To Be Free, “The Good Life”
Posted on December 13, 2012 by Pamela J Akers, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Life is good, we have freedom, we can make choices and determine the outcome for our lives. Then I ask myself “do we really?” Hmmm.....
So, this is your life…. knocking on the door of 2013; life is good, we have freedom, we can make choices and determine the outcome for our lives. Then I ask myself “do we really?” How do you measure a good life, what is freedom and where do our choices lead us? In 1851, when Sojourner Truth made her now legendary speech, “Ain’t I A Woman,” a time where women were human property and black people were not even considered human, back in that day, what would a black woman use to measure good in life, what would freedom look like for her and what choices did she have?
Being born into physical, mental, spiritual, financial and emotional slavery then sold away from her family at the tender age of about nine years old, being included with a flock of sheep for $100, it is nothing short of a miracle that she not only knew that she had the right to be treated with dignity and respect and that she should be a free woman but she knew exactly what it meant to be free and what to do with that freedom. After becoming a free woman, she sued for the return of her son from a slave owner that bought him illegally and she won the case. She made the deliberate choice to become and live free. Obviously in 2012, it is illegal to publicly shackle or physically enslave another person in the United States, but it happens every day; only the shackles look different. It doesn’t matter whether you put them on or someone else does, you are the only person that has the ability to remove them. The “shackles” can be something as simple as: accepting status quo by not challenging unwritten standing rules that can lead to you feeling stuck, or maybe choosing to work hard and not smart by not educating yourself on how you can live a healthier, more progressive and more productive life or just simply by allowing yourself to continue to be stuck because of being afraid of change among many other things, but you do have choices.
Something to think about… Making the choice to live on purpose is to deliberately make a choice and take action. If you want to begin to take action and create a purposeful journey for your life, you have to have a destination. Destinations are often the hardest part of the journey, deciding where you want to go will take a lot of soul searching and learning about you. Whether you start a journey or not with all of your newfound insight about you, you may discover that the array of tools in your belt, the basic tools of dignity, respect, responsibility, accountibility, etc, will probably lead you to ask yourself, what is dignity and respect in today’s society? Do you expect it and do you purposely give it in your everyday relationships (at work, at home, at the grocery store, etc.?) What is freedom and how do you exhibit it? Are you free? Are you exercising the freedom that you have and are your choices leading you to your chosen destination? Do you have a destination? What does a good life look like to you and how did you come to this conclusion? What action have you taken to begin living your good life? These questions are necessary to ask yourself in every aspect of your life, physically, mentally spiritually, financially and emotionally. Are you purposely living your freedom (The Good Life) or just being a part of the masses with no questions asked…..?
