Everyone has 24 hours in a day to achieve what they want to achieve, to find their purpose, to live with intention. You should remember that you have the freedom of choice, you are free to choose what to do with your time and your energy. This itself is very powerful to design the life you want.
What really comes to your mind when you hear the word freedom?
Freedom is an innate right that humans have had since birth. Freedom is not something that can be touched, seen or smelled. Freedom is a vague idea. Different people have different opinions, definitions and thoughts about freedom.
For me, freedom is one of my core values. It is one of the three values of my business as well! This is how I perceive freedom:
Freedom is a condition in which you have the opportunity to speak, act and pursue happiness without unnecessary external restrictions. Freedom is a state you can reach. Free from limitation, or conditioning, free from fear or doubt! Freedom leads you to enhanced expressions of creativity and original thought, increased productivity, and an overall high quality of life. The life of your dreams!
Embracing the lifestyle of freedom means finding ways to maximize your time, minimize your stress, and expand the feeling of being free from the constraints that your past, the world, the family or your mindset put.
Freedom is connected with the ability to determine the course of your life and consequently of your daily choices, including your time and your energy.
When you discover freedom it is an exciting feeling. Freedom is your key to create and make something meaningful, both for yourself and the world. Keep in mind that the freedom you achieve allows you to move closer to your purpose.
Modern life is full of obligations! You rush to make money, you rush to work, you rush to get a promotion, you rush to get to your next destination. On top of that, society makes you act in a pleasing way for everyone and create superficial role models through social media. Yes indeed, that society exists, but the harsh reality is that if you feel unfree and unfulfilled it is because of your own doing. No one else will do it for you, it is your decision and your actions that will determine your freedom. You are the only one responsible for your life!
Here are 4 steps to get closer to your freedom
#1 - Recognize your limiting beliefs
In a previous blog post, we talked about limiting beliefs and how to recognize them. Which are the beliefs that you have around your freedom and your life? Is it that you have to be successful? If yes, describe it in detail, where are you? How are you dressed? In which job? Then assess if this is still relevant to your current dreams and desires? It is important to look deeply on your beliefs regarding success, because there you can find a lot of rooted beliefs from your parents, or the society around you. You might have connected success with a specific job, which you need to deconstruct and understand if this is really the job you want to do to be successful or is this someone else’s dream?
#2 - Align with your values
What are your current values? Reconsider them. Especially after identifying your limiting beliefs, it is important to once again evaluate your values. Are those still your core? Or do you have any other more needed right now in your life? When you define them, you will only make things better for everyone and you will embrace freedom much easier and with clarity. Then you will be ready to shape your free life as you want and connect it with your deepest desires.
#3 - Give up things
In order to really get closer to your freedom, you need to make some hard decisions. You need to cut all the things that are standing in your way.
People
These can be people around you, that block you either emotionally or mentally. In your journey to freedom it is important to have like-minded people around you.
Expectations
Society, family, friends, workplace, everyone makes you have expectations for your life. The funny part is that most of the time you just make them yours without even critically thinking about them. It is time to set your own expectations for yourself and your future.
Comfort and Stability
Have you ever heard about the comfort zone? One known secret about a comfort zone is that it can stop you from achieving anything in your life. It feels so nice and warm being and doing something that you already know, but meeeh.. This is not a growth mindset! This stability can break all your dreams and make you more anxious than you may think.
Forced Happiness
Social media especially has created this space where the nice, beautiful, rich, successful side of everyone appears. Don’t get fooled, no one is happy 24/7 all year long. Neither is this super cool influencer you follow. No one just wakes up and just succeeds, there is a lot of pain and struggle behind. Everyone has negative feelings as well. Everyone has bad days. Do not force yourself to feel or show happiness. You are a human being, just feel and accept what you feel.
Fear for money
There is this unconscious thought that you can only make money by being in a corporate job and climbing quickly the corporate ladder. Yes, that’s true, you can make money by having a corporate job. But you can make money also from a research career. You can make money from an entrepreneur's career. You can make money from a freelancer career. You can make money from whichever career you choose. Don’t get limited to what the modern world has taught you that success or wealth is. Stop being scared that if you leave your current job you will never get money. This needs a money mindset shift and to reconsider your relationship with money.
DISCLAIMER:
Freedom isn’t just giving up things without thinking maturely and weighting your opportunities. That’s escapism. You still have responsibilities like paying the bills, having your car, taking care of your health etc.
#4 - Make an actionable plan
To become free, you need a lot of action and mindset work. Take some time and write down your plan. In this plan, consider all the things that play an important role to what you define as freedom. It can be your expenses, it can be your time or anything else that fits you. Then create a plan for them, how will you cover it? What changes do you need to make? Set clear goals, what do you want to do to really feel free? Travel? Spend more time with family? Changing job? Have a shorter work week? Whatever it is, make a plan for it. Set a timeline. Even plan your alternatives. A good plan will help you execute properly and achieve your freedom on time.
From all the clients I’ve worked with and still working with and all the experiences around the world I’ve had over the past few years, I’ve understood that I’m not the only one in this pursuit of creative independence. Especially, through and after the hit of the pandemic more and more people are reaching out to me to work on their freedom, either for their life or their work freedom. That’s how I understood my call, I started creating a powerful community with people looking for their own freedom. Who does not want the ability to make their own choices and determine how they live their lives? Everyone does. Keep in mind that a freedom lifestyle needs mindset work first, and along the way to get rid of any limiting beliefs around it. The desire for freedom will take you from a comfortable life to an uncertain, but far more fulfilling one. Are you ready to go all in for your own freedom lifestyle?
If you would like to learn more or be part of the community to work on your mindset and achieve your freedom lifestyle email us on community@sofiakakkava.com.