Freedom of the mind is the most important of all freedoms.

I really believe that. It’s something I learned both viscerally and intellectually many years ago. While doing a lot of reading and thinking about myself and my mindset, I came across the story of Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor who wrote about his experience and developed a philosophy around it. His ability to maintain mental strength and optimism in the most dire of situations put things in perspective for me. His focus on controlling his mental state, even when the rest of his life was dictated to him, was inspirational. It clarified months of thinking and reflection and I don’t think I’ve ever been the same since.

On the 4th, I headed out on a run and got to thinking about the 4th of July and what it means to me, as an American. I thought a lot about what I want for myself and my ability to achieve those goals. I dwelled on the fact that freedom of the mind, in a country that fosters such freedom, changes how I think about life and its possibilities. Our good fortune in the United States comes from the fact that the right mindset, in conjunction with the structure of our legal and economic systems, promotes innovation, creation and constant renewal. 

However, that freedom and structure comes with a price: self-motivation. In an environment where so much is left free and unregulated, success is not guaranteed. Arguably, “success” becomes an always out of reach target because the process of definition becomes more challenging. When your peers are constantly re-defining success using their own imaginations and your vision of success morphs over time, freedom of the mind can often feel like a burden.

I think that most of us have times in our lives when we forget what it takes to make the most of our freedom. We forget that with the opportunity of a free mind and a society that supports it, we have to work to focus that mind and achieve. With all that we have around us, we forget that we have to go earn what we want out of life.

As I ran and thought about my own ideas of success, I pondered a question: With my idea of success inevitably in flux, how can I be confident that I’m utilizing my freedoms?

Our mental boundaries define us.

If freedom is typified by a lack of limitations on your actions, thoughts and outcomes, your own boundaries are the primary limitations. When your mind is the largest determinant of your happiness, your imagination an engine of possibility and your society a loosely organized support structure for the fulfillment of imaginations, YOU are the only one really holding yourself back.

When our thinking is small and narrow, so are our goals. The freedom to define ourselves and our ideas of success is also the freedom to limit ourselves with our thinking. When we set goals and seek to achieve them, it’s important to know that we’re both drawing lines of accomplishment and lines of limitation. Our true freedom is highlighted when we outperform against our own goals. When we regularly remind ourselves of the fact that we set limitations that can and should be broken, I think we embrace our freedom by recognizing the role we play in actualizing it. Through the process of regularly resetting the boundaries in our mind, we change our view of our limitations.

Which is how my target run of 9 miles became an 11.5 miler. On the 4th of July, I needed to remind myself to set goals and to outperform them when possible, because that’s part of what it means to me to be an American. 

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