Everyone has a different definition of personal freedom. For some, it’s financial. For others, it’s travel, relationships, or the ability to say “no” without guilt. But for me, one word has always sat at the center of how I view freedom: time. Time is the resource we can’t buy more of, can’t negotiate, and can’t reclaim. And from a young age, I was obsessed with protecting it.
When I was sixteen, I was asked to write my three life goals for a school project. Most of my classmates rattled off the usual dreams — careers their parents approved of, college majors, things that fit neatly into the boxes society builds for us. But mine? Mine were different. They stood out, even to me.
1. To be financially independent
2. To travel and see the world
3. To make my own schedule
It didn’t take long for me to realize that absolutely no one at our career day matched these ideals. Not even close. So I did what I’ve always done — I carved my own path. My previous career was the only one available to me at the time that checked all three boxes, and I pursued it with intention, discipline, and a clear understanding of why.
Reevaluating at 30: The Upgrade to My Freedom
Flash forward to me turning thirty — a milestone that still feels like yesterday. I took time to sit with myself and reevaluate my life. I wasn’t critiquing or questioning my choices; I was taking inventory with pride. I had honored those three teenage goals. I had built a life that fit me, not anyone else’s expectations.
But I felt a shift. I wanted to add something—a bonus challenge I could look forward to for the next twenty years.
So I created a new addition to my simple list of three:
By the time I was 50, I no longer wanted to set an alarm clock.
Let me be very clear — I’m not someone who sleeps in. I never have been. This wasn’t about laziness or avoiding responsibility. It was about allowing my body to wake up on its own schedule, not the world’s. It was about eliminating the jolt of an alarm and replacing it with the natural rhythm of the life I had worked hard to create.
At thirty, this felt like the perfect symbol of achieving personal freedom. If I could wake up naturally every day by fifty, it meant I had truly honored Goal #3 — make my own schedule — in the deepest way possible. It meant I had built a life with enough structure, discipline, and choice that no meeting, call time, or commitment was important enough to override my peace.
Living It at 53
Here I am today at fifty-three — three years into my no-alarm-clock life.
And let me tell you, it feels exactly how I imagined it would feel at thirty.
Like freedom.
It’s such a simple thing, but it represents decades of self-trust, consistency, work ethic, reinvention, and honoring the promises I made to myself. These small private victories matter. They add up. They define us.
Freedom Is Personal — And That’s the Point
My definition of personal freedom won’t match yours, and it shouldn’t. These goals — from sixteen to thirty to fifty — were never meant to apply to everyone. Very few life goals work for everyone. But the beauty of personal freedom is right there in the word: personal.
We all get to decide what it looks like.
We all get to define what we’re working toward.
And we all get to build a life that honors what feels true to us.
This is mine. And I am living it with gratitude every single day.