How To Attain Total Freedom

0:28So, hey, guys, are you frustrated with where you're at right now?

0:33This is the Ed Milet Show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. So this is now the Ed Milet Show 2.0. And one of the things that most people don't realize, unless you've been listening to the show for a long time, is that when I originally released the Ed Milet Show, it was not an interview show. And so what I would do is every week I would create content where I would share a message about a particular topic with the audience. And that was what really got the show to take off, was my own content. And then we slowly moved into interview sort of formatted programming. And so many of you have asked, could we go back and have a weekly message, you know, 15 to 20, 25 minutes on a particular topic every single week.

1:10And I'm allowing you through my Instagram at Ed Milet to submit your questions anytime you want. We'll do solicitations on there, but you're welcome if you do that to submit the different topics you'd like me to cover on the show. And so here we go. We're going to do the Ed Milet Show 2.0. And I'm hoping that you'll share this as many times as you can with people that you think it's valuable for, that you believe in, that you love and care about. And so today we're going to talk a little bit about suffering and suffering in comfort. And many years ago, my friend Wayne Dyer shared a story with me and I tell it a little bit different and I use it for a different purpose than him.

1:42But I want to tell you the story about the four philanthropists. And so many, many years ago, there was this war going on in this village and in the village, the people that lived there lost the war and all of the men in the village were imprisoned. And the prison was actually in the village. And so imagine all of the husbands and brothers and sons were imprisoned in the very community that they grew up in. And there were these philanthropists, there were four of them that all wanted to come along and live their destiny, live their purpose and make a difference in the world. And so one of the first philanthropists came along and found out that all these men were sleeping in very uncomfortable conditions.

2:21And there was, you know, they're sleeping on rocks. There weren't adequate mattresses and there wasn't great pillows or anything like that. So he said, I'm a very wealthy man and I'd like to help these men in the prison suffer in a little bit more comfort to give them some comfort in their suffering. And so I'd like to donate pillows and mattresses so that they could sleep comfortably. And the prison agreed and he donated all the mattresses and the pillows so these men could sleep in some comfort. And he felt great. He felt like he fulfilled his purpose and his destiny in life and made a difference for these men.

2:52The second philanthropist came along and found out that the men were bathing in terribly dirty water and were drinking this water and were becoming, you know, malnourished and were dehydrated because they couldn't keep the water down. And he said, listen, I would like to donate clean water so that these men can have a little bit more comfort in their suffering. And so the prison agreed and he donated clean water to the prison. And he felt great about the fact that he felt like I fulfilled a purpose. I fulfilled my destiny. I've made a difference in these people's lives. The third philanthropist found out he lived in town.

3:28He was a farmer. And he found out these poor men that were once in the community that were now living right there in this prison were eating terrible food. It didn't taste good. It was unhealthy. It had some maggots in it from time to time. And he went to the prison and said, listen, I own a farm. I grow fresh food. I would love to be able to donate the meat and the eggs and the produce and the vegetables to these men that are in prison just to give them some more comfort. And the prison agreed and allowed them to donate the food. And this man donated the food. And now the men were eating healthy food that nourished them, that tasted good.

4:05And now he felt great about the difference that he made and felt like, my, I fulfilled my destiny as a person. But then the fourth philanthropist came along. and the fourth philanthropist, he was a saint. And the fourth philanthropist did something very interesting in the prison. He went and got the keys and the gift he gave to the prisoners as he came along and he had the keys to unlock them from the prison he was in and he unlocked it. And all the prisoners were released from the prison and no longer suffered at all. He fulfilled his destiny. He fulfilled his purpose.

4:51And I share this story with you because in my opinion, so many people are suffering in comfort, meaning they're constantly trying to add things, even though they're suffering in their life. They do things to feel more comfort in their suffering rather than alleviate their suffering, Rather than what I'd like to think that my show or myself or what I'm going to share with you right now, I have the keys to unlock you from the prison that you live in. The prison of our minds, the prison of the emotions we don't want to feel. The prison of feeling like we're less. The prison of feeling like my life doesn't matter.

5:24The prison of not having a sense of direction. The prison of feeling invisible. The prison of always beating ourselves up about our previous sins or mistakes or setbacks or failures. The prison of being worried about what other people think about us. and so many of you and so many of us in our life stay in this prison that's in our minds, and the entire time, all we're trying to do is, man, if we could just sleep a little bit better, if I could feel a little bit better, if I could eat a little bit better, if I drove a little bit better car, if I had a little bit cooler friends, then my suffering, I'd have more comfort in my suffering, and there's this thing in our culture right now where so many of us, all we're really trying to do is have a little bit more comfort, but we're suffering.

