The Path to More Personal Freedom

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
 
Episode 131
 
The Path the Personal Freedom
 
 
 
In my previous episode I discussed 12 reasons why we make our lives so complicated. Then I gave you solutions to each one of those challenges. If you put a little further thought into that episode, it should have occurred to you that it is all the complications in our lives that limit our personal freedom. 
 
 
I think a good definition for freedom is the ability to live your life the way you want. In other words, the ability to design a lifestyle that nurtures who you are and what you value. But how is that even possible when life is so complicated? In this thought provoking episode, I am going to give you the simple, but not necessarily easy,  path to personal freedom. 
 
 
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E131 which is called The Path to Personal Freedom. 
 
You must know that much of what I have been doing over the last 20 plus years of my life has been for the sole purpose of living my life the way I want. In other words, having more personal freedom. Freedom to pick and choose what I do, freedom to choose who I work for and for how long, and the freedom to take time off when I want instead of having to ask permission. The sole focus of this episode is to make you question how you are presently living and make you also realize there is a different way to be. 
 
 
A number of years ago I came across one of the most enlightening books that I’ve ever read. It just so happens that the principles in this book go right along with what I’d been thinking all along. However, the author outlines numerous principles in a fine literary style that I’ve never been able to achieve. And since it makes no sense to reinvent the wheel, I am going to present some of the concepts in that book. Consequently, what I present in the episode is a combination of my own thoughts, experiences, and principles presented in that book. Whenever necessary, I will refer directly to that text in order to give appropriate credit. If you have never read this book I would strongly recommend it. It is called “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne. It can be easily be found in digital format because I looked it up just the other day. However,  I am not sure if the book is still available in print.  
 
 
If you have been following me then you already know that I am a practicing veterinarian and I do contract work for different hospitals in several different states. This is what I have been doing for the last 23 years of my career. Whenever I explain my career path to any other veterinarian their response is fairly typical, “Well, it sounds as if you have been busy living your best life.” 
 
 
This is because over the last 23 years, I’ve lived and worked in Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Saint Kitts, Guatemala, Costa Rica, as well as all other Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, and South Carolina. During that time I’ve taught in three different universities, worked in multiple different specialty hospitals, emergency centers, shelters, private practices and for various non-profit organizations. I have the ability to work with who I want, travel when I want, and take time off at my leisure. 
 
 
And believe it or not, I’ve not held a full time job in the past 23 years. I have been debt free for almost 8 years. And I am still busy living my life, within reason that is,  just how I want too. I say that because I do have to pay taxes, health insurance, buy food, pay commuting expenses, etc. So, no I am not independently wealthy and I do have to work. But my underlying plan has always been to have a simple, sustainable, inexpensive life where I within reason do what I want.  
 
 
So, how did I go about achieving that? Well, the bottom line is that I decided to live life by my own rules. Now that does not mean that I ignore the basic principles of the civilized world. It just means that I avoid so many of the common trappings of our modern culture that limit the way we think and tend to keep us imprisoned by making us think we have to follow a set of rules based on what someone else thinks is best for us.
 
 
At the outset, you must know that the rules that govern society are completely arbitrary and up for negotiation. This may sound like heresy as first but perhaps not so much when you consider the fact that the people who makes the rules often do not follow them and consider themselves above the law. 
 
 
So, you may be wondering how a podcast about sustainability is related to having more personal freedom. It is my opinion, and please try and prove me wrong, that marketing campaigns in our culture have been by far the most successful, long-standing, behavioral modification experiment in human history. Think about it. 
 
 
We are barraged with advertisements practically from the moment we wake up. We are convinced that we need so much more than what we actually do. We buy more, eat more, waste more, spend more, have more debt, want a bigger house, bigger car or truck, more money. We have far too many personal possessions, far too much junk and clutter, far too many toys, all of which costs far too much time and money. Then we enslave ourselves to a crushing load of debt to maintain our lifestyle. Meanwhile our personal and financial freedom always looms on the distant horizon, a lofty goal that many never attain. 
 
 
Sustainability is just the opposite. Purchase once, re-use, repair, recycle, buy only what you need, waste little if anything. Produce as much of your own food as you can. Live in a smaller residence because it is more affordable and costs less to heat, cool, and maintain and will cost less to run off of renewable energy. Perhaps even build your own place or start out small and add on later. Pay it off sooner instead of 30 years from now. All of which saves you a considerable amount of money that can easily go into a retirement fund
 
 
Which is these scenarios do you think will give you greater personal and financial freedom in the long run. Obviously, it is living a more conservative, sustainable lifestyle that is part of the path to personal freedom. But, there are choices to be made. 
 
 
Harry Browne in his book How to Find Freedom in an Unfree World, talks extensively about all the trappings of our society and how to avoid them. Now I just want to hit some of the high lights here. But, you really do need to read this book. The following information is directly credited to Harry Browne from his book. He talks about the following traps: 
 
 
The Identity Trap: the belief that you should be someone other than yourself. 
 
 
The Morality Trap: the belief that you must obey a moral code created by someone else.
 
