The Four Types of Freedom You Need in Order to Live Life on Your Own Terms and Truly Enjoy Your Life

Business owners and moms often feel stressed or unfulfilled because they feel trapped by their schedules. I have found through my own personal experience and evolution that in order to live a life that is in alignment with your true self, you need to have four types of freedom. When you get these four types of freedom, you’re able to truly enjoy the life you’ve built.

Self Freedom

Self freedom is the freedom that comes from living in alignment with your true self, truth, and set of values. This freedom occurs when your outside life matches your inside self.

So how do you get self freedom?

First, you have to know yourself.  Well.  And once you do and have determined your true self and values, it’s important that you can communicate them.  In order to live congruently you have to know and act according to your values.  And sometimes that will require you to set and communicate boundaries.  Others cannot read your mind. If you don’t have boundaries (or have them but fail to communicate them), your time can be easily monopolized by the wants and needs of other people.  For instance, if time to work on your goals is a priority, you might set aside time in the morning or at night after the kids go to bed to work on your business. To protect this time, communicate to your spouse and older children the importance of this time boundary.

Once you’ve set and communicated boundaries, make sure you stick to them. Emergencies will happen, and there will be times when you’ll have to break those boundaries. However, it’s important that you enforce those boundaries as much as possible. When you have good boundaries, you have more freedom over yourself.

Second, you should get clarity on your own needs. You cannot advocate for your own needs if you don’t even know what they are! Are there certain self-care rituals that you need to be your best self? For many people, (raising my hands up high here!) some quiet time to yourself each morning is an essential part of starting the day off right. If that’s one of your needs, make sure you allow yourself that extra time in the morning even if it is to drink a cup of coffee (or lemon water) by yourself.

Some needs may be more complicated than a cup of morning coffee. To really get self freedom, you need to know exactly what you need to thrive. Sleep habits, dietary needs, self-care, skin care, and socialization are just a few of the many things you may need to be your best self. Your needs may differ from the needs of others, so take the time to discover exactly what those needs are.

Third, to have self freedom you need to eliminate people-pleasing impulses. We all want people to be happy with us, but the reality is that you won’t please everyone all the time. When you give in to people-pleasing habits, you are not nurturing self freedom. If you’re always bending to suit someone else’s wants and needs, you’re prone to neglect your own needs. 

Don’t get me wrong: making people happy is a good thing. But when you let go of the need to please other people all the time, you’ll have the freedom to make choices that align with your needs and values. And ultimately your purpose.

Time Freedom

Time freedom is the ability to spend your time in accordance with your values and priorities. When you have time freedom, you determine how you’re spending your time.

How do you give yourself time freedom?

First, know that you’ll never be 100% in charge of your time. As a business owner and as a mom, your time may never be completely your own. However, even in the midst of raising kids and running a business, you can get a sense of being in charge of your overall schedule. When you have a handle on your schedule, you can ensure that you have time to spend on your own priorities.

Because time freedom is spending your time with your values and priorities in mind, the time spent parenting will be a part of your time freedom plan. Your priority as a mom, especially when your children are young, will be to nurture them and attend to their needs.

Second, when you’re looking to get time freedom, you will know what is worth your time. We often take the time to count the financial cost of our decisions. But how often do we really analyze how we’re investing our time?

Time is precious for moms and business owners. Before you commit to a new venture, ask yourself how much of your time it will require. There may be things you choose not to do because of the time it will take from the things you truly value.

Third, remember that you’re allowed to outsource in order to protect your time freedom. Let go of the idea that you need to do everything yourself. You can free up time by delegating tasks to other people. Whether you do this by hiring help or working with your family to get household tasks off of your plate, for example, outsourcing can be a great way to give you the time you need to focus on your priorities.

Financial Freedom

Financial freedom is the freedom you get when your passive income is greater than your cost of living; when you no longer need to work to live, when you are able to secure generational wealth for your family, and when your finances can serve your family and community. When you no longer need to trade your time to generate wealth, you have financial freedom.

How do you go about creating financial freedom? 

First, you should have multiple streams of income. When your income comes from a variety of sources, you’re more financially secure if one of those sources dries up. One piece of advice I give aspiring mompreneurs is this: A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs make the mistake of quitting their corporate job too soon. However, a corporate job can be leveraged to build up the reserves you need to build up your business. You can work toward passive income while still working a corporate job.

Second, it’s important that you build systems that make money for you. For entrepreneurs, this may involve starting a business. Make sure that the work you do and the investments you make will help you to continue building wealth without continued time investment. Getting to a place where you have financial freedom may take a while, but it is worth it!

Purpose Freedom

Finally, purpose freedom is the true freedom that comes from a connection with and a complete surrender to something bigger than yourself (a higher power). 

How do you achieve purpose freedom?

First, purpose freedom comes when you tap into that higher power to fuel and empower you. For Christians, this means yielding your desires to God’s will for your life. This doesn’t mean everything will go your way. However, there’s a level of emotional and physical protection when you know that you’re meeting your purpose and doing things that are in alignment with God’s will.

Second, purpose freedom comes when you are able to co-create with that power. When you co-create with God, you are able to bring about His will and fulfill your own purpose without striving and the stress that comes with that.  Along with the support you have in your relationship with God, communities of faith have built-in support systems to help you in your walk co-creating with God.

How to Get Freedom & Live Life on Your Own Terms

How do you actually live life on your own terms? Although I have given some tips alongside each kind of freedom, the acronym ACT can help you achieve real freedom to live life on your own terms.

Attain a compelling vision – take the time to really get to the bottom of what your purpose is in life. When you have a clear sense of purpose, you’re able to create a vision that will drive you, even through hard times.

Create a clear plan or roadmap – you should know exactly how you’re going to get to your goals. What steps do you need to take in order to reach your goals and fulfill your purpose? The more clarity and detail you give to your roadmap, the easier it will be for you to reach those goals down the road.

Take action to get results – once you have a vision and a plan, take the necessary actions to get the results you want. You can become paralyzed in the planning phase. This is where a good Coach and Mentor is key.  They can help keep you accountable and deal with any blindspots getting in your way.  Sometimes you just don’t know what you know! And you need someone to help you ‘see’ better!  The Bible talks about how easy it is to see the speck in your neighbor’s eye yet miss the plank in your own.  Sometimes you do need someone else - an outsider - to call out  attention to your planks for you.  Lovingly of course!  At a certain point, you need to jump in and take action to make your dreams a reality. If you’ve created a good roadmap of how to get to your goals, the first step should be clear. Take it.

Are you really free? My freedom quiz can help you determine how “free” you truly are. When you take this quiz, you’ll find out just how much self freedom, time freedom, financial freedom, and purpose freedom you really have.  

If you are not already on my email list, join here.  And keep an eye out for an email with the quiz coming soon!