This post is part of "An A to Z for Success". See the side panel on the right for an index.
This is my favourite "F" word of all! But to have meaning, the word FREEDOM needs to be linked to some other word. We can do this in two ways. We can have either FREEDOM FROM something happening to us, or FREEDOM TO make something happen.
For example, we can have freedom from poverty, or we can have freedom to live generously. On the surface, those two examples might appear to be different ways of saying the same thing. But which would you prefer: to be free from poverty, or to be free to live generously?
Doesn't the second option sound far more exciting and fulfilling?
The difference is that FREEDOM FROM usually relates to conditions that we regard as external and beyond our control. When we desire FREEDOM FROM something, it's as if we see ourselves as victims of that thing. Our energy is consumed in a constant battle with it.
Such freedom is certainly a good thing to win, but it seems somehow incomplete. And the thing we fought so hard against never seems far away, always probing our defences for a way back in.
Ironically, in desiring any FREEDOM FROM, we are focussing on the very thing we do not want, inadvertently attracting more of it by keeping it constantly in mind.
On the other hand, when we pursue FREEDOM TO do something, we enter an entirely new and much more exciting game. For one thing, it shifts our focus entirely onto the thing that we do want, and automatically takes care of the thing we do not want.
A desire for a FREEDOM TO draws something out from within us. It gives expression to the life within us. It is far more fulfilling because it is creative rather than reactive. Notice how those two very different words are almost identical, save from the position of the letter "c". Likewise, a small shift in our focus can make a huge difference, when we develop a FREEDOM FROM into a FREEDOM TO.
So, please, revisit your wish list that you wrote down when we looked at letter "A". Somewhere in each wish, there is an aspect of FREEDOM. Have you expressed it as a FREEDOM FROM or a FREEDOM TO?
Perhaps you had FREEDOM FROM being overweight. How about making that FREEDOM TO do cartwheels? That sounds like more FUN (another important "F" word).
Whatever you desire, play around with the idea until it becomes more and more a desire for FREEDOM TO rather than FREEDOM FROM. Not only will the WHAT of your desire become much clearer to you, your WHY will also be fired up with more of the ENTHUSIASTIC ENJOYMENT that we spoke of in the previous post.
The next post in this "A to Z" series will reveal a practical way to create FREEDOM. (It may surprise you.)
This post is part of "An A to Z for Success". See the side panel on the right for an index.
Have FUN!
This is my favourite "F" word of all! But to have meaning, the word FREEDOM needs to be linked to some other word. We can do this in two ways. We can have either FREEDOM FROM something happening to us, or FREEDOM TO make something happen.
For example, we can have freedom from poverty, or we can have freedom to live generously. On the surface, those two examples might appear to be different ways of saying the same thing. But which would you prefer: to be free from poverty, or to be free to live generously?
Doesn't the second option sound far more exciting and fulfilling?
The difference is that FREEDOM FROM usually relates to conditions that we regard as external and beyond our control. When we desire FREEDOM FROM something, it's as if we see ourselves as victims of that thing. Our energy is consumed in a constant battle with it.
Such freedom is certainly a good thing to win, but it seems somehow incomplete. And the thing we fought so hard against never seems far away, always probing our defences for a way back in.
Ironically, in desiring any FREEDOM FROM, we are focussing on the very thing we do not want, inadvertently attracting more of it by keeping it constantly in mind.
On the other hand, when we pursue FREEDOM TO do something, we enter an entirely new and much more exciting game. For one thing, it shifts our focus entirely onto the thing that we do want, and automatically takes care of the thing we do not want.
A desire for a FREEDOM TO draws something out from within us. It gives expression to the life within us. It is far more fulfilling because it is creative rather than reactive. Notice how those two very different words are almost identical, save from the position of the letter "c". Likewise, a small shift in our focus can make a huge difference, when we develop a FREEDOM FROM into a FREEDOM TO.
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So, please, revisit your wish list that you wrote down when we looked at letter "A". Somewhere in each wish, there is an aspect of FREEDOM. Have you expressed it as a FREEDOM FROM or a FREEDOM TO?
Perhaps you had FREEDOM FROM being overweight. How about making that FREEDOM TO do cartwheels? That sounds like more FUN (another important "F" word).
Whatever you desire, play around with the idea until it becomes more and more a desire for FREEDOM TO rather than FREEDOM FROM. Not only will the WHAT of your desire become much clearer to you, your WHY will also be fired up with more of the ENTHUSIASTIC ENJOYMENT that we spoke of in the previous post.
The next post in this "A to Z" series will reveal a practical way to create FREEDOM. (It may surprise you.)
This post is part of "An A to Z for Success". See the side panel on the right for an index.
Have FUN!