The importance of freedom in our private and professional lives is becoming increasingly significant. Many people want to be free to make their own decisions and not have to submit to external control. In short, they want to "do their own thing." At the Grundl Leadership Institute, we are happy to help you achieve this goal. But first, we must ask ourselves: What do freedom and self-determination mean?
We often get the impression that this is just a pipe dream that we can't achieve anyway. The idea of a free and self-determined life seems too good to be true. Our response to this is as follows: it's not about always being free. Nor is it about making your own completely free decisions in every situation in life. Freedom is certainly highly valued, but there will always be dependencies, and that is how it should be.
Dependence and freedom are opposites
What does freedom mean when it is placed in relation to dependencies? Dependencies are the opposite of freedom. They are what other people expect of us—our obligations. As children, we are obliged to attend school. As adults, we may be obliged to earn money. Our partner probably expects us to spend time with him or her, and our parents expect us to visit them for coffee on Sundays. The list could go on and on.
We place a particularly high value on freedom, yet at the same time we only see the many obligations we have. But consider this: we are talking about extremes here. If we were completely free and self-determined in all our decisions, we would no longer have any dependencies. We would no longer be obligated to anyone and could spend the whole day doing whatever came into our heads. But that might also mean that we would be completely unattached, have no social contacts, and no one at all who had expectations of us. Conversely, a life full of obligations would be restrictive and frustrating. We would no longer be able to make our own decisions. It would be a life full of constraints, without any freedoms.
Ultimately, neither of these extreme examples seems desirable. So how should we classify the meaning of freedom? First of all, we need a different attitude toward the concept of freedom. In short, we need balance. What does freedom responsibility do with responsibility ? Well, George Bernard Shaw said, "Freedom means responsibility. That is why most people fear it." This could be translated as follows: Being free does not mean doing only what you want, but rather wanting what you do. In fact, according to Shaw, we are only free when dependence enters our lives. Sounds paradoxical?
Being free despite dependencies
Consider the following quote from Boris Grundl: "The more we want what we do, the greater our freedom." The fact is that dependencies usually only seem like a problem to us when they come in the form of expectations that we don't want to fulfill. They are a thorn in our side, and we perceive them as negative and restrictive. On the other hand, expectations that we are happy to fulfill, such as—to return to the example from earlier—spending time with our partner, are not perceived as dependencies, but as our own free choice. And that's despite the fact that that's exactly what they are: dependencies.
So if we want to explore the meaning of freedom and self-determination, the trick is not to reject all dependencies. Rather, it lies in having the right attitude. In this way, we can transform dependencies into freedoms.
Get up! No more excuses
If you are interested in topics like these and would like to learn more about the path to a free and self-determined life, we can recommend Boris Grundl's new, completely revised book "Steh auf! Das Ende aller Ausreden" (Get up! The end of all excuses).
Take these insights with you into the coming week and think specifically about the areas of your life where you can turn dependencies into freedoms. Become the best people you can be. That is our wish for you.
Your team at
Grundl Leadership Institute
Image by Jill Wellington on Pixabay
