On Choosing Opportunities for Freedom

Between stimulus and response there is space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

I used to think of freedom as having:

• Infinite time

• Infinite money

But thinking of it that way at the very least is discouraging and at the most is foolhardy and dangerous. Why? Because it plunks the ability to feel free one million miles away for most normal people and says “Without these things you can never be free.” It situates the feeling of being free, of freedom, squarely out of reach.

You have to take a different tack with freedom—have to expand your definition.

We all want the wings and that feeling of freedom—it’s up to us to recognize that much of that feeling of freedom is within our control. It’s much wiser to cultivate our sense of freedom unreliant on external circumstances that are subject to change and out of our control.

We have the freedom to:

• Lend our thoughts importance or not.

• Find the space between stimulus and response (ie, find the choice between taking the bait and staying classy, the choice between moving closer or moving further away toward our loved ones in an argument).

• Be merciful on ourselves with our thoughts; allow ourselves space.

• Let life break us or choose to carry on; to give up or keep going.

• Choose our mindset and attitude.

And most of us have many more opportunities for freedom throughout the day, but I’m aiming to focus on the freedoms that are inherently within us, indivisible, and not reliant on external circumstances. Remembering these is crucial. Remembering these is power.

A Different Way to Live: On Alpinist Marc Andres Leclerc

I think what struck me most about Marc Andrés Leclerc, the central figure followed in the documentary The Alpinist, was his different way of living.

• He didn’t carry a cell phone.

• He didn’t seem to have a social media account (though I haven’t corroborated this).

• He insisted on himself, and what he wanted, even though it flummoxed those around him.

• He lived the life he was meant to live.

The film chronicles Leclerc’s life as a climber, including major solo ascents. He was the snow leopard of the major climbers though, in a way—he shirked the limelight and went MIA when his film crew tried to track him down.

Throughout, we see a steely and natural confidence and competence in his climbing—he finds the edge. You have the sense you are seeing someone obeying his most authentic calling, without fanfare, without the bugling across the Internet that has become normal for any person attempting anything, from ordering an ice cream cone to summiting Everest.

His life is a reminder that there is a different way to live, and one that Rumi captured perfectly: Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.