9 Remarkable Ways You Should Use Your Freedom

If you’re feeling lost about newfound freedoms, you have come to the right place. These tips are action items for immediate use.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… “Action Items!” Notice that each tip begins with an action verb. You are the sole decider on what to do. Don’t be overwhelmed! It is a gift to have freedom.

The journey on this freedom splits ahead. You have many decisions to make. Do I take the steep or flat part of the trail? Freedom challenges you and begs that you take the steep trail. It is the essence of having freedom. Decisions!

Read below to find your newest freedom tips and make your decisions. Time is ticking…

1. Display the Joys of Freedom to the World

I hope the sun is shining outside your house right now as you’re reading this- even if it isn’t- go outside. I currently have the sun shining on my face as I am writing this.

Being outside, you feel the freedom of adventure and the wonder of nature. You feel the difference in your mood by just moving to a new location…outside.

From this new perspective, you must ponder ways how you should use your freedom of movement to show the world the benefits of freedom.

Here is a list of activities that you can do:

• Travel the world
• Take a road trip with a best friend
• Rollerblade in a park (wearing a helmet of course)
• Run along a river trail
• Become a tourist in your own city (urban hiking)

People have a notion that all freedom is more political than personal. It can be both. By showing your personal freedom, others know that can only happen with political freedom.

Display both proudly. Political and Personal…

2. Cherish the Precious Moments in Life

Older generations are full of untapped knowledge that is free. We all like free advice but rarely take it.

For example, I had been at my current job for 8 months. While I enjoyed my work, my duties required that I spend long periods away from family and friends. I seldom interacted with people in the day-to-day. You showed up at the office and talked to 1 or 2 of the same people. That’s it.

One day, the monotony changed. An older gentleman pulled me aside and took me to grab an ice cream. He said, “You are rushing everything that you do. Slow down and take a deep breath to cherish this moment that you have. It will only come once.”

At the time, I thought that guy was full of himself. However, several years later that particular moment in my life sticks out. I ended up using it as a point of reference comparing the change in my life then and now.

Then, I rushed my work duties racing against the clock to accomplish them as fast as possible. Now, I am methodical and enjoy the process, the sights, and the views that my job implores.

In other words, use your freedom to cherish those precious moments.

Some of the moments are:

• With friends
• With family
• With yourself

Those will become your polaroid moments much like the ice creaming meeting was for me.

3. Learn Your Personal Standards and Values

We are influenced by what’s around us. Society and our culture demand that we abide by their values.

Values represent what is good and admirable.

Hopefully, your standards are set higher than society’s guidelines. Living in a culture that values freedom allows you the opportunity to develop them yourself.

This graph shows us where people acquire their values. Over 14,000 people were surveyed in this 2009 study:

The United States acquires 57% of its values from family/education and 30% from religion/faith. Compare that to 80% of European countries that gather their values from family/education.

Having multiple factors that influence values, like in the U.S., allows you to develop your own standards closer to what you believe.

According to the University of Zurich, values drive us to take different paths in life. By knowing your standards, you are better able to understand your motivations for the choices you make in life.

Know your moral compass.

4. Develop Lifelong Personal Friendship

59% of Americans claim that they have a best friend. That is down from 1990 when 75% of Americans claimed they had a best friend.

Why the drop in developing close friendships?

We as Americans are not using our freedom to develop long-lasting friendships that bring so many benefits to our lives.

• Community
• Accountability
• Fun

Don’t worry we can fix this trend. You must put yourself out there.

Meeting new people requires you becoming a master conversationalist. If you don’t know how engage people, we all have read the book How to Win Friends and Influence by Dale Carnegie. It is a classic.

I have made many friends over the years and each friend represents a certain time in life. All good of course…

My friends have provided me with community and accountability. You too will find the same in different friendships.

Use your passion and knowledge to make a new friend.

5. Change Someone’s Life for The Better

Life has different trials and tribulations. Everyone struggles with something. We have loss, abandonment, and fears.

Why do people donate to charity? Obviously, we love to help people. That is an option you can pursue.

I’m asking you, however, to go a little deeper on a more personal level. This is where you’re going to use your personal freedom.

Consider yourself a “freedom ambassador.” You are assigned to change an individual’s life that you know.

This will accomplish several tasks:

• A greater sense of helpfulness
• More likely to repeat
• See the results first-hand

The fancy word for this action that you will hear on NPR (National Public Radio), or any other station, is altruism. This simply means helping others for the common good. You’re doing exactly that.

Some options for you include:

• Use your strengths to help increase someone else’s weakness
• Be there for someone in hard times
• Visit lonely people

6. Study the True Meaning of Responsibility

Responsibility is necessary to have freedom. The more responsibility that you possess the more freedom you have.

• Responsibility = Freedom
• Freedom = Responsibility

Let’s look at CEOs of major corporations.

They have lots of responsibility. Hence, that’s why they make the big bucks. But, they do have lots of freedom with their decisions. Their latitude to make decisions affects the longevity of their brand, company, and own livelihood.

If the company has a tragic event, the CEO will be the scapegoat. This leads to them having to step down and take responsibility for their decisions.

This is an example of the positives and negatives in daily life.

True responsibility requires that you accept the consequences of your actions– much like CEOs of major corporations. They’re public figures with critical responsibility.

How do you study responsibility?

This requires you to look back over all your past life experiences. Reflect on what you have learned over the years. You should see growth.

• You keep your commitments
• You adhere to deadlines
• You don’t fabricate creative excuses when you fail (failure is part of life)
• You aren’t apathetic to daily life

7. Teach Yourself Additional Skills and Knowledge

The freedom of information that flows through the underwater cords and airwaves of the internet provides opportunities our ancestors never fathomed. If you’re reading this blog post, you’re learning valuable information received from the internet.

By learning new skills, you gain knowledge and marketable skills. Whenever I have had tough moments in my life, learning a new skill increased my positivity.

I am continually learning the blogging process and what readers want to see. Never hesitate to let me know what you think.

According to a Udemy Boredom Study, 80% of people feel more engaged when learning a new skill. You are too busy to focus on the negatives of life but busy mastering your new skill.

The internet makes it easy to learn when major universities offer online courses. You also have access to Udemy or Coursera. These examples are just the start of what is available on the billions of web pages in cyberspace. I have used both of these services to further my skills.

You’ll gain confidence, spunk, and knowledge when you take the responsibility to learn a new skill.

8. Take a Deep Breath and Find Your Spiritual Self

The First Amendment includes the ability to believe and practice what religion you please. Yet, people take this freedom for granted and don’t put it into practice.

If you don’t practice a religion, start a spiritual practice to engage your mind. That’s the foundation of any religion. They engage the mind causing you to think more than the here and the now.

You transport your mind to another universe, thus, freeing you of worries and doubts.

Yoga is a great example. Every time that I have participated in a class, it brings freedom to my mind.

9. Petition the Government for Grievances

You can thank Freedom of Speech for maintaining your ability to remain active in civics.

The Founders had healthy exchanges of policy and ideas to draft the Constitution. They didn’t want a system of government where aristocrats ruled. The people give consent to be governed.

I look around the U.S. wondering in awe why some citizens are subjects rather than citizens. You are a subject if you have no interest in what your government does.

You will say that what happens in Washington doesn’t affect me, but it does. You pay taxes supporting them. You don’t have to be an activist, but active citizens at least vote.

There are people around the world and people I’ve talked to yearning for a system like ours. Your freedom to question the United States government is precious.

I don’t want to see an authoritarian regime spawn in the U.S. as you see in other countries.

Related Articles:

---

Featured Image Credit: varuna / shutterstock.com