What is personal power?
Personal power is the ability to make choices and changes that can result in a desired outcome. It can be used to create a life filled with purpose and potential. Having power over one’s life means controlling decisions, which can lead to meaningful actions. Personal power is not about controlling others, it is about understanding and using one’s own strength and capabilities to create a more fulfilling life.
How to Develop Your Personal Power?
1-Invest in yourself:
Invest in yourself by acquiring new skills and by cultivating your self-esteem, communication skills, and confidence. A growth mindset means believing that one can expand their talents and capabilities by having an optimistic mindset and working hard.
2-know what you stand for:
If you are not committed to any beliefs, you will find yourself open to any suggestion. Your personal power will dissipate since you have nothing to hold on to. Being aware of what you stand for is recognizing what you value. Values are the emotional guidelines that determine your life, the underlying cause for each decision you make. Values give your life direction, significance, and power.
3-Avoid negative self-talk :
Nothing can be more destructive to you than letting pessimistic thinking overwhelm your mind. Negative self-talk can stop you from taking action, keep you from voicing your ideas and opinions, and stop you from trying something new. These thoughts will drain your energy and when you run out, you will be left powerless.
Pay attention to these negative voices and classify them accordingly. Awareness of yourself is the initial step towards claiming your power. Do not let these restricted convictions control your life and your success.
Related:The Toxic Effects of Negative Self-Talk
4-Stop Stressing :
When you point out that something isn’t working as it has for others, it just takes away your power, making you feel powerless like you have no worth, and like you can’t control anything. Understand that you cannot influence everything. People who are stressed by bad weather, for example, are usually adept at reducing their own capacity they’re so occupied with a dismal day that they forget all the things they do have control over.
Related:8 Ways to Bust Stress in 5 Minutes
5-Accept Failure :
It can be difficult to maintain your personal power when you experience failure. Nevertheless, if you require a boost, simply think about all of the incredible inventions, companies, discoveries, and opportunities that have come out of failure.
Do not be afraid of failure, but rather accept it. A failure is only truly a failure if one does not learn anything from it.
Related:7 Important lessons that you can learn from failure
Related:Why Is Failure Important in Life? ‘ 10 Valuable Lessons ‘
6-Record your achievements :
Lacking power is usually a psychological state, brought about by negative self-reflection and an excessive focus on what hasn’t been done and what isn’t happening.
Changing your perspective and appreciating what you have achieved can help you to understand your own power.
7-Keep boundaries :
To be powerful, it is important to keep enough energy for ourselves in order to take proper care of ourselves. Poor boundaries signify the lack of doing this. Saying “yes” when we actually want to say “no”, letting other people do things that leave us feeling drained and abused, and ending up feeling both exhausted and depressed is all indicative of inadequate boundaries.
Related:Why Is Saying ‘No’ So Important?
8-Get out of victim mood :
The idea of having no boundaries involves playing the role of the victim. We choose to disregard the fact that many of our negative experiences stem from our own choices or even the things we invited into our lives. However, it is not possible to be both a victim and have power. Realizing that you can change things for the better by taking on any challenges you face with other people and accepting some responsibility for the stuff going on between you and them is the moment you become aware of the power you have held all along.
9-Find Bounceability :
Bounceability is the art of bouncing back from hard moments. When you’re down, had a bad day, or nothing’s going right, aim to bring yourself back to a point where you can refresh and start again. Doing so will enable you to progress and tap into your personal power.
10- Practice forgiveness :
Refusing to forgive someone who has harmed you has no effect on them but only on yourself. Investing your valuable energy into thinking about the wrong done to you means that you are missing out on moments of joy in the present.
Forgiveness is the most effective way to gain back your power. It is not meant to imply that what the person did was acceptable, but rather to choose to let go of the pain and rage that impede your joy.
11-Make your self-worth independent of other people’s opinions:
If you derive your sense of worth from others regarding you in a positive light, you could become a people-pleaser. You don’t need everyone to like you or even agree with your choices, so assess the value in any criticism you receive, but do not let any one person’s opinion shape your self-worth.
12-Get rid of excuses :
In order to live a life of self-empowerment and self-mastery, it is necessary to take full responsibility for oneself and one’s actions. Those who achieved success and greatness did not make excuses, they made results.
Success and excuses are two concepts that cannot be reconciled.
13-Tell the Right Story :
Our personal power is influenced not just by our actions, but our emotions. Our thoughts and words can either lead us to success or evoke feelings of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty.
“Do we tell ourselves stories that will lead to success, or do our internal conversations make us feel anxious, scared, or uncertain? ”
How we perceive our experiences affects many aspects of our lives, including our health, our rebound rate, and our ability to cope with defeat. ”
Recognize the stories you tell yourself about yourself, the situation you are in, and the obstacles you face. Guarantee that the stories you tell are those that better your proficiency in the task that you are performing.
14-Watch out for toxic relationships :
An attachment to detrimental relationships can completely deplete you and even leave you constantly ill. If you keep allowing someone else to demean you or hurt you, then you will forever feel disheartened and powerless instead of powerful. And that it’s gonna make you stuck in a never-ending cycle of confirming our detrimental views that we do not deserve respect.
Related:How to Deal With Toxic People ?
Related:12 Signs Of An Unhealthy Relationship
15-Maintain a growth mindset:
To be powerful, one must be informed, and those with a growth mindset are dedicated to learning. Exercise your curiosity and embrace an open mind. Listen to what others have gone through and learn from it. Every day presents a new chance to grow personally. You cannot be an expert in all areas, but with a growth mindset, your willingness to learn will give you the power and cause personal advancement.
Related:12 Ways to Cultivate a Growth Mindset for Self Improvement
16-Create a Morning routine :
Establishing a morning ritual is a great way to give yourself the power and set the standard and aim of the day. Here is how you could start your morning routine.
Related:13 Tips of a Productive Morning Routine
Related:13 Tips To Create an Effective Daily Routine
17-Meditate :
As part of a daily routine, meditation can help to focus the mind and bring a sense of peace. Through regular practice, one can learn to reframe thoughts by being mindful of their breath and living in the present.
Related:How Meditation Will Change Your Life?
18-Have integrity :
Just as positional power can be misused, personal power can also be abused, so it’s important to assess your motives and avoid manipulating people with your appeal or technical expertise. For instance, it would be effortless for an individual with expert power to retain their expertise in a particular field to necessitate others to be dependent on them. This will eventually make others experience animosity, and they will probably forfeit trust in that person.
19-Letting go of blaming :
You may believe that you are entitled to reprove the past, your family, your partner, your parents, the government, or whoever has wronged you for whatever malevolent and noxious emotions have been held inside your body for this extensive period. And you are likely to be right. But hey, it doesn’t really matter now. Do you want to know why?
It’s because holding onto blame can be one of the most detrimental habits. The longer you keep it, the more your energy dwindles, and the harder it is to take back control and be your authentic self. Letting go is the best choice.
20-Replace self-judgment with self-awareness:
Criticizing yourself in a negative manner will leave you feeling lost and unable to reach your full potential. Self-awareness is the key to evaluating yourself without judgment and making the necessary changes to progress. For example, instead of being self-critical when one is procrastinating and calling oneself lazy, irresponsible, or a loser, one should make an effort to tell themselves, “I usually tend to delay tasks and I should now make a concentrated effort to keep my goals in order.” No extra commentary should be made on whether this is either beneficial or detrimental, and one should then do what is necessary to be done. It is that straightforward.