10/03/25 — Wearing Freedom Like Comfortable Clothing (Journal Entry Dissection: #Seat #Restless #Maturity)

Kurt Bell
Oct 3
2 min read

About These Posts

Each day I add a new journal entry to my social media feeds. Here, I take that day’s entry and expand it through the lens of my Good Life Creed, which you can read about in my book Going Alone (available for free on this website). These dissections aim to connect ordinary reflections with the enduring objectives and principles of the Creed.

Journal Entry (10/03/25)

I’m beginning to wear my freedom like a comfortable piece of clothing chosen for no other reason than it simply feels good. Yesterday at the park, enjoying the cooler air, I sat a while before my daily office hour on Discord began. From my bench, I could watch the trains pass in steady rhythm, while a team of arborists trimmed tall trees and students from the nearby university hurried past alongside office workers on their way to somewhere urgent.

Such haste used to be catching—but not anymore. I felt instead like a man on the other side of the glass at a museum exhibit, observing what was once my own life as though it belonged to another time. Work, schedules, constant motion…all now distant, like uncomfortable clothing I once wore but will never put on again.

Dissection

This reflection captures the moment when the urgency of the working world no longer dictates one’s pace or perspective. The shift into retirement is described not as an absence of duty, but as a better-fitting way of being — like changing into clothes chosen for comfort rather than necessity.

The Creed resonates here in three particular ways:

#Seat (The Best Seat in the House): Contentment in the here and now, resting in the life that fits rather than straining after another.
#Restless (The Restless Man): The once-constant pull of ambition and motion has eased. No longer does the compulsion to “move on” dictate choices.
#Maturity (The Principle of Maturity): This detachment from haste reflects wisdom and integrity — the ability to watch the rushing current of life without being swept along.

Takeaway

Freedom is not just the absence of work, but the discovery of a life that fits. Retirement offers the chance to shed what no longer serves and to live in rhythms aligned with maturity and peace. The question for all of us is: What clothing am I wearing today — and does it fit the life I mean to live?