 
The Unselfishness trap: the belief that you must put the happiness of others ahead of your own. 
 
The Group Trap: the belief that you can accomplish more by sharing responsibilities, efforts, and rewards with others instead of acting on your own. 
 
 
The Government Trap: And this is a big one. The belief that governments perform socially useful functions that deserve your support. The belief that you have a duty to obey laws constructed by someone else. The belief that the government can be counted upon to carry out a social reform you favor, and the fear that the government is so powerful that it can prevent you from being free. 
 
 
The Rights Trap: the belief that we all have the right to certain things and that is going to get us what we want.  
 
 
Once again, that information is credited to Harry Browne in his book How to Find Freedom in an Unfree World. 
 
 
Now, what follows is some of my own personal thoughts about additional trappings. 
 
The Media Trap; This goes back to something I said earlier. Our lives are heavily influenced by the media.  What we eat, what we buy, how we invest, where we travel, what type of house we purchase, and all the toys we have. We are constantly on the internet and on social media platforms where we compare ourselves to other people and then attempt to emulate them. All this means is that we spend far too much money and live in a house that more than exceeds your needs and spend 30 years paying it off. 
 
 
The Employment Trap: The employment trap is by far the most powerful one of all. We are convinced that we have to work for someone else in order to produce some sort of financial security. Consequently, we are limited on our financial success. We spend 40 or more hours per week in an office. We are given only mediocre benefits and have to ask permission to take time off.  
 
 
But the reality here is that you are never going to be happy unless you are who you are instead of pretending to be someone else in other to please others. 
 
 
Moral code is a completely different animal all together. In my opinion the moral code constructed by someone else has been used as an excuse to commit some of the greatest atrocities in human history. In the end, morality is really pretty simple. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. 
 
 
People will always think of you as being selfish if you put your happiness first. But, at the end of the day, you only have one life. No one is going to attend to your happiness better than you. That said, I have volunteered tens of thousands of hours in my life working in third world countries in order to help others. But, in the end, I also look after myself. 
 
 
The group trap. Well, I have always accomplished more on my own that I ever have working with a group. I think we know all too well just how difficult it is to get a group of people to agree on anything. This is the very reason the government is still in its never ending board meeting instead of actually doing something about creating a sustainable, circular economy. 
 
 
The government trap: Once again I think most of you know by now that I am not a very politically oriented person. But, I certainly have my own opinion about the government. Yes, our tax dollars go toward maintaining our national security, maintaining national infrastructure, maintaining certain social programs that help a lot of people, providing social security, etc. 
 
 
But, at the end of the day, if there were a true national emergency, the average citizen is the last thing the government is going to try and protect. We are going to be on our own. 
 
 
I strongly disagree with many of the things that the government does and how our tax dollars are spent. It is no secret that the government spends our tax dollars like an irresponsible teenager with a credit card. 
 
Furthermore, if you disagree and decide you will not pay taxes, you will loose everything you own and will be put in prison. 
 
 
Now, that being said, there will never come a time when I will confront the government simply because I disagree with how our money is spent. Instead, I not only work for myself but I work closely with an accountant to make sure everything I do with my income and my taxes is perfectly legal. This is how I maximize my income and minimize by tax liability. But, as I said, everything is by-the-book and perfectly legitimate.  
 
 
The Rights Trap: It is a mistake to think you always have a right to certain things just because you are a citizen of your home country. Rights will only get you so far and it is not a guarantee to anything whatsoever. Walking around with a sense of entitlement will get you no where. You are only entitled to the things you work for. 
 
 
The media trap: It should be no secret at this point that it has been over 25 years since I have watched network television. When I was in school I was far too busy to waste time in front of the television. I got out of the habit of it and just never went back to it. Furthermore, whenever I travel and stay in a hotel, I will occasionally turn on network television. It only takes me about 5 minutes to realize why I do not watch it. It is because you are bombarded with advertisements and the programing is literally on the level of 10 year old. It provides little if any intellectual stimulation and zero benefit. I often tell my coworkers that if they can prove to me that I am missing something then I will start watching it again. 
 
 
Now, I do have internet. But I plug in the modem when I need to do something and then unplug it when I am finished. About twice a week I will peruse through world news in order to keep current. I do watch movies on Netfix. I am on social media platforms about once weekly and that only lasts 10 minute max. It is common for me to go 8 hours without ever checking my smartphone. 
 
 
This is a choice that I make and I am of the personal opinion that my life is much better because of it. 
 
The employment trap; Now I will admit that I spent a good portion of my adult life working for someone else because I thought that is what I had to do. But then I started slowly experimenting with various businesses on the side. At one point I had a lawn service business, a janitorial business, and even a medical and educational writing business. Then I hit the jackpot when I started working for myself as a veterinarian. That was 23 years ago.
 
Being self employed is by far the best way to maximize your income, minimize your tax liability and take time off when you want. It is truly the basis of much of how I live. I would have never accomplished what I have done for myself by working for someone else. 
 
 
If you at all have a skill set that lends itself to self employment I strongly recommend it. Even if you work for a company and do it remotely that also gives you far more personal freedom. 
 
