You Watch, I Drive!

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Travels in Istanbul - "You Watch, I Drive!"

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”

Steve Maraboli

"Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing."

Anonymous

I'd finally arrived in Istanbul late at night. My sister had arranged for a driver to pick me up at the airport.

My sister has lived in Istanbul for 5 months and does not have a car. Generally to get to Istanbul from the outlying suburb she lives in requires a long walk to the subway, a long ride to the docks, a ferry ride across the Bosporus to Kadakoy and then a tram ride to go anywhere else in the city.

So for my first jaunt in Istanbul late at night I thought it would be better to hire a driver. Very little signage is in English, very few people speak it and she lives very far away from the airport.

She said my driver spoke English and at first he did. But after the greeting and a few short sentences that was it.

At first everything seemed fine but then he started stopping at every cross street and looking around at the different buildings. After the 5th or 6th time he stopped at a crossroad I asked if he had the number of my sister's Turkish friend to call for better directions. At first he ignored me, but after the second time I mentioned it he turned to me and said "You watch, I drive".

I immediately got it and said nothing more. But it made me think, and I realized I was holding on too tight to knowing. I was trying to control the outcome by trying to influence the driver.

Yes it was important to get to my destination, but I knew I would eventually get there.  It just might take longer, and maybe I would get a chance to "watch" a little more.

But it really struck home as I realized I was not staying within my control zone, meaning within my own mind and body.

I continued to watch myself over the next few days.  I noticed that I was continually trying to "control" my progress on the various transportation legs by visualizing the next the steps I would be taking, trying to anticipate what was next.

Where would I stand to avoid the crush of the crowd onto the ferry, what cabin would I get on in the subway, etc.

I had to remind myself that it didn't matter where I stood in the line, it didn't matter what the crowd was doing, none of it really mattered. All that mattered was that I was in Turkey getting ready to visit some of the most fascinating historical sites in the world. Some of the places I'd always dreamed of visiting.

So right then I decided - I am here, I am living a dream and I will just sit back and watch from here on out.

www.stevengriggs.com

Luck- Good or Bad?

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

Luck, Good or Bad?

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“Luck is the idol of the idle”
Proverb

“It’s hard to detect good luck – it looks so much like something you’ve earned” 

Frank A. Clark

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”

Seneca

Are you lucky? Do you believe in luck? And what is luck?

According to the Free Dictionary, luck is defined as:

“The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events….. one's personal fate or lot”

In almost every case luck is defined as something outside or beyond our control. As if we were just victims living out our lives on our predetermined path waiting for the next curve ball or surprise that fate has in store for us. See Wishing and Hoping

But is it true?

When was the last time something happened to you that you considered lucky? When some thing or some situation arose and made you stop and think: “Wow, that was lucky!”

Was it really luck? Was it really a coincidence?

Did you play any part in creating that luck? Do you believe in coincidence?

Are you really surprised when someone that you have been thinking about calling, maybe even just a minute or two ago, calls you? Or when you mention wanting to see a friend you haven’t seen for a while and then that day at the grocery store that friend walks up to you?

This would be called coincidence or luck. But it’s not.

I don’t believe in luck and I don’t believe in coincidence.

Once you get that you are creating your life at all times and that you have created the circumstances of your life, you stop blaming or complaining.

You will realize that you are attracting everything in your life, the good and the not so good. You can start changing those circumstances. 

Counting on good luck or waiting for your luck to change is being a victim. You are giving away your power. 

It takes time and practice but you can step out of powerless and into powerful. You can change your circumstances and therefore change your life.

The first step is to take responsibility for everything that happens to you.

Don’t be surprised when that friend or relative calls or you run into that friend at the store. Take responsibility and acknowledge that you reached out to them and they heard.

YOU created this, not luck.

The more you take responsibility, the stronger your power can grow.

(There are many techniques and lessons that can help you in this and I will present more ideas in future articles)

Once you get that, then you realize that you are the essence of luck.  You create your luck.

And then you realize how lucky you really are.

www.stevengriggs.com

15 Minutes to Freedom

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

15 Minutes to Freedom

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“If you can’t leave for the airport in 15 minutes, you’re not free”

Stuart Wilde

My mother has recently become a bit of a sensation on Youtube (more about that later).

I was looking at her most recent video when I happened upon a short one minute video by Stuart Wilde.

I’ve read most of Stuart’s books and I spent a couple of weeks with him back in 1999 cruising around southern England and Ireland. That was an amazing trip.

I consider Stuie an important teacher of mine. He has helped me immensely.

In the video he was talking about how most people are trapped in an unseen prison, a matrix and that if you can’t leave for the airport in 15 minutes, you’re not free.

He is referring to the prison in which a person lives a life that consists of a continual and never ending feeding.  A life within which we are so shut down and blinded that we never see what is really going on.

We are lost in a zombie like trance, feeding the hunger of a never ending quest for bigger and better homes, cars, and things.

It’s not our fault. We’re born into it, into the tribal emotion of our people. But our culture is changing and its people have become less and less self-reliant and more dependent.

We are beginning to have a mindset of entitlement and a willingness to accept more control. We exchange our freedom for the comfort of our prisons…..

