Let’s begin the world over again.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad number 1114 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. And this message is dedicated to everyone celebrating America’s 250th birthday tomorrow.

Here’s the upgrade:

Freedom may feel fragile today, but upgraded thinking knows freedom has always been fragile—and that fragility is not the bad news. It’s the assignment.

Here’s the story:

The Fourth of July was coming up, and the nursery school teacher took the opportunity to tell her class about patriotism. “We live in a great country,” she said. “One of the things we should be happy is that, in this country, we are all free.” One little boy came walking up to her from the back of the room. He stood with his hands on his hips and said, “I’m not free. I’m four.”

I was born in 1976, a couple of months before America’s 200th anniversary. In the middle of the celebration was a sense of fragility. The stock market had just dropped 50 percent. There were gas lines from oil embargos. A president had resigned in disgrace. Inflation peaked over 12 percent. Interest rates hit 20. The decade ended with 66 Americans taken hostage halfway around the world and held for 444 days. A president called it malaise. Malaise was a euphemism.

A similar story could be told at our 100th anniversary. We were a decade removed from a civil war in which over half a million Americans were killed by other Americans.

And 250 years ago, on the eve of our nation’s birth, a broke immigrant named Thomas Paine was finishing a manuscript in Philadelphia. He had failed in England as a laborer, a sailor, a craftsman, and a tax collector. He arrived with almost nothing but a letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin. In January 1776, he published a 47-page pamphlet called Common Sense. In a country of fewer than three million people, it sold 400,000 copies. And it carried one line that changed everything: “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Six months later, three million people declared their independence.

But here’s what Chief Justice Roberts points out in his year-end report anticipating our 250th anniversary of independence: the Declaration captured an ideal, not a reality. Most of its 56 signers enslaved other human beings. Lincoln said the words “all men are created equal” were placed in the Declaration “for future use.” At Gettysburg, he called liberty the “unfinished work.” At the centennial in 1876, Susan B. Anthony stood up and said women still could not vote. Nearly a century after that, Dr. King stood at Lincoln’s memorial, still holding the same promise, still demanding it be kept. Independence was never perfect, complete, or finished. Not in 1776. Not in 1876. Not in 1976. Not now.

Every generation inherits the fragility. And every generation inherits Paine’s power. It’s always day one. It’s always a new chance to use the liberty we’ve been given to make a better day. The better story to tell yourself is, “I always have in my power to choice to behin again.” Not the whole world. Your world. Your family. Your work. Your town. The promise is unfinished, and that’s exactly why you’re needed. Go begin again today.

Tell me a story of beginning again to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and tell them this joke, “Do you know what American’s favorite tea is? Liber-tea!” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at http://www.fromchad.com.