Write Your Own Story: The Art of Living Freely

I’m sitting on a balcony in Italy, the hazy outline of Mount Vesuvius in the distance. Birds chirping, sun on my skin, a breeze moving through lemon trees. It’s the kind of moment that makes you pause and wonder: what if this is how life is supposed to feel?

The Default Life Script

Most people don’t write their own story. Not because they’re lazy or lack ambition, but because they’ve been taught not to.

From an early age, we are rewarded for fitting in, following rules, and meeting expectations. By the time we’re old enough to ask what we really want, we’re already following societies script. Which goes something like this:

• Go to school

• Then university

• Get a “good” job

• Work hard

• Buy a house

• Save for retirement

• Take a yearly holiday to stay sane

Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to enjoy life at the end.

We’re taught to treat freedom like a distant reward, not a way of life. So people live for weekends, countdown to holidays, and hope one day it’ll all be worth it.

The Power of Choosing Your Own Adventure

At some point, you realise: you can either keep living the story you were handed —
or you can write your own.

For me, that realisation came years ago when I walked away from the conventional path and chose something different.

I became a professional poker player, built a life in Bali, created a business on my own terms, and redefined what success looked like for me.

But even then, the old conditioned patterns crept in. I still worked six days a week. I still felt guilty taking time off. I was still trying to earn my right to enjoy life in the future when I had “figured everything out”.

This trip to Italy has been different. For the first time in years, I gave myself permission to step back. Not because I’d earned it. Not because I hit some milestone. But because I wanted to enjoy my life, now.

It sounds strange, doesn’t it? To say I had to “give myself permission” to take time off. But that’s exactly what it felt like.

So much of my life has been spent chasing the future. Trying to become better or to reach a version of myself where everything is figured out. Then, I told myself, I’d finally allow myself to slow down. I’d be able to kick back and enjoy the good life.

Yet that version never arrives. The future is a moving target and the belief that you have to “earn” your joy is just another part of the script.

What I’m realising is this: You don’t need permission from the world to live your life.

You just need to stop waiting and give it to yourself.

The Fear That Holds Us Back

Choosing your own path sounds empowering. But it’s also terrifying. Once you step off the script, there are no guarantees. No one claps for you when you slow down, no one hands you a gold star for choosing enjoyment over productivity.

Instead, you face fear.

• Fear of falling behind.

• Fear of being judged.

• Fear that if you stop pushing, everything will fall apart.

For me, even just taking time off brought up guilt. A quiet voice whispering, you’re being lazy. You should be doing more. You’re wasting potential.

That voice used to drive me. But now I’m starting to see it for what it is — just another layer of conditioning. We live in a world that glorifies hustle and achievement. Where rest is seen as weakness, and productivity is mistaken for worth.

But what if freedom doesn’t come from doing more?

What if it comes from having the courage to pause, and do what ever the hell you want with your life?

What Writing Your Story Really Means

Writing your own story isn’t about escaping responsibility. It’s not about quitting everything or living in a fantasy.

It’s about making conscious choices and saying yes to what matters.

It’s about remembering you don’t have to wait for some future version of life to enjoy the one you’re living now.

That’s what this trip to Italy has reminded me of. Wandering the steep streets of Positano, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Eating metre-long pizzas from the first restaurant that ever served them. Barely working out and not working at all.

And for the first time, not feeling guilty about it.

Just allowing myself to live in the moment, savour the food, laugh with my partner, watch the sun melt into the sea without needing to capture the moment.

I’ve realised I’ve spent so much of my life living for what’s next. That I needed to deserve rest. That life would begin when I became some perfected version of myself that had everything figured out.

But here’s the truth that I’m really starting to internalise: You don’t need to do anything.

You get to choose your own adventure.

You get to write your own rules.

You get to stop waiting for permission, for perfection, for the right time.

And most of all, you get to live your life now, not later.

An Invitation

You only get one shot at this life. And no one else can live it for you.

You can follow the script, do what’s expected, tick the boxes and wait for joy to come some time in the future.

Or you can write something different. You don’t need to quit your job or move to Italy. But you do need to ask better questions.

What do I actually want?

What makes me feel alive?

And what would it look like to stop waiting and start living that now?

You’re not here to earn your freedom.

You’re here to live it.

So here’s your permission — not from me, not from the world, but from yourself:

Write your own story.

Choose your own adventure.

Live it now.

Adam