Hello there and welcome to a very brief Copilot episode! You're probably thinking to yourself... "yeah, i'll believe when I see it!" I'm telling you, I know I have a tendency to over-speak, to the point that I just end up running around in circles repeating things over and over again, but today, I'm going to keep it very short.

This short podcast was inspired by one of you, who was musing about whether we were really free? Well, here is a brief response to that question.

Let me start by quoting Viktor Frankl, who while he was imprisoned in a Concentration Camp, penned these words: "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Another good quote to follow that one, that expresses this freedom is this, "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

In other words "freedom" is a reality that can be harnessed and utilized by us to elevate the quality and richness of our life, or to lead us into captivity, misery, self-victimization, and a virtual hell on earth. A quote by John Milton that I enjoy that describes this relationship between our choices and our experience is this "The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav'n of hell, or a hell of heav'n."

Freedom is intrinsic. We inhabit it. Now I realize that there are systems of government, work contexts, and relationships that provide many opportunities and space for those freedoms to be expressed, and many other systems that are more dictatorial, punitive, shaming, and controlling... and yet, the reality of freedom remains, and with it potential... and always the seeds of potential change and transformation. This is why our hunger for wisdom, truth, and pure intelligence must be awakened, and i'm hoping to awaken it in you at this very moment, because I believe that those principles, values, and truths will liberate you, encourage creativity, and invite peace into your being.

We are all free, that is a given, it is the use of that freedom that I am most concerned and interested in... This is a powerful concept... and the accountability to it almost absolute... meaning, that in the end that capacity is within us... maybe there are limits to where we can go, what we can do... I understand that our conditions, our past, our culture, our trauma, our hurt, our thought and behavioral habits and patterns, all cast a heavy shadow, and obscure the very idea of freedom... and yet it is there, and if we nurture our beings with intelligence, truth, and enlightening principles, then we can rise from the ashes of insecurity, of faulty thinking, of unnecessary limits and limiting beliefs... Think of it... what would happen to your life today, this week, this year, if you did or acted out what the highest part of you wanted to do... I would not miss another day of running... I would write another book... I would be up at 5am... I would nurture my connection with the divine... I would love more consciously... I would... I would... Remember that our magnificent brains and bodies will ultimately become what we consistently tell them to be. Our bodies and brains will literally transform (to our ultimate blessing or cursing) to facilitate our daily efforts... I live in constant amazement, and at the same time, in constant frustration... there is so much power that resides in us.

Here is my challenge to you my dear friend... while i spoke just a few moments ago... when i asked the question about "what would happen to your life today, this week, this year, if you did or acted out what the highest part of you wants to do?", my guess is that your mind became awakened, perhaps encouraged, perhaps ideas and inspiration came into your mind... I want you to create 1-2 or 3 goals or even better, create a system to develop those things that the higher you wants to be doing, knowing with a renewed sense of certainty that you can do them, because you inhabit this freedom, and then, starting today, tomorrow... take a step, write it down somewhere, start with one, it can be incremental, it can be small, but begin, and stick around, let's improve that 1%!

Let's goo! Have a lovely day!