Freedom is our birthright. This is what I firmly believe and consider to be a fact. We only have this one life - as far as we know. And the time of this life is limited, in the best case till old age, in the worst case till sometime later today.

Considering these facts, is it not solely our right to decide how we live it? Others do not live our lives, so on what grounds do they have any say in it - without our informed consent?

We often hear that we live in a free world, a society that values freedom. Is that so, though? And how do we make use of the freedom we have?

How free are you in your choices within your society?

• In where you live and can move to

• Where and how you build your house

• Can you build or buy a house at all

• What you wear

• Who you spend your time with

• Who you are in a relationship with

• What you eat

• When you eat

• When you sleep

• What you spend your time and energy on

• How much money you make

• Where your money is going

• What and how you trade with others

• How openly you can speak your mind

• How you access necessities such as water, heat, electricity

• How you spend your free time

• How well you can concentrate on something you want to concentrate on

• How well you can guard your privacy

• How well you can meet your needs

• How well you can guard your wealth

• How well can you uphold your integrity

• What you believe in

• What information you have access to

• What technology you have access to

• …

Now, I don’t want to be all doom and gloom negative, but the truth is that society has only one goal - to uphold itself, and not your well-being. For the greater good, so to speak, which is not necessarily yours.

Nor does society care about your freedom and autonomy all that much. On the contrary, if it threatens the system, society will happily do everything in its power to reduce your freedom to a more convenient amount. More convenient for itself, that is, not for you.

So if your needs and goals do not align with society’s you are out of luck and will likely feel rather oppressed by it.

If you believe this is exaggerated, just think back to the COVID years. How easily the importance of personal freedom and well-being was discarded for some arbitrary greater good. Which was neither based on facts nor science, as the evidence clearly proves today. We also have proof that it was for the profit of a few influential people, while many less fortunate people are still shouldering the cost of these “mistakes” to this day. So who takes care of whom exactly in our society?

Depending on where you live, you might be swarmed with regulations for every little detail of your life and ridiculous amounts of taxes - distributed in little bits and pieces over different areas and with different names so you don’t realize just how much of your income you lose. And yet, it is not you who profits from that tax collection in the end, contrary to what has been promised.

It has gotten to the point that the younger generations have no chance to even afford their own home without being severely indebted for life unless backed by wealthy parents.

They - perhaps you too - will have to deal with poverty in old age despite working their entire lives as an increasing number of people are already doing now.

Now, my point is not to complain about economic circumstances, although a critical look at those and corrective measures are increasingly necessary. This is a very broad and deep subject with many grievances.

Blaming and complaining won’t help you personally. It is nothing more than an energy drain. Awareness of your circumstances, however, will grant you the necessary motivation to improve your life.

Society won’t come to save you and to fight for your freedom and autonomy. That is not its goal. It will just keep you content enough, so you don’t go out of control. Literally.

But will you? Are you fighting for your freedom right now?

We are usually unaware that we put ourselves in a cage, using rules based on beliefs we’ve never bothered to question or that are simply outdated by now, not serving us any longer.

I can only be happy / do that…

• when I meet the right partner

• when I have enough money

• if my family approves

• if my peers agree

• when my health is better

• if I had the skills

• if I had more experience

• when society accepts me for who I am

• when I overcome my fears

• …

These rules have a purpose. They are meant to keep us safe, to avoid being ostracized, to avoid taking risks we can’t handle.

We are all consumed with fear at some point. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of success. And that is healthy to some degree. Fear does have a purpose for the same reason as these rules: to keep us safe. But it is not always reasonable and helpful.

Sometimes certain risks are necessary in life to improve it. Sometimes it is necessary to leave our comfort zone. Sometimes it is necessary to change things, our circumstances, our beliefs, and our social connections. To get closer to living our full potential. To have a happier, more fulfilling life.

Most people don’t question these rules. They don’t take risks and leave their comfort zone. And stay stuck in a life they don’t want, feeling miserable, waiting for a miracle or someone else to save them one day. Growing bitter and resentful with time when this does not occur.

I don’t want this for myself. And I don’t want this for you either.

I want to live on my terms, to develop my true potential day after day. To flourish. To attain fulfillment and happiness in as many moments as possible. Obviously, without harming anyone else in the process.

I want this for you too. I’m sure this world would be better this way - if everyone had that kind of life. Yes, I am idealistic like that. Because giving up won’t help anyone.

So in my work, I try to capture ways to create personal freedom that have been effective for me and others. To achieve that I believe in a holistic approach.

To gain stable, lasting freedom, I’m convinced it is necessary to build a proper foundation. That means strengthening yourself personally, professionally, and mentally. With that goal in mind, circumstances and perspectives must be changed to ones that support this goal and empower you.

