Written by Elisabeth Donati & Steve Gordon

If you’re like many people, you trudge from one task to the next; rarely considering that the life you crave so desperately is only a realization away.  Most people are completely oblivious to the power that’s available.

The power to create the life you want is enormous! By simply flipping the right switch it’s possible to ignite the machinery that moves your life from your own personal level of desperation to a life filled with love, purpose, warm fuzzies, all while realizing the fulfillment of your life’s most passionate desires.

Wise people throughout history have learned how to break their own cycle of self-imposed slavery by mastering the following Five Degrees of Freedom.

1) Freedom of Environment

2) Freedom of Family and community

3) Freedom of Money

4) Freedom of Thought

5) Freedom from Meaning

Let’s explore the freedoms one at a time…

1) Freedom of Environment

The first degree of Freedom happens when we’re born in a country, state, city or neighborhood that has, as its basis for existence, support for basic human rights: freedom to say what we want, write what we think, sing what we feel, read what appeals to us, print what we can imagine, act upon our choices and be free to experience the natural effects of those choices.

 This degree of Freedom includes our right to pursue happiness, have access to basics such as clean water, clean air, access to education, transportation, the ability to travel about and the security to move freely without threat.

2) Freedom of Family and Community

The second degree of Freedom comes when you’re born, or adopted, into a family that lives in a community of people that loves you, cares about your growth as an individual, empowers you to be your best and to step up and be a leader of your world.

This type of freedom includes the space and encouragement for you to grow into who you’re meant to be in this world.

 3) Freedom of Money

The third degree of Freedom comes from being able to develop the financial resources that enable you to do anything and everything you wish as an adult. You have this freedom because you learned how to make, manage and multiply your money wisely.

This freedom includes knowing how to leverage your time, energy and money to make more money. You choose what you do and when you do it. You also recognize that this type of freedom manifests itself in a larger way when what you do  includes helping others.

4) Freedom of Thought

The fourth degree of Freedom comes from developing a deep knowing that the first three degrees of FREEDOM are insignificant without freedom of thought. Freedom of thought means not only recognizing that you have complete control over choosing your thoughts but you also realizing that you have 100% responsibility for all of your thought.

Some people have been locked up in jail or in concentration camps for years at a time came to realize that as long as they were able to control their thoughts, they were free.

Many human beings never experience this freedom. They never realize they are making it all up; that THEY alone have the power to change what’s happening by simply changing the paradigm though which they SEE the world. Most people are slaves to the world they live in rather than becoming masters of their own universes.

5) Freedom from Meaning

The last, and ultimately the most powerful degree of Freedom comes in two parts.

The first part comes from understanding that nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it. In other words, you understand that your entire experience comes from the meaning you give things.

Human beings are meaning-making machines. The problem is that we often ascribe meaning to things, people, events and situations that cause us to have negative, unsupportive emotions. When you begin to realize that the chair you’re sitting in has no meaning and then the car you’re driving in has no meaning, and finally, everything else in the world ultimate has no meaning aside from the meaning you’re giving it, you begin to see how you can simply choose meaning that brings incredible the love, peace and warm fuzzies you desire.

The second part of this freedom comes when you have the ability to make this lack of meaning perfectly OK. This is when you finally begin to smile and wonder why everything is the way it is instead of knowing how things should be. This is when you finally decide that since you’re making it all up anyway, you might as well make it mean something wonderful.

When developing the last three degrees of freedom, you realize that rather than incessantly recycling old, out-dated thoughts, you have a ability to creatively choose new thoughts starting with I AM statements: I am healthy, I am well, I am so darn sexy I can hardly stand it.

Many people have not yet recognized that the drama that defines their lives begins in their minds each day. Each evening you go to bed, close your eyes and go to sleep to rest the skin you’re in. Each morning you have the power, the ability and the FREEDOM to choose which part in the grand play you’re going to assume and how you’re going to participate in that part, i.e., partially or fully.

Each day you have the FREEDOM to get up and choose to be happy, get up and make a difference, move about your world in awe of its beauty, slow down long enough to appreciate what you DO have instead of complain about what you do NOT have.

Each day you have the FREEDOM to breath, smile and touch someone’s life in a profound way. But you only have this FREEDOM if you realize it’s completely up to you.

A very wise person once said, “If I’d known that life was a do-it-yourself project, I’d started on it a long time ago!”

Let this day be more than just another Fourth of July, rather,  let it become your INDEPENDENCE Day and celebrate all of YOUR freedoms.

Just something to think about!