You cannot find freedom by trying to get other people to see things your way. To attempt to convert others to your way of thinking is a thankless, time-wasting task.

If you really want to be free, focus on living your life as you want to live it, without anyone’s permission. What others choose to do with their lives is none of your business, nor is it any of their business what you choose to do with your life. Avoid making demands on others, and don’t allow them to make demands on you.

One of the chief causes of failed marriages stems from one or both spouses trying to control the other. Not a good idea — unless the objective is to provoke a divorce.

As David Seabury so eloquently put it:

“Love is not so simple and malleable as many suppose. Put it in prison and it dies. Restrict it and it turns into hate. Force it and it disappears. You cannot will love, nor even control it. You can only guide its expression. It comes or it goes according to those qualities in life that invite it or deny its presence.”