We all love our freedom very much. Freedom to speak, to express ourselves, to choose the work we want to do, and the way we want to live our life. It is a crucial factor in our well-being, overall happiness, and satisfaction in our lives. At different levels, we want to have different kinds of freedom. In childhood it is about playing and enjoying how long we want, in adulthood it is about making important decisions and deciding the way of life. There are majorly three levels of freedom – financial, psychological, and emotional.
- Financial Freedom – This is something when you start your career you think about it. Its meaning varies for different people. Some think only having a lot of money is enough to become financially free, and some think that reaching to specific social status is financial freedom. But financial freedom is where you have enough money to fulfill your needs and wants. You continue living the lifestyle you are living so far and don’t compromise on it. Also, you have enough money saved to handle any unforeseen situations. This is where you become financially free. This financial freedom helps you to fulfill your aspirations. You may have some hobby or side hustle; you want to make it your full-time profession. If you are financially free, you can easily move towards making this hobby or side hustle a full-time profession. Financial freedom does not mean getting retired, instead working on things you love to do without worrying about survival.
- Psychological Freedom – The next level of freedom is psychological freedom. Once you are financially free, and you are pursuing your passion, doing things which you love to do, you stop thinking about social status, and what others would think about you. You come out of the rat race. You do things on your terms without getting influenced by what others would think. You just do things that make you happy, not others. You find purpose in life and do things to fulfill that, nothing else.
- Emotional Freedom – This is the last type of freedom. This usually comes with age or maturity. This is a stage where emotions do not matter too much. You are content with what you have. You stop reacting to things now and then. You don’t complain much about things and start going with the flow. This is because you have seen enough in life and think that material things are temporary and do not make much sense. You get detached from things and people.
These types of freedoms come at different stages of life. Usually in this order only. First, you get financially free, you start following your passion. You find purpose in life and start working towards it and stop thinking about what others would think. Then with age and maturity, you get content with life and don’t react to things. There is acceptance and gratitude towards life. Maybe that’s how life becomes meaningful.