Am I Already Free?

I was sitting with a feeling and a question this morning — a quiet feeling and creeping question that showed up because I had finally stopped sprinting through the 2026 Maryland legislative session long enough to breathe. More on the legislative session later…

But the feeling was sitting with was what I would describe as a desire for freedom. But the question I actually asked myself was “Do I already have it? Am I already free?”

Not the bumper sticker militarized version of freedom. #FreedomIsn’t Free

Not the Horacio Alger pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps version. #CapitalistMyths
I mean REAL freedom. The kind that lives in my body… or rather, is embodied and doesn’t just live in my head.

And I really had to sit with that and write this blog to process it out.

What Freedom Means to Me

I think freedom is about choices. Options. The absence of constraints. But when I got still enough to really ask myself what I was actually chasing, another answer came through.

Freedom for me is never worrying about money.

Not "being rich" in the abstract, aspirational, vision-board sense. I mean: knowing that what I need for myself and my family is available, and that nothing is stopping me from getting it. Being able to pick up the phone when a family member is struggling and say yes without doing the math first. Being able to invest in my daughter Goldie's future — her education, her experiences, her sense of what's possible — without that quiet scarcity voice whispering in my ear.

That’s not necessarily a personal finance goal but more of a mental liberation goal.

And you know what? Financial stress is one of the most corrosive forces on the mind, body, and soul there is. Financial worry doesn't just affect your bank account — it f*cks up your nervous system. It shapes your decisions before you even consciously make them. It makes you say yes to things that drain you and no to things that feed you, over and over, until one day you look up and realize you've been running someone else's race. Womp Womp!

The women I work with — brilliant, exhausted, BIPOC women leading organizations that are changing the world — know this feeling intimately. They are some of the most accomplished people in any room they walk into. And yet, the financial pressure sits there in the back of their, constant and low-grade, distorting everything.

That's the cage I'm talking about getting the f*ck out of.

But I look honestly at my life, I realize I actually have more freedom than most people ever build.

I recently made a decision to leave a contract that was draining my soul — not because I have a backup plan fully in place, but because my integrity won’t let me stay. I'm building something entirely mine. I make decisions rooted in my values — racial justice, beauty, sustainability, my family — not just what pays or what's safe.

That’s not nothing. I think that’s rare. The people I look up to the most would make a decision like that, but a lot of people - myself included in the past - would keep that soul-sucking contract out of fear.

And I STILL feel fear just not in the same way I used to.

There's a quiet voice in the back of my head that still doubts me. But It's not loud the way it used to be — it doesn't run things, doesn't get a vote. But it's there. It remembers every time the money was tight or nonexistent. Every time I looked at my daughter and felt the full weight of being the person responsible for her foundation.

For a long time I thought that voice meant something was wrong with me. Like real freedom would feel like certainty. Like confidence. Like never flinching.

But that's not freedom. That's delusion, ok?!

The people who say you they have no fear either aren't paying attention or they don't have enough skin in the game to feel anything. Remember those “No Fear” brand from back in the 90s? What a crock of shit. When you have everything on the line — your family, your vision, your daughter's future — of course there's a voice of fear and doubt.

But having fear and doubt isn’t a weakness in us. These days I am working on reframing my fear and thinking of it more like deep love with high stakes attached.

So real freedom isn't #NoFear. It's knowing AND believing at the same time that what you're building is coming - that your purpose is manifesting and you’re trusting the process. The knowing lives in your mind. The believing lives in your body. When both are true simultaneously, the fear doesn't disappear – it just gets smaller. It rides in the back seat instead of riding shotgun or worse, taking the wheel.

What I'm building isn't separate from the freedom I'm desiring. It is my freedom in motion. Every client I sign. Every coaching session where something cracks open. Every boundary I hold around my energy and my value. Every module I build for women who are tired in the same ways I've been tired.

I'm not “building a business.” so to say. I'm building the financial foundation that will mean my child doesn’t inherit the same poverty and scarcity mentality that I once had, as did my mother. That my beautiful, big family always knows they have somewhere to turn when things get hard. That the next generation inherits a different relationship with money, power, and possibility.

That's my legacy vision. And it is absolutely what gets me up every morning.

So… Are You Free?

Where in your life do you feel most free right now? And what would it take for that feeling to be the baseline — not the reward you get after you've suffered enough?

Because if you identify as a Black woman or woman of color who has spent years pouring herself into a mission, leading through burnout, and still showing up every single day — I promise you, you are not far from it. You're in the hard middle of your freedom journey.

And that is exactly what we focus on and take action towards together in Superhuman Leadership.

We don't just talk about freedom. We build your mindset, your strategy, and your energetic foundation to make freedom real — in your body, your leadership, and your life.

Book a discovery call at nikkimg.com. Let's talk.

#SuperhumanLeadership #ThePowerExpert #FreedomIsALegacyGoal #BIPOCLeaders #WomenOfColorInLeadership #BlackWomenLeaders #ExecutiveCoaching #MovementLeaders #BurnoutRecovery #NikkiMG