“True freedom is when you own your own time and space. It enables you to make smart choices to further expand your time and space.”

Re-entry success is all about achieving true freedom - the ability to own your own time and space. With true freedom, nothing can hold you back from expanding your time and space.

While you may encounter obstacles or barriers along the way, with true freedom you can be whatever you want to be - and serve whoever you want to serve. As we'll see in subsequent chapters, you can achieve true freedom if you do certain things between now and the day you are released.

You'll need to focus on those things about your life that are within your power to change. If you'll earnestly focus on creating a new you, you'll soon taste the joys of true freedom.

What's Wrong With You?

As many successful people will tell you, there's nothing magical about achieving success in life. While some people had good luck, most shared a common thread - the drive to succeed.

They discovered within themselves the ability to shape their future according to their dreams and beyond. Above all, their minds are wired for success. They think and behave differently from others.

So what's your problem? Why can't you get it together while the rest of the world is passing you by? What's wrong with you? What's your purpose in life? What do you want to do before you die?

Perhaps there's nothing really wrong with you - it's just not your time to become the best person you can be. Maybe you've taken a temporary detour off a path that's destined to lead you elsewhere with your life.

After all, we all have seasons in life. Nothing is forever, and this too will pass. Did you know, for example, that Colonel Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fame didn't get started in the fabulously successful chicken business until after age 65? He was the ultimate late bloomer!

Create Your Own Season

Just think about it for a moment. Perhaps this is your season to start something new and exciting with your life. So what do you plan to do next? Will you keep following the same old path that brought you here or do you see another way ahead?

Answer the following questions about yourself as truthfully as possible. There are no right or wrong answers - just responses that will help you better plan your re-entry future.

1. What path have you chosen thus far in your life?

          

    

2. What do you like and dislike about your life?

    

   • Likes:

            

      

   • Dislikes:

            

      

3. What path do you see ahead for you during the next 10 years?

          

    

4. If you could be anything you wanted to be, what would it be?

          

    

5. On a scale from 1 (little probability) to 10 (very high probability), what do you see as your probability of becoming what you want to be? (Write down the number that best represents your probability.)

    

    

6. What five things do you need to do to become what you want to be?

    

   • 1.

            

      

   • 2.

            

      

   • 3.

            

      

   • 4.

            

      

   • 5.

            

      

What Do You Want to Be, Who Do You Want to Serve?

As people grow older and wiser, they often make a distinction between being and serving. Ever since you were a child, people have asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up.

This notion of “being something” is a very self-centered idea - it focuses on you as the individual. It’s all about looking in the mirror and developing a strong self-concept of being something. Maybe you want to be macho, sexy, rich, respected, educated, a mechanic, a stock broker, or something else related to a job or career.

To be something fits nicely into a material-oriented culture that emphasizes the importance of being rich and accumulating lots of stuff. In such a “me, me, me” culture, ex-offenders re-entering society have to learn how to survive economically.

They need to get a good job and develop a clean record that qualifies them for credit so they can start accumulating the normal stuff (house, cars, TVs, computers) associated with being something in a material culture.

On the other hand, some people are born to serve others - to help their fellow man and be good stewards. These people want to be useful to others, to make this world a better place for their children and others.

These are the heroes of society, the ones who sacrifice their own well-being for the larger good. Disproportionately associated with faith-based and nonprofit organizations, these people get great satisfaction in giving to others.

We'll re-address this issue when we discuss your purpose (Chapter 5) in life and the importance of leaving a legacy (Chapter 10).

In the meantime, what exactly do you want to be and who do you want to serve in the next phase of your life? How can you get the two to come together - satisfy both your needs and contribute to the well-being of others?

7 Steps to a New Life

Remember the commercial with the stumbling and aging actor who cries out “I've fallen and I can't get up”? The most important part of that commercial is this - the person recognizes that he or she has fallen and needs help!

And help will be on the way if they only purchase that little electronic device that broadcasts their dire situation to those who are in a position to help them stand up on their own again...until they fall again.

Well, you're not being issued a remote device that brings on a 911 rescue squad every time you fall down. If you've fallen and you've decided you won't take the necessary action to get up and stay up (or worse still, you don't realize youve actually fallen!), expect to stay down for a long time. You'll soon be treated like human trash.

While some people may try to help you get back on your feet, you have to do a lot of work to make sure you don't keep falling again and again and telling the same old “I'm really going to change this time” story.

After a while, no one will want to pick you up again and put you on your feet. You've got to take care of yourself by following a new path to success based upon new attitudes, motivations, and drive.

If you've ever gone through a substance abuse rehab and recovery program, you know how difficult it is to make changes and avoid relapse.

Indeed, temptations to abuse your mind (drugs, pornography, anger) and body (alcohol, tobacco, sugar) - both legal and illegal - abound in the free world.

Try as hard as you may to kick habits, relapse is very easy. If you've gone through a 12-step AA or NA program, or an anger management program, you know how important it is to be honest with yourself and others, take responsibility, and admit that you have a problem requiring intervention and behavioral modification.

Frequently falling into relapse, few people with addiction problems ever make permanent changes in their thinking and behavior. But they have to start with being honest with themselves.

For if you're not honest with yourself, you're just fooling yourself that you're prepared to transform your life and develop a new path to self-renewal.

The 7 steps for re-entry success, or what we call “true freedom,” outlined throughout this book are ones that you may have heard about before but never internalized as part of your day-to-day attitudes and behavior.

They've not become internalized and recurring habits - things you do without having to think about them all the time. These include the following steps:

1. Change your attitudes and motivations. (Chapter 4)

    

2. Develop a purpose and plan in your life. (Chapter 5)

    

3. Get smart through education, training, and life-long learning. (Chapter 6)

    

4. Tell a true and compelling story about the new you. (Chapter 7)

    

5. Take responsibility and build trust. (Chapter 8)

    

6. Seek assistance for life-long recovery. (Chapter 9)

    

7. Leave a legacy by being a good friend, spouse, and parent. (Chapter 10)

The remaining chapters of this book examine each of these 7 steps. Each chapter includes exercises for both better understanding the step and internalizing it as part of your re-entry success plan.

If you complete each of these chapters, you should be better prepared to achieve true freedom on the outside. You'll begin creating a future that will be extremely rewarding in the years ahead. You'll never again lose your freedom because you failed to take care of yourself and those around you.

Best of all, when you own your time, you'll be able to expand your space.

 

 

---