Finding Your Freedom

This post is long overdue, and for that, I owe Frost an apology. I've had a lot of eventful things happen to me in the past several months, and I simply haven't found the time to sit down and read his advance review copy of his book, Freedom-Twenty-Five: A 21st Century Man's Guide to Life that he emailed my last November.

Thanks to some bad weather cancelling a planned hunting excursion for today, I decided to finally get around to doing what I promised Frost I'd do before he departed for Thailand in search of freedom and personal fulfillment.

So here I am, two hours later, having sat down and read Frost's first foray into publishing self-help lit, in a single sitting.

I must say, it was better than I anticipated. His style is easily accessible, and it's a relatively quick read at 152 pages. Frost's literary voice comes across like the personal advice from a big brother or a wise old uncle, sharing his hard won knowledge with a member of the younger generation over a few beers.

This, I think, is the right tone for him to take, given his goal he states quite clearly in the opening chapter:

This book is a wake-up call for our generation. Its goal is to set you free.

From what exactly? Well, that's where things get interesting. The first step on your path to freedom is identifying the chains that bind you. This is difficult if you've been bearing their weight for so long that you no longer notice the burden.

Some chains are easy enough to recognize. Are you fat and weak? You probably already know you'd rather be fit and strong. Are you poor? You already know that you want to make more money.

Other chains are more subtle.

If you buy this book and read it (and I certainly recommend it, especially for young men in their teens and early 20's), whether you agree or disagree with Frost's premises and proscriptions, one thing is for sure: his book will certainly make you think about things in a new light and perhaps identify patterns and behaviors that you mindlessly engage in. It may make you realize just how many things in your life are nothing more than playing the role of a script that someone or something else has written for you. As he wrote:

This book will ask you hard questions like these, because they are catalysts for introspection and lifestyle changes.

Frost, like many of us in the alternative blogosphere, had an epiphany: that the people who write the script of our Brave New World Order that directs us on how we SHOULD live our life, are not really interested in having we the sheeple develop true health, independence, self-reliance, and the confidence and self-esteem that comes from true personal achievement.

No, indeed, it is quite the opposite - unhappy, distracted, unhealthy, confused and incapable of forming meaningful relationships in the real world IS the script they want us to follow. This leaves us susceptible to the true motive: to make we the sheeple nothing more than consumers and human resources.

It is the script that is both consciously and subconsciously directed by our mass media society, government and educational indoctrination institutions.

In short, Frost is relating to the reader how he realized how much of his existence was going according to this script written for him by the social engineers of our Brave New World Order, and how he decided to rip it up and write his own script.

I had a crisis. I realized that I had spent my entire life working towards pre-defined goals: Making other people think I'm cool; getting good grades; getting this or that degree; getting a good job. But I had never stopped to consider whether they were worthy or not. I had never actively considered what my goals were, rather than what other people decided they should be.

I'm more than a decade older than Frost. In this respect I envy the time he has gained in comparison to my own epiphany that I had in my mid-30's. Frost discovered these hard truth's at an earlier stage in his life, and he quickly realized that life is too short to simply follow the standard script. So he went about acting upon the revelations he gained and put a plan into action to find his own freedom.

BEWARE: Reading this book may give you similar inspiration and cause you to radically alter your life.

The most appealing aspect of the book Frost does not come across as an insufferable know-it-all telling you that there is only one path to happiness and success, and that he's got it all figured out. The best advice he gives in the entire book is this:

No single guru will be able to give you all the tools you need to create a set of systems and routines that work best for you personally. Instead, you'll have to mix and match advice from a variety of sources and tailor your own approach.

Freedom-Twenty Five is about how one man did his own research and self experimentation to find what works for him. With this hard won knowledge, he created his own set of systems and routines that work for him personally. He offers you an example of how he did it for himself, and he urges you to do the same and experience the same positive results he has.

If you take away just one idea from this book, I want it to be this: You have more options available in your life than you think. Many of the paths that you've ruled out only seem impossible or difficult because you've been conditioned to see them that way. Break free from the mental prison, and alternatives to mediocrity start to appear everywhere.

If this is the primary goal Frost set out to achieve in writing this book, IMO he succeeded. This book may very well be the wake up call a young man needs to avoid conforming into the typical life of a virtually disconnected, mindless consumer and corporate human resource.

I have a few young men in mind who I think could greatly benefit from reading it, and I shall be giving it to them in the hopes that they too realize that their own freedom and chance at personal fulfillment is in their hands. Take a chance and give it read, you might too.