Who has not dreamt of a luxurious life?
When we define luxury, it is usually pretty materialistic. Fancy cars, big homes, foreign travel MUST feel commonplace for us to experience luxury.
Right?
But what if I told you that there is more to luxury?
Don’t get me wrong. Someone complaining in spite of experiencing luxury is either being disingenuous or is ignorant. In a capitalistic society, providing a better standard of living for our families and ourselves is the ultimate goal. That equates to sharing and experiencing luxury.
However, what luxury appears on surface versus what it is to truly experience it are different.
“People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.”
— Naval Ravikant
There is a layer between our perceptions of luxury & reality, which when taken off unmasks luxury’s true face.
The real luxury is freedom.
Let me explain.
We admire the people who are living luxurious lifestyles because they can buy whatever they want, do whatever they want and go where ever they want.
Most us spend most of our lives compromising.
“I will buy X when I have saved enough.”
“I will travel to Y when I receive my bonus at work”
When we compare our lifestyles to people who enjoy extravagant experiences, seemingly at will, we develop this yearning for experiencing it.
This isn’t news to anyone. Every modern day “lifestyle” influencer has been saying so ever since short form video content has taken over our attention spans. Granted, most of them are trying to sell their courses on “how to design your dream life” to as many of us as possible, but they are right to some extent.
What’s great about capitalism, though, is that even someone’s dream can be an opportunity for folks to cash in on.
Anyway, I will tell you how I have come to realise that we yearn freedom more than riches. But for that, I am going to need to take you down memory lane.
I have always been a home body. I completed both my school and my bachelor’s degree living at my home. My first employment opportunity, however, was in a different state, and hence I had no option but to relocate.
So here I was, sitting in a cab with my father, who woke up at 4 AM to take me to the airport. Both of us were sitting on the back seat, with a silence, denser than the fog outside. I had a pensive expression, and my father could tell that I was in a huge inner struggle. I hated the fact that I had to leave home.
“So I actually have to go away from my family, just for the sake of a job? Why can’t my parents and I look for an opportunity closer to home? I don’t even have the freedom to live with my own family?”
My father knows me better than most and almost magically responded to my thoughts saying “It’s okay, you can come back regularly, but this is an important step in your career, and your life”
It wasn’t anyone’s fault. To the common man, it would be a happy occasion that they were going to join the workforce right after college. But my ignorant self did not pay enough attention to the good that was all around me at that time.
I grew up, and realised that this is a reality I will have to live with till the time I take definitive action to actually get a job closer to my home. But the thought of not having freedom, for me at least, has since been a much bigger motivator than anything else.
More than anything else, We desire the freedom of being able to take our own decisions.
Since then, I try to exercise my freedom as much as possible. I am not going to sit here and sell you a course on how you can exercise freedom, because everyone has their own version of it. However, through preparation and intentionality, freedom becomes much more achievable.
I am not an expert, just someone who is on a journey to find his freedom, and wishing you find yours.
Facets of Life 
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