“Do not let another day go by where your dedication to other people’s opinions is greater than your dedication to your own emotions!” ― Steve Maraboli
Steps To Achieve Self-Empowerment
Few people would shy away from the idea of achieving self-empowerment. After all, who would fail to benefit from taking their destiny in hand?
And with confidence, clarity, decisiveness, and genuine understanding of their strengths and weaknesses?
It sounds like a recipe for a fulfilling life.
However, just because you want something does not make getting it an obvious endeavor.
That is where this article comes in.
Follow these steps to achieve self-empowerment!
Take Responsibility
There are few behaviors that more thoroughly place the ball in your court than taking responsibility in your life.
This does not mean taking on everyone’s baggage and claiming it as your own.
Nor does it mean ignoring the very real differences in opportunity that everyone possesses.
Rather, it means looking clearly at your circumstances and owning your actual role in them.
Furthermore, it means as Sadhguru puts it, being response-able, or able to respond to the world around you appropriately.
This means avoiding compulsiveness.
And fostering the ability to engage in the demands of life in an efficacious manner.
These actions promote confidence, competence, and ultimately SELF EMPOWERMENT!
Focus on Yourself
You will never know what you stand for, what you value, or how powerful you are until you know yourself!
This knowledge guides you in your life.
Build A Solid Foundation
A building is only as strong as the foundation upon which it is made.
The same is true for an organization, a community, a family, and an individual.
A crucial facet of true self-empowerment is the realization of how intrinsically connected we are to other people and our planet.
By acknowledging the profound importance of this interplay, we can begin to understand our value.
Be genuinely invested in your connection to others and work to build strong relationships.
Focus On Your Race In Life
Instead of focusing on the competitors, concentrate on the ball in front of you.
Do not be preoccupied with the competition and what they are doing or not doing.
You will lose sight of the value of whatever you are doing.
SELF-FOCUS is a key way to empower yourself.
There is no better example of this than Michael Phelps’ victory over a South African swimmer.
He was intent on defeating Phelps and trashing Phelps in the media during the previous summer Olympics.
The South African swimmer did not devote enough attention to his race.
Phelps won because he was focused on the task at hand.
Have Faith in Yourself and Achieve Self-Empowerment
Have faith in your abilities and yourself.
You will be more motivated to achieve your objectives if you have faith in yourself.
You will only be actively refining your capacity to doubt yourself if you spend time doubting your abilities.
Your thinking dictates your behaviors. Spend less time doubting yourself and more time trusting in yourself.
Belief in self is highly empowering.
It drives you to succeed as that self-confidence makes you strong in decision making and goal chasing.
Cultivate Your Intrinsic Motivation
You cannot achieve self-empowerment if you spend all your time looking outside yourself for validation.
Instead, if you cultivate your intrinsic motivation, you will find that noise and clutter drop away, and clarity descends.
This puts the locus of control in your hands, rather than leaving it up to the reactions of others.
According to an article for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the past four decades of field and experimental research, “has found intrinsic motivation to predict enhanced learning, performance, creativity, optimal development, and psychological wellness.”1
If this is not a recipe for self-empowerment, I do not know what it is.
Be Open To Any Possibility
You have the ability and duty to discover the part of yourself where anything is possible.
The more open you are to possibilities, the more creative and imaginative you will become.
If you have a pessimistic, angry, or defeated mentality, that is how you will live.
Closed minds are negative minds.
Closed minds refuse to see a world of possibilities.
They place excessive emphasis on what is not right, what is not occurring, and the lack of opportunity.
Why would you want to live in this manner?
Your views have a direct impact on your life.
Empower yourself by opening yourself up to any possibility.
Clarify Your Goals
Is it possible to reach goals that you haven’t set for yourself?
It seems unlikely.
Contrarily, consciously plotting a course can more assuredly lead you where you want to go.
An article for Positive Psychology confirms this, stating that goals “help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery. In the end, you cannot manage what you do not measure and you cannot improve upon something that you do not properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.”2
Open The Door To The Unknown
The very act of being open to possibility generates personal empowerment.
This occurs through several avenues including increasing engagement in life.
Also enhancing feelings of excitement, offering new opportunities to learn, cultivating self-confidence, and promoting positivity.
According to a study for International Business and Management, “open individuals are sensitive to beauty, imaginative, liberal in values, curious in nature, emotionally differentiated, and behaviorally flexible.”3
Use Your Network to Achieve Self-Empowerment
Collaborating with others rather than competing is another key way to empower yourself.
Networking is one of the most effective strategies to advance your purpose.
Assemble a team of people who can help you fill in the gaps where you are weak.
This allows you to delegate to individuals who can best assist you in achieving your objectives.
Collaboration is all about bringing people together.
Success is shared in collaborative environments.
It Is People Who EMPOWER Others.
It Starts With YOU!
References:
- Di Domenico, Stefano I, and Richard M Ryan. “The Emerging Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation: A New Frontier in Self-Determination Research.” Frontiers in human neuroscience vol. 11 145. 24 Mar. 2017, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00145
- Riopel, Leslie. “The Importance, Benefits, and Value of Goal Setting.” PositivePsychology.com, 14 June 2019, https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-goal-setting/https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-goal-setting/
- Tabatabaei Yazdi, Amir & Mustamil, Norizah. (2015). Empowerment Potential: Big-Five Personality Traits and Psychological Empowerment. International Business and Management. 11. 62-69. 10.3968/7938.