We've heard a lot about Personal Power or Personal Mastery, but what about Personal Freedom? Is it possible to have the aforementioned two without it? The simple answer is, no. To obtain Personal Power or Mastery, you must be free to do so. The call for individual freedom as the great human drive has been expressed by revolutionists, humanitarians, philosophers and spiritual leaders for centuries.

All things that make life worthwhile, the pursuit of happiness, challenge, progress, creative expression, wisdom, contribution and enlightenment, are derived from our wanting to ascend to higher levels of being and giving. Why does this freedom pull so hard at our hearts? Because freedom is tightly bound to the human desire for ascension - our natural drive to rise from our circumstances and actualize our goals and our potential.

Every person is naturally inclined to ascend to higher planes of existence, but it rests on each of us to match this inclination with initiative. Freedom requires the responsibility to choose who we are above and beyond our immediate needs and impulses, so that we can genuinely express the type of person we want to be, live the life we want to live and leave the legacy we desire.

Personal Freedom, then, is about being free to live, to truly enjoy and expand in life. It is not merely freedom from bad things that limit us, but freedom to experience good things that awaken us. Thus, to obtain Personal Power or Personal Mastery, Personal Freedom must come first.

Thoughts?

P.S.  Take what resonates and leave the rest.

P.P.S.  Remember...You're the one!"

Sounds like I'm talking about a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game. Not! Well, at least not for the Leafs side anyway. It's OK though, there's a new coach in town. Oh, how I digress. This blog is not about hockey, it's about goal setting. You must set goals to be success. You need to set goals to get anywhere in life.

Have you ever given up on a dream? I have. I always dreamed of being a pilot. As a vocation, not a hobby. I gave up on my dream when life happened. Marriage, children, bills. Did I mention bills? Yes life happened and I lost sight of my dream. That doesn't mean that I can't still get my privet pilot's licence, but I probably wouldn't do it as a vocation. I have other things I am dreaming of now. Still, at the time I gave up on that dream, I could have made a few last minute life changing course corrections and made it happen. It was within my grasp. Point is, we never really know how close we are to seeing our dreams realized when we give up. What if they are just around the corner when we quit. We never know do we.

Enter the GPS principle. Lets say you met a nice young lady or gentleman and they gave you their phone number. After a couple of days you give them a call and chat. You both decide it would be great to see each other again and they give you their address, at which time you realize it's a three hour drive from your place and you've never been to that town before. No problem, you've got your GPS to guide you. The big day arrives and it's time to start your journey. You're all packed, sitting in your car and you've got the address entered in your trusty GPS. You press GO and the GPS magically calculates your route. Step by step, each turn carefully mapped out to get to your destination. OK, all mapped out, but nothing is happening. You're not moving at all. You go over all your check lists and  plans in your mind, but still nothing. Finally you have a brain storm and figure out that you have to do something to make this happen. That's right, you must take action. You finally slip your car into gear and you're off! 

This is exactly what happens when we have a dream. In order for dreams to come true we must take action. One place your ship of dreams will never find you is on the couch! It doesn't matter how hard you think about it, thank about it, or visualize it, it's not going to happen until you take action of some sort. To put your car in gear so to speak.

OK, so back to our journey. You have left your place and have made good progress. You made turns when you needed to and once you even went the wrong way and your GPS re-calculated your route and found you an alternate path. Although you were worried about where you were headed, you happily found yourself back on the right path. It's been about 2.5 hours so you must be getting close. You put on some good music and your mind begins to drift. You slowly start to lose sight of where you are headed. You see a sign for a free outdoor concert. The very band you are listening too! You take the next turn as the sign said, and head that way. Wait a minute, what about my appointment? "Oh, I'll just check this out" you say to yourself. Your GPS starts to to talk to you and tells you it's re-calculating your route. "In 500 meters, turn left!" Says the female robotic voice. You ignore it because you have to see this band!  A fleeting thought about the person you met and then you here yourself say, "Probably wouldn't have worked out anyway." 

If you would have checked your watch, you would have seen you were less than 2 minutes from your destination. Just a few more turns and you would have been there. It happens frequently in our lives, doesn't it? We decide we are interested in something, make big plans, heck, even dream about it. We decide to go for it, and we start out with such vim and vigor, but then as time goes by and we change course many times to avoid problems, the dream loses a little luster. We start to settle in and get comfortable with where we are in life and just listen to the music for awhile. Soon we find something else to distract us and we start to think that maybe that dream is just too far off. I'll never get there. And then you justify it by saying to yourself, "Probably never would have happened anyway." But what you didn't realize is just how close you were to your destination. To realizing your dream. 

You see, none of us never know how close we are to our dreams. They could be just around the next corner. It's not like you would feel very different. That's the point. There are rarely any indications that we are about to realize our dreams. Life throws us all sorts of curve balls and we often need to change direction. It's never a straight line to your dreams. There's always a zig here and a zag there. Those course corrections are there for a reason. It's not just about getting to your destination or realizing your dream. It's about who you had to become to get there. 


P.S. Remember, "You're the one!"

Take what resonates and leave the rest.

We've all been exposed to affirmations, some times without even realizing it. But do they work? I mean, just because you tell yourself something over and over again doesn't mean it will actually happen does it? I, for one, believe that it does. I remember when I used to say things like, "With my luck..., I'm to old to..., I'm too fat..., I'm not smart enough..." All of these things are negative, and where they a big part of my life back then, did they more often than not come true? You bet they did. I'm sure there are many examples that you can think of in your own life too.

So if we are willing to believe that negative affirmations keep us stuck in a perpetuating rut, why do we find it so hard to believe positive affirmations won't work for us? Is it because it's to out there for us? We wouldn't fit in with our peers? Or maybe because cool people don't do that woo woo stuff. Well I'm here to tell ya that a lot of people that do woo woo stuff are pretty darn cool.

Anyway, why don't we give this a try shall we. Let's agree that we will say some positive affirmations to ourselves each day for seven (7) days. Preferably once in the morning when you wake up and once before bed. You can use the ones here or create your own if you like.

At the end of seven days you are to report back to me here on my blog and let me know how your experiment went. I'm going to do it to, just in case you're wondering. I'm willing to bet we will have some awesome news to share with each other. if your so inclined, feel free to share this with your friends to see how they make out. 

P.S. Take what resonates and leave the rest.

P.S.S Remember, "You're the one!"