Power

Today just so happens to be the inaugural day for the second term of Donald Trump as well as the Martin Luther King holiday.  Both of these men probably would be considered powerful and influential.

When people think of power, they often equate it with money and position.  Politicians are often thought to have power, as is anyone who can make other people do what they want.

But you can also think of power as the energy needed to heat and cool your house as well as to cook your food and provide light at night.  This type of power is considered essential to human well-being.

Along with these two types of power, I would encourage you to think about a third power: one that comes from within ourselves, which is perhaps the greatest power.  With this inner power comes the ability to formulate thoughts and create our reality.

If you look around you, every manmade thing that you see was conceived of by a person who then took the necessary steps to bring it to fruition.

Now some people might disagree and say that we are powerless over what happens to us in life…like when our car breaks down or when we have to wait in a long line at the store.  And while it is true that some circumstances are beyond our control, we always have the power to decide how to react in any given circumstance.

I remember when my daughter was learning to drive, and I told her she needed to change lanes because the one we were in was a right turn only, and we needed to go straight ahead.  I looked to see if there was a car in that lane, but it must have been in our blind spot.  So we had an accident.

I felt really bad, and my daughter was crying.  The people we hit were furious because this was a new car, and now they would have to take it in for repairs.  I apologized profusely and explained what had happened.  I told them my daughter just had her learner’s permit and pointed to where she was still in the driver’s seat of the car crying.

Then an insteresting thing happened.  They must have remembered how it felt to be a new, unexperienced driver who made a mistake, and all their anger left them.  They became more compassionate, and when they started to think about the situation from another person’s point of view, they softened.  They exerted their inner power to change their reaction to the circumstance.

We all have that power to choose our reaction.  In fact, whenever we make a choice, that means we have power.  A long time ago, I read a parenting book that said children should be given the power to choose between two thing you wanted them to do like either brush your teeth or get a bath.  That worked perfectly with my two older girls, but not so much with my younger son who would declare, “No choice.”  But even not making a choice is really a choice.

I think everyone would agree that people like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. were powerful people, but they wielded a different kind of power than people like Donald Trump, other politicians, judges, or business leaders.

What you need to decide is what you want to do with your power.  Think about who you are and what you think you have been put on this Earth to accomplish.  Then use your creative power to manifest the person you want to be.

Joke: “What do wind turbines think of renewable power?  They’re big fans.” —from https://www.momentumenergy.com.au/blog/10-energy-jokes

Quote:  "Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power." — Tao Te Ching– Dalai Lama

Advice:  Use your power to create the life you want to live.