3 Ways to Choose Freedom

We discuss three areas of life where you can choose to be free on this week’s BIGG Success podcast. Click the player to listen. Find the show notes below.

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We’re celebrating Independence Day this weekend here in the United States. So it’s got us thinking about freedom. We feel very fortunate to live in a country where freedom is somewhat taken for granted. We can speak freely, worship freely, vote freely and a whole host of other things.

But freedom can also be a personal choice in some areas of our lives. Let’s go to The Professor’s Whiteboard for 3 ways to choose freedom.

1. You can choose to be free from financial worries

Stuff happens that’s beyond your control. However – for most people most of the time – financial freedom is a matter of choice.We can choose to spend less than what we make. Want to spend more? Make more. Otherwise, be thankful.

When we have a sense of gratefulness, we feel liberated. But it’s the hard path; it’s a lot easier to think about what we don’t have. We’re blasted with advertising that makes us think we need more. We see our neighbor getting a new car, a new home or a new plasma TV. And we want it, too.

But BIGG success is life on your own terms. It doesn’t matter what your neighbor does … or what Madison Avenue tells you that you should have.

What matters is anything and everything that gets you to that life of your dreams. And as long as you’ve done everything you can possibly do today to get you there, you can feel good about yourself.

You can have peace of mind. You can be free from financial worry!

2. You can choose to be free from boredom

We met an incredibly brilliant man from Taiwan not long ago. He and his wife were here working at our University for a semester. They talked about how thrilling the snow was! We often don’t look at it that way. They also were thrilled at watching the change of seasons. We can choose to be fascinated by our wonderful world.

A lot of people say they’re bored at work. I’ve always used the 7-year rule. The nature of my work needed to change significantly within 7 years or it was time to move on. I’ve only broken that rule once and I was bored.

3. You can choose to be free from regrets

There are two types of regrets – action regrets and inaction regrets.

Action regrets stem from going against your values. When you look in the mirror in the morning, you’ll like the person you see as long as you live your values.

Inaction regrets are those things you wished you would have done. Research shows these are the biggest regrets for most people (PDF).

It may be that, looking back, you wished your priorities were different. It may mean taking a chance – going for that dream career, turning that idea into a business.