Freedom From vs. Freedom To - How To Create Your Ideal Life #FreedomFastLane

We don't really enjoy our lives until we have a clear and compelling freedom too. What it is that we want to do with our life. What it is that we want to fill that space with. What it is that we want to pursue. Or as I called it earlier, how we want to be.

Build a business, invest the profits. Hey, guys, I'm Ryan Daniel Moran, and this is Freedom Fastlane.

Yo, fastlaners, what's up? It's good to call you that. It feels good to say fastlaner again. Welcome back to Freedom Fast Lane. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran, and you look great. You're doing great. And if no one told you lately, I know you're doing the best you can with the resources you got. We're all dealt a certain hand and we gotta play our hand the best we can. A really a loser think strategy is trying to take other people's hand or saying, hey, your hand is better than mine. I'm gonna whine about it for a while on social media, and then I'm gonna try to use the government to take your hand and give it to my hand.

But I have no thoughts on that.

Today I want to chat with you about the nature of freedom, really the idea of freedom. And this is going to really help you. And this is going to help you by identifying what you really want, and it's going to help you clarify a path forward. And it's going to help you make decisions in your business and in your life. And my goal is for it to give you some freedom around making those decisions. Decisions. This is something that has fascinated me ever since I was just out of college. And the reason is because I, as a young person, as a teenager, as a tot, wanted freedom more than anything. I am driven by freedom. I am motivated by freedom. I think most men are. Sorry, PC police. I think most. Most men are wired to desire freedom. I mean, quick rant for a second. If you look at our biology.

Men are hunters. We go kill the meat. We bring the meat back and we give it to the preparers, which is usually the female.

And we say, cook this. I'll ruin it. I'll burn it. And then we say, we'll go get more meat. Stereotypical gender roles. Obviously, I'm going to go into the jungle and I will kill more meat. I will bring you back more meat. That's all we know how to do, is go get more. And women know what to do. Women know what to do. This is why I think you see a. What do you call it? Not pacifying. A neutralizing of gender roles, which is fine. There's nothing wrong or right about that. What is, is because we have an abundance of meat in this case, right, men, I will go hunt. I will go get meat. Well, we have lots of meat now. And so this is why the message of someone like a Jordan Peterson.

Is so compelling right now. Because we have men who have no idea what to do with their life and time because they're no longer hunting.

There's no longer a need to. To go out with the pack and the mentor and to go kill the meat and bring it back. And women are way better naturally at knowing what to do with meat. And by that I mean the house, the home, the family, the life. They're way better at that. Us guys say, I'll go make sure that we have food and money so that we can keep living this life. And I'm glad I met you, because otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself. This is the nature of the world. Where was I going with this? I think I was going over. Most men are wired to be free, right? That is what we are wired to desire. And women are wired to desire to be.

And so when I pursued the desire for freedom and I got it, and then I graduated college, I had no idea what to do with myself. And that was one of the hardest times of my life. I have openly talked about depressive thoughts, thoughts of suicide during that time. I've talked about that here on the podcast. You can Google that if you want to be sad for the day or hear me be sad talking about that story. And what this did is it made me fascinated with this idea of something that I wanted so much, the ability to be free. Why did it not make me happy? What do I do now?

We as human beings are at this very interesting time where we have an unbelievable amount of abundance. And for the first time we have to satisfy this question of how we want to be, of what we want to do. This is a modern day luxury we have never before had to think about what are we going to do? How are we going to be? And so we tend to default to the. The go get more meat, go get more fuel, go grow more, get more status, get more resources.

And.

We wonder why it's not making us happy. And it's because we haven't set our real aim of what it is that we are going towards now. What does this have to do with freedom? Everything.

Everything. It has everything to do with freedom and how you will enjoy it. You see, one of my mentors, Dan Sullivan likes to break this into two pieces. He calls it freedom from and freedom to. There's freedom from the things that we don't want. There's freedom from the pain. There's freedom from the things that we do not like and that hold us back or that we perceive as having held us back. And then there is the freedom to. The freedom to. The ability to pursue something, the ability to go after something. Now it's really easy for us to identify what we don't want. And we just have to look at the pain in our lives. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. But here is the interesting thing. The word freedom means nothing. It means space.

