Every ambitious person over 35 thinks they want freedom.
But they’ll never have it because they don’t understand what to do with it.
People I’ve come across who “got free” or tried to get free did the same thing.
Quit the job, cleared the calendar, dropped every obligation they could find. Six months later they were either broke, alcoholic, or crawling back to something worse than what they left.
All the freedom in the world. No ability to do anything with it. No ability to maintain it.
In SEAL training, one of the first things they…
…teach you is map reading and navigation. A map without waypoints that lead to a final objective is nothing more than a pretty picture to hang in your study. Without an objective, freedom is not an asset. It’s the beginning of madness.
Freedom is just a space of possibilities, and it doesn’t come with instructions because very few people actually know how to live free. Unless you’re counting the van-lifers, but I don’t think designer homelessness with beautiful Instagram stories is the freedom we’re after.
Ten hours of unscheduled time with no objectives or obligations isn’t freedom. That’s childhood. Freedom is like an ice cream cone on a sunny beach. Your time, energy, and money are dripping out with nothing to show for it but a sunburn.
Freedom Requires Autonomy
Autonomy is the ability to command your own resources toward a defined outcome. Three things make it work:
Skill. Can you actually execute on the thing you say you want?
Tribe. Do you have the right people around you, or are you trying to do it all alone? If you’re after a worthy objective, you need the collective wisdom of other ambitious people. Without it, you’ll spend a lifetime rediscovering philosophies and strategies that were figured out long ago.
Objective. Not just any objective. One that produces additional freedom as you execute it. Because freedom is finite. It depletes. Your objectives need to restore it faster than you spend it.
Without those three, freedom doesn’t just sit there. It slowly melts away.
If you’re struggling with freedom, believe it or not, it’s likely that you haven’t committed to something beyond yourself and your situation. Freedom is found on the other side of massive obligations.
— Eric
Responses
Grateful for your clear and effective lead and to be teaming with others with your help.
Your system and your attention to the details and power of clear vision and this community of heroic learners…this tribe…is simply the best
The best
Thanks brother. That means a lot. We’re just getting started.
Amen
I know many people who dream of freedom, but because they are unable or unwilling to overcome their own limits, they never even try to achieve it. On the other hand, I know people who take reckless risks and give up everything in an attempt to gain freedom without having any plan or fallback option (and it’s only a matter of time before things stop going according to plan). But I know almost no one who proceeds systematically and moves step by step toward their objective.
In my opinion, freedom largely comes down to taking responsibility. Once a person stops making excuses and blaming circumstances or other people, they realize how many things in their life they can actually influence. For many people, this realization is the first step toward starting to work on gaining freedom and toward doing it systematically, instead of either giving up on freedom or losing everything while trying to achieve it.
Here I’ve found exactly the kind of map I need. I do not need someone else to set the objective for me or lay out a specific way. But I also do not want to wander without an objective and without a way. Here I have a map, waypoints on it, and navigation available. The TRIBE helps me discover the SKILLS through which the OBJECTIVE has also emerged.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Grateful
Navigating the course, learning and adjusting together
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