How to find freedom

If freedom is important to you, if you value it, but it constantly feels like it’s evading you, you are probably seeking it in the wrong places.

It’s the source of so much miscommunication in instagram and hinge bios worldwide.

The image or facade of freedom paired with a complete lack of that very thing.

The wind is currently blowing through the wooden door into this beach house in central/southern Chile on a hot February day (Feb is peak summer south hemisphere, always trips me up)

It’s my favorite temperature – hot sun balanced by strong brisk ocean or mountain breeze.

Reminds me of a time when I was standing on the side of a small mountain surrounding Crater Lake in Oregon, Mount Scott if I remember correctly.

There was a red-tailed hawk sitting quietly on a thermal about 45 feet above me.

A perfect blue hue reflecting off the lake (if you’ve ever been you know that perfect color of blue only exists in nature in a few places)

I was free at that moment.

Just like I feel free while I write this.

As I close out a fairly quiet day.

One where I woke, worked with myself before tending the day, went for a run, talked with a cute girl in broken spanish, and then worked until about 630PM, where I’m about to go surf a perfect 6-8 foot lefthand pointbreak with 10mph cross/off shores blowing from the south.

I have a shiver running down my spine honestly as I write that.

It feels good.

It feels free.

But it isn’t the real source of my freedom.

And if I were to conflate it with freedom, I would be lost.

The source of freedom doesn’t come from my location.

It’s not found in the sun beaming down a spicy UV of 13.

Nor is it carried to me on the wind.

My freedom, as I have it right now, is created through alignment with my values.

That may sound ridiculous at first glance, but I’ll tell you what.

I have had plenty of days in beautiful places filled with dread and anxiety.

Where I was technically in the right place or with the right people or on the right track…

But I knew, deep down, that I was misaligned.

I knew that my actions weren’t demonstrating the man that I want to be.

I doomscrolled my phone too much.

I watched pornography consistently.

I drank enough that I seemed to always have an extra 10lbs on my body.

And yet, I was in a good job in a good place on a good track.

It’s funny writing all that down, because I had so much “going for me” at that moment.

Like I was doing “well.”

I had a good income, good friends, the ability to travel, do cool work as a scientist, etc.

But what evaded me?

Freedom.

How could that be so?

How could I be able to not fret my income, be from a remarkable family, travel, work on interesting projects..

How could I have so much and not have freedom?

Because freedom isn’t found on the surface.

It can be observed on the surface,

But watch out because that surface level image can be manipulated quite easily,

You already know this from social media and the constantly shoving down your throat of influencers living with their fake images of freedom.

Those with biiig, flashy grins.

No, even if it can be mistaken for freedom, it isn’t found in those superficial smiles.

That’s why I was missing the feeling in my life.

I didn’t have a big flashy life, but I was succeeding on the surface, so I was confused why the feeling still evaded me.

It’s the reason why being here on my own in Pichilemu, Chile isn’t a flex, nor is it why I feel free.

It’s merely a consequence of alignment.

I keep using that word, what do I mean?

I mean that my freedom is born from the fact that each day for many days, many weeks, many months at this point…

I have woken up and acted in a way that makes me proud of myself.

I don’t have ferraris and Rolex’s (that said I think a Land Rover Defender is in my future),

But I have space in my life to pursue my dreams.

I don’t have a yacht in the Bahamas,

But I have the capacity to release myself from the shame of my mistakes, big and small, to not attack myself, and to consistently grow and act in the way I want.

For example, there is a person right now that I need to own up to a medium sized mistake I made (I allocated time I didn’t know I didn’t have), I will look him in the eyes and correct my error immediately regardless of the consequence.

I don’t have the capacity to dine in Michelin restaurants each night,

But I genuinely love myself.

That’s where I found freedom.

I found it in Integrity, my ability to tell the truth and own up to my mistakes.

I found it in Simplicity my ability to reduce (if not eliminate almost entirely) the noise of social media.

I found it in my Health, my ability to consistently build my body into one that climbs mountains and surf remote waves, each year as I get older, getting stronger and more flexible and not weaker and more stiff.

I found it in Self-Reliance and Responsibility, in my ability to relentlessly pursue my mission to support 1 billion people to take 1 value based action each day, disregarding the anxiety and risk associated with such a pursuit (which, believe me there is)

I could go on.

My point is I found freedom in alignment with my values.

In my book, Seeking Authenticity, I defined authenticity as (paraphrased):

Authenticity is the consolidation of all that I believe to be important embodied in my actions everyday.

This is the truth that I found on this journey so far.

Freedom and Authenticity are inexorably linked.

They are one in the same so far as the human experience is concerned.

To be authentic is to be free.

To be inauthentic is to be enslaved.

Not to another, but to the noise of the world and of your mind and ego and insecurities.

To tell the truth consistently (and I mean CONSISTENTLY, not the bullshit sin-of-omission version plaguing society right now), is to be free.

To put your phone or laptop down and be present with your loved ones and work is to be free.

To eat that which your body actually wants and to move is to be free.

To act in alignment with your values IS to be authentic and therefore is to be free.

It is freedom.

It’s the reason you find freedom amongst every stretch of humanity.

From the most impoverished to the most rich.

JUST as you find so many souls captive to their mind and the world.

Your freedom isn’t waiting for you to buy a ticket to Hawaii,

It’s waiting for you to begin to act consistently in alignment with your values.

In a way that brings you peace and clarity and pride.

It’s waiting for you to stop holding yourself back.