How the Fourth of July Can Inspire Your Personal Independence

I have been sharing a lot of Joseph Bernard’s life and career success advice here lately.  That’s because Joseph is a great thinker – someone who provides us with great common sense ideas on how to live our lives successfully.

On the Fourth of July, Joseph sent an email entitled “How the Fourth of July Can Inspire Your Personal Independence.”  I really like what he has to say here.  Check it out…

Today is a day to celebrate freedom. Do you feel free? Is freedom an important value for you? Are you willing to do what it takes to be free?

Freedom is possible if you want it. The following four freedoms can transform your life. Each freedom has the power to forever shift your experience of everything you do.

The Four Freedoms for Personal Independence include:

1. Freedom from self-judging and self-criticism

2. Freedom from ego domination

3. Freedom from fear

4. Freedom from self-imposed limits

Take time to consider:

What holds you back?

What keeps you from creating the life you want?

What keeps you from being appreciative of who you are?

What limits you from having the love, joy and/or peace you want?

If you take full responsibility for your life, you understand that you are the director/creator of your experience of living. You also understand if things are not going like you want, you are the one that is getting in the way. With this knowing you see that inner changes are what matter most in creating the life you want.

Awareness Helps You Move Toward Freedom

First – The realization that blocking your own freedom doesn’t feel very good and this causes you to suffer needlessly. You can stop this. Does that interest you?

Second – Barriers created by you are often ingrained. Since you are the creator of your life today you can make any adjustments you want. Even the experiences of early childhood are malleable in the now. Awareness is the key to healthier choices. Are you willing to be more aware?

Third – With focus and follow-through there is so much you can do to empower your life. Taking charge instead of being habit-driven shifts you away from old ways and opens you to fresh perspectives and possibilities. Does fresh and empowered sound good?

Fourth – You shift, shape and supervise your own life and that means you are in charge. Today you start new. Your past is only here if you bring it with you. It is time to let it go. If you want certain experiences, you shape your life to make it happen and follow you higher knowing to get there. Are you ready to be free?

Set Yourself Free

Steps to take:

1. Freedom from self-judging and self-criticism – The voice of the inner critic was born in you from those who helped shape your view of the world. Since then your ever-judging mind has feed that voice. Notice when this voice is present. Turn the volume down. Off is even better.

If your inner words lack support and compassion, realize your thoughts are not true. Your self-dialogue can be reprogrammed to always be kind and encouraging. Today begin dropping all criticism and negative judging of yourself and others.

2. Freedom from ego domination – You have an ego just like everyone else but what you do with that ego greatly shapes your life. The ego is about self-protection and it thrives in an atmosphere of fear. The ego always wants more power and control.

The antidote to ego is your higher nature/mind, your heart and your soul. When the voice of your soul guides you, when your heart shows you the way, you rise above fear and the need for control. Feel your heart. Let your intuitive knowing guide you. Follow the part of you that is infinite and all knowing. Today notice when your ego is at the helm and replace it with the voice of your soul.

3. Freedom from fear – Fear is a driving force and the fuel for the ego-mind. But fear in reality is just a reaction to your thoughts. Fear is nothing more than an emotion generated by what you are thinking. Thoughts of concern about the past or worry about the future all cause fear.

Change your thinking and be free of fear. If the mind is in the now, fear disappears. When you feel fear shift your focus to something you appreciate in the moment. Today as much as possible keep your mind focused on being fully present, in appreciation and enjoying all of what life has to offer.

4. Freedom from self-imposed limits – There is really nothing holding you back but you. That means you have the power to totally set yourself free. There is however a lifetime of conditioning that gets in the way. You can change that and be free.

When you feel your body tighten or you feel resistance or other contractions going on, breathe into your body. Feel and become aware of what self-limits are present. Most limits have been learned and can be almost instantly changed with new insights. Breathe into the moment, release the old limits and let what you want, flow into your life. Today release the past and with each breath enjoy the freedom of being fully you.

Freedom is such a wonderful way to be in the world that it will make you want to dance and celebrate each day.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple As Joseph Bernard points out, you need to set yourself free to create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Specifically you need to be free from self-judging and self-criticism, ego domination, fear and self-imposed limits.  Following Joseph’s advice on each of these four is a great place to start.  As the Eagles said, “we live our lives in chains and never even know we have the key” – or something like that.  In his wise words, Joseph has provided you with the key to setting yourself free and getting on the road to the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s the career advice I found in Joseph Bernard’s thoughts on how to set yourself free.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.