8 steps to achieve freedom and start living your best life (and its not what you might think)

it's the idea that you can live the life you want if you choose to

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” Les Brown

What is being free about anyway?

Well, it’s the fact that what matters to you, isn’t necessarily what matters to me. So the idea of living a ‘free life’ is all about living life on your terms, totally for you and 100% about you.

But hey wait….have you ever considered what your ideal life might look like?

It’s a two part process, the first is what does freedom mean to you and the second is how do you swap up your life to get there.

Firstly why would you aim for a life with greater freedom?

Well it’s about this.

Lets take Tuesday - Streams of people is all I could see, I stood outside Victoria station in central London. All I could see for a mile and a half were streams and streams of people, coming in to the tube, going out of the tube – where were they all going?  most people do the same thing, day in and day out. They sleep in a bed, they have the same cereal for breakfast, they catch transport to work, they listen to their work colleagues complain, at some point in the week they wonder what its all for, they come home, watch a square tv and then rinse and repeat. This continual rhythm of life has you distracted from your lifes’ work, and even I’d go so far to say your enjoyment.

Some people choose the corporate life, it cant be all that bad can it? It’s fabulous if you love it and it provides you with meaning. The idea of a job (unless you are the founder) is about getting paid, paying debt off, having a good pension , it’s the hamster wheel of life. When I left my corporate job in 2008, I actually had no clue who I was, it took years to discover this and I feel I finally found my authentic self but it took years of starving my creativity to find my truth.

Are you busy making others rich? For example the ceo of a large firm I know makes £7m a year, his workers meanwhile make less than the average wage and who do you think are the cogs in this giant fortune hes making? The founders of course are making a bag more loot than the ceo. Kudos to them, because they are likely living life on their terms because whether you know it or not, money does provide you with choices.

Money isn’t everything of course and for some it’s not their idea of being free, for some its totally about travelling the world, for some it’s about the music they play, it’s about hobbies and passions that we know we have, it’s about giving value and finding value and giving true meaning to your life. Everyone has purpose , it’s just that some choose to find it while others don’t.

“Here’s the truth. We exist on this earth for some undetermined period of time. During that time we do things. Some of these things are important. Some of them are unimportant. And those important things give our lives meaning and happiness. The unimportant ones basically just kill time.” — Mark Manson

So action is where its at,  let’s take the steps to firstly identifying what freedom is to you? It’s all about self awareness, lets break it down.

Step 1 : Ask yourself - if your life had absolutely no limits, what would you choose to do?

Untap your limitless thinking, don’t think of  where you are today, think of achieving anything you want even if you feel you cant. Stop the doubts, start to think – what if I could…. write it all down.

Step 2 : Ask yourself - what do I love to do, what provides the most happiness?

Nothing is more fulfilling in life than knowing what you are most passionate about, why? because it gives your life meaning especially if you make it your lifes purpose. If you don’t know what you love, look at your story. Your story leaves clues and within that are a host of passions and skills that you haven’t yet even tapped into. Identify this and you get the gold.

Step 3 :  Ask yourself - what do I not like to do?

Identify things you actually dislike doing, facing the hard truths will put you in a better state to focus on the things you do like to do. If its something you can delete from your life right away, do it. Outsource it, delete it and focus on the good.

Part 2  of this process is all about shifting to something once you have clarity on what you do want. 99% of people will say its just not possible, that living the way they do is a necessary burden. Most people will look at someone and think – he/she had it easy, he/she had the support…. but did they?  How do you know? It’s all too easy to look at those that have made it and not fully appreciate their struggle, the lack of sleep, their ambition for risk….no one ever sees what you went through, all they see is your success and imagined reasons why.

Take away the idea that your own life is meant to be this way and that the burdens of living like this are ok, you don’t have to settle because what you are settling for is a life of mediocracy.

It really doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s entirely possible that you can write the story – but do you want to and are you willing?

Step 4 Take a long authentic look at where you are today and where you want to be. Understand fully where the gap is and make an action plan on moving to close the gap.

Step 5 Are there steps you can take today that can move you forward step by step? For example if you want to travel the world but don’t believe you can as you are tied to a mortgage, why not look at renting your home? For available income you might want to work as a freelancer online and bring in the income that way. Or perhaps you are part way to paying off your mortgage and you’d like to pay off another chunk in the next 2 years – whatever it is for you, do it. Are there steps you can take today to improve your skill set to get more clients? What are those steps? What can you invest in today that will close the gap to where you want to be.

Step 6 Manage your cash flow, look at what you have to spend monthly and cut costs on anything that is an unnecessary item. Free up cash for investments.

Step 7 Make your money work for you and not against you. Utilise returns on your hard earned cash to make more whether that be in investing in cryptocurrency, gold, silver or a business that will provide you with a solid return. Investing comes with an element of risk, if you want to stay super conservative and safe realise your investment options and take action, challenge your thinking and in all circumstances manage your risk of loss.

Step 8 Whether you’ve acknowledged it yet or not, there are ways you can shift the trajectory but it does mean that you have to take full accountability for it. Accountability is in absolutely everything you do. The positive behaviours you can take right now and the steps forward as well as well as ditching the negative ones. It means knowing how you want to develop and giving it 110%, it’s about managing cash and then making it work for you to give you the life that you truly want.

Final thoughts

Life is one big adventure and we have a finite amount of time on planet earth. If you want to make it fulfilling, find your joy and happiness. Understand what your ideal day would look like and then find a way to make it happen. Nothing fair happens in love and war and the same is true of life. Accept your job lot and take action to change your lifes outcome. It’s entirely possible to change your circumstances with intention, truth, authenticity, grit and determination. Make a choice today and make it happen.

‘There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ (Christopher Morley)

In acknowledgment of the brilliant strive4higher community +  Shaun Fitzgerald, who is completing his bucket list ideas and shifting towards a life that is freedom for him and his amazing family. Looking forward to hearing about your journey Shaun on hiking Hadrians Wall, your trip to Boston and incorporating more swimming into your life. If anyone doesn’t know Shaun, he is currently the best local estate agent you can hire in the London and home counties area, you can reach him at shaun.fitzgerald@strike.co.uk.