How Free Do You Really Want to Be?

By Steven Benedict Sep 24, 2021

How free do you really want to be?

Before you step into a situation, look in the mirror at your own heart and see if you are not the problem.

We are all amazing at avoiding things. But what happens when avoiding turns into consistent running from issues that are inevitable to repeat history in our lives?

Usually when we are facing areas in our lives that seem to be out of immediate control, we try to tell ourselves, “Well, this part of my life is amazing and epic so I’ll just stay over here and if that other part shows up, I’ll just numb it with something else.”

Here’s a great, little self-awareness exercise to try right now. Take a minute and think about an area of difficulty you’re avoiding right now.

See how long you can really mesh through that area before your mind and body turn to doing something else.

This is what I’ve coined called Face and Fight. You see the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Our minds and bodies want to run from everything that is uncomfortable, painful and difficult in every moment, which seems like a great strategy for a temporary Band-Aid for relief of issues.

But in fact, what these types of continuous decisions do is conform us to a life of running.

And if we stay on the run, we never learn to deal with what’s inside or right in front of us; this being at the mercy of our fears and strongholds.

So how do we start to face and fight? When I’ve been running for so long.

Let’s talk about the self approach first. We have to create self-awareness; that means asking ourselves better questions.

Self Approach

1. What am I currently doing right now?

2. Am I avoiding something I don’t want to face?

3. Face it and Fight … (don’t try to shift the storyline you’ve built up behind it; just sit with emotions that arise and thoughts that occur as long as you can.)

4. This allows us to shrink the actual size of its severity that we’ve built up emotionally.

5. Now that we’ve faced it and see that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not such an overwhelming deal, we act like adults and not children to start and implement actions that will delete it from our lives once and for all. {eoa}

From abandonment to abuse, family deceptions, untimely deaths, drugs and alcohol, professional athlete Steven Benedict was confronted with more obstacles before the age of 28 than the majority of people face in a lifetime. Despite the hardships, Steven applied what he learned on the track to remain focused on the finish line. His rules for running the race translate to almost every industry, person and circumstance and his story is a reminder to all who hear it that as long as you still have breath in your lungs, your race can still be won. Outside of track and field, Steven has made his mark in over 50 publications appearing in full features, covers and written pieces. His athletic prowess has put him at the forefront of industries speaking on leadership, corporate productivity, foster care reformation, social emotional awareness and human optimization.

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