But what Stuart is really saying is: can you just get up and go? I mean drop everything and go?

Not too many of us could.

But I think there are degrees of freedom.

By freedom I really mean self-determination, having no one to answer to. Living how you wish, where you wish, going where ever you want, whenever you want, just living life on your own terms. Being free.

Generally, living this type of lifestyle requires three things:  that you have adequate funds, be self-employed and have a low overhead.

Meeting these requirements is not possible for most people.

Therefore I feel that, although Stuart’s 15 minute idea is the ultimate goal, below that there are other levels of freedom.

For instance, could you leave for the airport with a 24 hour notice?

Or would you need a week’s notice or maybe a 6 month notice?

Or would you not need any notice at all as you couldn’t really even go to the airport……?

The idea here is to look at your life and see it in the context of being trapped. I’m not saying trapped in the negative sense where it is painful or uncomfortable, because this prison is not uncomfortable. It is extremely comfortable. Secure, consistent and….. hypnotizing.

The freedom I refer to is so free that it would be really scary for most people…..

They wouldn’t know what to do.

But how would it feel to not have a boss to answer to? To not have to stay on the money treadmill to just make the payments on your “life”?

How about not having to spend 10 hours a day just earning enough money to make your payments, so you can spend 2 hours a day driving the car you don’t own, to the job you dislike, to make the payments on the house you don’t own, so you can eat, watch a little TV and go to bed…. and then get up and do it exactly the same way the next day…..?

Forgive me if I seem excited…..I get a little passionate about this subject.

What can you do to move towards more freedom and away from control and restriction? Restriction that comes from the financial needs you have obligated yourself to, that you’ve collateralized your life to?

What steps can you take to throw off the weight of things and make room for more freedom?

The way I see it is that we are all on our own individual journey. Sometimes being hypnotized and on the treadmill is what we need to experience in this lifetime.

But if you’re like me, I don’t do treadmills and I can’t stand restriction.

I’m working towards the 15 minutes notice.

www.stevengriggs.com

Poverty Keeps You In The Present!

No Limits | The Freedom Coach

Poverty Keeps You In The Present!

Written by Steven Griggs |thefreedomcoach.com

My sister just returned from Ethiopia after living there for 19 months. She went over to take a position as President of a 3000 student college. Many things transpired during her stay which is a story in of itself. 


She learned a lot about the corruption and mind set of the local business people towards westerners.

The people of Ethiopia are wonderful, quick to smile or laugh and big hearted.  When I visited for a month last year I experienced this every day.

My mother and I had many adventures on our two week trek through the north and northeast parts of the country.

We went in a Toyota 4x4 on dirt roads almost all the way,we had many adventures, with many breakdowns, fantastic historical spots and ancient ruins. It was an unbelievable trip!

What I came to see was that because the people live at the subsistence level, their days are filled with fetching water, gathering firewood or dung, moving their flocks of goats or sheep to forage along the roads, harvesting crops or doing whatever they can to make a few Birr.

They are entirely focused on survival. There is little or no future thinking, no media to speak of. Most people live in shacks with no running water or electricity.

So they only know about the outer world from relatives who have moved away or live in the few big cities. They don’t really have the concept of “a better future” . Because they live basically the way their ancestors have lived for millennia, there is no “future” to dream about and plan for, their focus is on simply meeting their needs for that day.

This it seems, is the secret, they are only focused on the “now”, and this leads to their lighter outlook on life and more happiness. They are only dealing with getting enough food, taking care of the the family, and making sure they all make it through another day. Simple. Fulfilling. No future thinking.

My sister became this way when after losing her driver (you would never want to drive on the streets of Addis!) and cook, she was forced to ride in the blue Volkswagen type buses that run all over Addis Abba, creating a kind of unofficial transportation system. They are all tightly packed with riders, all crammed in for the short run up to the next cluster of blue buses.  Most of the time she was the only westerner in sight.

There wasn’t prejudice, they treated her like she was one of them, they spoke to her in Amharic and expected her to understand and know what to do….. Those are big assumptions! My sister understood a little Amharic and could get her message across and survived, but she eventually developed the same mind set.

Get through the day! After a while, she was so absorbed in just living that day that she became calmer, more accepting. At peace.

You don’t have to live in Ethiopia to get this, you just have to stay in the present, be appreciative and thankful for what you have.  

Don’t forget to say thank you every day.

www.thefreedomcoach.com

The Rise of The New Illiterate

No Limits | The Freedom Coach™

The Rise of The New Illiterate

Written by Steven Griggs |thefreedomcoach.com

"The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn. "                                                                                                    Alvin Toffler 

What was the last novel you read? When was the last class or seminar you attended?  Have you become so immured within a sleep walking life that you are operating on auto pilot, your connection with learning is simply parroting the most recent gossip from the latest TV show or tabloid front pages?

Are we becoming merely sound bite repeaters?  Are there any original thoughts floating around in our minds?

Or have we become content to dwell in a superficial haze of specialness and media pollution, content to drift through the days……

Whenever possible I believe we need to step out of our comfort zone and do something we fear…. or at the very least, learn something new. 


What’s on your list? When will you do it? How committed are you….?

If you are ready, you will and if you’re not……..?

http://www.thefreedomcoach.com