Do you know what the healthiest, happiest people in the world have in common?
They all have a strong sense of personal power. Personal power is a person’s ability to act by choice to produce specific results in his/her life. World renown motivational coach Tony Robbins even developed a whole self improvement program based on this, called Personal Power.
The mental health field uses words like "self efficacy" and "internal locus of control" to refer to personal power. It is more than the ability to act; it is also having the belief that those actions make a difference, produce results, and are significant in the world.
Depression, despair, frustration, and related negative emotions are most often the product of believing that one is powerless, that one’s actions do not make a difference either in his/her own life or to the world. We want personal power so we do not feel helpless and hopeless (precursors to suicide).
So how do we get and increase personal power? We practice a simple system (simple, but not effortless):
1.) Know your desired results -- simply stated: What do you want? Funny as it may sound, most people don’t know what they want. Knowing what you want
*gives you clarity and focus
*triggers your brain to look for/produce specific results.
2.) ACT. Take action. Move. Go. Do something. Action
*generates momentum
*increases your self-esteem.
3.) Evaluate your results. Are these actions working? If they are not working, you are getting an education. If they are, you are getting results.
4.) Modify actions as needed. Repeat successful actions until desired result is produced.
How do we increase personal power? DECIDE to act and then ACT. Doing so:
*increases confidence
*increases results
*motivates more healthy productive behaviors (momentum)
*LEADS TO SUCCESS!!!
To prevent discouragement, we must accept that developing personal power and becoming healthy, happy, and successful is a process -- a simple process, but not an easy one. You do have to put forth effort, but to borrow from the popular phrase, "Inch by inch, it’s a cinch!"
Samantha Scott is a gifted, Master’s level counselor whose personal mission is to empower others to reach their highest potential by providing quality educational materials, mentoring, and coaching. She also writes the value-packed inspirational newsletter Proactive Wellness. You can learn more about her and her services at http://www.healthandwealthtips.com
