Why is Being Empowered So Important?

So how can we define the word ‘empowerment’? The dictionary defines empowerment as the ‘authority or power given to someone to do something.’ But I don’t mean the empowerment that is given to you as if it is a permission. I mean the kind of empowerment you give to yourself, when you take responsibility for the fact, that you are indeed in charge of your own life.

Real empowerment is a deep sense of knowing what the best/right thing is to do and having the capability to achieve it.

When individuals have this understanding and confidence in themselves, they become a shining light for others to follow. They also, by demonstration of their own strength, teach others to seek and find these qualities in themselves. This is the kind of activity that will transform a family culture, a local community, a workplace and eventually, the world stage.

Some people think that if you’re empowered, then you never put a foot wrong. I believe we are here with an opportunity to move toward our best self, not to be perfect before we do anything, and making mistakes on the road to empowerment is a sure way to monitor progress realistically; there’s nothing like a blunder to wake you up to just how far you can get from your best self.

We are all on this journey to our own empowerment.

It takes time and careful refining once you’re in the ballpark, to make a sizeable dent in your progress, because personal empowerment, like most other experiential development, is a process, not a task. In other words, it happens over time, and you need to pay attention.

Working toward your own empowerment is vitally important if you want to achieve some key milestones during your lifetime. Things like the ability to:

•   become an authentic leader
•   bring important change to your part of the world
•   be a great and memorable example to others
•   find your own best self
•   help others to find their own greatness …. and many other things.

As a global and local community, we have some serious challenges facing us now, that if not checked and changed, will destroy the fabric of our communities everywhere, and become irreversible if we do not address them quickly. Things like domestic violence destroying our family cultures, high rates of depression and suicide devastating our communities and workplace bullying and harassment destroying our workplace cultures and the lives of those putting up with it.

So why is empowerment so important? 

The individual empowerment of every person is what will strengthen our communities and families, because that sense of ‘knowing what to do and how to get it done’ and how to ‘be your best self’ are the foundations for leadership; the kind of leadership we need in our homes and offices everywhere. Empowerment is the embodiment of leadership, of responsibility and accountability and the behaviours that bring long-awaited change to everyone, like trust and respect, like compassion, care and understanding. And we don’t just need leadership in our boardrooms, we need it at every level of our businesses and in every home in our country.

It’s vital to our future that we address this at the grass roots level and that we do the job properly, that we end up with individuals that will stand up, be willing to stand out and do the things they know need to be done. I do acknowledge here, all those amazing leaders who have stepped up, and are living an empowered life, and making a conscious and influential difference in their homes and offices. But I do believe it will take a collaborative effort on the part of all of us for the World to really become the ‘paradise’ of its potential.

So where is the map you say? How do I find this path? How do I take this journey? 

It is a process, it unfolds before you, it opens you up and makes you bigger in yourself, it shows you a purpose that is more than you and teaches you the ‘commerce of connection’ with others, and the ways to lead and inspire those around you to seek and find their own greatness. You can attend programs which teach the things you haven’t learnt yet, like balancing your head and your heart, and how to understand your limiting behaviours, but probably the best way to start is to do some serious and intense therapy, which will bring you closer to your ‘real’ self and remove the blockages that continue to hold you back.