Are You Any Closer to YOUR Independence Day?

Contemplations about Freedom and How to “Begin It.”

If you’re reading this blog post on a computer in the U.S., you already have advantages and freedoms that many in the world can’t take for granted.

First of all, you can read. (A few Middle Eastern and African countries are still debating whether girls should be taught to read….)

Second, you have electricity. (I love my annual Orcas Island camping trip, but flashlights and porta-potties get old after a few days.)

Third, you have a computer, or at least, computer access. (Anyone over 30 will remember the time known as “B.C.” – before computers!)

Furthermore, nobody’s making you read this. It’s not government-approved propaganda. And in spite of the tenacious corporate hold on much of our print and airwaves, make no mistake, we live in a land where freedom of speech reigns – even freedom to criticize our political leaders publicly.

My point is this: even if you’re working a job you don’t love, even if you’re struggling to pay your bills, even if your significant other just ran off with someone else and things could be better than they are, you’ve still got a helluva lot to be grateful for. (I’ll light a sparkler to that!)

You have the freedom to choose a new home or a new line of work, to study any subject you want (even for free via your computer), freedom to meet new people, even start or expand a business. The requirements for these things?

Nothing more than sheer ingenuity and force of will. We enjoy tremendous freedoms that should never be taken for granted, freedoms for which others literally risk their lives for the chance to have.

People in U.S. complain, sometimes very legitimately about taxes, corruption, and other problems. But I haven’t heard any stories of American citizens strapping together pieces of wood and pushing their families away from the shore in the attempt to try to float their way to someplace better before they starve to death or die of exposure. I do, however, know former refugees and immigrants who risked it all to find a better place, and they are grateful every day that they found it.

You might call it a paradox:

On the one hand, we live in one of the wealthiest nations, not just of our time, but of any time.

We have more freedoms, possibilities, and technological advantages than 99% of the people on the planet.

But are we any happier, any more grateful, any more “free” than those of less privileged societies, or countries with a “lower standard of living”? Do we have time to enjoy more things, or are we just working more to pay for the things we don’t have time to enjoy?

You be the judge. As a nation, we are famous for eating ourselves obese, overworking ourselves into early graves, and racking up more consumer debt than citizens of any other nation. Millions of people are caught in cycles of revolving debt, and nearly a million and a half file for bankruptcy in the U.S. each year. Rampant unemployment and large downturns in the stock and housing markets have turned many good intentions sour, and we realize that our lifestyles and our habits were not sustainable.

Where has all this “freedom” gotten us? We’re over-extended, over-entertained, and over-whelmed. We carry phones and devices with perpetual internet connections, but we’ve become disconnected from ourselves, each other, and the earth. We’re majoring in the minors.

Some are looking to political movements to save us and “get us back on track.” But I believe it’s time to move forward, not reminisce about a past that had its own set of problems. It’s also a time for unprecedented personal responsibility, an opportunity to stop expecting the government or somebody else to bail us out.

It’s time for us to get intentional and to make decisions that reflect our highest intentions. Being debt-free, building a profitable business, and achieving financial independence all begin as decisions. Do people just randomly wake up one day and realize they have paid off all their debts or achieved financial independence as the surprising result of their circumstances? No! Any change of course begins with a decision.

It’s time for our own Declaration of Independence, not from oppressive forces around us, but from the distractions and obstacles within us. If you’re not living a life you love, it’s time to change the course you’re on.

If you’re ready for more freedom in your life – more personal freedom, more financial freedom, more emotional freedom, then decide it, declare it, and begin it. As W. H. Murray wrote in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951 (chronically but largely incorrectly attributed to Goethe):

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

‘Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!’

Whether you’re reading this on the 4^th of July, the middle of October or the March after next, I invite you to make your personal Declaration of Independence on what is always the perfect day – “today.” Make a decision about what you want your life to be like, and declare those intentions in words and in writing.

As for me, it’s my decision to spend this next year helping people out of debt, assisting them in removing the blocks to their prosperity, and showing them how to transform their relationship with money so that they can live out their own visions and intentions. I’m committing myself to a new level of giving and bringing value, and I’m opening myself up to a new level of receiving in my life. I’m committing to a new level of self-care and discipline, particularly seeing how (since my elderly father moved in with me six month ago) it is all too easy to neglect myself to attend to the seemingly urgent tasks that can fill the day. I’m also committing to a new business model that will allow me to help more people and take more days off for planning, family time, and restoration.

What do you want your own personal Declaration of Independence to say? What are you committing to that you are ready to “begin now”? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Happy Fourth of July,

Kate

Follow Total Wealth Coaching on Facebook

• ← Taxes and Tummy Aches
• Are You a Financial Martyr? →