I’ve been choosing freedom lately.  I want to continue to choose freedom.  For me, its the way to living my extraordinary life.  Free to be me.  Free to do what I feel is right.

Freedom is a beautiful thing.  In living a life that is free rather than constrained, the world is suddenly filled with so many possibilities.  And that’s the other side of freedom.  There are so many options, so many things to do, so many directions to go in, that I have found myself taking a little pause.  Should I go this way?  Should I go that way?  Is this the right thing, or is it that?

All these choices can be a little unnerving, and at times a little overwhelming.  If I didn’t know better, I might be tempted to go back to the easy route of having someone else narrow my decisions for me.  But there’s no turning back.  Now that I’ve had a taste of what freedom is like, and what life can be, how could I go back?  I’ve just got to make a decision and move forward.  And if it turns out that that wasn’t the best way to go, it’s ok.  I’m free to go a different way and try something new.  That’s one of the great things about freedom.  There really aren’t any limits.  Only the limits that you place on yourself.  Time for me to let go of my limits of uncertainty and indecisiveness and fully embrace the new path.

With anything new that you embark upon, there is often a period of adjustment and growing pains.  It’s natural as you begin to adjust to something that is different from what you have known for so long.  Don’t get discouraged.  Stick with it.  Put yourself out there and give yourself a chance to learn, fail, grow, and succeed.  And importantly, don’t limit yourself as you walk into something new, by hanging on to all your stuff thats old.

Don’t turn back.  Let go, be free, and move forward.

When was the last time you had that feeling?  Today as I was working on something, I recognized that I was enjoying myself.  When I realized how what I was doing made me feel, I made a point to take note of it.  I want to have that feeling on a more regular basis, so time to figure out how to best position myself so I can.

What do you need to do to position yourself to have that feeling of enjoyment more frequently?

When you are honest with yourself, and I mean really honest with yourself about what it is that you want and why you want it, the decisions that you need to make become clearer.  Be honest with yourself.  It is the only way to completely be true to yourself.  Love yourself enough to be honest with you (about everything).  Then you can set yourself on a path to some real extraordinary living.

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and found yourself completely overwhelmed by all the options on the menu?  The more choices they have, the harder it is to choose what you want?  This has happened to me many of times.  And when that happens, I find myself looking through the menu forever and a day trying to figure out what it is I will order.  And then finally, when I can’t put it off any longer I make a decision.  Because it seems that too much choice  can paralyze my ability to make a decision, I find that I tend to prefer dealing with things with simpler or fewer options to make it easier for me to make up my mind.

And so it goes with life.  For many of us, the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a choice.  So we much prefer to have fewer choices to make things a little easier on us.  It seems harmless enough.  Until living in a world in which choice is limited becomes a problem.

In everything, we have a choice.  For every action we take.  But because choosing which way to go can be hard, we often relinquish our right to choose to others to make it easier for us to make a decision.  So we rely on others to narrow our options down to a, b, or c.  We have allowed others to narrow our options in so many aspects of life:  how we educate our children, what we eat, the way our government should work, the way we should work, and the list goes on.  And this is fine until we allow others to narrow our options to the point that we forget that x, y, and z are even possible (let alone 1, 2, or 3).  If you let others choose your options long enough, you may only be able to see a, b, or c, to the point where even the though of x, y, or z sounds crazy.  But what happens when a, b, or c aren’t good enough?  What if a, b, or c don’t meet your needs?

Unfortunately, too many people live in a world of a, b, and c whether it meets their needs or not.  Often its because they can’t even fathom a world in which other options exist.  Other times its because they feel choosing (and sometimes even exploring) d, x, or 3 will just be too hard.  So they settle (sometimes becoming intolerant of other options in the process), and choose one of the choices that was put in front of them.  And so many lives are lived with limits.

Here’s the good news for you.  There is rarely ever only a, b, or c.  You always have a choice.  The choice may not always be easy.  The choice may not always be glamorous.  The choice may not always seem immediately present to you.  But we live in a world and in a day where options are limitless.  You don’t have to settle.  You just have to be willing to explore more options and making the resulting choices on your own (at the very least the ones that you deem most important), rather than letting someone narrow the field for you.  So don’t limit yourself to ABC.  Take the time to at least consider 123.  You don’t have to live a life with limits.  Unless of course you choose to.