'How can you empower me?'
Well, the answer is I can't. Each of us can only empower ourselves. I have been lucky in my life to meet many people who have understood this. They have given me information, encouraged me, and sometimes pointed out where I was going wrong. Sometimes I listened to them. Sometimes I didn't. On occasions I realised the truth of their offerings years later. Some of the things I need to learn in life are very difficult and I still struggle with them. I suspect it's the same for all of us. With our real challenges we live and don't learn. That doesn't mean we can't or won't when the time is right for us.
Giving advice is a last resort. It rarely works. What most people need is to be pointed in the right direction to discover the difference for themselves. 'Just tell me what to do' is OK some of the time. In general it's much more empowering to learn how to work it out for yourself.
We are all influenced by our environment, our upbringing and our life experiences.
We get messages from everything we do or see - millions of them every day. The effect is to convince us we're 'good' at one thing, or 'bad' at another. Experience moulds our beliefs, and we're not always 'right' about what we take from our store of images, sounds and feelings.
Part of the problem, I believe is that 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad' are very relative concepts, and not always helpful. I find it more useful to look at what we do and evaluate the consequences. If I behave this way we get result x. If I behave that way we get result y. But we also have to bear in mind the results aren't always the same. It depends so much on circumstances.
To empower ourselves we have to believe in ourselves. But not too much!
A key to self-empowerment is the willingness to engage in life long learning. The old saying 'You learn something new every day' is one of the healthiest attitudes to have. Like most people I have a strong need to be 'right', but I've also learnt I'm often not. And that what's right for me isn't necessarily what's right for you.
Trusting our own intelligence is very important. Often when we do things instinctively, it's not a whim, but is based on our previous memories, which may well be sub-conscious. In working with my clients I try to be aware of what will empower them and direct themselves to the best ideas, sources and actions which will take them to the next place they want to be to achieve their goals. I'm equally delighted when others do this for me. Sometimes!
Do you have an empowerment experience? Log on to the Mycelium forum and share it!
