There Is No Constraint To Live Under Constraint

Freedom as choice.

Circumstance & Perspective

The more I explore freedom, the more convinced I am that choice is a necessary ingredient in its recipe. On the surface, that probably sounds obvious. The ability to make your own choices is clearly a form of freedom. In that case, freedom is choice. I find that this type of freedom is often action-oriented and related to our circumstances. What you do for work; where you eat lunch on Saturday; how you cut your hair; who you spend your time with, etc. Having the freedom to choose those things is an incredible privilege, but it’s also a form of freedom that is not truly in our control and is therefore vulnerable to disruption.

The other side of this freedom coin is mindset-oriented and it has to do with our perspective. Our perspective is always within our control, which makes it, and the freedom we gain from maintaining a balanced perspective, durable. In this light, similar to happiness, freedom is a choice, and we can make that choice regardless of our circumstances. It’s always there. It’s always available. All we have to do is get out of our own way and choose it. Simple, right?

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A Stoic Quotes An Epicurean

The full quote from which the title of this note is pulled reads, “To live under constraint is a misfortune, but there is no constraint to live under constraint.” Epicurus said this but I came upon it while reading Seneca, a Stoic, who used the line to help illustrate an idea.¹ After quoting Epicurus, Seneca continued, “Of course not, when on every side there are plenty of short and easy roads to freedom there for the taking.”

Their collective point, at least as I read it, is that there is no universal law that dictates that we must live constrained lives and that there are always options (choices) available to us that have the potential to move us toward greater freedom. In some cases, we have the freedom to make choices about our circumstances, but in all cases we have the freedom to choose our perspective. Sounds great, but if that’s the case, why do we often feel so inhibited? Nobody actually chooses constraint over freedom, right?

When it comes to our circumstances, I think the answer is we don’t intentionally opt for constraints when making choices but our decisions are made with incomplete and imperfect information. It’s only later that we discover we inadvertently tied our hands while attempting to unshackle our feet. The trouble is that we then move forward with the new bonds, accepting them as…acceptable.

It’s important to remember that we are wrong constantly whether we like to admit it or not, and we rarely know exactly how a decision will play out over time. This is true in our personal lives (just ask your spouse, partner, child, parent, etc.) and our professional lives. For those of you who trade in markets, this is an undeniable fact that you should know, accept, and love. The problem isn’t being wrong, it’s staying wrong, and staying wrong is one way freedom is eroded from our lives.

When it comes to our perspectives, we truncate our freedom by resisting reality. Circling back to Stoicism, one of its fundamental tenets is that reality is neither good nor bad, it just is. We choose to label occurrences, situations, feelings, thoughts, etc. as good or bad, helpful or hurtful, right or wrong. These labels alter how we view reality and that can lead us to feel as though certain freedoms have been reduced or taken away. Hold on to these perspectives long enough and suddenly it feels like the whole world is holding you back.

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An Unpleasant Yet Optimistic Reality

An extension of this line of thinking is that the existing constraints in our lives that we interpret as limiting our freedom are there because of our own choices, not outside influence. It may not be pleasant to accept, but we’re responsible for most of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and we are absolutely responsible for how we interpret our circumstances. It’s tempting to look at the areas of our lives where we feel restricted, identify a culprit or two, and unload some of the responsibility, but that doesn’t get us very far if we’re hoping to make progress.

I remind myself often that all of my possessions and most of my circumstances, even the things that I feel are restricting me, were once things I wanted. If these possessions and circumstances are holding me back now, I like to revisit why and how I brought them into my life in the first place. This simple reflection is a good reminder of the agency I have if I decide I do want to make a change, and it can also help reset my perspective, which sometimes leads me to recognize that the perceived constraint is not even real.

If we own the fact that any lack of freedom we’re experiencing is of our own doing, then that means we also have the power to pivot in a new direction. Every pivot provides us with new experiences, and with more experience comes the opportunity to make better decisions. Over time, my goal is for three things to happen: 1) my decision-making improves, 2) I become more adept at identifying mistakes quickly, and 3) my willingness (and ability) to pivot quickly after a mistake is identified expands.

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Acceptance then Action

Once we’ve accepted that we are (and have been) wrong a lot and that we are responsible for the amount of freedom we experience in our lives, we can get to work improving our circumstances and perspectives.

For your circumstances, a good place to start is to take an inventory of your life and identify where you feel stuck. Once you’ve identified a specific constraint, trace back to the origins of the decisions that were made that led you here. What were your assumptions when you started down this path? What were you moving toward? From what were you moving away? What were you willing to accept as tradeoffs to get what you wanted? How did things play out differently than you originally imagined, and what’s in your control to change? Once you know what’s in your control, you can begin the process of making new decisions that will hopefully move you closer to unlocking greater freedom.

When it comes to evolving your perspective, I find this is more of a practice than a process. The practice can run in tandem with whatever work you’re doing to improve your circumstances, and often there are quick gains to be made by changing your perspective while you do the work to change your circumstances.

The practice has universal application, so there’s no shortage of opportunities to do the work. An easy place to start is the weather. The next time bad weather has you feeling constrained, look for how freedom expanded somewhere else in your life because of it. If you do this consistently, you’ll start to notice a difference in how you view most happenings in your life. Before you know it, the mind starts finding opportunity and freedom where it once saw hindrance and frustration. The freedom is often right there, we just have to open our eyes and choose it.

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As always, thank you for reading The Free Dominion. If there are any topics related to freedom that interest you, please let me know. I really would love for this to become a conversation.

1. The Stoics and Epicureans were not known for seeing eye to eye on many topics (see here), but Seneca never hesitated to put to use a good idea regardless of its origin.