In two weeks, 12 people will join me in Kansas City for the fourth and final My Freed Life of this year. The weeks leading up to the event are some of my favorites because I get to spend so much time with the material, making final tweaks and iterations based on what I’ve learned since the last one.
At the beginning of the program I ask everyone to read a letter to help them understand what we are really doing together over the next four weeks. That letter is below.
I’m sharing it with you for two reasons.
One, I want you to understand that we all want the same thing. We all want to define and design our version of the word freedom.
Two, freedom doesn’t come from organizing your life around your expectations. Freedom isn’t getting what you want. It is the conscious design of your character.
The Letter
After thousands of hours of coaching conversations, I have made a discovery that rings true for all people. We all want the same thing. We all want life on our terms. We all want to define and design our version of the word freedom. The human spirit is a freedom-seeking missile that asks each and every one of us to live our lives well. We are given one life, dealt one hand, and our mission is to play it as well as we possibly can.
At the end of the day, it is not how much you have or how much you have achieved that counts. What really matters is how well you have participated in your own life, both the ordinary moments and the extraordinary surprises. When your head touches your pillow at night, are you filled with feelings of joy, excitement, happiness, gratitude, and fulfillment? Or feelings of shame, anger, bitterness, helplessness, frustration, self-disappointment, and complaint?
My Freed Life is a skills-based leadership course, but it has a twist. Unlike other leadership courses that teach you how to lead others, this is all about leading yourself. We spend far too much time trying to lead others when we should be focused on leading ourselves. Leading ourselves well boils down to one thing: the intentional development of a consciously designed character. The freedom we seek is actually the byproduct of the character we develop.
Character development can be challenging. Who you are is a complicated mixture of nature and nurture. You were born preprogrammed by your nature and have been living in an ongoing cycle of nurture programming every day since. Glennon Doyle laid out the clearest explanation I have ever found for programming in her book Untamed:
“We are like computers, and our beliefs are the software with which we’re programmed. Often our beliefs are programmed into us without our knowledge by our culture, community, religion, and family. Even though we don’t choose those subconscious programs, they run our lives. They control our decisions, perspectives, feelings, and interactions, so they determine our destiny. What we believe, we become. There is nothing more important than unearthing what we really believe to be true about ourselves and our world.”
Our subconscious programs are invisible to us. They are like VR headsets we don’t know we’re wearing. Most of what you call reality isn’t reality. It’s a rendering. Learning to use your conscious attention to become aware of and reprogram your subconscious mind is a superpower. Once you’ve developed the skill to consciously reprogram the software of your mind, life becomes a very different game. Together we will unearth what you believe, become aware of the software that runs your mind, and decide if you even want it there.
Gaining the skill to choose what we think, to choose what we feel, and to make our own decisions may be the grandest adventure we can take as human beings. Knowing with absolute clarity what we want, and developing our character so that it becomes the creator of the dreams that resonate deep within us, is the greatest work of our lives.
A life of freedom isn’t one of circumstance aligning itself to our expectations. It isn’t in chasing more money, fame, followers, pleasure, or comfort. It is in the journey of building and becoming the hero of your story. The fullest, brightest, highest expression of our own spirits.
Before we begin, I want to share one last thing. This is not an event. This is a process. As someone who has spent most of his life in and around personal development, I can confidently tell you there is a tremendous amount of bullshit in this space. So many authors, speakers, trainers, and coaches prey on the hopes of their audience to make money. They promise quick results, hacks, and instant transformation. You will find none of that here.
Remember this forever: the work is the shortcut.
None of what I teach you will work if you don’t put in the work. I can’t and won’t do the work for you. Creating and building your character takes time, energy, and effort. It will stretch you. It will be hard. It will be worth it.
What I will promise you is that you have a partner in me. Outside of my wife and children, there is literally nothing I love more than helping people create lives of freedom. I’ve read that our last names are sometimes a reflection of our work. I believe that, because mine is Freed. It’s not a coincidence. It’s a calling. And I can’t wait for the day you look back and say, “I’m living My Freed Life.”
Freedom isn’t getting what you want. It’s who you become.
live freed,
Jordan
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