What would it be like for you to feel freer?

When July 4 rolls around each year I naturally think of freedom. You probably do, too.

What resonates for me deeply this year is how free I feel. 

Specific questions I am asking myself now are:

• How free do I feel to show up in the world boldly?

• How free do I feel to allow myself to play?

• How free do I feel to start down new paths rather than sticking to the status quo, because that’s what I’m used to.

Whether these questions resonate for you at this moment in your life, or you have others that are particular to you now, I invite you to start exploring.

How free do you feel?

Let’s consider the three questions that keep coming to mind for me. Join me in being curious and see what comes up for you.

1. Do you feel free to boldly show the world who you are — without a mask, without holding back?

I gave a new talk this weekend titled, Embrace Your Bold: How to Amplify Your Voice and Increase Your Impact.

I opened the talk by sharing the impressions I used to have about of what “bold” looked like (such as being loud, and fearlessly doing daring feats). Those concepts of boldness turned me off, and made me doubt how bold I could be.

I also told the audience how I had tried to fake being bold in the past — and how those attempts had always failed. I explained that I have learned that being bold is a deeply personal set of choices, and there are ways to find your own bold, so you naturally and genuinely amplify your voice and increase your impact.

It was a short talk. There is much more I will cover when I expand the talk to a full keynote and deliver it in the fall. For now, I am pondering many ways I want to be bolder in my life, and what hampers me.

I invite you to consider this question, too. It will likely reveal things you have not brought into focus before.

2. Do you feel free to be playful, to lighten up, and let your spirit fly — just for the joy of it?

This question came to mind for me as I spent time with colleagues who were truly playful and joyous when they spoke on the stage before and after my talk.

I yearn to tap and express more of that light, playful energy, and am thinking about how I will begin — today!

3. Do you feel free to explore new options and make changes?

I have been asking myself about changes I want to make for the past few months. I am getting get super-clear, and I have been implementing them, one small step after another.

One decision became clear for me after my wonderful month living in Paris this past winter. I want to adjust the ways I spend my time so that I can paint more and write more. My soul yearns for more space for my own creative expression, and I have started making meaningful adjustments.

What about you?

Might you be stuck in a groove out of habit — about your work, or a relationship? Perhaps you are not honoring a deep desire?

Do you love things as they are, or do you realize you are ready to make a shift?

Are you holding back on making changes because they feel scary?

Feeling free enough to ask and explore the questions is step one!

Try using this special tool!

I created a guide to help you bring full self-expression into your life. It is colorful and fun to use. You will find that the more you are able to be fully self-expressed, the freer you will feel!

Download the guide here (no email needed!), and see what happens for you. 

Let’s all make this a season to activate glorious personal freedom!

How free do you feel?

Having celebrated Independence Day this past weekend, there’s been a lot of  focus on independence and freedom.

These are expansive topics, and they can be explored from many perspectives.

What is coming up for me — aside from the ways we can give thought to independence and freedom through the important lens of our nation and its inhabitants — is personal freedom, and how we declare our own independence.

How do you feel free in your life?

Consider when and in what ways you most feel free.

Think, too, about how you may feel constrained or, perhaps, how you may deeply yearn to feel more free.

Perhaps your work, your relationships, or your finances come to mind.

Perhaps your heart feels caged.

There may be a part of you that yearns to be expressed.

Perhaps you perceive the constraints to be external or in the hands of other people. Or maybe you know you have the power to make a change to feel freer, but don’t know how, or have not found the courage. 

Are there ways you want to feel wildly free, but you hold back (a little, or a lot)?

I invite you to spend some time exploring this topic.

Pull out a journal, set a timer for 10 minutes and do some free writing, to see what comes up. You might try the Discovery Dozen™ exercises on page 29 of my book, to explore what feeling free really means to you. Those prompts can reveal thoughts that are deeply buried in you heart.

Do you feel ready to declare personal independence?

For years, questions about feeling free never came up for me. I lived day-to-day-to-day without deep reflection. I did not even consider the subject.

After I started working with a coach and waking up in my life, I started activating creative thinking and creative expression.

