Freedom isn’t a dream – it’s a design
Readtime: 3 minutes
A friend of mine recently got promoted to a senior leadership role. It was the job he’d been chasing for years. More money, more authority, more recognition.
On paper, it looked great. But when I asked him how it felt, he laughed and said: “I feel like I have less freedom than ever.”
His calendar was booked weeks in advance, with very little he could say no to.
Even when he had free time, he didn’t have the energy to use it.
He thought the promotion would buy him freedom, but instead, it boxed him in.
That conversation made me realise:
Freedom isn’t the reward that comes after success.
Freedom is the design you need for success.
Most of us have been taught the opposite. We’re told to sacrifice now, to give away our best hours, to do what’s expected, and then someday we’ll be rewarded with freedom.
But for too many, someday never comes.
The truth is simpler: freedom is a design, not a destination. And there are three kinds of freedom that matter. But if even one is missing, life doesn’t feel free at all.
The first is Time Freedom.
This is the difference between starting your morning with two hours of focused work on something that matters to you… versus opening your laptop at 8am and realising your day is already booked solid with other people’s priorities. Without Time Freedom, every hour feels like it belongs to someone else.
The second is Energy Freedom.
This is the ability to walk away from a conversation that leaves you depleted, instead of feeling obligated to sit through it. It’s choosing not to take on projects that quietly exhaust you, even if they look impressive on paper. Without Energy Freedom, you end up dragging yourself through each day, only to collapse at night, too tired to enjoy the life you’re working so hard to build.
The third is Choice Freedom.
This is what happens when you finally get a couple of free hours and can decide, with intention, how to use it. Do you read? Do you create? Do you spend it with someone you love? Without Choice Freedom, life fills up quickly, but it’s rarely as fulfilling as we’d like it to be.
Most ambitious people manage to secure one of these freedoms. Some manage two. But very few have all three. And that’s why so many people end up successful but unsatisfied.
Where to begin
So how do you start reclaiming these freedoms?
A simple first step at work is to audit your work calendar. Look at every recurring meeting and ask yourself, “If this didn’t already exist, would I schedule it today?”
If the answer is no, cancel it. If you can’t cancel it, reduce it. Sometimes just reducing the frequency from weekly to fortnightly is enough. And you won’t be the only person glad that you did this.
What freedom really means
I’ll be honest with you: I still work long hours. But the hours feel different than they used to – because they’re mine. I decide what I work on. I decide when I do it. I decide where I do it.
The difference between working on something because you have to and working on something because you want to is enormous.
And that’s the real lesson.
Freedom isn’t about doing less.
It’s about ensuring more of the hours you have truly belong to you.
P.S. A lot of people ask me how to actually build these three freedoms into a demanding career.
That’s why I created Atomic Ambition.
It’s where I work with ambitious professionals who want to design the next phase of their career with more clarity, more energy, and more freedom – without burning out or starting over.
If what you read today resonated, you might find it useful.
👉 Here’s where you can learn more.
The final group of 2025 starts in a few weeks.