Imagine the possibility of living a long, complete, healthy life and upon facing your last moments, letting go without any fears, regrets or resentment and instead, be of acceptance with peace of mind and fulfillment from a life fully lived. Such an outcome would be the ultimate expression of freedom.
This post discusses the mindset and attitude that goes into living a conscious life. In doing so, you will achieve the ultimate freedom by eliminating attachments and instead pursue the truth that will liberate you from a false identity, misplaced priorities and lost time. This adjustment enables a great life because it is grounded in truth and personal power using to the fullest, the resources you have in terms of energy, talent, and awareness.
The tools of SELF-CARE are what I have personally used to improve my own life over time and achieve authenticity as a person. Most people pursue freedom as a consequence of financial independence. They work too hard, sacrifice relationships, ignore their talents and live up to a false identity to please people to attract wealth and status. In other words, they enslave themselves willingly to achieve independence later. This is a fools’ errand. Reality is very different, as proven by reflection from people that have witnessed the final days of individuals that did live a long life, and who most of the time face regrets living according to the wrong priorities.
Based on my first-hand experience, you need to first take ownership of the quality of your life with the attitude of continuous improvement instead of giving up control to the healthcare industry as a last resort. The scientific health industry is more concerned about disease prevention than optimal health. Thankfully, there is increasingly more content around health and healthy habits as practiced by fitness, nutrition, and relationship experts. All three of these factors determine longevity and overall quality of life. The most important factor in terms of quality of life and longevity comes from embracing your why and promoting this relationship as a priority. Without this initial realization, you will likely enslave yourself to addictions, accept and engage in toxic relationships and endure stress, bad habits and neglectful attitudes that cause illness.
To live a complete life, most of us need to address a vocational or professional role as this makes up the majority of our conscious life. Most of us are classified by what we do and judged for how we do it. Whether as an individual, a manager, a business owner with employees, a public servant, etc., our function in society sets expectations of responsibility, contribution and also for the kind of person we become to fulfill these expectations. To meet such expectations, a person has to find the motivation to perform well. Some of the motivations to function well are accepted as good, while others can be characterized or perceived as selfish. Either way, motivation is a common factor behind how we perform. As such, most people do not have freedom due to the need to please others as an agreeable, likable person. This is also a form of indentured slavery.
The challenge to motivation is that it is typically guided by the conventional wisdom that falsely links motivation to personal pain, fighting the self, and compensation from material wealth, status and superficial validation. Are you free being motivated this way? When personal circumstances change from unforeseen life events, finding the motivation to do well is difficult. Most successful people are contractually obligated to perform whether they want to or not. Instead, the ability to obtain rewards from the process of doing work that you feel good about anchors you into the present moment and provides a sense of freedom and satisfaction.
Motivation, when it comes from a personal purpose, is a self-directed road less traveled, but it is the most rewarding path evidenced by the success that arrived for those leaders who risked failure, financial ruin, and social approval. None of these individuals would have made such sacrifices and risked what most people covet in return for financial returns or attention. To follow this path, one has to decide in favor of the ultimate freedom. Will walking down this road achieve wealth, recognition, status and power? If your natural talent, work ethic and emotional fulfillment lead to this in return for the value you create as compensation, then yes. The more important question is whether you would want all of the responsibilities that come from wealth if money is a burden towards your freedom.
Living according to your purpose is difficult and challenging because it requires self-awareness, effort, and discomfort that comes from an examination of your life, obtaining further education and also the development and maintenance of habits. The good news is that all of these fall into place by living your purpose. We need to look within to understand our sense of purpose. To uncover this, we need to find the commonality between our values, our areas of interests and our abilities. Purpose comes from understanding who we are by way these experiences which overlap across each of these independent factors.
Our values come from what we observe of ourselves as motivating our conscious choices every day as reflected in journals that we use to record experiences, and also from what we learn and then carry forward. Our interests are what we choose to do with our time voluntarily. To see the overlap of all three tells us what we are best positioned to do long-term. SELF-CARE advocates practices based on your personalized experiences and the truth is revealed to you by way of feedback from pattern recognition in daily journaling and time management efforts in your life. Personal Development addresses the gaps.
The handful of commonality between personal value, interests, and abilities reveal what we can reliably offer to the world, sustained by motivation at the highest possible level. Our purpose is not assigned to us from society and identity. It is a matter of personal choice and comes from within as we observe ourselves in action. Often, the sense of purpose we live by gives us the motivation to do what is necessary even when there is hardly any motivation to do anything, or sometimes despite antagonistic situations when we don’t want to perform. Our purpose gives rise to the vision we set and to keep going.
The highest version of the person we become must include the purpose we accept as significant, a vision of the person we imagine ourselves to be, successfully fulfilling the expectations we accept in whatever capacity. Being strong and confident, we achieve our highest goals against conflicting priorities, as compared to unreliable motivations that come from people, circumstances, and factors outside of our control. By doing our best every day as a matter of practice, we inevitably make acceptance of the day and inevitably a life a matter of practice. If I can give you this gift, I will also receive it in return. I wish for you a long, complete, fulfilling life with health and abundance because it is a selfish aim of mine to enjoy the best of everyone in my life.
This sentiment comes from the fact that I have chosen as my definite purpose to share the ideas and practices of SELF-CARE. In doing so, I will achieve the ultimate freedom of living according to my values, interests, and abilities, while the feedback allows me to improve in understanding and application.