Lesson 22: Defining Success (Part 2)

This post is my thoughts on a lesson from the Beyond Freedom home study course for personal growth and life achievement. This course has been instrumental in transforming my life from stress-full to stress-FREE. Order your own copy today at: http://www.LibertyLeague.com/margieremmers And transform YOUR life from where you are now, to where you want to be.

In my last post, I wrote about how this lesson taught me that I can measure how successful my own life is by how simple it is. And yet, I also realized from this lesson that I do not put much attention toward making sure that it is simple. What a paradox!

When I first got my Beyond Freedom, the first thing I did was skim through the whole thing, and I remember thinking, "OK, don't need to do that exercise, don't need to do that one..."--I was so full of myself!!

I just thought I had it all together.

I couldn't see that the results I was getting in my life were a direct result of my stubborn pride...

This lesson has two exercises. The first involves plotting your successes and failures/setbacks on a graph, and the second is to write a narrative of the ways you have been successful in your life. One of the points of these exercises is to "prove" to yourself just how successful you have been in your life--and that was precisely why I didn't think I needed to do it! I just saw it as a way to bolster your self esteem--and I think rather highly of myself! In fact, I often wonder why everyone else doesn't think as highly of me! Ha ha ha!!! :o)

Seriously, though, it wasn't until I was working on this last week that I realized that you can apply the exercises to specific areas of your life.

So, for me, what came up was the idea to complete the exercise by looking specifically at areas in which I have been successful (or unsuccessful) at creating a life of simplicity.

I'm looking forward to it!

Lesson 22: Defining Success (Part 1)

This post is my thoughts on a lesson from the Beyond Freedom home study course for personal growth and life achievement. This course has been instrumental in transforming my life from stress-full to stress-FREE. Order your own copy today at: http://www.LibertyLeague.com/margieremmers And transform YOUR life from where you are now, to where you want to be.

Today's lesson is about defining success. From the lesson title, I thought it was going to be on thinking about your goals in very specific terms--we all know that that's the key to achieving them, right?

But then I read the lesson and remembered that what we are focussing on here is understanding what success means to us. How will we know when we're successful? What would have to happen in order for us to say we're a successful person?

Of course, the answer is different for everybody, but what came to mind for me personally, of course, was simplicity. When I have pared down my life to only a few, simple things that are meaningful to me, then I will feel successful.

But if I value this so much, what do I do on a daily basis to make it a reality in my life?

The lesson says, "We all have the capacity to break through, to constantly achieve more, to reach a level of personal freedom. But it doesn't just come. It won't arrive until you put forward a concerted effort. The core to success is energy, focus, attention, care and daily practice. It's practice. It's training. It's getting in a positive routine and staying there."

Wow. It never occurred to me that I should practice living a simple life. But it makes so much sense! If I have a habit of overcomplicating things, then I must make a conscious and concerted effort to allow things to be easy. Brent Payne says, "How would you do things differently if you were willing to let it be easy?" The operative phrase there, for me anyway, is willing to let it.

Another important point of the lesson is to teach us that success is not really a thing or an accomplishment, but a feeling. "So, if success is a feeling, the lesson says, "We can teach ourselves to feel successful every minute of every day."

More on how we teach ourselves to do that tomorrow.

Voluntary Simplicity (Part 2, Final)

Click here for Part 1.

Reading that article reminded me of my ideals. It reminded me of what I really what in life. It reminded me of the kind of life I really want to live--the kind of life that I have always wanted to live, but that has somehow slipped away from me as I got stuck in the "default" mode of day to day living.

One of the exercises in Beyond Freedom has us writing out our "ideal day" in as much specific detail as possible. They want us to really grasp it with all of our senses--what do we see, hear, feel, taste, smell?

Whenever I do this exercise, my mind goes to this place of utter simplicity--a place of appreciation--a place of nature--with just a little bit of "challenge" thrown in (to keep my mind focussed and engaged). How different that is from my reality, where everything is a challenge, and there is just a dash of simplicity, appreciation, and nature when I can squeeze it in.

How did my life get so upside down?

I realized as I was reading the article that I am not the only one who feels smothered by the "stuff" of life--the responsibilities, the toys, the memorabilia, the trinkets. The reaction of many people in the voluntary simplicity community has been to shun modern conveniences--to scale down. One story was of a woman who sold her 5 bedroom house and rented a little cottage in the woods. She now shares one bedroom with her two kids, who now share a bed.

But I don't resonate with that choice. When things are small, I feel cramped. I want things to be large and expansive, but empty--like the ceiling of my house when I was growing up.

Another thing that came out of the article was the attitude many of the people had about money. "The very things society teaches us to crave--wealth, status, prestige,--can actually lead to persistent feelings of depression and dissatisfaction. 'People who pursue intrinsic values--self-acceptance, making the world a better place, helping polar bears--are much happier than people who chase popularity, money and image,' says [author and associate professor of psychology Tim] Kasser. 'If you orient your life around personal growth and family and community, you'll feel better.'"

Then later, Terry Meer, a simple living participant, tells the author, "You don't need to have as much as you can get. People work 50 hours a week to afford all this stuff. But you end up with only an hour to spend with your kids or your wife. That's not living; it's living to work. I'd rather harvest sweet potatoes than work all day at a job I hate."

And that's when I realized--Liberty League is the best of both worlds. No wonder it resonated with me and felt so right. Liberty League provides the opportunity to make money--to become financially free and independent--by investing in the very things that bring us contentment in life: personal growth, family, and community.

All from following a stupid simple system a few hours a week.

Wow. Simplicity at its finest.

No wonder I love it here.