6:09And I believe suffering comes from a place in our life where we're not pursuing our dreams. We're not pursuing our potential. We're not giving ourself the gift of what's already within us, which is love and bliss and peace. And we're pursuing these things. We're pursuing that car, that truck, that relationship, that amount of money, that title, that prestige, that like on social, that following. So that maybe as we're suffering, we feel a little bit more comfort. There's these moments of happiness, moments of bliss, moments where we feel okay, but we live in a prison of our own making in our minds.

6:45And I believe there are keys to just simply the simple process of unlocking the key and walking out of that prison and you never need to live in it again. And that's really what my show's all about. See, the prison is living in fear. The prison is what are people going to think about me. The prison is living someone else's dream. So many of us right now are pursuing something or in a career that we didn't even really choose. Our parents chose it or people thought we'd be good at it or we studied it in college and so we're stuck in it or we've started a business and we're running it and it was originally our dream, but we just suffer every day in this dream that's probably right now if we checked in and started over is no longer our dream.

7:27dream. How many of you right now, as you're driving in your car or running on the treadmill or watching this on YouTube, relate where you're like, I am suffering. I'm in this prison that I've, it's my making. It was my dream. I no longer have. It was my parents' dream that I'm living. It's a job that I know I don't want to do. It's emotions every day I don't want to feel, but that I have create this pattern of feeling these emotions. I have a, see, in our lives, we have these emotions we're going to get on a regular basis, no matter what the conditions are of our life. There's five or six emotions we're always going to go get.

7:59So if our addicted emotions are pain, anxiety, worry, suffering, anger, depression, angst, nothingness, we're going to find a way in our life in a given week, no matter what the conditions are, to get back into that prison of those emotions. Don't you? Don't we? We find a way to do it because we're addicted to that pattern of the emotions. And most people, listen to me, will live their entire life and get to the end of their life. And only at the end of their life, realize I suffered in comfort and I could have ended my suffering at any point. I held the keys. God held the keys the entire time.

8:38I could have simply unlocked the gate. I could have unlocked the door and walked right out. And I believe that door, those keys are the following things that It's your faith. It's connecting if you don't have one, connecting to something you believe in that's bigger than you. In my case, you all know that I'm a Christian, but whatever faith it is that you choose, that faith is a pathway. It's part of the keys of getting out of the prison. It's the keys of getting out of the prison. Part of the keys is finding a dream that's our current dream, not our past dream, not our parents' dream, not our friend's dream, but our dream right now.

9:15Ask yourself a question. Check in. Am I now living in a prison of my own creation? It was a job I chose I don't want anymore. It's a degree I'm pursuing I'm not interested in. It's a business I started that now that I've done it, it's not for me, but I'm still in it and I'm suffering in it. But I get a little bit more comfort with a little bit more money. I go to a concert. I've got good friends. Whatever the thing is you do, I get a good bottle of wine on the weekend. Whatever you do, you smoke weed, whatever your thing is. All you're doing is trying to just be a little bit more comfortable in your suffering.

9:50I believe the key out of that prison is to pursue something that's your purpose and your passion and your calling and that your heart tells you to do. I also believe it's pursuing something that takes advantage of your natural skills and abilities. The prison can be what other people think about us. The prison can also be oftentimes holding our past failures and mistakes like a weapon, almost like most of us hold this gun to our head regularly and we remind ourselves of our mistakes, of our sins, of our past. And we believe those things disqualify us. I believe the other way out of that prison is to accept your worth leaving the prison, to accept you weren't born to be in that prison.

10:28I believe that. To chase your purpose and your dreams, to live your life on your own terms. See, you hold the keys to this. And it's almost like this in life. Wayne said this to me one time in life. There's like this life is like this massive hundred room mansion with all these experiences and things we could be seeing and doing and trying and learning and expanding. And many of these things may not even be a business. It might just be a hobby. It might be a pursuit. It might be an interest. It might be a curiosity of yours. These are the pathways, curiosity and chasing that curiosity and learning something new and trying new things and experiencing something different, giving everything.

11:09See, total freedom in life, total freedom being out of the prison is a total commitment to something. People think, well, if I get into a totally committed relationship, I lose my freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. Total commitment gives you freedom. Well, if I get totally committed to my business, man, I'm going to lose the freedom not true. Total commitment is the keys out of the prison, half commitments, halfway committed to a relationship, halfway committed to a business, halfway loving what you do. That's the prison. That's the lack of freedom. Total freedom is actually total commitment because once you've totally committed, now you're free to create.

