The Number 1 Trick You Need to Learn if You Want Freedom

Free to do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want.

Then you’ll be happy.

That’s the hustle culture mantra.

Repeat until reality.

But 1 in 10 people you meet suffer from depression or anxiety. Almost double an increase since the pandemic. 70% of Americans are overweight or obese with roughly 1 in 7 people worldwide falling into that category. Staggeringly, 1 in 4 people worldwide feel lonely.

Whatever external gratification we’re chasing it’s taking us in the wrong direction. This is a trajectory we don’t want to be on.

But what if there’s a different path? One that’s completely within our power to control.

How about instead of chasing freedom we choose free-from?

Free from anxiety and depression. Free from unable and unhealthy bodies, disease and pain. Free from isolation and loneliness. Free from unimportant and uninspiring work. Free from convenience and Zoom calls. Free from fake social lives and fake interactions. From mediocre relationships! Free from expectation. Free from having to know it all. Free from your internal dialogue screaming at you to “do more, say more be more.”

Free from it all.

You see, most of the above falls squarely within our circle of control. At any moment you’re free to close down your social media accounts that cause you to compare yourself to others. You’re free to choose healthy or healthier food. You’re free to choose to join a club and no, not Call of Duty online, an actual real club with real people and real interactions. You’re free to do a lot of things that can improve your life but you don’t, you continue on your unhappy trajectory creating meaningless moments with your unhealthy body and mind filled with fear and hopelessness.

It’s self-fulfilling to dream though. To chase. It motivates us and lets us think we’re moving, where it doesn’t matter, just so long as we’re not idle we feel like we’re progressing.

We chase happiness like it’s a little puppy running around the garden. All cute, docile and predictable. Something we can just pick up and play with as we please. But happiness isn’t something we can hold in our hands and we almost never know we have it until it’s gone. It’s like trying to hold water. You think you’re doing an ok job until you realise your pants are wet.

You will find a ‘free from’ section when you shop in your local supermarket. Free from lactose, soy, wheat and so forth so why don’t we have such intolerance toward mediocrity in our lives?

We’re brought up in a culture of more is better but that can’t be sustainable. There are materialistic people out there where this is the case but I think people just want to have an ok life and to feel content. I think people just want a healthy body and mind that ages ok. I think people want real relationships where they feel valued, respected and loved. Not the kind of synthetic love we feel when we receive a digital like or heart. Actual love. Real love. I think people want to wake up in the morning and not dread work. To not cry from the fear they feel of doing miserable work. I think inspiring and fulfilling work is what everybody wants.

My problem with the hustle culture is a lot of what you have to do to get where you want to be is an aside from what you are already doing that’s already making you unhappy. If only you just work harder or smarter and optimise every single second of your day you might come close. But remember, there are tens of thousands, maybe millions of other people trying to do the same thing as you so better not get your hopes up.

"When Marley's miserable ghost [in A Christmas Carol] says, “I wear the chains I forged in life,” he is talking about the chains of habit that were too light to be felt before they became too strong to be broken."

- Charles T. Munger

Once you get started down this rabbit hole it’s hard to find your way back out. You’re constantly in comparison mode never feeling fulfilled or happy on the way up because to do so would mean stopping and slowing down. To admit defeat.

But when you’re free from the judgement of others and your own internal drill sergeant you become mentally free. When you’re free from mediocre relationships you can feel true value, respect and love. When you commit to being free from unfulfilling work you can begin to feel inspired. You can feel adventure when free from a body that kept you in shackles.

Charlie Munger is legendary for inverting problems. I think if you asked him how to be happy he’d start off by asking what a miserable person’s life would look like. We all know what a miserable life looks like and therein lies some very promising starting blocks we can build on toward a life free from mediocrity.

Do you have the courage to try? As always, the choice is yours to make.

Until next time, Karl (The School of Knowledge).

---

If you enjoyed this article and feel it could help someone you love then please consider sharing it.

📚I read and share about history’s greatest minds, leaders and achievers, distilling their insights into actionable advice for everyday life. 💡

*Photo by Pixabay