The last remaining Freedom that every person has, even in the face of tyranny, is to choose how they respond to any given situation. Your choice is all there is, in the beginning, and in the middle, and in the end.
"The Freedom to Choose." I put this in quotes because it represents a seminal chapter in my journey to understand the importance of Freedom over Fear, or other words, Liberty over Tyranny. Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist from the University of Chicago, produced an excellent ten-part series on PBS in the seventies called "Free to Choose." It was suggested watching by my seventh grade Social Studies teacher, Sister Margaret Anne. Freidman illustrates the dynamics of free-market enterprise, otherwise known as "The Invisible Hand," of Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. The argument is powerfully made that the more choice an individual has, the greater the wealth and prosperity of the society that encourages choice. It's worth watching on Youtube.
Thomas Sowell was a Marxist once. Often in interviews, he is asked why did he abandon Marxism. It was only after he endured a job in government and saw firsthand the ineffectiveness of soft authoritarian controls that he made a complete turn and exclaimed, and I paraphrase, "once I paid attention to facts, I saw the fallacy in a controlled economy." And how do you control people? Through Fear.
Thomas Sowell is a source of endless Quotables. Here is one.
"The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers. "
-Thomas Sowell
From a personal growth perspective, our motivations to are driven by either Fear or Freedom. If we talk a good game but never follow through, we are motivated by fear of loss, the process it will take to get it done, or the fear that we might not succeed after all our hard work. If we are motivated by Freedom, we have ambition and expectation. We can visualize the process and the end. We understand when reality does not meet our expectations, we remind ourselves that this is the way of EVERYTHING. We let the fear that comes from inevitable minuscule and transient failures motivate us to distraction. We pick up the 'device' and watch 2 hours of mindless cat videos to provide succor to our damaged expectations. If you start with the expectation that you will have setbacks and that these are gifts from God to aid in our growth, you will overcome these setbacks, and keep your head down, and remain a Doer.
Vaccinations are in the news today. I understand that many colleges and universities are requiring students to be vaccinated. This is a fine example of motivation by fear, fear of the loss of your education. Since when are personal medical decisions mandated? There are many questions about the impact of vaccines on fertility, the onset of Bells Palsy, and clotting. It's a personal decision. A decision we should be Free to make.
When motivating others, what might work better; fear or Freedom? You know the answer to that, right? To that end, I'll leave you with this quote from Antoine De Saint-Exupery;
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
In two weeks, I will be launching my next High-Performance Mastermind group coaching program, where we will spend 12 weeks, 90 minutes per week, growing in Freedom together. You know there is more for you. Join us to move from where you are today to being fully charged, engaged, and joyful. Is all that possible? Yes! It's your choice.
Be well, dear reader.
Find info on our next High-Performance Mastermind here:
