My freedom, please.
I live a good life.
That’s not something I take for granted considering how long it has taken me and the effort it required. It is a relief to finally be here. I’m relieved to go to sleep with an easy mind, to wake up rested and focused. I am stable, happy, comfortable. It took genuinely hard work and determination to get here. And now, here I am. Successful in spite of all that has stood before me and against me. My personal triumphs proof of tenacity and grit.
A person could argue that all of this is enough. The hard part is over, that of going from nothing to something. I have made the argument. It was foundational to my strength when I had nothing else. A belief that good lives are measured by a benchmark of stability anchored my desire to have it for myself. So I set about the task of ironing the wrinkles until my life was acceptably creased. I picked off lint, cut loose threads, and hung it affectionately at the front of the closet. I thought I could live in this way for the rest of my life and be genuinely happy in doing so.
But then, stability was called into question for everyone on the planet. The past year forced many to confront the fragility layered beneath the comforts of what was. For some, it has been a face to face encounter with ruin and tragedy. For others, an exposure of vulnerability. For me, it was a wake up call. Everything I have worked so hard for, everything I have built in my life could be stripped away in an instant to no fault of my own. Through this I have come to understand that reliance on corporate financial vitality is a crutch. I am convinced there is a better way.
Money is important. Anyone who tells you it isn’t has a poor grasp of modern life. But I contend that it is not the most important. That most important item is time. Ask someone who has had their freedom taken away and they will likely attest to the searing nature of lost time. Of time standing still. Of holding over while the world moves on. It is a deeply sinking and shattering experience to be without control of time and freedom. On reflection I realize how much of my own time and freedom I have been sacrificing in order to advance someone else’s goals. I want to spend my time on my goals and do it well enough to be self-sustaining. That’s the dream anyway, right?
That reflection wasn’t meant to paint my current situation poorly. Again, I’m quite happy at the moment. If anything, this is simply a declaration of my future needs outgrowing the confines of the current way. Things are good now, and I intend to capitalize on the calm while it lasts. Why wait for the storm to hit? What better time is there to begin the prep for whatever is coming next? The roots of any successful strategy lie in planning, and successful planning takes intentionality and time. We had better get started.
You see, the danger of ongoing comfort is that it breeds complacency. Complacency gives way to mistakes. I don’t want that. My plan is to get uncomfortable again, to voyage bravely into the unknown in search of something beyond what I’m doing now. My hope is that I can then share the lessons of my experience to the benefit of others. Repay my good fortunes by paying them forward. Many of us have been sold a reality where our freedom matters in principle but in practice belongs to someone else. Where true freedoms are accessible only to those at the top. I think it’s time to take back control and forge a future of our own design. A future accessible to anyone who wants it and is willing to put in the work. That’s what I’ll be doing here; tending to a good life.
I invite you to live one too.
