In the United States this week, we’re celebrating our freedom as a country on Independence Day. But what is freedom, and how do we attain it? We sometimes think of freedom as having no-restrictions. But that is not attainable.
We will always have restrictions, such as natural law (like gravity), civic law (governmental rules and regulations), and social standards. These are good to have, and we should not try to be free from them. Instead, I would like to offer a re-definition of freedom as “freedom within restrictions.” This is the freedom that we most often experience, but we don’t often correctly categorize it as such.
The Freedom V
To help us understand what it means to be free within restrictions, I’m going to use a mental model we call The Freedom V.
The hard lines of The Freedom V are the rules, boundaries, and restrictions that we have to follow. There is no escaping the V or living outside of it. But you have more or less freedom depending on how far up or down you are on the V.
Those who are far down on the V have tight restrictions. This is where children or new employees might be. They need greater oversight, and giving them too much freedom might actually lead to confusion about the boundaries.
For someone who isn’t ready for all that responsibility, being higher up on the V might not actually feel like freedom. You can feel more free to take ownership over your responsibilities when you clearly know where the boundaries are.
As you earn trust and grow in your ability to set your own boundaries, you move further up the V where the restrictions are wider and you have more responsibilities. But then you will self-govern to impose your own restrictions within the given boundaries.
Freedom is attainable. But maybe not in the way that you might first think. Find greater freedom by learning how to self-govern within your given boundaries.