Freedom is literal nothingness.

How much does this cost? It's free. That means it costs nothing. My schedule's free. Means I got nothing going on.

I am free to meet someone new. That means you ain't meeting nobody new, right? So freedom is literal nothingness. And what I discovered after identifying all of these pieces of what I wanted to be free from was that there was a space, there was a gap, there was a void between freedom from and freedom to. Being free of all the things that you don't want is kind of like clearing out an old room. I don't like this chair. I don't like this bed. I don't like the paint in here. Get rid of it all. And then you go into the room and you go the f do I do now? It's kind of a boring ass room. Nothing going on in here.

We don't really enjoy our lives until we have a clear and compelling freedom, too. What it is that we want to do with our life, what it is that we want to fill that space with. What it is that we want to pursue, or as I called it earlier, how we want to be.

I did a podcast recently. It was a keynote from the Capitalism conference, where I said, freedom is the doing. The point is the doing of things. It is not the avoidance of the things that we don't want. Now, I know that I had to go through that little bit of transformation. I had to identify what I want to be free from in order to have the room to pursue a compelling freedom, too. I know this about myself. I think this is why many of you follow me, because there is some sort of. There is a pain you want to run from. And I'm really pretty, really, really good at identifying plans that can free you from that. But without a compelling freedom, too.

The thing that makes us free ends up enslaving us and trapping us. You see, it's workaholism for entrepreneurs. We want to be free from the job, but what happens, the job becomes the route to avoid the things that we didn't want. But because we didn't have a compelling to in the first, we end up getting trapped and enslaved by the thing that made us free. Ow. My head hurts. That's some deep philosophical stuff for you right there. So for many of us, this produces a constant dance of trying to find what is going to give us meaning and happiness in our lives. And I want to share with you some tools in order to help you navigate that. Now, for some people, some people have it made. Some people have it made in the sense that they know what their compelling future looks like. They know what they want to pursue. They know what their worthwhile aim is, and they can use that as their transition from the things that they don't want. For example.

This is a silly example, but LeBron James was born to be a basketball player. That is what he is born to do. And because he has a very unique talent stack at that, because he is the best in the world at it, because he enjoys it.

There is ultimate freedom in that. Because he actively chooses that. He's got it made in that sense. But freedom for most of us who are not named LeBron James, freedom is the ability to choose, but it means nothing until we actually choose something. And so for most of us, most people do not have that outside passion that drives them that you have to find. For most of us, it doesn't exist. And I'd say women are way better at getting this than men are. Women understand that the beingness is the point.

In my experience anyway, that the now is all that there is and that. And that that is the point. And us men feel the need to have the drive, we need to have the purpose, we need to have the mission. And in most cases, that's the go kill the animal, bring it back. And since we don't have to do that anymore, where do we put it? And over the next few episodes here on Freedom Fast Lane, I'm going to be sharing with you a formula that I'm putting together that I have been modifying for the last several years that I have found provides that for people, especially those who are hard chargers, those of us who are pursuing something or want to be pursuing something, who want more out of life. So I'm going to be sharing that framework with you over the next few episodes here on Freedom, fast lane. And part of this is because I'm putting together a new framework which might take the shape of a book or a PDF or something that I think addresses this on a bigger scale. If we look at a lot of the challenges that face our world right now, I think it is around this idea. It is that most of us are looking for meaning and purpose in our lives while we navigate this new world as humans that has never existed for us before. But let's dive into this a little bit deeper. There's freedom from easy to identify that. It's easy to identify what you don't want in your life. And then there's freedom too. The things that we do want that we might not even be aware that we want. And that gap between those two is what I call the space. And that space is where all personal development happens. It is where all of the, the self discovery happens. It's where all of the work happens. And most of us aren't LeBron James. LeBron James seamlessly makes that transition because it happened when he's always been free to choose his thing that he's better in the world than anybody else at doing so. Most of us don't have that ability. Most of us are not that privileged if we were to use the word of the day. So because of that, that gap, that space in between the freedom from and the freedom to is where we do all of our personal development work. It's why personal development happens. It's why it's having its heyday right now. Because most of us have the ability to be free from things that we don't want and we do not know what we do want. So all of the work that we do to try and find ourselves is really so that we can find what we want to be free to do. What are the choices that we want to make that we think think will bring us closer to happiness? I mean, if you even look at most entrepreneurs who are operating a business still from that freedom from mindset.