Moreover, it is crucial to determine what freedom actually means to you personally. Because different people have different ideas of their personal freedom.

• What does it look like to you?

• What does it not look like?

• When will you know you have attained it?

Nevertheless, I think achieving freedom requires several universal components. I call them the Triad of Freedom.

Personal Sovereignty

Personal sovereignty means to rule over yourself. What I mean in this particular context is having control over your personal life.

Think of…

• where you live. The house or apartment, the neighborhood, the country

• the things that are in your home

• who is in your life and how healthy their presence is

• what you busy yourself with throughout the day

• what you try to attain, your goals, your projects

• the quality of your life

• your ability to choose and decide things that concern you

• your ability to relax when you need to. To explore when you want to. To experience new things and people

Basically, anything that concerns the way you live your life.

If you want to improve anything about it, you will need to be able to set effective goals. Without a clear direction, it is very unlikely that you will end up where you want to be.

No one will work to achieve your goals (unless you pay them sufficiently). You will need to acquire knowledge, skills, personal strength, and resilience to realize your goals. You will need to gain confidence and rely on yourself to get things done that move you towards your goals.

Professional Development

Let us not be naive. To fuel your sovereignty you will need resources. Specifically money. You will need to be able to consistently generate sufficient income. It will need to be able to withstand fluctuations and changes in circumstances.

No matter how you generate your money, you will need what I call meta-skills. You will need to know how to learn, solve problems, manage yourself and potentially others, how to lead, how to teach…

You will also need skills that you can sell in some way. I prefer to focus on programming because that is what I do and enjoy. Moreover, I firmly believe that in our day and age, programming is a skill that will help you with whatever business goals you have.

It offers benefits such as…

• being able to sell your knowledge and skills via jobs or freelancing

• being able to create digital products from scratch without needing producers, factories, storage (other than the digital kind), high upfront cost

• being able to make use of your skills and experience by teaching others

• being able to create a portfolio of your knowledge and skills for job hunting or freelancing, claiming your part of the internet where you are not bound and restricted by the policies of third parties

• being able to enhance your business by having a better understanding of your digital infrastructure and potentially being able to customize it without additional resources (for example modifying your online store)

• not necessarily having to rely on third parties for certain tasks and projects

• gaining access to automation in your personal and professional life where you can guarantee privacy

• having a better grasp of an important part of modern culture and infrastructure

• improving your logical reasoning and creative thinking when it comes to problem-solving

• being able to hold a conversation for an additional topic

You see, I am quite enthusiastic about the possibilities programming offers. However, there are more things to learn that will benefit you in a broad range of areas.

Even if you don’t plan to start your own business, which I highly encourage you to do, it is still beneficial to understand the basics of business and marketing.

In my experience, employers and clients appreciate people they work with who can look at the bigger picture and anticipate needs that lie beyond their primary tasks. Also, learning marketing can be advantageous when trying to secure a job or working with clients.

Mental Health

The moment we enter this world, we start learning - gathering information and seeing patterns, that we deem crucial for our survival. We learn perspectives, social norms, beliefs, prejudice, and expectations from everyone we meet. About the world, about others, about us. We have experiences that teach us what is beneficial for us and what is not. We learn fear of things that are not life-threatening.

Sometimes, we learn things that are beneficial and necessary for survival in one situation but not in others. Some of those things are not just not beneficial but outright harmful, to our health, to our goals, and to the ones we love.

Gaining freedom does not happen only on the outside. You can be free externally and yet be in chains from past trauma on the inside.

That is why it is crucial to also look inside and deal with the detrimental things there. To deprogram yourself from old clutter and reprogram yourself for freedom.

Our mind, however, is not an isolated thing. It is linked tightly with our body. Both influence each other. Your mind can make your body sick. And your body can make your mind sick. At the same time, your mind can help your body heal. And your body can help reverse mental damage and boost your cognitive functions.

Therefore, it is also necessary to take excellent care of your body, so you can attain freedom and remain free for the rest of your life.

Lastly, you will need to learn how to feel fulfilled. What is the point of freedom if you are bound to chase it permanently? That is probably the most difficult component to attain as human nature is meant to chase better things. This is great for progress, but not necessarily for our happiness.

These are the building blocks I focus on on my journey to freedom. And each of them contains several other elements, many of them interconnected.

If you would like to learn more about them for your own journey to freedom and how to attain and apply them in your own life, subscribe to my newsletter at voiceofliberation.com and follow me on X (@ColetteLumi).

I would love to hear about your experiences, challenges, and solutions as we navigate through what we call life.

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