11:46Now the options are whatever you want them to be in your life. And so I'm a huge believer that these keys, those are the pathways out of the prison in our minds. Those are the prisons out of our life. See, Wayne said to me, it's like you, life is like this hundred room mansion and we're born into, and we get into this, we've chose this one career or this one relationship and we spend the majority of our life in that one room and a hundred room mansion. Think about that for a minute. All the different experiences, things you could be learning, seeing and doing in your life, but you spend almost every day, most of us in the same room, in the same life, in the same mansion of life, with the same people doing the same things.

12:31Suffering. Suffering. And just a little bit more comfort. And you can dress that room up all you want. You can dress it up all you want. You can have the best blankets, the best food, the best drinks, but you're still suffering. You can leave that room anytime you want. There's hundreds of other rooms. In fact, there's hundreds of other mansions that have hundreds of other rooms all over the world. There's a big world for you to experience. My challenge for you today and that pathway out of there, my challenge for you today is to take the keys right now and take those keys and open the door and at least mentally step out for a minute and say, I can end my suffering by pursuing my passion, by giving myself the gift of my faith, by giving myself the gift of my happiness and my bliss by only being around people who love me and believe in me and treat me the way I'm worthy of being treated.

13:26I'm going to begin to treat myself the way I'm worthy of being treated. I'm going to regularly audit my life and take a look at what my dream is now. Not what my dream was when I was 18 or 13 or 25 or whatever your age was. At some point, what's your dream now? If you could dream again now, if you could have the emotions you wanted now, if you could pursue your purpose now, what would it be? Those are the keys out of your prison. You were not born to suffer in comfort. You were born to do something great with your life. You were born to leave this prison. You were born to do something awesome to contribute to the lives of other people.

14:06And your past does not disqualify you. And just because you've been in this prison or in this one room, in this hundred room mansion, and that one mansion does not mean that you need to live there the rest of your life. At any point, you can make a decision to step right out of that place and begin to create again. And by the way, just the visual picture of stepping out right now, if you gave yourself this gift, I'm going to step out. I'm going to begin to create. I'm going to begin to learn. I'm going to begin to grow. I'm going to pursue my passion. I'm not going to begin to just do the same things that cause me to have a little bit more comfort in my suffering.

14:42I want to live blissfully. I want to live greatly. I want to do something awesome with my life. I want to make my dreams come true. At any point, you're one decision away from doing that. And today, I just want to simply tell you that I believe my content, my podcast, the pursuit of your potential and your dreams, and you being that fourth philanthropist for you, for you, you be that philanthropist for you. You be that saint for you. And those pathways again, are your faith or your purpose or your dreams is your courage to change your life is your courage to say, I'm unlocking the keys. I'm stepping out a new person.

15:20And maybe it's the same career. Maybe it's the same career, but it's a different version of you doing it. It's a more positive, optimistic, confident, you doing it, that the suffering isn't the career. The suffering isn't the business. It's the person in the business. It's the person who every day thinks I've got to worry and be frustrated and be angry and be concerned. And I've got to suffer in order to make this work. There's a big difference between pain and suffering. Stay with me. Pain is mandatory in getting somewhere in life. Pain is a primer. Pain teaches us. Pain is temporary. All pain is temporary.

16:01You can survive temporary pain. On the other side of that pain, you meet another version of yourself. I want to be very clear about that. I'm not going to tell you that pursuing your dream, pursuing your life, and life in general doesn't involve pain, because it does. And there's nothing wrong with that. We learn from our pain, and it's temporary. Suffering, however, is optional. Suffering is different than pain. Suffering is living in that prison in your mind. Suffering is being with someone that doesn't love you and treat you the right way. Suffering is chasing a dream that's no longer your dream.

16:33Suffering is chasing no dream and building someone else's dream at a job when that's not what you want. Suffering is not pursuing your interest and your curiosities and your hobbies. Suffering is not being connected to your faith. Those are all things we choose. So pain, that's part of life. That's almost mandatory to pursuing something great. Pain is what makes pleasure feel so good. There's nothing wrong with having pain in our lives because when we get pleasure, it feels a thousand times better. That contrast, that duality, that dichotomy is one of the beautiful things of life. So pain is going to be there, but suffering is of our choosing.

17:08And so many people choose to keep suffering in more and more comfort. And my challenge to you today is to no longer do that and to pursue your dreams, to pursue your potential, to unlock the keys of the prison you've been living in and start to live freely again. I hope that helped you today, everybody. God bless you and please share this message with as many people as you can max out your life this is the Ed Myland show