Freedom and Choice

Over the past several years I have been on a heightened journey of discovery. During this time I have studied a large variety of teachers, questioned myself, reevaluated many ideas I once held as true and found that I have come out in all shades of gray with very little black and white anymore. I have examined my list of personal rules and beliefs and held some dear but have been happy to let most of them go after finding many were not serving me well, holding me back or frankly, just silly.

What I have learned is everything I could ever learn will always be vastly less then there is to know.

That is both comforting and powerful; there will always be new information, new perspectives and opinions. That also means there are multiple solutions, choices and possibilities.

I have learned that everything is multifaceted. All situations, circumstances and people are complex and richly layered with nearly endless ways to be perceived, approached, handled and appreciated.

It is the the freedom of the power of choice I suppose: To choose ones own way, ones own rules in life as well as the attitude given to it.

As Frankl says this is our last freedom, one that cannot be taken from us.

Knowing that one thing changes everything.

Having the power to choose and the knowledge that there are endless good choices, confident that if you make a seemingly not so good choice, in the end one way or another, it all serves to get us where we are to go and to become who we are to be.

I think this is an amazing gift of freedom and I am enjoying it.

There are of course many times we do not see the options but if you look hard enough they are there; if not in the circumstance then in our response to it and how we allow it to impact and define us. Sometimes this may only become clear with much thought or in hindsight but it is there. Oftentimes we need the help of a friend or coach to shift through it. But we can start by asking ourselves questions.

• What beliefs do you hold about the world or about yourself that may hold you back from doing or being what you would really like to be or do?


• What rules of conduct do you keep for yourself and do they serve to make your life better or worse? More free or limited?


• Are the rules and beliefs you have yours? Where did they come from? Are they true and valuable to you?


• What circumstances in your life might be completely different if you chose to look at it from a slightly different or even opposite but valid perspective?


• How could a shift in attitude about how you approach a situation, your day , relationship or career impact your life and that of those around you?

Sometimes you barely have to change anything to change everything....a few shifts in thinking can open up a whole new world.




"The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. "

Viktor E. Frankl