Living in Freedom
Two years ago, I have a conversation with my friend. Nothing interesting on the conversation, until she asked me this question: “How do you see yourself in 5 years?”. At that time, I was suprised and doesn’t really have the answer. So I answered: “I don’t really prepared myself for thing that far. I think I will see what option do I have later and continue down the best path.”. She replies: “If you don’t have a goal, how will you grow yourself up and measure you have developed?”. I don’t really remember the rest of the conversation, but that bit of conversation really hit me hard.
Living in Freedom
Epilogue
Two years ago, I have a conversation with my friend. Nothing interesting on the conversation, until she asked me this question: “How do you see yourself in 5 years?”. At that time, I was suprised and doesn’t really have the answer. So I answered: “I don’t really prepared myself for thing that far. I think I will see what option do I have later and continue down the best path.”. She replies: “If you don’t have a goal, how will you grow yourself up and measure you have developed?”. I don’t really remember the rest of the conversation, but that bit of conversation really hit me hard.
That conversation make me realized that I never really have a long term goal for anything. I realized that I do/choose something because I want to and I can, not because that’s good for me or anything. When I was in kindergarten, I was asked by my teacher about what I want to be in the future and my answer was I want to be rich. I never really think about what school I want, I just want to follow my friend. I choose informatics because I was terrible at circuit analysis. I join so many activities because I think it’s fun.
It sounds bad, at first. But when I think about it again, are we really know what is best for us? Is it a loadshit of money? Popularity? Super good career? Having a lot of free time? A family? I don’t know. Money seems nice, but money can’t buy everything. Popularity is double-edged sword, you may happy that people praises you but it also reduce your private space. Career is good when you are not contended and still have the fire, but even assuming you reached all that your career accomplishment, one important question that comes to mind is “Now what?”. I don’t know about family, because there are a lot of story about broken home. Plot twist is part of life, we never know.
At the end, I think that what is best for me is what makes me happy. Rather than chasing meaningless shit, I want to do whatever I want at that time that makes me happy. And yes, it’s not necessarily productive. I want to be able to work with best engineer in the country. I want to be able to go to Cijeruk Beach at 1.00 A.M today. I want to be able to go to best AYCE restaurant in the city with my friend without worrying about the price. I want to be able to walk to Lembang from Bandung on foot. I want to be able to chat my crush without being afraid. I want to be able to just laying in the grass, looking at Ranca Upas’s star without worrying about my thesis. I want to write this article without caring of people’s judgement.
So that’s the goal. I want to live in freedom, keep doing whatever I want whenever I want to. But next question is, how ?
How?
We can’t just live whatever we like. Technically, we can, but it can’t be sustainable. For example, I can’t just go to Switzerland on Tuesday because I don’t have the money and I have to work at Tuesday also. If I insist to go to switzerland tomorrow, I probably get fired and go bankrupt. There are “barrier” that restrict us from doing whatever we want. If we can handle these barrier, I think that we can be closer to our goal.
1. Wealth
This the most powerful barrier on freedom. A lot of things can’t be done if we don’t have the money. Money maybe can’t buy happiness, but with money you can do almost anything that gave you happiness. But the good news, wealth is the most predictable thing we can get. We can measure how much we have and calculate how much we need to get financial independence. The good news also money can accumulate itself. There are some trending movement called FIRE –financial independence retire early– to gain freedom but it comes at price.
2. Health
Health maybe is the barrier that has most direct impact in our life. Yes, we can’t go to Switzerland on Tuesday if we got sick on Monday. Health is also the unpredictable barrier which means that you can get sick anytime, anywhere. So the least we can do is to maintain good health. There are some factors to give attention to: nutrition, exercise, sleeps, stress level, and others. It seems like health is troublesome barrier to handle, but believe me, if we maintain good healthy habit, it will make a positive impact and leading to more freedom.
3. Relationship
This is maybe the most underrated barrier that people forget. Despite all we had, we are still human, and human are social creature. Our life is surrounded by people. Technically, we still can live pretty well but others may have something that we just don’t. For example, we can’t buy a buy-3-get-4 promo because it’s just too much, or we won’t know that flat in kebon kacang is much cheaper than other place if another person are not telling you. It’s a must that you can enjoy yourself, but interacting with others leads to more freedom. But, relationship is also the most complex barrier we need to handle, because it involves others. People can give you more freedom but also can forbid you to get what you want. You won’t know person’s motive and personality, and sometimes they may betray you. For me, people are the most high risk investment to make because investing with wrong people may lead to disaster.
But I believe that relationship is two way connection. We can’t control other people, but we can control ourself. I believe that good people attracts good people. I believe that if we maintain an good end on our side, there will be a good connection aboard. Investing in social and communication skill will pay off to handle this barrier. Also, people come and go. At certain point, they will be there with you and and certain moment they won’t. Be grateful that they have been there with you, but don’t get too attached when they leave.
4. Time
Time is the only barrier that we can’t handle but we really need to consider to get freedom. Because time only came once. Time is not just how many hours you have, but time also comes with every environment it have. You only get 20 once. Who says that your bestfriend will be with you forever? Are your physique will be the same on 3 years? Will you have everything you have now in the future? So yea, we need to use ours wisely. Think before you do something.
5. Ourself
When we already can handle and consider all those barrier, the only barrier left is ourself. We are too afraid to do what we want. We even afraid of something that maybe won’t even exist/happen. We made excuses and then when it’s already too late, we regret. But fears come from the unknown. Sometimes we can prepare and do research before we want to do something. Learning any knowledge, reading books about thing’s we want will help. But sometimes it’s better if we just try and see what’s happen. Once you have decide, it’s a good decision. Just start.
Closing
The idea of freedom is very theoritical but we can getting closer to it. Freedom is more like a state. Maybe we can’t go to switzerland today, but we can go to AYCE restaurant and happy. Live the present and prepare for future. See ya!
