Obtaining Real Personal Empowerment
Self-empowerment is defined as taking control of one’s life and viewing the trials and tribulations in a positive light then ultimately reaching self-empowerment
Self-empowerment incorporates cultivating important skills that allow one to determine certain outcomes and produce substantial results. Contrary to popular belief, this is entirely different from just feeling self-empowered, and can be achieved through daily decision making and viewing life trials and tribulations in a positive light. People do not experience self-empowerment until they are able to navigate and change a significant area of their life.
A new model of personal empowerment states that true empowerment is not just a feeling of empowerment, but also includes real-world experiences and our impact on our social surroundings, society, and on our relationships.
Personal empowerment is often misrepresented by placing emphasis on obtaining a subjective emotion in which one feels empowered. However, personal empowerment requires expanding our influence within our community circle, and whether we do so within our significant social environments as consumers, citizens, or within our intimate relationships.
A model that emphasizes having a real-world impact
Researchers Lauren Cattaneo and Aliya Chapman from George Mason University suggested a model for personal empowerment that highlights the actions of the real world that we take and the effect that these actions have on our close relationships and on our social circles. Personal empowerment is great but only if we apply these emotions and feelings in our practical life and obtain significant results.
For example; reading a self-help book may increase your personal empowerment as we feel empowered to improve our relationships but it would not be useful unless you are able to start a dialogue with your partner and unless that dialogue leads you to real improvements in the relationship.
Steps to obtain personal empowerment
You desperately want to feel stronger within yourself and make a significant impact but how can you do it? Let’s illustrate the steps to obtain personal empowerment.
1. Know Yourself
You can take a knock when you feel that you lack the power of your self-esteem and confidence. Self-awareness is important to understanding why you feel this way, and helps you to change your actions and emotions.
You should start by considering your position to control your life. Focus on the extent to which you think that you are the master of your own destiny. You should also observe the outcomes of your life that you perceive to be determined by people, events, or external forces. When you understand this distinction, it will enable you to take responsibility for your own empowerment. You will also begin to create a mindset that promotes growth and learning.
Knowing yourself is the fundamental aspect of emotional intelligence. In the workplace, understanding yourself is a key skill. Getting others “on board” with your vision will be beneficial to achieving your goals.
2. Embrace imperfect moments
Explore your weaknesses and strengths. Write down all the things that you are good at and those things that you think you could be could at. This will help you to empower yourself more effectively. Knowing how to deal with your limitations and building on these your strengths can give you an even bigger boost to empowering yourself.
Failures are the way of experiences that give us the most empowered path to success. As the late Mary Tyler Moore said, “You can’t be brave if you only had wonderful things happen to you”. During times of challenge, empowerment is most deeply cultivated. Uncertainty and failures are essential components to your development and success. You have nothing to improve without having failures in your life. Instead of dissolving under pressure, choose to evolve.
3. Identify your Goals
Spot Identify the areas of your life in which you feel at the mercy of an organization, an individual, or a set of circumstances, including the situations in which you feel you are not happy. If you facing difficulty and are not sure where to start to identify these areas, the wheel of life can easily help you to find a balance. Analyze where you lack the power to handle these situations.
Focus on the areas of your life that correspond to your personal values and are most important to you. For example, you ask for a work schedule, want to take responsibility of your ideal task to increase your experience at work.
Set all these target areas as your SMART goals and make them achievable particularly by focusing on them. According to a research study, when you track the positive effects of the changes that you make, your sense of personal empowerment increases. Therefore, make an action plan for your realistic goals to achieve them.
4. Develop your Competencies
You may depend on another person, such as your boss, to give you the power for the purpose of empowerment. However, sitting back and waiting to be promoted or waiting for an exciting new project may not be the most effective way of attaining this. There is a need to earn the power, which is deemed to be more important for self-empowerment.
To earn this power, you must refresh your existing skills or learn new ones.
Think about the knowledge and skills that you need by revisiting the SMART goals that you have made. These skills could be your qualities like initiative or tact, technical skills such as learning a computer language or a new computer program, soft skills such as conflict resolution or effective communication, or the combination of all three skills.
To prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed, begin with small steps and work your way up to bigger steps to prevent feelings of overwhelming. For instance, you can volunteer for some extra work in the practical field, speak up more often in meetings, or attend a conference or training courses.
5. Network
Achieving success is never a one-man job. Networking is one of the smartest way to move your mission forward.Join a team that keeps you motivated and on track of your goals.
Collaboration is all about incorporation. Success is shared in collaborative environments. To produce successful results, often times, there is a strong the team behind the efforts. Bonding is empowering. When you compete with others it can lead to jealousy, hatred, or anger, which is not beneficial and or helpful to build long-lasting relationships.
6. Claim your space
You can evaluate the success of your personal empowerment by analyzing the effects that it has on your life.
You have already succeeded in empowering yourself if your actions have moved you closer towards your goals.
If you haven’t gotten this far in your journey yet, ask for feedback from your mentors, friends, family members, coworkers, when you begin to take your first step.
Personal Empowerment exercises
The following exercises and techniques are beneficial to supporting your journey during the process of self-empowerment.
Exercise: Whether it’s going for a walk, cycling, or working out at the gym. You will feel good when your body feels good. This will also improve your sense of empowerment.
Find a motivational role model and learn more about how this person succeeds in overcoming their challenges.
Journaling: Keeping a record of your progress will help you to analyze how far you have come and to learn more about the things you can improve upon.
Affirmations: Positive self-talk can help you in terms of attaining a greater sense of self-belief and well-being.
The ABC technique: It This will help you to see the results of negative thoughts and to become more optimistic.
Talk: Talk to a supportive friend or a colleague, if you need an instant boost extra support, and let them explain to you how amazing you are.
Final Verdict
The process of empowerment is not a straightforward method that leads you towards stronger internal feelings of efficiency, but rather a dynamic process in which we must take action, reflect, refine our efforts, and assess our impact. Be open to all possibilities, education, and successes. Pursue the things that you love to do, and include them in your day-to-day routine. Ultimately, empowerment is understanding the failures and hardships of life, and evolving. In order to evolve, you must make the conscious choice to show up and grow in the face of failure, and strive for success.