Success & Inspiration for Entrepreneurs

What is one of the greatest gifts that no one can give to you and no one can take away?
Your personal power.  Often we feel and act as if we are powerless.  But that is never true no matter what the appearance.  

How do we exercise our personal power?  By acknowledging that we have it even when we don’t know what to do in a given situation.  Just saying that to yourself is empowering.  You can feel the difference immediately.  Why do we give away our power?  It can happen in subtle ways.  If we have an interaction with someone and they are critical and we let that bring us down and feel bad we have just given our power over to someone we probably didn’t even like. In that situation you can say to yourself - “Well, that is their opinion.  I don’t share it so I will not give further thought to it.”  That’s taking your power back. In truth no one but you knows what is best for you. I’m not speaking about when we feel stubborn about something but rather when we feel deep inside us that something is right for us. That sense within us has no emotional affect.  It is simply a knowing or feeling about what we need. That is always available to us and it is infallible.

There are other examples on a larger scale and we are seeing it now almost every day.  Whatever side you are on we are seeing unprecedented numbers of people be vocal or join a group to stand up for what they feel is right in a situation. You can share their opinion or not but you have to applaud that people are refusing to feel and be powerless even in the face of large institutions.

Personal power is just that - personal.  It is that sense inside us that lets us know when it is important to stand up and be counted in large and small ways. It cannot be legislated or forced.  So the next time you feel you are less than check out what you have just done to give away what belongs to you. It is usually subtle and you may have to hunt for it awhile.  But eventually you will see how that happened.  Then it’s up to you to decide what to do about it. I am definitely not talking about revenge or anything of that nature. Sometimes the taking back of power is just a realization that you have it.  

I started out talking about an interaction with someone where they were critical of you and you felt bad.  How do you handle that?  If the person is someone you can talk to then by all means express yourself without attacking them.  If you know they will not hear you then the best way to handle that is to realize that is simply who they are.  It is no reflection on you. It’s how they operate and distance yourself from that situation.  Let it go. That is an example of exercising your power. You are no longer affected by the actions of another.

On a larger scale where it doesn’t seem to be personal many times people don’t act because they feel they cannot make a difference.  We’ve all heard it said - “What can one person do?”  or “what can a small group do?”.  It’s been proven historically that a small group of dedicated people can make a huge difference. Sometimes in our history there have been larger groups as we see now. Committed people can wield enormous power.  

Whatever route you choose remember that you always have power within you that no one can ever take away. I think of an extreme example that hopefully none of us will have to experience.  During World War II one of the people in a concentration camp was a playwright.  It is true he had to stay in the camp bit it was what he did with the experience that reinstated his personal power.  He used the experience to write a play called, The Afternoon of Darkness.  His name was Arthur Koestler, a famous man and he told the world. So even in those situations you still have power. You are meant to be powerful in your own life no matter what the circumstances.