Few things feel as American as a packed stadium singing about the land of the free—marching bands blaring, flags waving, the easy confidence of a people who believe in their liberty.
Which makes the scenes on city streets all the more shocking: groups shouting about oppression, injustice, and human rights violations in a country that is, by every historical and global measure, among the freest in the world.
Freedom still exists in this country—but we’ve forgotten to teach the principles that make it work: hard work, discipline, and purpose.
British politician Edmund Burke warned liberty must exist “with order and virtue,” and without them “cannot exist at all.” That insight still applies today
Hard Work and Discipline
Freedom means having agency. But agency only matters when you have the discipline to control your emotions and impulses and make wise, productive choices. Hard work is the training ground for that kind of self-control.
According to Science Insights, self-discipline is one of the strongest indicators of success in nearly every domain of life, including finances, career performance, physical health, and longevity. They write, “What makes it so powerful isn’t just willpower in the moment. It’s the ability to maintain patterns of behavior that align with long-term goals, even when short-term temptations pull you in the other direction.”
Now, as you foster these traits of work and discipline, the meaning of freedom begins to shift. You experience more freedom when you have a stronger career, greater financial stability, and fewer limitations from poor health.
In other words: The more disciplined you are, the more freedom you actually have.
As religious leader Boyd K. Packer taught, “the key to freedom is obedience”—not to external authority, but to the principles that keep a person grounded, disciplined, and capable of self-government.
Purpose
Purpose makes us work hard, and hard work gives us a purpose. Purpose creates order.
Think of it this way: With unlimited freedom and zero purpose, your life will drift toward disaster.
Take the familiar example of an 18-year-old who has lived under curfews, chores, school schedules, and rules their whole life. The moment they leave home, they chase “freedom” with no direction—no plan, no structure, no purpose, and no reason to say no to temptation.
Within weeks, they’re skipping work, losing stability, slipping into addictions or destructive habits, and being controlled by the very impulses they once mistook for independence.
What they believed was the pursuit of freedom becomes the loss of it. Because freedom without purpose quickly collapses into chaos.
Now What
Be free. Not in the shallow sense of doing whatever feels good in the moment, but in the deeper way freedom was meant to be lived: through hard work, self-restraint, and purpose.
Too many people today chase the feeling of freedom by shouting about oppression or searching for something external to blame. But noise isn’t freedom. Outrage isn’t purpose.
Get a job. Build a family. Commit to something. Work hard at it. In doing so, you create a life that is stable, meaningful, joyful—and genuinely free.