Freedom: How Do You Define It?
I was raised to believe that we must go to school to get a job and that is what is considered success. I believed otherwise when one of my high school teachers told me that “Life is a journey, not a destination”. It definitely wasn’t his quote because soon after he told me
this, I saw this quote all over the internet, on picture frames at home decor stores and even on one of my friends’ pillows on her couch. If you are reading this article, you have probably heard this quote before too. Regardless, we should all have some sort of direction or pathway in this life.
Let me start out by expanding on the meaning of this quote:
Some people work ‘round the clock and their schedule may consist of a job, an education, and/or time to spend with the family. Whatever it is, these days, everyone is just as busy as the next guy (in a different way). As they work towards their “destination”, they might wonder, ‘when will it all end?’ One thing that busy people have in common is that it would be nice if they could take a break from their schedules once in a while.
At one point in your life you have probably been told that you should get a job by going to school and attaining proof of an education. The reason why we are taught that this is what success means is because there are too many people in the world. There is so little time which means that there is only so much one can say to a number of people. As I got older I realized that until we reach the age where we can take care of ourselves, no one really chooses our pathway except us. Society can only do their best to maintain a steady flow of human traffic but it only takes one individual to make a dramatic change.
In this day and age, people just want to take a break from it all and get to their destination already.
As previously stated, life is a journey, not a destination, and so before we get to where we want to be, there is some work that needs to get done. Besides, would you really want to spend the rest of your life on the same Cuban resort? Personally, I would enjoy the idea at first but I think it would get boring and after a while I would want to go back to reality.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that is ruled by money so it isn’t as easy to define freedom anymore.
Like many things in life we must take the initiative and show ourselves how to do something. Here is an exercise that I would really like for you to do. Take out a sheet of paper and a pencil and either write out or draw your definition of freedom. You can even record a voice note if you’d like. When you think of freedom, what comes to your mind? Write it down.
Congratulations, you have just created your personal definition of freedom!
The truth is that freedom is whatever we want it to be. I am currently on a journey that is leading me in the direction of freedom; my destination. Whether or not you will get to freedom is irrelevant because you should want to be on the pathway that you are on.
Similar to the riddle, “I am always coming, but I will never arrive” the answer, ‘tomorrow’ can relate to how you define freedom. In the mean time as you look forward to your destination, you must decide your pathway of life. Your current pathway should reflect that you are living passionately in present time. Passion leads to freedom which leads to passion which leads to freedom. This cycle revolves like the wheels on a car and it continues until the day you die. If you feel that you are pursuing something that you are passionate about, keep doing what you’re doing because you are on the right track.
Where is your freedom?
Guest blog post by: Marc Brajak
www.twitter.com/marcbrajak
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