They become workaholics. They are still operating from that scarce mindset. And I only know because I've lived it and I've done this dance for many, many times. And it's usually on am I feeling scared about the bank? Am I not scared about the bank account? My optimistic about where I'm going or am I not optimistic about where I'm going? And because of that, that's where work happens to stay in that mindset of what it is that I am pursuing, of what it is that I am Aiming towards. I was watching a clip this week where I don't know if he's right, but Jordan Peterson was sharing that human beings, our brains are only wired to give us happiness. And if we have an aim and we are moving towards that aim, which is really interesting because the freedom from piece, the things I want to avoid, it's easy to point at it and avoid it and to move away from it, but it's harder to shift that and say what it is I am moving toward, what is the goal that I am pursuing. So in the short run, when you are starting your journey and you say I don't want to work 60 hours a week in a job, so I'm going to pursue money in a business or pursue passive income or something that's a very easy, measurable, attainable goal that you can work towards.

Then this gap happens where we have eliminated or we've moved away from certain things and, and now it's about finding the thing that is meaningful. Intro, personal development and all of this stuff. So these are a few exercises that I have found really helpful for me when I was having kind of my existential crisis in my mid twenties and I go through about five year cycles so I'm actually at the beginning of my next cycle as a human being. My next five year cycle I'm just at the end of one where.

Finding myself building something, winning and now I have to find myself all over again. So I'm at the beginning of the next cycle. So that's great.

During these times, during times of transition, the things that I have found helpful is picking any goal and pursuing it, anything, where is the animal and let's go kill it. Anything.

Any goal is better than nothing.

And this is if you're a goal oriented person, if you think in the purpose legacy, if you are motivated by that, picking any goal, any goal is a good one. I remember my first ever journal entry. Now I journal every day. But my first ever journal entry back in 2011 was I was struggling with purpose. So I just decided to say I'm struggling with purpose right now. And I wrote this, I said.

My purpose right now is just pick up and start moving again. And that means getting back in shape and it means shoring up some income streams, it means rebuilding relationships.

And every day I read that, every decision I made I came back to this in line with my purpose right now. And I just gave myself six months. That's going to be my purpose for now.

And that really helped me, that really helped me. So right now when I Was kind of finding myself again about a year ago or so. I just decided my goal, my purpose was going to be addressing some things going on in my body. I worked myself to death, almost to death for the last decade. So I need to address what was going on under the hood and I'm going to be reporting on that here on, on the 1%. So make sure you're subscribed to the capitalism.com feed.

So just picking any goal and pursuing it, that is, that has been super helpful. The next has been identifying the areas that I want to shore that need to be shored up that are not work related. So for example, I have found. This is so. God, please listen, if you get to this point, if you hear this next piece right here, I want you to shoot me a message or me on Twitter. Shoot me a message on Instagram. I'm Ryan Danielmoran or I'm Ryan Moran on Twitter. I just want to know that you get this. This is a total braingasm.

The fastest way.

I'm so excited you're about to have this braingasm.

I'm trying to find the perfect way to say it. I'll just word vomit it out for you. The way that you end up going growing your business the fastest is by addressing the other areas in your life that you're neglecting. Here's what I mean. I have found that when I don't know what to do in business or I don't know what my purpose in business is right now, the fastest way to figure it out is for me to focus on relationships.

So just irony of irony, as I'm recording this, I just got a text from my buddy Corin Woodmass, who just moved to Austin. He's the FBA broker. He and I talking about putting together an investment bank and a brokerage for physical products businesses. And Corin said to me something he's like, when I've been in transition in business, the thing that has always worked for me is, is making a list of people that I want to spend more time with in business and calling them and helping them or stalking them online, finding out what they need and just helping them. No ask, no expectation. And I've done the exact same thing. It was really interesting. I remember right when I was about to move to Austin, Texas, I just made a list of people that I wanted to do more business with and I just called them and I was like, hey, look, I literally made a list of people that I'd like to work with more closely. Tell me what you got going on. I have no agenda. I'm just seeing. I'm just open to new opportunities right now. Oh, man. That has caused some amazing things to happen. It's all people.

