs to be allotted here for lifestyle decisions and such, but generally, if you can live a life you desire while not being constrained by money, you are effectively financially free.
That’s just part of the pie!
While I’ll share no doubt that financial freedom is a noble and noteworthy goal, I’d like to make a case that there is so much more to life than money, and failure to design around other factors while pursuing financial freedom may leave you wanting should you reach FI.
Was it Jay-Z who said that ‘money only matters when you have none’?
Instead, you should consider opening the aperture a little bit by pursuing PERSONAL freedom.
Personal Freedom
Personal freedom is having the ability to spend your time precisely how you desire. You might be personally free if you:
- Wake up whenever you want
- Take direction only when seek it out or ask for it
- Wear only the clothes that you find most desirable and comfortable
- Spend your day pursuing whatever you find most interesting
Financial freedom is very much a precursor, or at least a big player, in reaching personal freedom, but it’s not the same thing. For many of us, money is what we think is keeping us from becoming personally free, but when we study what personal freedom is, and consider that maybe personal freedom should be the goal rather than strictly financial freedom, we may change course a little bit.
Later we’ll see how that small change in course can have major ramifications in our life when we explore just how connected every aspect of our life is.
How to become free, personal or otherwise
Hopefully now you are at least considering the idea that financial freedom is really just an aspect of personal freedom. So, how do you achieve either, or both?
Lifestyle design.
Your lifestyle is how you decide to live. It’s the clothes you wear, the house and neighborhood you live in, the car you drive or your choice to not to have a car. Your lifestyle is the sum total of a tremendous amount of decisions you’ve made, and will make in the future. Recognizing that you have total control over your lifestyle, because it’s comprised of decisions that you make, opens up the opportunity for deliberate design.
Lifestyle design, then, is the deliberate thought and planning that goes into deciding how you will live. It is the recognition that every decision we make is influenced by, and has an effect on, everything else in our life. For example:
- The car you drive impacts your spending
- Your spending impacts the food you eat
- The food you eat impacts your physical health
- Your physical health impacts your sense of pride
- Your sense of pride impacts the perception of you by your children
Let’s just call it there, but yes, I’m making a case that the car you drive has influence on your relationship with your children, and everything else in your life.
Seeing the spider web is the first step to Lifestyle Design
Once you understand that everything, I mean EVERYTHING, is connected in your life, you can get on track to shaping your life in a major way starting with minor decisions. Once you start deliberately designing your life, you can make the choice to be on your way to personal freedom.
Over time I’ll be finding more ways to illustrate the innumerable connections in the spider web of life, but for now I’m breaking them down into four categories:
- Financial – developing a keen sense for making money, spending smart, and giving charitably can open up a life of freedom and fulfillment.
- Health and Wellness – Your path to personal freedom should put you in physical and mental condition to live the life you aspire for.
- Resilience – Being personally free includes not being a slave to everything that enables your preferred way of life. Being able to take care of yourself is liberating.
- Relationships – The people around you can set you free, or hold you forever in chains. Deliberate design can make spousal, child, and community relationships incredibly rewarding.
Join me for this life long journey
While it’s possible to become financially free and be done with it, personal freedom requires continuous attention. Join me to share in the journey toward sustained personal freedom and a life of fulfillment.
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Personal freedom in your lifetime – it’s achievable!
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