What Is Power?
When we say Eye of Power, what do we mean by the word 'power'? In this episode, we answer that question and set the stage for episodes to come.
---
Listen to the podcast here
What Is Power?
What is power? What do you think of when you hear the word power? Is the image positive or negative? If it's negative, why? The taint associated with the word power is associated with the power that people hold over other people, like the power to fire someone from their job, the power to imprison someone, or the power to make rules that other people must abide by. That's not the power we are talking about here in the show. The power I described, let's call that authority.
When we talk about power, we mean another type of power, personal power. We will be talking about our ability to affect the world in the way we think best. When you think of power in that way, how would you answer the question? Would you say it's good or bad? Like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. We can generally agree power can be negative when it's misused. Put to use that may benefit one person but harm others. We might also call it bad when a person uses their power to bring about change that ultimately harms themselves regardless of what they may have intended.
Power can be negative when it's misused. But when it’s used to affect positive outcomes for ourselves and others, it's not only good, but it’s the key to a meaningful and fulfilling life.
When our power is used to affect positive outcomes for ourselves and others, we can reasonably consider that good. I will go a step further. I will say it's not only good but it is the key to a meaningful and fulfilling life. Power gives us our agency. Agency is the ability to make a difference in the world. Ultimately, it's what we all want. It's one of the reasons we live and that's precisely what this show is built to help us see.
Tools like this come in handy because the nature of power is elusive. Philosophers argue whether free will our ability to self-determine our fates is even real. An implication of that is if we don't and we are more akin to complicated machinery controlled by our genetics and programmed by our surroundings, our power is mostly illusory.
At our level of understanding, the truth is we don't know. Be that as it may. I find more use in what one of the smartest humans in history, the Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed many years ago that it's more beneficial to embrace the concept of free will than to reject it. Since at least his time, humans have observed that a rejection of the free will model degrades morality and thus increases human suffering. For our purpose, which is to increase our power, we will accept the existence of free will and go from there.
With free will we create agency and its companion responsibility. I'm going to take that one step further. Not to claim that I know it to be true, simply in reaction to the observation that we are better off when we think this way, and that is this. We have control over the circumstances of our lives. We are the authors of our life stories.
We may spend some future episodes on that point. It's a juicy discussion at the least but foundationally, even if we can point to instances that seem to undermine the claim, it's clear that the more responsibility we assume for the world we create around us, the better. By that, I mean this. The more responsibility we assume, we will become more useful to others. We experience higher quality relationships. We have greater freedom to invest in pursuits that grab our interest and enhance our life experience.
The Eye of Power model is a tool meant to help us discover those inner elements that obscure our vision and sap our power. What are those elements? They are the reasons we are conflicted, unable to make positive changes we know will make things better. Everything we do together is intended to uncover them and take the actions that will free us from their limiting effects.
What Is Power: The Eye of Power model is a tool meant to help us discover those inner elements that obscure our vision and sap our power.
Our power arises in two related forms and is applied in two directions. One form is what we think, feel, and believe. That's what creates our attitudes. The second form is the actions we take. The two forms are interrelated. Actions affect attitude and attitude affects action. These are directed either inward toward ourselves or outward toward others. In the Eye of Power model, we use these relationships as the starting point and the playing field to describe the ways in which manifest our agency. We call it the power grid. We then look at how things go well for us and how they don't.
One other thing about the nature of power and the effort to increase it isn't an individual sport. Why? It’s because we can't see our blind spots. To break through the limits imposed by the things about ourselves we can't see, we need help. We need mirrors. We will talk about the four mirrors of power. Here's a sneak peek. Some of the mirrors are other people. That's why we do this work together with people on their journeys. We help them. They help us. It's a beautiful thing. Together, we got this. We are all on our way toward our full agency, our power, and where we live the lives we were made to live.