Business is all people. So one of the exercises that I have found to be really helpful is set the aim and then who are the people, the relationships, or the physical goals? For me right now, it's sleep. I find everything in my life is easier. Like, I'm a really good entrepreneur if I sleep. If I don't sleep, I'm kind of a entrepreneur. And the reason is because I'm operating from that reactive point. I'm operating from that scarce place. So the way you find meaning and purpose and drive and you move forward and you find that freedom, too, is to pick a goal, any goal. I have found the perfect day exercise to be really helpful, where you just take out a sheet of paper and you write out, if I was. If I was really smart and had all the money I could possibly have, what would my day look like? And what you find is that very little of it has to do with things.

So I map out that day, I map out the relationships, I start reaching out to those relationships, and that helps me fill the space. That helps me be in motion. It helps me carve out the next. The next path, the next few years, even. So that has been part of that. But there's one more piece to this, and this is probably the most important.

And it is the thing that is lacking the most in society right now. And it's the idea that if you want to be free, and specifically free too, you must take more responsibility than anyone else. We have this idea that freedom and responsibility are opposites, but they're actually cousins.

Freedom from.

The idea that I want to be free from something. I have pain.

The desire there, you know, somebody is in that mindset when they want to pass responsibility to someone else, but you never get freedom to unless you completely take responsibility. This is my problem. I. I must do something about this, or we must do something about this. We must address this as a team, as a family, as a group, as a mission.

When someone is in that mindset of I don't like what's going on, and so I hope that there's something different later. They tend to pass responsibility, but to be really free, you must own all of it. The rise of socialism in America right now is not because.

It's not because we never tried it. It's not because healthcare is broken.

It is a symptom of a much larger problem, and that is our unwillingness to take responsibility for our own lives and our own results and our own freedom.

That's the reason that we have a rise in socialism, why we have a polarized political climate. Is the desire to pass responsibility or put blame on other groups, other people, other ideas just a bad strategy?

It's just a terrible strategy for you getting what you want. Most people don't know what they want. They just want to be free of the things they don't want.

I'll leave you with this thought.

It has.

I've really enjoyed an idea that Gary Vee has been talking about lately where.

It'S made me realize how it really is easy to get what you want, especially today, because so few people are willing to take responsibility. So few people are willing to do the work. So if you take that responsibility, it really is easy. And the thing that Gary shares that I thought was really insightful was Gary was working with somebody who said, I need to do this so that I can pay my bills. And he said, why don't you just change your bills?

Why don't you just sell the house? Why don't you just move into a crappy apartment? It's like, do you want what you're telling me that you want, or do you want the status that you're getting from these other things? I was like, oh my goodness, that's so good. If you really know what you want, it's actually fairly easy to get it.

But forgive me for belaboring the point, but most people are stuck in thinking about what they don't want, not what they do want. And you are not free.

Until you do what you do want.

Freedom is the doing. Freedom is the choosing. Freedom is the pursuit. Freedom is the being.

And when you know what that is, that's when you're free. Over the next couple episodes, I'm going to be going through a framework that I've put together that I think is going to really help you move things in your life. It's really going to help you define what you want. It's really going to help you grow the thing that you are building, because it's going to be a reflection of who you are and what it is that you want.

And so that's what we'll be going through in the next few episodes of Freedom Fast Lane. I also want to work with you directly on your life and business here on the podcast. If you go over to capitalism.com fflpodcast I'm taking requests for those of you who want to Come on the podcast and me workshop your life, your decisions and your business. So go over to capitalism.com fflpodcast and I might have you on the show. I would love your feedback. Let me know what you thought at me on Twitter and Instagram. And as always, I do think that it is free, responsible.

Autonomous people that end up changing the world. Only takes one person, only one person to say, I'll address this problem, I'll make this decision, I'll go in this direction. And it takes one connection, one product to create the change that you want in the world. So I really am rooting for you. Thanks for listening to the show. I'll see you on the next episode.

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