There are people who spend their lives in the pursuit of freedom. There are people who even give up their lives in pursuit of freedom. I believe we already have freedom available to us, we just need to redefine it. As a new year starts, and whilst I certainly do not buy-in to the new year resolution deal, I do think it is a good time to stop, reflect, and move into a new year with a different attitude, approach, and belief. That’s assuming you want different results. My mantra this year is, be free in 2023.

I have spent most of my life imprisoned, as I believe have many other people. I have not been in jail, I have not been held hostage, and I have not been significantly discriminated against. I have been imprisoned by my own thinking, beliefs, and attitudes. I spent many years of my life believing I was not good enough, which imprisoned me and limited my progress because I chose to give up on things and regularly self-sabotage. I spent many years thinking that I needed a certain amount of money, status, and credibility to be successful, admired, and free to be able to do the things I want. I spent too many years anxious, fearful, and doubting that I sentenced myself to the greatest incarceration of all. I imprisoned myself from the freedom, joy, and abundance that was and is available to me, right now.

I want you to know, as I now do, that freedom is not the result of the material things you own, achieve, accumulate, or portray. In fact, it is the other way around. Those things are the result of freeing yourself internally from the beliefs, experiences, and traumas that have been holding you back. The moment you wake up and feel grateful for what you have, accept yourself for who you are, find joy in your life, no matter what may be happening, and excited about what great things will come to you in this new day, you are free. Trust me, when you break free from the fears that are controlling your life, you will attract people, opportunities, and abundance you will not believe.

How are you feeling as the new year begins? Are you frustrated with a life that is less than you want? Are you anxious because of the uncertainty in the world and how it will affect you? Are you angry and resentful for the things that didn’t go your way in 2022 and the people who didn’t support your dreams and aspirations? If you take these attitudes and feelings into to 2023, I hate to say it, you are going to have another year of limitations. So, would you like to be free in 2023? If you said yes, here are five steps I would like to offer you.

Step One. Let go of societal and stereotypical expectations of what freedom looks like. Trust me, freedom does not come from accumulation, achievement, and status. There is nothing wrong with those things, just don’t expect freedom in your heart to come from them. There are many people with all the material success in the world, yet are depressed, addicted, and troubled. They are certainly not free.

Step Two. Spend time focusing on the inherent abilities, strong values, and powerfully positive character traits you already have. Learn to appreciate your strengths, accept your imperfections, forgive yourself, and love yourself for the unique person you are. You are not perfect, and you are flawed, just as I am, and as every other person on the planet is. The person you may believe has everything, has got just as many hang-ups and insecurities as you. That is what makes us human beings. Embrace it, rather than judge and condemn it.

Step three. Wake up every morning and find gratitude in what you currently have and, as weird as this may sound, even in the things that are challenging you at the moment. Why be grateful for adversity? Because everything in your life that seems undesirable will present you with an opportunity to learn, to change, and to become the best you can be. That is definitely something to be grateful for.

Step Four. Find joy, peace, and love in the life you currently have, and then create a vision for your life and how you would like it to be different. Write that vision in present tense, find pictures to illustrate it, put it on your wall, then read and look at it every day.

Step Five. With joy in your heart, find people to encourage you and keep you accountable, and get to work to make this change a reality. Follow the law of GOYA. GOYA is an acronym for Get Off Your Ass! The power is in the daily action, not the results you get. Great things will come predictably because of the joyful action steps you take every day.

In my podcast with Chris and Filipa Bellette this week called End body burnout, both Chris and Filipa freed themselves from the physical conditions that were destroying their lives, by simply changing their attitudes and modifying their approach. You see, freedom is a mindset, freedom is a feeling, and freedom is something that lives inside of you that no-one can ever take from you, unless you let them. Have a wonderfully happy new year and be free in 2023.