Freedom is not free. It involves costs.
The word freedom is highly likeable but not so simple to achieve.
I heard the word freedom since childhood in all walks of life and interpreted it as being free to move, free to choose actions, not obey all instructions of seniors, free to engage in any pursuit, free to choose a career, free to marry, free to reject an option, free to play, and many many things to live happily.
While entering practical life, I realized that getting freedom in education, society, profession, beliefs, values, and priorities is not so easy.
I revisited the mystery of the interpretation of the word "freedom."
I had the impression that all sorts of freedom are freely available.
Time taught me freedom is tough to gain but certainly a good space to live with what matters most to me.
I was stuck in choosing my career, as I had something in all options that had to be taken into consideration, irrespective of what I wanted to be in the future.
I was in a dilemma while choosing progress in my walk of life, as it was full of risks and asking for a cutoff from established conditioning.
Being connected with parents, siblings, friends, relatives, and known surroundings were limiting factors to establishing freedom at a higher scale.
Daring to enter into unknown territory was not a free option. It was like jumping into the pool without knowing how to swim. It was a cost, and I reluctantly agreed to bear it.
It was difficult to convince myself that going out of stagnation is also a means to freedom. Staying at home is not freedom, but it is killing potential without giving myself a chance to flow in the direction to test my capabilities in solving issues, charting new paths of performance, enlarging imagination, and playing with a world of possibilities.
I started admitting that in shaping myself to be acceptable and remarkable, I have to bear a lot of uneasiness today.
I accepted that accepting challenges enlarges the areas of freedom to decide what is to be done as the next move.
People are living in herds because they have preferred that condition to be happy without having anything on their side. If they find it convenient, let it be, but in no way is it a freedom. It is nothing more than living randomly and in a real sense, defeating the purpose of true living.
Few things are indeed crucial in life; that varies from person to person. We have to focus there and get the maximum. This focus creates the conditions of freedom. This focus costs our precious time, a lot of energy, and attention, but we get freedom to carve niches onwards.
Being organized in the home, the office, traveling, meetings, picnics, playground, farm, factory, or other places demands discipline. It creates a little pressure but provides more freedom to display our abilities even in tough times.
Obeying the rules of the game creates stress but provides the freedom to score. Losers are unaware of managing these crucial steps.
Changing my perspective on freedom, I moved forward being with people of different backgrounds. There I got the opportunity to understand them better. Yes, I paid the cost of being detached from the place of the early phases of life for a long tenure.
Read the lives of great people guiding masses to live humanely, and count their sacrifices—those are the costs they have paid.
They tried to erase the line between oppressor and oppressed; that was necessary to ensure unfolding freedom. They applied different means, but the end was the same: "freedom.".
Looking into our routines, habits, and actions, it is beyond doubt that freedom is essential for development, but it involves costs. It is not free.
