Dr Theodore Fer­gu­son

This Sun­day, we will be con­duct­ing the 13th in our se­ries of month­ly one-day In­tro­spec­tive Re­treats of the Lead­ing From Above The Line pro­gramme. The theme of this re­treat is "Ig­nit­ing Our Flame" as a way of re­mind­ing our­selves that we all have a smoul­der­ing fire burn­ing with­in us which, when ablaze, can il­lu­mi­nate our path­way to per­son­al free­dom and shine bright­ly as we in­spire those around us. Lead­er­ship be­comes a con­se­quence as our lives are il­lu­mi­nat­ed with en­er­gy, zeal and pas­sion. This re­treat will be a cel­e­bra­to­ry af­fair as we mark the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of one year of in­tro­spec­tive re­treats and the com­ing to­geth­er of a high­ly en­er­gised group of vol­un­teers, most of whom nev­er met one an­oth­er be­fore, to help spread the per­son­al de­vel­op­ment mes­sage of Lead­ing From Above The Line. Al­so, at this 13th one-day re­treat we will be cel­e­brat­ing the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of our first tu­ition-free eight-day Lead­er­ship Self-dis­cov­ery Re­treat with the pre­sen­ta­tion of cer­tifi­cates to the par­tic­i­pants. Fur­ther, we will be launch­ing the in­sti­tu­tion­al ve­hi­cle for shar­ing the mes­sage of Lead­ing From Above The Line with the peo­ple of T&T, the not-for-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion, Lead­ing From Above The Line TT. This is an ini­tia­tive of our team of vol­un­teers in sup­port of the thrust to bring pos­i­tive change to T&T and in par­tic­u­lar to the youth. You are wel­come to join us on Sun­day and to be­come a vol­un­teer.

Over the years, I have learnt that per­son­al free­dom is like a flame. It has to be nur­tured and pro­tect­ed con­tin­u­ous­ly. To glow bright­ly it has to be sup­plied with a con­tin­u­ous and clean source of en­er­gy. In ad­di­tion, it has to be pro­tect­ed from the rav­ages of the de­struc­tive forces of na­ture. For too many of us our in­ner fire has been re­duced to dy­ing em­bers buried un­der lay­ers of the suf­fo­cat­ing ef­fects of the spent ash­es of a life of "fight­ing up." Per­son­al free­dom has to be nur­tured and pro­tect­ed if we are to reap the ben­e­fits and to ex­pe­ri­ence the life of hap­pi­ness that we are all seek­ing. The five sources of our in­ner pow­er are the sources from which we can nur­ture our in­ner flame to­wards the at­tain­ment of per­son­al free­dom. I have learnt that we need all five sources of our in­ner pow­er to en­er­gise us along the way. The five sources of our in­ner pow­er are: prin­ci­ple con­scious­ness, pur­pose, emo­tion­al mas­tery, un­der­stand­ing change, and knowl­edge em­pow­er­ment. I have learnt that through in­tro­spec­tion I can be in bet­ter touch with my in­ner self and in so do­ing ig­nite, nur­ture, and pro­tect my in­ner flame and thus achieve a more height­ened con­scious­ness of my strengths and my weak­ness­es. In­tro­spec­tion has helped me to tap in­to the five sources of my in­ner pow­er to help me bet­ter ad­dress my weak­ness­es and to strength­en me even fur­ther. It has brought clar­i­ty on my life's pur­pose and has giv­en me a pow­er­ful rea­son for liv­ing.

I have learnt that pro­tect­ing my per­son­al free­dom, and thus my in­ner pow­er, re­quires liv­ing in a greater state of aware­ness so that I can bet­ter see the threats di­rect­ed at me and the temp­ta­tions to which I am con­tin­u­ous­ly ex­posed. I have learnt that threats and temp­ta­tions will al­ways be there wait­ing to dowse my light and to di­lute my sense of free­dom. I have learnt to see the threats and temp­ta­tions as the smoth­er­ing blan­ket of the de­struc­tive life and that I must con­tin­u­ous­ly grow and pro­tect my in­ner flame.

I have learnt to be more sen­si­tive to the de­struc­tive pow­er of the in­flat­ed ego. It has a way of emerg­ing and blind­ing me to my true in­ten­tions. Sim­i­lar­ly, I have learnt to keep anger at bay rather than al­low­ing it to dis­tort my ra­tio­nal mind. I of­ten re­mind my­self of the words of Robert G In­ger­soll when he ob­served: "Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind." I have learnt that with free­dom comes the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to be of ser­vice to oth­ers, to live in har­mo­ny with oth­ers, and to re­spect and pro­tect the en­vi­ron­ment that nur­tures our com­mon hu­man­i­ty. I have al­so learnt that the more I am in­flu­enced or con­trolled by my en­vi­ron­ment, the weak­er I be­come, the less is my ca­pac­i­ty to sense my free­dom and to ex­press my truth and the more I have to strive for a high­er sense of con­scious­ness.

Grow­ing our in­ner pow­er is de­vel­op­ing the ca­pac­i­ty to ex­press our free­dom and our hu­man good­ness. It strength­ens us to be more moral be­ings. It en­er­gis­es us to con­tin­u­ous­ly strive to lead from above the moral line. Per­son­al free­dom is open to all of us. In Au­gust 2005, I wrote the fol­low­ing:

Free­dom is there for the tak­ing

Per­son­al free­dom is nev­er re­ceived from oth­ers

True free­dom can on­ly be tak­en

The onus is on you to recog­nise your abil­i­ty to be free

To dis­cov­er your in­ner strength

To grow your in­ner strength

And to grasp what has al­ways been yours

And will al­ways be yours

The op­pressed can find that free­dom

The poor can find that free­dom

We can all find our free­dom

The free­dom to be

The free­dom to choose

The free­dom of in­de­pen­dent think­ing

The free­dom of ex­pres­sion

The free­dom to be ful­ly hu­man

Per­son­al free­dom

Per­son­al free­dom is best il­lus­trat­ed in the per­son of Nel­son Man­dela who, al­though phys­i­cal­ly in­car­cer­at­ed for all of 27 years, main­tained and grew the free­dom of his mind un­der the most try­ing of cir­cum­stances. Through­out his or­deal he main­tained his mas­tery of self, his abil­i­ty to think clear­ly, his per­son­al dig­ni­ty, his re­spect for the dig­ni­ty of oth­ers in­clud­ing his jail­ers, and his abil­i­ty to see hu­man good­ness in all. His fel­low pris­on­er, Mac Ma­haraj, made the fol­low­ing ob­ser­va­tion on how Man­dela nur­tured his in­ner strength: "The se­cret, I be­lieve, lies in his abil­i­ty for in­tro­spec­tion in the pri­va­cy of his self." Man­dela was per­son­al­ly free, al­though phys­i­cal­ly re­strained and de­nied of in­ter­per­son­al free­dom. He was tak­en in­to prison with per­son­al free­dom and re­leased from prison with an even high­er sense of per­son­al free­dom. His flame con­tin­ues to burn bright­ly de­spite his years of in­car­cer­a­tion. Lead­ing From Above The Line is a pro­gramme of per­son­al de­vel­op­ment to help us to de­vel­op our in­ner pow­er and to keep our in­ner flame ablaze to­wards the greater ex­pres­sion of our per­son­al free­dom.