What Does It Mean To Own Your Power?

What are the stakes when we own or squander our personal power? What does it look like when we are powerful or powerless? In this episode, we begin the discussion about the ways we gain or lose our power as we look toward increasing our agency in the days to come.

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What Does It Mean To Own Your Power?

Do you feel powerful? What makes you feel that way? Perhaps that doesn't describe how you feel now. Maybe powerful is the last word you'd use to describe how you feel. Most of us can relate at least a little bit to both emotional states. What marks the difference? What precisely is it that makes us feel our power or feel like it's somehow unavailable to us?

When we feel powerful, what we do seems to work out. The things we manifest, meet or exceed our initial aims. The sails of our lives seem to fill with wind. There's a sense of motion and that motion makes sense to us. We know where we're going and why we're going there. We're confident in our ability to perform, whatever task may be required to move or keep moving in that desired direction. We look around and we like what we see at least as it relates to the things over which we have some control.

It stands to reason then that when we feel powerless, the opposite should be the case. We feel powerless when we don't like our current circumstances. The things we do don't seem to result in improvements. We feel disoriented, confused, and stumbling through the fog of uncertainty. At the lowest points, we lose the confidence that we can make the changes necessary to gain clarity to move to a better place. We may feel physically or mentally weak, even exhausted.

When we feel powerless, the opposite should be the case.

If it's persistent and stuck in a feedback loop we can't break, we may suffer clinical depression. Maybe the powerlessness feels imposed upon us. It could be a physiological imbalance of some kind. We may feel like we're under the thumb of somebody with authority over us. In cases where that authority acts in ways that rub against our perceived values in interests, it feels oppressive. None of that feels very good, does it? When we're in those circumstances, we tend to do whatever we can to get away from them.

As I suggested, most of us can relate to both of these states, at least to some degree but have you ever experienced the extremes? What does utter powerlessness look and feel like? It would be like a prison, like solitary confinement. We'd have no use of our faculties whatsoever. We retain our body and mind but we can't do anything with them. We can't influence anybody. Nobody hears us or cares a wit of what we think, feel, or say. We can't make anything happen. We'd be dependent upon someone else to even go on living. I don't know how you might react to that picture but to my ears, that sounds like a compelling description of hell. It's profoundly sad to me that some people experience these circumstances as the reality of their lives.

Let's turn to a happier picture. What's the opposite of that low energy and low impact existence? Physically, we'd be healthy and strong. We'd have seemingly limitless energy of endurance and vigor. We can go all day working to make what is in our hearts and minds a reality. Mentally, we'd experience uncommon clarity. We know what we can do and we do it where we see gaps between our capacities and what is necessary to make our dream real. We find creative solutions. We learn and grow. We marshal resources and gain allies. We inspire people of like mind to work together in alignment. We get stuff done. We experience our full agency. A much better picture, isn't it?

Let's turn to the next question then. How do we move away from the first scenario toward the second? What are the things that lead us away from powerlessness and in the direction of our power and agency? Power of any kind requires energy. The more energy we generate and direct, the more power we wield. Perhaps the first factor in building our power is our physical health and well-being. We need to do more of the things that build our vigor and less of the things that sap it.

Owning Your Power: Power of any kind requires energy. The more energy we generate and direct, the more power we wield.

This also applies in the realm of our mental health. The clearer our thinking, the more useful the models we use to navigate through the world and the more we can do too. This means that one habit we can build that moves us toward our agency is learning. We can examine our beliefs and habits to improve them. We build our agency as we refine our understanding of the inner and outer realities of the world. This is where we might best invest our time and energy as it relates to increasing our agency.

In upcoming episodes, we'll take detailed looks at the classic and common things that get in our way. For now, let me ask you, do you have any habits you'd like to change? Are you in what you consider to be optimal health? Are there any skills that if you build them would help you achieve an important aim? If you answer yes to any of those questions, I have a tougher question for you. What are you waiting for? After all, the ways to achieve these outcomes are not kept secret. We generally know what to do.

Do you have any habits you'd like to change? Are you in what you consider to be optimal health? Are there any skills that, if you build them, would help you achieve an important aim? If you answer yes to any of those questions, what are you waiting for?

In the case of optimal health, it’s these habits. Get proper nutrition by eating healthy foods. Don't introduce toxins through unhealthy processed foods, unnecessary drugs, excessive alcohol, or other neuro-stimulants. Maintain proper sleep habits and use our body in some way to maintain strength, flexibility, and endurance. Practice moderation as we find outlets to release stress.

In the case of skills, get instruction and then practice them. Mental health may be trickier but when we do the first two things, we at minimum move in the right direction. If there are things you know you could do to move in a better direction, why not just do them? Another way of asking this question is this, how much control do you have over your thoughts and actions? Let's say for a moment that you don't have full control. Why not? Where did it go?

These are the questions we explore with the eye of power. We look at the ideas and emotions, the traps, as well as the capacities, that build our ability to exert our willpower and make whatever change we decide and make it stick. My hope is you'll join us on the journey. To my way of thinking, it's a journey home. It's the journey we were born to take. That's why it feels so much better when we have agency and so miserable when we don't. Let's go.