As a result, the feeling of being free started to show up in ways that surprised and delighted me. I began to consciously appreciate and explore this feeling, and to expand it in as many ways as possible. Soon, every part of my life felt more vibrant.

It was from that place of feeling free that I declared my independence — from a life that was good, to pursue a life that was exceptional.

I was tired of settling for the status quo and wanted to spread my wings and freely create my next chapter. 

If you’ve been a reader of my blog for a while (or read my story on this site) you know that in 2011 I sold the business I owned for 27 years and embarked on a new path. I could not foresee the destination, but here I am, doing coaching work I truly love, in a marriage that has become even stronger and happier than before, having written a book I am proud of, and having become a painter.

Living with this freedom and personal independence is something I celebrate and feel grateful for every day.

Have I “arrived”?

Hardly. 

Each day offers me opportunities to open more.

On some days, the feeling of freedom eludes me, and I have to find it anew and claim it again. It’s easy to fall back into old limiting states of mind.

It’s the ongoing pursuit of feeling free, being willing to take new steps toward it when I backslide, believing in myself and feeling worthy of this way of living, and committing to the ongoing process of the exploration that has carried me forward.

Step into defining freedom for yourself

If you want to talk about what freedom can look like for you, and making it a reality, the timing could not be better.

The preparatory journey that will culminate in Live Big Live! this fall is starting soon.

Live Big Live! is powerful program, designed to give you enormous clarity about the life and work you want to create. You will be supported to begin to create a future filled with the freedom you want, with tools to help you each step of the way.

We can make a date to talk about what’s in the way for you now and the future you dream of. Schedule a Live Big Breakthrough Call with me directly — click here to find a spot on my calendar. There's no obligation or cost for us to talk.

Stay safe and well, and keep creating.

Is your definition of freedom too small?

I hope you enjoyed a lovely holiday weekend. I wonder if you were thinking differently about July 4 and all that it signifies this year. I certainly was.

I have been thinking a lot about freedom lately.

We are living in a time that is fraught in many ways. And the word freedom itself is being used to mean different things by different people. Many of the ways I have heard people use the word trouble me.

In addition to that concern, I believe there is more to consider about freedom than most of us typically do.

The word “freedom” is packed with possibility

Have you ever paused to consider all the ways you are free?

We all have the freedom to grow and expand in our lives.

No matter what challenges we are living through — and we have had a heap of challenges to navigate these last months — we are always free to create our outlook.

We are free to expand our thinking.

We are free to create our thoughts, and free to shape our vision.

We are free to bring a limitless mindset to what is possible.

When we begin by framing the ideas for what we want to do, or change, or reach for, we have the freedom to test and explore. 

And we have the freedom to continue iterating and creating, one small step after the other.

Nobody can limit us when we feel free

Our greatest freedom is to create in every moment in our lives. And nobody can take that freedom away from us.

Sadly, we are the force that most often limits our own freedom. 

A limited mindset stops us.

Our doubts hold us back.

Our fears paralyze us. 

Even when we do take action, if making progress goes slowly we often feel discouraged, and we may stop.

Remember that every step on the path is meaningful, and that the key is to stay in motion. 

Remember that you can be resilient.

Remember that you can adapt in the face of stress.

Remember that you can create even when others around you do not believe it’s possible, or don’t believe in you.

Remember that we have all already invented new ways of living — perhaps many times, and certainly in the last months of the pandemic.

And we can each continue to create.

You can begin to create a new, bigger way forward in any aspect of your life and work, at any time.

How will you embrace freedom today?

Are you inspired to think about what you want to create, how you want to use your freedom?

Start with small ideas that you can explore and test.

And don’t limit your big dreams and visions, if that’s where your heart wants to lead you. Open up to all that you yearn for.

And if you want help to get clear about what’s possible for you to create in your life in order to embrace freedom in new and bigger ways, scheduling a Live Big Breakthrough Call may be a perfect first step.

I promise you’ll gain valuable insights and ideas about what is possible for you and ways that you can learn to step into the freedom of being a powerful creator in your life.