Happy October Everyone!! Is it your time for freedom?

What does free­dom mean to you? What is free­dom and is there any such thing as “Real Free­dom”? I find it in­ter­est­ing how that word has changed through­out my life. For in­stance, at 16 years of age I re­ceived my dri­ving priv­i­leges. There was a sense of free­dom. It al­lowed me ac­cess to places I had not yet dis­cov­ered. One of my fa­vorite things to do back then was to pur­posely get lost. I would drive and turn and turn and drive (prefer­ably on dirt roads) un­til had no idea where I was. It al­ways felt like I was some kind of kin­dred spirit!

I’ve gone through stages where hav­ing ma­te­r­ial things felt like free­dom and I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced where re­duc­ing my ma­te­r­ial pos­ses­sions brought me free­dom. In my ca­reer, I’ve worked out of of­fices in com­mer­cial build­ings, I’ve worked re­motely from a home of­fice and I’ve worked solely on the road, trav­el­ing, while build­ing ter­ri­to­ries. Each of these in­stances has brought the feel­ing of free­dom and each has brought the feel of be­ing con­stricted or con­tain­ment. Re­cently I’ve moved full time to my awe­some cabin home in the moun­tains of South Car­olina and it fills my soul.

On most days!

There are days I sit on the roof cov­ered porch in the morn­ing on a com­fort­able rock­ing chair with a fresh cup of dark roast cof­fee and I’m in heaven. I mean every sound, smell, view, taste and feel­ing is per­fect! So com­pletely per­fect. And there are morn­ings when I sit in on that same roof cov­ered porch in the same rock­ing chair with that same cup of dark roast cof­fee (some­times even the same mug) and I feel lack­ing, lonely and dis­con­nected from my sur­round­ings.

Now please keep in mind, noth­ing has changed be­tween these two pic­tures, other than my mind­set. Which brings me to a point that ul­ti­mately, I’ve dis­cov­ered for my­self that free­dom has to be a state of be­ing and not re­lated to what one has, does, ac­cu­mu­lates or does­n’t ac­cu­mu­late.

So, all these words for the sole pur­pose to il­lus­trate the fol­low­ing. Every one of us, as long as we are breath­ing, has the ca­pac­ity to ex­pe­ri­ence free­dom. And every one of us has the po­ten­tial to feel stuck, trapped and con­strained. Here’s the kicker. Chang­ing your con­di­tions, sit­u­a­tion or cir­cum­stances first, as a re­ac­tion to feel­ing a lack of free­dom, will only bring you more of­ten same with re­gards to lack of free­dom in your life and your ex­pe­ri­ences within your life. The real trick, my friend, is to place fo­cus on your thoughts. It’s your think­ing that cre­ates your pre­sent sit­u­a­tion and cir­cum­stances. Yet, most peo­ple don’t think so. Most peo­ple see their causes as out­side in­flu­ences. A kinder way of say­ing, they are vic­tim of cir­cum­stances. That is sim­ply not so! This is good news! If we are not vic­tims, then we have choices. And if we have choices, then the world is ripe for the pick­in’! This al­lows each and every one of us to ex­pe­ri­ence life as we would love to

 A great thought to ponder!!

 If you agree with me and experience owning your destiny, please send me a comment. I can assist in spreading how potential filled life can be. And if you disagree with me, send me a comment. Let’s spark a conversation!!

Bless­ings,

Joseph