Not gonna lie, feels pretty weird and challenging to write a message to you around Independence Day in the US this year. I, along with many of my clients, are feeling despondent and rageful about the contraction of basic human rights and the promise (threat) of more such contractions to come. Strange and devastatingly sad times.
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With less freedoms available, I wasn’t feeling the July 4th vibes so much this year. And it’s got me thinking a lot about what freedom means to me.
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I’m freshly back from a great vacation with my family (could have been a bit longer to be quite honest), and got to do a lot of thinking while I was away. I am a person of great privilege—hello, just the fact that I am able to take a vacation feels amazing!!—so I know that I am fortunate to have the freedom to take that time.
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Reflecting on Q1 and Q2 of this year, there’s things I want—need—to do differently to take better care of myself. As an entrepreneur and the CEO of my brand, I have the freedom to do that. To really consider my life blend; to design my schedule and business to support my values and how I want to live and work. What a privilege. Such great freedom.
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And because I am a person of great privilege, a lot of the restrictions that are being enacted here in the US frankly won’t affect me as much. But I’m deep in my feelings about it all because a major value to me is collective community. Community care. I believe that we belong to and are responsible to and for one another.
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Initially, when I went into business for myself ages ago, a driver was setting my own schedule, making my own rules, and not being beholden to anyone else. Later, this evolved into the freedom and creativity to design a business that gave me joy and added to my life. And a further goal outcropped from there: achieving a high level of success to maximize impact and do more good in the world. I’m not there yet, but I have always contended that I’d make an excellent wealthy person—endless ideas of how to give away funds 🙂 .
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I’m doubling down on the doing max good, and thinking and planning about how I can be a helper, an activist, and uplifter. How I can use my unique skill set to do more, to raise my voice more, to be more when it’s appropriate, to step back when that’s what’s required, and to do what I can to uplift marginalized humans. It’s so empowering.
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To me, feeling empowered is freedom.
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What does freedom mean to you? How will you take full advantage of the freedoms you have? How will you help to extend freedom to others? What will it allow you to do in your life, your work, and the world? If you’re inclined to share, I would love to hear from you.
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