Power, Freedom and Choice

I have been thinking alot about personal power, because tied to my job I don't feel I have a lot of it. I know, I could quit and make a go of something else, so I am really there by choice, but then again, quitting would subject me to alot of potential financial hardship, so I feel limited in my ability to choose. Perhaps I am just afraid?

Having personal power is paramount to living a life that is fullfulling and of service to others. Unfortunately, there are many ways in which personal power is lost to the individual. Sometimes it is abdicated. Sometimes it is taken away forcibly. And other times it is insidiously squirreled away by the powers that be so that you do not even notice it disappearing until suddenly one day you wake up and realize you are not free, and freedom seems impossible to attain. Freedom seems more than just elusive, it seem impossible.

So what is freedom? Freedom and personal power are closely related, if not the same thing. Personal power and freedom are the ability and the right to choose. Anything that hinders your ability or your right to choose is bringing you down. You are controlled by those things. If you are in a relationship where someone tells you what you can and cannot do, you are not free. Your power is in someone else's hands. If you are tied to mortgage on a second home that you don't even live in and you cannot make other financial decisions,(choices) you are not free and that mortgage controls you. You are powerless to spend your money any other way than on that mortgage. And like me and my job, I am right now powerless to choose to quit. My second mortgage has taken away my freedom to choose to be jobless. I am so clear on this concept right now.