Seek Freedom, Not Security

“There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

- Christopher Morle

As a citizen of the United States, you’re expected to know all about freedom. It is the term that defines this nation. It is what sets us apart from all of the rest. We are taught America is the land of opportunity. If we have a dream, America is the place to make it happen.

While we may have access to more opportunity living in the USA than anywhere else in the world, we still don’t experience our freedom completely.

Why not?

Because as a society, we are taught to seek comfort and security. For example:

• We are taught the only realistic way to financially support our families is to get a job, be a good employee, and climb the corporate ladder to higher paygrades
• We are expected to go to school in hopes of one day being able to find a good job, and make a lot of money
• We are told that we need to invest in retirement funds, just in case we are unproductive in our old age, and require support
• We are constantly reminded by staggering poverty numbers that success is not guaranteed

How are we supposed to spend our life in our own way if we are taught to adhere to the notions above?

We won’t be able to.

Instead, we will constantly seek security and comfort so we can financially support ourselves and our families, just so we don’t end up homeless and broke on the street. In making this choice, we are choosing to give up all of the freedom life has to offer.

Freedom Is a Choice

I read an interesting article my father sent me via e-mail today. It was about a 33 year old millionaire, and how he made his millions at such a young age. He attributes his financial success to his search for freedom. He claims that all of the most successful people today seek freedom above anything else. By putting their freedom first, they are consciously choosing a life of freedom. These people are willing to do whatever it takes to live the life of their dreams, and will stop at nothing. If this means taking substantial risks that could ultimately end in embarrassing failure, so be it. It’s worth the price.

These freedom seekers would rather live a life with an empty stomach, than with an empty heart.

In order to experience true freedom, you must unsubscribe from the societal mindset. You must choose to detach yourself from the nonsense fears of society. You don’t need a job, and you don’t need to invest your money today to secure yourself for the future. You’ve been programmed to think this way, and it’s time to let go of this way of thinking.

When you choose a life of freedom, you are consequently choosing a life of passion for what you do. Without passion, you are a lifeless being, condemned to living a sub-optimal life at the mercy of your external environment. Steve Jobs once said that the only way to feel truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you’re constantly seeking security, finding it often comes with the price tag of sacrificing any chance of pursuing your passions.

Everything Else is Secondary

I’ve made the choice to live a life of freedom, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life, regardless of my financial situation. Everything else is secondary. I don’t believe life is worth living if you’re wasting your time doing things you don’t love to do. I have chosen to spend my life in my own way, and I will do whatever it takes to maintain this freedom.

My decision to drop out of school was fueled by this desire for freedom. The few hours per day I spent in class, and the hours I spent studying for tests were a waste of my time. I was spinning my wheels focusing on something that had no value to me. School was constricting my freedom. The decision to drop out was actually quite easy to make once I accepted my school situation for what it was.

Exercise: Where Are You Choosing Security Over Freedom?

Let’s do an exercise. Take a few moments to examine your own life.

Open a word document, and start writing down all of the areas of your life in which you are sacrificing your freedom for security. If the security seems necessary (working a job you hate to support your family), write it down anyway.

Once you’re finished, look at your list. You may be thinking, “There’s nothing I can do about these areas of my life. If I change any of these areas, I won’t be able to survive.” Understand that you are choosing to sacrifice your freedom for these illusions of security. You could easily say to yourself, “I’m quitting my job, regardless of the consequences, because my freedom is more important to me than anything else.”

The funny thing is that when you muster up the courage to confront these areas of your life and take action, things somehow always fall into place. When you quit the job you hate to start doing something you love you may be financially unstable for a while. But in the end you will find yourself to be more financially successful than you ever were or could have been working your job.

Uncertainty is All There is

In his book, The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success, Deepak Chopra explains that in the universe, uncertainty is all there is. Your job isn’t guaranteed. Your financial situation isn’t set in stone. Your health is always changing. Heck, you don’t even know if you’ll be alive tomorrow. Accept this as truth, and make the most of the life you DO have right now.

By choosing to accept that uncertainty is all there is, we will experience joy by stepping into the field of all possibilities. In this field we are able to live our life with complete and total freedom, experiencing everything and anything life has to offer. We go with the flow of life, and we detach ourselves from the need for certain outcomes, because we know certain outcomes never truly exist.

Security does not exist in nature. The longer we search for it, the longer we bar ourselves from truly experiencing life. Why waste your time searching for something that doesn’t exist? Understand that at any moment, everything you’ve worked so hard to create in your life could be taken away. A family member may pass away, you may get laid off from your job, or you may be critically injured in a car accident. Attempting to protect yourself from these things by creating a false security net to lie in is ultimately futile.

The next time you’re considering giving up your freedom for a security, remember this quote by Helen Keller.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”

What You Can Do

Decide, right now, that you are going to live the life of your dreams. Understand that there is nothing more rewarding than being able to spend your life in your own way. When you make this choice, you will discover that the “safety” net you were previously working so hard to create and maintain wasn’t contributing to your safety at all. Instead, this net served as a wall preventing you from experiencing all of the freedom life has to offer. Security was merely an illusion.

Giving up what we already have for freedom may seem like a huge sacrifice initially. We may end up broke, or society may ostracize us for what we are trying to do. What these people don’t understand, however, is that unless you’re living a life of total freedom, you’ve really got nothing at all.

Courageously seek freedom, and you will surely find it. And in your search for freedom, you will be consciously choosing a life of excitement, fulfillment, and abundance each step along the way.

Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Choose to seek freedom, not security.

Photo by abnelgonzalez

Found this information useful? Show some love by leaving a donation!

Like the site? Subscribe by RSS or Email if you would like to be notified of future updates and articles.