You live almost twice as long on Earth than the typical person did at the beginning of the twentieth century. You have an unlimited food supply at affordable prices, never the slightest worry about shortages, unlimited variety, so much to eat that overindulgence now plagues, not just the well-off, but the poor; the poor being more prone to obesity than the population as a whole. You are a recipient of incredible advances in political freedom, freedom of expression, sexual freedom, and freedom from conscription. You can talk to anyone in the world quickly, and relatively inexpensively, know everything there is to know, and think and say whatever you please. Contemporary life in the United States is the realization of utopia.

Freedom’s unintended consequence – Choice Anxiety

If you agree with the previous paragraph, I ask you, “Is all this freedom making your life easier, or are you discovering an unintended consequence of freedom – Choice Anxiety?” Now liberated from the constraint of social and economic forces, you emerge into a potentially anxious dilemma of having so many options that choice itself becomes a problem.

President Bill Clinton (1996 – 2000)

On the first day of the twenty-first century, President Bill Clinton declared Western society had “never before enjoyed, at once, so much prosperity combined with so much social progress.” And yet life experience teaches that pleasant living standards do not insure a broad sense that life possesses purpose. You may have conquered poverty, welcomed the arrival of leisure, and attained a material standard unthinkable four-generations earlier and still feel, “Is this all there is to life?”

If you resemble the remark I am about to make, finish this article and call me in the morning. “Somehow in the process of living with all this freedom, I realize, I’ve gotten lost along the way. I lost my sense of purpose and direction. I lost my capacity for uninhibited joy and celebration; and if the truth be told, I hear a silent suspicion whisper within me, ‘something is not right.’ But what?”

So in the absence of clarity you try making changes. You travel to new places, alter the way your body looks, acquire more, love someone new, and perhaps distract yourself long enough until convinced you feel better. But, with a capital B, the existential crisis returns and you begin to wonder if there is something seriously wrong with you? “Why aren’t I happier? Am I just ungrateful, destined to never be content?”

The truth is pieces of you have gotten lost along the way. But how, where? Some pieces of you may have been taken away, while other pieces were given away, or hidden away, and still others were simply forgotten about. Without these pieces, you are unlikely to experience the qualities of life for which you are searching.

I propose your search to find these pieces of yourself begins with new questions: “What do I want? When am I most content? How do I sabotage myself? Do I have the courage to try again differently? When was the last time I did something for the first time?”

Each Second Opinion article will provide guidance for your private journey long after the July 4th Liberty Celebrations dim. Authentic new journeys begin quitely with new questions, rarely with fireworks.

Look to next month’s article of Second Opinion to provide you with a very effective tool to chart your progress in “X Marks The Spot”.