It’s Independence Day — Are You Free?

By Walter Bond, Hall of Fame Business Speaker & Former Big Ten & NBA Basketball Player

This week, we celebrate the day, back in 1776, when America issued its seminal document, the Declaration of Independence. This declaration was a statement that the United States was a new nation, that we would no longer allow ourselves to be bound by British authority, British Rule. That we were ready to strike out on our to determine our own fate.

Think about the battles the early American settlers had to fight to establish our country. Think about the determination and resolve they had to have in order to come to a new land. They took great risks to leave their homelands and to make an ocean crossing in order to free themselves from constraints – both external and internal — that kept them from reaching their full potential as human beings.

As you celebrate Independence Day this year, ask yourself: in your life, in your job and in your career, are you free of self-imposed constraints? Are you merely trying to get by, unwilling to challenge the status quo that is neither as productive as it could be for your employer or as rewarding to you? Do you have a vision of how things could be, but afraid to break free of your comfort zone, to speak up and take action to make your vision reality?

From time to time, we all find ourselves in a rut of one kind or another.  We may still be moving forward but within the bounds of a channel that keep us moving in the same direction, and that even keep us from seeing above the edges of the rut to find a new direction.

It’s very hard to break out of the rut – just as it was for the settlers who came to this continent, and just as it was for the British colonies that become the United States of America.  What it takes is a belief that things can be better, fire in the belly and the courage to fight any obstacles to make a change to a better path.

So take this holiday as something more than a day off from work. Take it as an opportunity to look at your own circumstances: How happy are you with the path you’re on. Do you have a vision of how your company could be more efficient and productive?

Do you see a way to make that vision become a new reality?

Most of our biggest challenges are those we impose on ourselves. We tend to hold ourselves back from growth and change.  Just like the American colonialists, we must fight to grow, we must fight to change.

In the spirit of July 4^th, write on your heart your own declaration of independence from all that is holding you back.  Recognize that you owe it to yourself to be free and that no one can stop you but yourself.

 

The post It’s Independence Day — Are You Free? appeared first on Fleet Management Weekly.

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