 
Summary
 
Now I certainly remember a time in my life when I did things very differently. I was actually raised in an environment strongly influenced by religion. I always seemed to be working for someone else and paid high taxes for as little income as I was making. It always seemed as if I had heavy emotional commits to family, friends, and in my personal relationships. My life was about everything accept for me. Obligations, obligations, obligations. 
 
 
As an adult I fell into the trap of wanting more, having more, spending more just like so many other people that I know. There came a time when I realized that it was all just a game with no end in sight and my life was never going to be what I wanted it to be unless I made significant changes and took more control over many things that influenced my daily life. 
 
 
There have been several times in my life where I literally hit the eject button. What I mean is that I found myself completely dissatisfied with my situation in life and it seemed that the only way to make a productive change was to walk away from everything. So I did. 
 
 
 
For example, I moved away from everything and everybody I knew when I left Tennessee and moved to Colorado. That was a very good choice.
I left the best paying job I had ever had when I gave up everything to go to veterinary school. That was a good choice. 
 
 
I walked away from a stable full time job with benefits when I decided to start doing contract work with different hospitals. I have been self employed for 23 years now and will never give it up. 
 
 
I finally made the decision to sell my second home in South Carolina at a small loss in order to get completely out of debt. That was a good choice because I was able to make that money back in less than six months. For the first time in my adult life I was completely debt free. 
 
 
And of course long ago I jumped feet first into a very hard life for a few years when I bought the cabin property. I had very little money at the time and took a significant financial risk. However, that lead to me living off the grid and slowly developing a low impact, very inexpensive, debt free, sustainable lifestyle. 
 
 
And each time I made drastic changes there were choices to be made and of course some sort of risk which was mostly financial. These days I largely avoid the trappings of modern society because of the way I live. I am still practicing medicine because I enjoy it but I also pick and choose who I work for. I also take several months a year off to either stay at home or travel. 
 
 
And while this may sound like a dream lifestyle for most, it is also something that is achievable by everyone. But, there are choices to be made. Some will be easy. Some will be hard. I too have had to make some difficult choices and work really hard for months at at time to accomplish what I wanted. 
 
 
I would suggest that you start by recognizing all the things that complicate your life and distracts you from what really matters. I would recommend taking a strong look at everything you have in your life, your personal possessions, your clothes, your house, and even your relationships. If there is something in your life that is not producing value and contributing to your happiness and personal freedom then get rid of it. It is that simple.
 
 
Yes it was difficult for me to leave all my friends and family when I left Tennessee long ago. Yes it was difficult to give up the best paying job I’d ever had in order to go to veterinary school. Yes I was very afraid when I walked away from a stable job and started working for myself. 
 
After all the work I’d put into my second home it was very difficult to make the decision to sell it at a small loss. And, I will have to admit while it was not a difficult decision to purchase the cabin property, my total lack of forethought and planning made for a difficult life for several years. But in the end I do not regret that decision. 
 
Many of these choices have had a great influence and have truly defined my adult life. Some good and some bad. But at the end of the day, I now have more personal freedom than most people I know. 
 
The truth of the matter is that I’ve made some difficult choices, as well as some sacrifices, in order to achieve what I have wanted. But, it is entirely possible to everyone I know to do exactly the same thing. 
 
Now I am going to give you a short list of books that I’ve read that have had an influence on the way I think. All of these can easily be found in digital format. 
 
 
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry Browne
Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin
Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch
Simply Your Life by Elaine St James
 
 
Each one of these books are an easy read and I strongly recommend every one of them.  
 
My last episode, Why Do We Make Things So Complicated, focused on 12 reasons why we complicate our lives. In that episode I also offered solutions to each one of those challenges. I thought it was appropriate to follow that episode with something that focuses on how to achieve more personal freedom. Now in my next episode I am going to focus on the psychology of sustainability. 
 
I truly hope that these last two episodes have been helpful to my listeners in achieving a more satisfying lifestyle full of personal freedom. Truly if you are in a situation where you entire life has you chained down to one obligation after another, then you have choices to make. Once I decided to get completely out of debt and change how I was doing things, it took me 5 years to accomplish my goal. It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be a walk in the park.
 
Just always keep in mind that the choices you make now and the priorities to set for yourself now will directly affect your lifestyle 5 years from now. So, make careful choices. Truly we all have the ability to achieve the lifestyle we have always wanted. You just have to set you mind to it and keep in mind that failure is not an option. 
 
In closing, I just want to say that if you do enjoy my podcast, then please take the time to leave me with a review and don’t forget to subscribe to the Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast as well as my companion blog Off Grid Living News. 
 
But for now I would like to close this episode with one of my favorite quotes. 
 
If you are interested in something you will do what is necessary. If you are committed to something you will do what it takes. 
 
So, do what it takes to have a simple, easy, affordable sustainable life that is full of personal freedom. 
 
Well folks, that is it for this week. Be sure to join me again next week for another great episode. Until then, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future. 
 
Patrick
Patrick