Freedom

One of the greatest things that being an entrepreneur gives you is freedom.

Freedom over your time.

Freedom to choose what you do.

Freedom to succeed or fail.

The interesting thing about freedom, and all the possibilities in the world, is some people then don’t know where to begin.  They are paralyzed into inaction.  They don’t know what to do with themselves.

There is another kind of freedom that people don’t give enough credit too.  The people with jobs have a tremendous amount of freedom, within constraints.  In my mind, that kind of freedom is the most amazing for creativity.

Let’s say you’re a teacher, and you have a curriculum you have to teach the children in your class.  You have to cover certain material and test their knowledge of the subject matter.

That’s your constraint.

How you teach them, is up to you.  That’s your freedom to choose.  That is an easier choice than sitting there all day wondering what you’re going to do with yourself.

What I’ve found is in order to make the most of your freedom, you have to self-impose constraints.  This fosters the most creativity.

The best way to do this is with a framework of habits.  Within the framework of daily disciplines, the framework of knowing exactly where you’re going to be tomorrow at 10AM, and what you’ll be doing at that point.

These keys are freeing.  I used to think doing nothing was freedom.  What freedom now is for me is the ability to chose what I do within the hours I have every day.

The freedom to accept what yesterday me wanted to do today, and following that through to see if I was right.  Or do I need to change something?  I have that freedom to choose, and not because I’m an entrepreneur, but because I choose to be better and work within the boundaries I have set for myself.

This means I will get where I want to go.  It’s inevitable.

The freedom of choice, within the framework of habits that get you where you want to go despite yourself, is the best kind of freedom.

I wish that for you.