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[The following is the full transcript of this episode of Joey’s Performance Tune Up With Joey Klein. Please note that this episode, like all episodes, features Joey speaking unscripted and unedited. This video is captured in one take.]
We're going to talk about freedom in this session. And essentially two components of freedom. What do people tend to do when they're feeling not free? And what are we up to when we essentially feel a sense of freedom, when we feel free within ourself? And the big thing to understand about freedom is that it's an experience of oneself, it's a state, it's an emotion that we feel as we go through life, as we go through our day. It's not a representation of circumstance. And what I mean by that is like a lot of times people think that they're unhappy because they're not free and they have this very immature idea of freedom being that I can do whatever I want when I want and therefore I'm free. And the reason that I say this is a very childish idea of freedom is because that's just not the reality of the world and being a mature adult and leading a fulfilled life.
And so if we really understand that, it's like, listen, you're never going to just be able to eat whatever you want because you're going to answer to being very unhealthy, and cancer, and very non free from a standpoint of being able to do things with the body and go hiking and hang out with your family, you know, you know, be out there exploring the world or whatever it is you want to do with the body. Right. It's like doing whatever we want when we want actually becomes a very non freeing event. Or same thing, I just want to buy what I want when I want. Like so many people live their life that way. And the byproduct of that is debt and financial stress and difficulty such that you can't afford the opportunities that other people, you know, are afforded that manage their finances well.
Or same thing, I mean, if you just do whatever you want when you want in a marriage, like that's going to be a very challenging marriage and your relationship's probably going to end soon and that's probably not going to feel very great for you. As a matter of fact, I don't know any friend that's going to be friends with you if your way of being in the friendship is I do what I want when I want, irrelevant of the impact or, you know, the reality of what that means for you. And so it's like, even though it sounds sort of fun in a fantastical way, that I can just do what I want, when I want, it doesn't actually work in practical application if we stop to break that down. And so what happens is when we think that freedom is, I get to do what I want when we want, we inadvertently focus the mind on all the things that we're not doing that we think we want to do, or all the stuff that we don't have access to that we'd like to have. And then the focusing on the absence of all those things has us feel very confined or imprisoned, or the byproduct of anger and all these other painful emotions and experiences of oneself start to, start to erupt, start to show up.
The individuals who experience the most freedom, like, as an experience of themselves, it has nothing to do with their circumstances. I've actually had the opportunity to train people who are imprisoned for life, and they've gone through the trainings, and I've met people who are in prison today. I had a mother some time ago come up to me and say, Joey, your book and your training. I made that available to my son, who's incarcerated for life, and he's more free than he's ever been in his entire life. He might be in prison, but he's free because he wakes up in a joyful state, and he sees opportunities in front of him every single day. And I was like, well, share with me what opportunities he sees, because I was kind of fascinated by her sharing this with me. And she's like, well, he wakes up and he's like, well, I can work out today, and I can do my best to take care of my body today, and I can direct my mind today on beneficial things, on positive things. I can make a difference for the other inmates, and I can be a positive influence on them and on their life. For the time that I have here, I can make a difference. And the waking up and focusing on possibility, opportunity created an inner sense of freedom, even though he was actually imprisoned.
And so I know I give that as an extreme example, but we can all fall into the trap of obsessing about or focusing on the things that we can't do or the things that we don't have access to or that we're not able to execute on in this moment. But if we turn that around and we go, okay, well, what is the mind doing? Like, what am I focused on when I feel really free? And we focus on the fact that we have choices, that tends to be a common theme that relates to freedom. Here are the choices that I have, right. I can do this or that. I can work out or not. I can keep this job, find another job. I can do this career or that career. I can date this person or that person. And when we start identifying all of the choices that we have in any given day and the freedom in which we have to make whatever choice we decide on, we start to realize that we have a lot of freedom. We're focusing on all these possibilities, all these openings, all these different realities in which could be our reality or our norm.
And so a big theme that goes with freedom is, what are the choices I have today? And start focusing on the options that we have every day because they're limited. If we start paying attention, we start really asking ourselves, hey, what option do I have? What can I choose here? And then the thing that we choose isn't a confinement. It's the way that we design the life we want to live. It's the way we prioritize our time. It's the thing we're making important above other things. And so that's the second piece, is people who are free tend to focus on where they're going. They're focused on what they're creating. They're focused on, you know, a sense of even, you know, gratitude and appreciation for what they're doing that day, knowing that they're owning their choice. So it's like if I go work out instead of, oh, I wish I didn't have to work out, I hate this process, which is going to feel very non free. You look at that same workout and you go, man, I'm building a body. I'm creating more vitality in my body to create more possibility. And I'm enjoying this process. And I'm so grateful that I have access to the knowledge to understand how to train and how to work out and how to take good care of myself.
And so no matter what it is, if we're focusing on that sense of, I have a choice to make, I get to choose it. And an appreciation, like, find a genuine appreciation for the things that you're doing each day that are your choice that you've made. You're going to feel very free and very empowered, and that's going to give you the ability to truly design the future of life that you want to have. Because the byproduct of freedom is creation. When we feel free, we go, great, what do I want to do next? And you can, you know, paint a picture of life, and you can have that look any way that you want in the future. That's part of your choice that I get to design and create any example of life that I want to aspire to. People who feel non free feel like they're stuck feel like they're caught in their job, feel like nothing's ever going to change. But that's a mindset issue. That's not a freedom issue. Especially if you live in the modern western world today. Like, you have more freedoms than any human being in literally the history of humanity. Like, the level of choice and freedom and opportunity that we have today is unlike anything that has ever been there before.
But even though it's there, doesn't mean we don't always see it. And so we've got to own it. We've got to capture that for ourself. And so the key things to really training freedom and to create an experience of freedom for yourself is, number one, acknowledge the choices. Number two, appreciate the choice that you've made, the opportunity that you're already inside of. And then, number three, leverage it all to design the future of your life and understand that you get to create any future that will one day become the solid reality of your life. And when we're in that expression of life, then we are truly free. And so, just because your life looks the way it does today doesn't mean you can't leverage freedom to create any version of life that you would like to birth tomorrow. But we've got to own our reality in the ways that we're speaking about here. And so play with these ideas, shift your focus a little bit, and we'll look forward to seeing you in another session.