Here’s another claim that I would like to make. I claim that most of the people on this planet are not really free.
Of course, there are countries where freedom is basically not available to the citizens of the country, but what I’m really talking about here is personal freedom. By that I don’t mean people in jails or being free to walk the streets of town or whatever.
What Is Personal Freedom
What I mean by personal freedom is, for one, that you are not imprisoned by your own habits, your own limiting beliefs and by your own thoughts. To me, personal freedom means that you are free to choose different ways of behaving, feeling, and thinking.
Most of us are really so set in our ways that we repeat the same things, same thoughts, same feelings, same patterns, same behaviors from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year. That is not the personal freedom that I am referring to and that does not enable us to grow.
Freedom of Growth and Thought
Growth to me, requires the freedom to think differently, to feel differently, and to act and behave differently.
In addition, to me, freedom is also about being able to decide what to do, where to go, what to buy and so on.
So, there are a lot of different aspects of personal freedom. However, it all comes down to the freedom of thought and the freedom to choose your own thoughts and your emotional states.
Words of Wisdom
In my book, Words of Wisdom, chapter 14, is about freedom. And like all the chapters in the book, also this one has several quotes from wise people.
Here, I would like to share a very famous quote. You can find this quote pretty much everywhere. But it is such an important quote that I would also like to share it here.
This is from Viktor E. Frankl:
Viktor Frankl really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to personal freedom. He survived natzi concentration camps in the Second World War and he wrote the book Man’s Search for Meaning which I highly recommend you to read.
It is a really impressive story about his physical and mental survival. On those conditions he realized that he still at any time has the freedom to choose his attitude, the way he thinks and how he perceives the surrounding world.
I also highly recommend that you pay attention to your thoughts. Because there lies your true freedom.
