What Do Freedom and Independence Mean to You?
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
Kris Kristofferson
In the context of 1776 colonial America, freedom and independence meant being free and independent from the tyranny of taxation without representation, illegal search and seizure and other nasty imperialistic institutions (for the sake of economy, we won’t go into the myriad contradictions of our founding fathers).
Today, there are new forces inhibiting our freedom and independence: Bills we cannot keep up with. Mountains of debt. Constant streams of emails, texts, and hyperlinks begging for our attention. Bloated homes we can neither afford nor maintain. Cultural expectations we can never seem to meet.
At LifeEdited, we promote freedom and independence from unimportant stuff. When we eliminate (or “edit”) that stuff out, the important stuff–relationships, passions, health, great design–naturally moves in.
To get some other perspectives, we asked a few of our friends what freedom and independence meant to them.
From Francine Jay–aka “Miss Minimalist“–we got this response:
To me, freedom is traveling lightly through life. Each extraneous thing I eliminate—be it an unused item, unnecessary purchase, or unfulfilling task—feels like a weight lifted from my shoulders. Paring life down to the essentials is positively liberating!
Joshua Fields Millburn, one of the 2 guys behind “The Minimalists” gave this appropriately minimalist response:
Intentional awareness.
Ari Meisel, a productivity coach and practictioner of “The Art of Less Doing” says this about freedom and independence:
The ability to head half way around the world tomorrow, with no planning, and not knowing if I’ll have Internet access or not and having confidence that my life and business will run itself without interruption.
What about you? What constitutes freedom and independence to you? We’d love your thoughts. Please share below or on our Facebook page. And have a great holiday!