Personal Power; we all have it whether we realize it or not. Those who are keenly aware of it and understand its purpose utilize and grow it consistently. Highly effective individuals possess a zealous sense of their personal power. Those who are unaware of it and whom do not understand its purpose consistently give away or allow others to rob them of their personal power.
My experience has been that the more in tuned you are with
your Personal Power, the more pristine your clarity and the more effective and
impactful the results you achieve. The goal of this article is to raise your
awareness and increase your understanding of your own Personal Power and what
it means to your success.
What is Personal
Power?
First, let’s define what we are talking about.
Personal Power is the ability to master your fate
by choosing to lead and direct your life from the inside-out. In this vein,
your value system is your compass by which you move; while people and circumstances
may influence you, only your choices based on the set of principles that you
live by determine your actions.
Develop Keen Self-awareness
In order to fully exercise your personal power, you must first seek to increase your self-awareness. You must know thy self. If you do not know yourself – what makes you tick; it will be difficult for you to increase your power. Knowing who you are and what you stand for are crucial elements to succeeding in this area.
Following is a mini-guide to help you better understand what I’m driving at when I say seek self-awareness.
- Develop a Personal Mission Statement – this basically means that you work on outlining your purpose in life. What are your unique abilities that you will utilize to add value to the people around you – to the world? How do you create and distribute value through your true gifts and talents?
- Lean on your strengths – all of us have certain qualities and abilities where we excel. These are the characteristics we display most often and/or the abilities that cause us to stand apart from most. It is important that you hone in on these qualities and abilities and use them to enhance your journey and your growth, thereby increasing your personal power.
- Admit and work on your shortcomings – many individuals cannot admit let alone endeavor to work on their shortcomings. Do not waste your time making excuses for yourself or justifying your shortfalls. Instead, own them and seek new ways to improve upon them. Looking for ways to grow and change and improve yourself in any way already puts you light years ahead of the game in increasing your personal power.
- Let your core values guide you – especially at the times when you face tough choices, fall back on your core values. If your decisions are not in line with your core values, choose a path that is. The more you do this, the more your power and influence will increase because you are firm in your beliefs. If you simply knock about at the behest of the winds that blow, you will become wayward and misdirected. Your core values – your principles – are your compass by which you should make all decisions.
- Do what is true for you – this is so powerful; the best way to be at peace with your
decisions is by first accepting the consequences of your choices. As long
as you do what is right and true for you, learn to live with the
consequences. If you can do this more often than not, you will experience
a profound and positive shift in your personal power. All choices come
with a consequence – positive or negative. If your values are grounded in
correct principles, you should see way more positive than negative
consequences.
Dispel the illusion
of complete control
Many individuals often believe that they are in complete
control of every circumstance and even the people in their lives. Even when
they say that they don’t believe that, they often act like it. I know I have.
That’s right; you can only control you. The way you affect changes is to first work on yourself and you affect others and circumstances as your influence grows. Once you begin to understand this concept, your mind opens up to new possibilities. You have to realize that different things move people; there are many choices at play all around you. You must learn to simply focus on your choices and your actions; this is how you increase your personal power and influence.
If you focus on controlling other people and circumstances, it tends to be easier for you to lose control of the one thing that you actually control – YOU. What we do have is the power to influence other people and circumstances through the choices we make. When you understand the principle, you can quickly see that your main goal is to focus on your personal growth in order to increase your circle of influence.
Complete control is an illusion – forget about it. Just
focus on controlling you and your circle of influence will grow to the degree
that you grow personally.
Focus on what you
can change and influence
What you can change are you, your circumstance and thus your station in life. These are the things that you can choose to act on and make changes. Your personal power grows each time you achieve success in one of these three areas of growth.
What you can influence are the people and circumstances
around you. Essentially, focusing on changing yourself and circumstances first
will automatically expand your range of influence. The more successful you are
at improving yourself, the more influence you will command.
First seek to improve your personal growth and achieve your goals. With a clear picture of your desires in mind, act on helping others through your gifts and talents to find what they truly desire. If you can create and distribute value through what you do and as you grow, your personal power will increase.
The point is to make you aware that spending energy on things that merely concern you is a waste of time. Things that only concern you are usually the things that you cannot change and/or over which you have no influence. It is ok to have concerns as long as they do not drive your actions. If your concerns are driving your choices, it will impede your growth and hamper your personal power.
The fact is that the more you concentrate and changing yourself and influencing the people and circumstances around you, the more your personal power will increase. Also, when your power increases, things that once existed in your circle of concern will begin falling into your circle of influence where you can effectively affect them.
If you find this the least bit confusing, think of it this way…
You are the catalyst in all things you desire to achieve. If
you can focus on your own growth, your area of influence will grow much more
quickly and you will be able to affect change in areas you once could not. Real
change occurs from the inside-out and your personal power grows in the same
way.
Stand on your core
values
To stand on anything other than your core values is like standing in quicksand. You will eventually sink.
This does not mean that you do not value others’ points of view; it simply means that you make your choices based on whether or not they align with your core values. If what someone else believes is not in line with your core values then my recommendation is that you do not follow.
The hardest thing to do is to stand on your core values when the odds are against you. This is also the time that it matters most; when it seems you stand alone. The truth is that you are never alone when you have good core values to back you up. It may hurt to do it sometimes in the short run; however, my experience is that the pain has always been worth it in the long run.
Your core values – your principles – are the compass that guides you. These are what help you to make good decisions. They can easily clear up confusion because they are (or should be) clearly defined.
Your core values are the blueprint to how you live and how you make your choices. When the chips are down, this is where you should be looking before you make tough choices. This way, no matter what happens, you are able to look in the mirror and smile back at yourself knowing that you made the right decision.
While others may influence you and have a positive impact on
your life – your choices are based on your core values. If you are unsure about
what your core values are, my recommendation would be to take some time to
figure that out. You may start here
with this article.
Empower others to
increase their personal power
As Stephen R. Covey puts it “Help others to find their voice.”
One of the most effective ways to increase your personal power is to help others increase theirs. This means that you share your knowledge and experience with others.
There are so many individuals searching for a new way – a new beginning – and an empowering word or two from you might be the difference they’ve been waiting for. To keep your knowledge and experience to yourself is not only selfish but also self-defeating. You learn so much more when you share what you know and furthermore, you open up space for more knowledge to enter.
The more you teach, the more you learn; the more you share, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more your personal power increases. This also goes back the expansion of your range of influence. Think about the ripple effect of having a positive impact on just one human being if each person only shared with one other person. Your circle of influence increase more than 1,000 fold each time you share your knowledge and experience with someone else.
When you help others to find their voice, you ultimately find yours. It is a natural law – a universal principle.
Remember that the more you can increase your personal power, the greater the impact you can make on the world. The difference we make while we are here is the legacy we leave behind for the next generation.
What do you want yours to be?
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