The Best Kind of Freedom FIRE Can Buy

I’ve been discussing my next “One Hit Wonder,” and I’ve finally decided what it is.

Recall that I’ve defined a One Hit Wonder as a process or outcome goal you pursue for one full year. Something that stays at the top of the charts in your daily life and planning. A major commitment. Better if made publicly, in my opinion. Absolutely requires consistency. It is usually time-consuming, too. 

And, centered around either freedom fromsomething or freedom todo or become something.

The “freedom from” goals are often simpler.

Want freedom from doomscrolling social media? Delete the apps. Don’t log in. Done.

The “freedom to” goals tend to be more demanding because they may require building a practice over time.

My first One Hit Wonder was committing to writing and posting a blog article every day for one full year. That’s a process goal, an outcome goal, and very much a freedom-to pursuit.

The second commitment I’ve been working on is averaging 15,000 steps per day until I reach my target weight. That one is interesting because it contains elements of both freedom from and freedom to.

But after reflecting on it more deeply, I realized something important:

I’m not actually pursuing 15,000 steps per day.

And I’m not even really pursuing a specific number on the scale (although, I love a good concrete measure when I can get one).

What I’m pursuing is freedom.

I want freedom from needing to buy an entirely new wardrobe because half my clothes no longer fit.

I want freedom from the exhausting yo-yo cycle I’ve experienced over the last couple years after dedicating an entire year to getting back into excellent shape.

I want freedom to enjoy a great meal and a couple beers with friends without immediately feeling anxiety about whether I’ve drifted completely off track again.

I want freedom to bound up the stairs without knee pain, stiffness, or getting winded.

And when I frame it this way, the real goal becomes obvious.

My second official One Hit Wonder is not walking 15,000 steps per day.

It is reaching my target weight, staying within four pounds of it, and maintaining that range for one full year.

May 13, 2027 — here I come!!

Now, this particular One Hit Wonder deserves more explanation eventually, because it will involve more than just walking. I’ll likely be implementing some additional guardrails and systems around it. But we can leave that aside for today.

Because interestingly enough, this article was originally supposed to be about authentic living and utilizing some ideas from the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard to explore the subject.

Kierkegaard wrote about three broad modes of living: the aesthetic, the ethical, and what he called the religious life. Personally, I think “authentic” is probably a more accessible modern translation of what he was pointing toward with that last category.

The aesthetic life is centered around “living in the moment,” though it can degrade into the pursuit of only pleasure, stimulation, novelty, enjoyment, experience for experience’s sake.

The ethical life is centered around commitment, responsibility, consistency, integrity. Sometimes degrading into rigidity and “this is what one does because that is what one does” overly conventional living. 

An authentic life emerges when your external life begins aligning with something internally true.

These One Hit Wonders sit primarily in the ethical realm.

They are commitments.

And interestingly, because I’m writing about them publicly here, they also involve accountability within a kind of community space.

But my longer-term goal is to live a more authentic life, and I see both of these commitments as foundational to that end. 

Setting Søren to the side for now, too, let me share a couple of things I have learned.

First, it feels really good and purposeful to be held accountable to produce one of these blog articles every day. It feels really good to get out in nature and walk every day. 

That is, they are aesthetically pleasing. That is interesting. Overlap between the realms. 

Second, they take an intense commitment to being consistent. That is, they require integrity. 

They are not haphazard fancies… flavor-of-the-week kinds of pursuits.

You can’t approach them with a:

“Look! A squirrel! Let’s chase it!”

kind of mindset.

For example, tomorrow I’ll be driving for roughly twelve hours.

So how do you still publish a blog article?

Simple. You write it ahead of time and publish it the next day. I’ve already done that a few times during this challenge.

Or you wake up early and write before hitting the road.

Done.

And how do you still average 15,000 steps while sitting behind a steering wheel all day?

That one is trickier.

But when the commitment is there, you find your friend preparation again.

The last two days I intentionally walked over 20,000 steps per day knowing a heavy driving day was coming.

Problem solved.

None of this may sound particularly profound on the surface, but I think there’s something deeper hiding underneath it.

Because ultimately, I think one of the best kinds of freedom FIRE can buy is the freedom to live your truth. 

To develop enough autonomy that your external world slowly begins matching your internal one.

That is how we get out on the Highway to YEAH…that is how we live authentic lives.