This Year, Be Independent

We like to think of ourselves as independent people. And by most measures of the word, we are. Amazingly so. We’re free to come and go as we please, free to worship, free to love, free to pursue happiness in the ways that we want, free to try new things and free to fail. When you stop and think about it—and we hope you will do just that this Independence Day weekend—it’s pretty remarkable.

And yet we all have something holding us back, something we want to be free of and yet somehow just can’t completely shake off. And these things hold us back. You can never be completely free, completely independent, if something is holding you back.

More often than not, we’re our own worst enemies when it comes to such restraints. We tell ourselves we’re not good enough to do something, or that we don’t deserve something, or that something is just too plain hard or would take too long for us to do, or that other people always have to come first. And of course, there are times when some of those things are necessarily true—think of caring for a loved one, whose needs truly do need to come first some of the time.

But if we live in a constant state of restraint, we’ll never progress. So this July 4th, as part of the celebration of our freedom and our unique way of life, think of one thing you want to be free from. Is it guilt or shame? The fear of being seen in a bathing suit? The memory of hurtful things people have said, or of a bad relationship? Think of it, and resolve to break away from it. Take a piece of paper and write it down, and sign your name under it, in a signature as big as John Hancock’s. This is the year you’ll truly be free.