Six Steps to Growing Your Personal Power

Major illnesses, death and other catastrophes will bring even the most powerful person to his or her knees.

Then again, a series of smaller, yet painful events that seem to come in groups of “What the fuck???” can feel as if they are sucking the sap out of you.

(You know those events; job losses, breakups, car breakdowns, and other unfortunate events.)

Big or small, life’s adventures can sometimes bring you to the point where you wonder how you will ever again see the light of day.

The good news is that no matter what you are going through – if you are still breathing – you can fully reclaim your personal power – no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.

Not only can you find the light of day, you can find yourself living an absolutely beautiful life, despite what comes your way.

The question is if you are willing to do what it requires to build your inner muscles?

If so, then here are the top six ways to do it.

1. Set your resolve to do what you need to do. Developing your inner-strength takes perseverance, diligence and consistency. Make a commitment to become firm with yourself to become more powerful from the inside out. To build self-confidence to keep this sort of improvement going, start small. Even the smallest step, taken daily, will eventually get you to where you really want to be.
2. Accept complete and full responsibility for how you respond to life. While you might not be able to control other people, places or things, you can control your own actions no matter what. You are response-able and that is the beginning of true self-empowerment. Give yourself the space you need to respond to whatever comes up in life in a way that will keep you in full alignment with your highest values.
3. Replace self-judgment with self-awareness. Judging yourself as weak, as a failure or anything negative at all will keep you in the shadows of life, never feeling as if you are enough. With self-awareness, you can objectively and lovingly observe yourself and make corrections to improve what you feel needs improved. For example, if you procrastinate, instead of calling yourself lazy, irresponsible or a loser, tell yourself, “I tend to put things off and will now work harder to keep my priorities straight” – no judging whether that is good or bad, just noticing and then do what you think you need to do. It really is that easy.
4. Surrender. By that, I don’t mean to become a victim. I mean what you resist, persists. Fighting against what you can’t change will weaken you instead of helping you grow strong. Instead, take stock of what you don’t like and accept that is how things are today with the knowledge that you can make things different. There is grace and humility in accepting life on life’s terms. It doesn’t mean you have to like it, it just means you agreeing “this is the current reality” as you calmly and steadfastly choose how to improve that reality.
5. Embrace all your thoughts and feelings. These are very important parts of who you are, and need your love and compassion. Consider them to be the internal weather and computation centers of your mind, body and spirit system. At the same time, WHO you are is the watcher of those thoughts and feelings. That deeper space, your intuition, or whatever you want to call it has a built in GPS that will not steer you wrong. Remain objective and compassionate to what you think and feel, yet remain determined to make choices from that deeper part of yourself.
6. Become more mindful to the present moment. When your head is stuck in the past or worried about the future, you are basically in a prison of a reality that doesn’t even exist. The point of power is in the present, it is the only true time that you can choose how to respond. Develop mindfulness skills and your personal power will increase in ways you could have never imagined.
7. Condition yourself to stay focused. Keep your awareness on what is most important to you and what you want out of life. Then act confidently to get that, only by doing what’s right though according to the highest level of values. When you act assuredly from a point of integrity and honesty, your self-esteem will increase and that is a core requirement for feeling the highest level of personal power.

Finally, for a bonus step – don’t give up. If you are out of practice of using your inner muscles, it’s okay to take small steps to regain your strength and personal power. Be kind, yet firm and keep taking those steps no matter what. This will make all the difference in how powerful you will ultimately become, and you and your loved ones will reap tremendous rewards.

Here’s a video that will help you get started: