And the real question is never “How much?”. Instead, it is almost always; “Am I willing to pay for it?”

One of my close friends is a CFO at a multinational company. Few of our other friends are kind of envying her, saying of how lucky she is.

I then asked them, whether they are willing to wear double eyelashes extention everyday and touch them up every two weeks just to maintain a professional look? (For you who don't know anything about eyelashes extention, it does make the eyelashes look longer and make your eyes look bigger and prettier, but they are very uncomfortable, and could be itchy plus annoying at most times. Wearing a single layer is already a torture for me that I could only stand it for a week, let alone wearing two layers. Most women wear them to save some make up time and look presentable professionally almost instantly.)

They all said no almost instantly and complained of how uncomfortable that will be. And I said, “Well, too bad. Cause that so happen is only a very tiny price that she pays to maintain a small part of her performance. Just the professional look part. Imagine what she should pay for her overall brainy decisions and bold performance in the company.”

You may have heard this many times, “We all know the only way to go to heaven is to die, but how many of us are willing to die?”

The price of freedom is ego. As long as you could maintain your ego low, freedom is almost always attainable and available for you. But how low are you willing to push your ego?

Some people said ego is align with the numbers you have, but I disagree with that. Ego has nothing to do with numbers and money. It has to do with self-value only. No matter how small or big the number you have, if your self-value is on minus, you will never have a taste of freedom, at all.

Ironically, the price of everything is actually for us to determine, yet we and we alone, are the ones who made it so unattainable for us.

Self note.

#life #honesty #thoughts #freedom

It is very rare for one to be able to visualize or define freedom more than what they've tasted or they've seen in a glimpse, before.

It's like doing a pantomim of someone playing violin, to another who has never seen or played a violin before. The idea was simply hasn't existed yet in the mind.

And yes, I believe that ideas require previous experiences or knowledge to be triggered. Ideas need our assurance of probabilities and chances of success, to be sparked.

Simply said, ideas need experiences, and so does the idea of freedom. Afterall, the concept of freedom is to overcome the boundaries and limitations available to ourselves.

(Note that I chose the words 'to-overcome', because up to now, I don't believe in 'no-limitation' to be a part on defining freedom. Based on my experiences, no limitation only leads to chaos, and chaos is very far from freedom. And as ironic as it might sounds, freedom does require certain limitation and strict controls around it, to be existed.)

I found it hard, if not impossible, to make someone understand the level of freedom that we could have, for whatever the reason could be, without them having the courage to experience it first-hand.

And that's why I'm mostly unable to answer people's question on why I chose to be a minimalist, why I chose to move from my three story house to a studio apartment, or why I traveled and lived nomaden for four months.

Unless you have the courage to let yourself to experience them all, there is no way for you to understand the level of freedom that I am having in my life.

Unless we have the courage to let ourselves to experience many things in life, there will be no way for us to really be alive.

And that's how I define my freedom.

#life #freedom #honesty #thoughts

I used to think that freedom means to be alone and to have no one rules me. Which I later found as partly wrong.

Being alone is being alone. No one rules you, that's true, but it doesn't make you a free man. I saw too many people who are supposed to be free, yet caged by their own definition of freedom.

I found that freedom has nothing to do with being alone or being with others. It is the ability to remain thoughtful and being myself no matter what the circumstance I chose to be in or with.

I can choose to be with someone or many others and be free still.

Freedom is always there when I know how to respect myself as much as how I respect everyone and everything in my life.

Freedom is not the power to ignore. It is the power to know when to draw a line and choose to proceed with your own plan.

#freedom #life #honesty

“Our value and strength are not determined by what we have now.

Instead, they are determined by our ability to build everything again from zero, right when we have lost everything.

Say, the business collapsed for whatever the reason is. Fire. Flood. Stock crashed. Client didn't pay. Worker corrupted and brought the money away. Government changed the rules. Economy collapsed. Pandemic. Whatever it was.

What's left with you when you lost everything?

Do you still have the skills that you acquired for years? Do you still have the knowledge that you foster all those years? Do you still have the trust of your family, friends, partners, colleagues, and clients?

And do you still have the courage and confident that you used to have, to decide not to losing yourself and try again once more?”

“When we are still able to manage what we have left with us, we will never run out of ways.”

#thoughts #clarity #freedom

“My turning point was, when someone asked on a group that I randomly followed, one very simple question;

“Have you ever thought of packing a bag and leave everything behind?”

And I found out that 85% answered “Oh yes” or “Everyday” but 90% of them didn't do anything in the end, mostly because of the fear of uncertainties.

I don't even wanna count, how many percent of them that admitted how they regreted that decision of staying the same and then things were too late.

That's just insane to me. How could you hold yourself from the life that you have always wanted to have? What could be more important than that?

Some answered children as the reason, but what is the message that you want your children to learn? That life is all about holding back? That they can't pursue the life that they will be dreaming of because it is selfish and other reason? Or that to regret about their life is normal? That's life? Again, that's insane to me.

Since then I promised myself, I won't be that 85% of people. I will be the 5% who do the changes that they need to do to have the life that they want, and who answered “No. I f*ckin love my life.”

Some people took me as a selfish spoil person for that, and I just laugh. Yeah they can be the unselfish ones and hopefully they will feel satisfy with their choices by the end of the day. I'll just be a happy selfish spoil b*tch. Lol.”

Some part of a long conversation with some strangers.

I chose this traffic photos as it somehow shows the contrast with what I write, ironically yet also beautifully.

Us wanting to be happy and away VS us spending most of our time during the traffic back then on normal days before the pandemic.

Will you do it again?

#thoughts #honesty #freedom

The only way you could feel the wind is by letting it comes to you and leaves you when it needs to. By letting it go and never ask the wind to stay.

And sometimes, the wind is lucky when there are some, who decide to follow and go to where it blows.

#wind #freedom #alone

Freedom is like this; you rule your life and your life is floating above all of those silliness. That's all.”

#freedom

Everything about him reminds me of freedom and the things that I have always wanted to have or to achieve. Every little thing about him shows me the possibility of me being better, much better than where I am now. Every side of him echoing possibilities to me.

And he made me. To feel at my best, always. Even when I was down, he will always make me see things from different perspectives that I never knew existed. He gave me space and complete trust of me being my best.

I forgot that freedom was an easy going one as well, while me, I'm never an easy going one. I wasn't ready for freedom no matter how much I want to be with.

Deep down inside, I know he might be freedom, but he is never my freedom. My freedom is solely mine, and only for me to find the way to be one.

I met freedom few months ago, and I really let him go today.

#freedom