Freedom: What Is Your Personal Definition?

As I begin to get this Freedly website organized, I realize the most important thing about finding freedom is your own definition. This article launches a series about defining your personal freedom. It forms the pre-launch to my Freedom Definition Pathway, which is a practical guide to help you define your own personal freedom.

In my first approach to defining what this freedom website is about, I started with FDR’s four freedoms:

1. Freedom of speech and expression (Communicate)
2. Freedom to worship (Spirit)
3. Freedom from economic want (Money)
4. Freedom from fear (Security)

These are OK for political speech-making, but do not give us the clear basis we need for finding personal freedom.

Personal freedom requires two sets of rules:

1. Factors that make us feel better
2. Fears that make us feel worse

I discuss factors that make us feel better on my Quality Of Life (QOL) website. Each individual has their own set of quality of life indicators, but they all fall into the following sets, irrespective of our favorite way of expressing them:

• Health
• Wealth
• Personal Relationships (Friends & Family)
• Professional Networks (Colleagues & Associates)
• Communication
• Learning
• Relaxation

So, we achieve freedom by achieving our personal goals in these sets, but that raises several questions. For each set:

• What are our goals?
• How can we reach them?
• When will we know we have reached them?
• What fears will hold us back?

That last question almost defines this website. Freedom from fear is our ultimate aim in all aspects of our life, because fears hold us back. Fear of failure stops us improving our quality of life. Fear in general stops us enjoying our quality of life.

So, this website focuses on finding freedom by improving quality of life, and on improving quality of life by reducing fears.

Some aspects of your life will be harder to manage than other aspects. This is fine, so long as you do not allow specific fears about one aspect of your life to spoil the enjoyment of other aspects of your life. Learn to identify the things that are important, and learn how to turn fear into a positive force for success.

It all starts with defining what is important to you. Find out what makes you feel free. Your personal definition of free lets you set your goals for personal freedom. This is vital to ensuring that your personal freedom definition is your own, and not simply bolstering the goals of others.

I have given my list of 7 quality of life indicators, ranked in no particular order. You must generate your own list, using your own wording, then rank them in order of importance to you.

The rest of this website is all about practical ways to reach our collective goals and reduce our collective fears. I will look at overcoming fears in my next article.

Please start by sharing your list of Quality Of Life Factors below, which will help you create your personal definition of free. It is important that you are clear about this, and I will soon add practical notes to help you find your personal freedom definition.