Are You Living a Life of Personal Empowerment?

There’s more to it than just feeling powerful. By its very definition, personal empowerment is not simply something you feel, but something you demonstrate. To be empowered is to have the ability to take control of different aspects of your life, and influence everything and everyone around you. It’s about being aware of what makes you a unique individual. It’s a matter of embracing your strengths and weaknesses so you can make the best choices in everyday situations.

You have to understand your limitations, strive to develop a profound sense of confidence, and achieve your true potential. Be brave enough to take action, understand your influence, make adjustments, and get real results. It is an interactive process that can be broken down into these four steps.

1. Create your goal.
The path to personal empowerment is paved with a plethora of challenges, which could be amplified if you don’t have a clear picture of what you want to achieve.  Before taking action, you must come up with a goal that’s both attainable and personally meaningful. Take your time and consider your values and the direction you want your life to follow. Establish the outcome you want and let it guide you to make the right choices.

2. Take a step forward.
Once you’ve established the result you want, it’s time to take the first big step. Remember that true empowerment is only possible if your actions have a lasting impact on yourself and those around you.

You will face your fair share of obstacles, but none of them should interfere with your efforts nor set you back. You should embrace hardships and challenges. They teach valuable lessons that will only strengthen your resolve and help you realise what you’re truly capable of.

3.Know your impact.
The fact that success doesn’t come easy might make you think that your time and effort are wasted in an unproductive pursuit for personal empowerment. However, allowing thoughts like this to linger in your head is what really sets you up for failure.

Never let yourself be discouraged every time you hit a rough patch. Once you take a look at the steps you’ve taken, you’ll realise that your life has been changing for the better. You’ll see that, in one way or another, you’ve influenced the different spheres of your life and the lives of others. Take a closer look and you might also see possible areas for improvement, which you can focus on as you fine-tune your approach.

Aside from helping you become more knowledgeable, effective and assertive, this step will encourage you to be introspective and aware of what makes you who you are. It will help you dig deeper into the thoughts that drive your actions so you can draw inspiration from the things you do.

4. Be persistent.
The adage, “try and try until you succeed” couldn’t be more apt.  Even if you’re equipped with impressive skills gained through years of training, experience and education, you’ll find yourself taking action and assessing your influence over and over again as you get closer to your goal. If you stay persistent and committed, you’ll discover that every step is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and become better at influencing others. Always think of failure as a blessing in disguise. If you let it, it will teach you more than success ever will and put you in the best position to refine your efforts and get closer to the outcome you want. Indeed, there is no harm in trying again.

Attaining personal empowerment may be challenging, but it is far from impossible. Depending on your starting point, you may need to make fundamental changes to some aspects of your life.  This process is seldom easy, but its psychological, physical and emotional payoffs are certainly worth your time and effort.

Take these steps with patience, commitment, and persistence; and you will ultimately be empowered to take full control of your life, effectively influence others, overcome all obstacles, and develop a strong sense of fulfillment as you continue to learn and grow.