News 
Personal Empowerment
February 15, 2024
What does personal empowerment mean to you? It's a term used to describe a person's ability to control their situation. It is not just about feeling as though you are in control over your life but also taking action to ensure you are reaching your goals. What impact do you have on the world around you?
Lacking Personal Empowerment
When a person does not feel as though they are empowered to impact their own life or those around them, that leads to a wide range of complications:
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You may be letting other people make decisions for you.
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You may lack any confidence in your ability to make your own decisions.
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You rely on others to help you navigate life.
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Behavior patterns change, and you may not feel satisfied with your life.
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Self-confidence often falters, and a lack of self-awareness occurs.
By learning about personal empowerment and how to build it, you can create a life more focused on your needs and objectives.
What is Personal Empowerment?
The term "empowerment" means growing power or becoming powerful. Personal empowerment is the focus on not letting everyone else control you but instead having your own control over your life. That’s not as simple as it sounds, though, because it means having a strong understanding of what motivates you, your strengths, and your overall weaknesses.
It also means you need to create specific goals instead of just living through the day. What do you want to improve in your daily life now that does not align with your beliefs, interests, and long-term goals?
How Do You Achieve Personal Empowerment?
You can use personal empowerment steps like the following to help you through a very specific situation, such as handling difficult situations at work. You can also use these strategies to help you to build a stronger future overall.
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Identify a power goal. For example, do you want to increase your influence over your office? Perhaps you want to focus on advancing your career.
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Grow your knowledge in that area. Understand the situation fully so that you can determine what steps you need to take to influence decisions.
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Become effective and believe in yourself. The next step is truly understanding what you need to do and believing you can achieve that. Once you have the information needed to do this, you can focus on your strengths and weaknesses to help you achieve more of those personal beliefs.
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Improve skill and competence. Work to improve your skill as that can help you to feel and provide more influential support. That often means reaching out to more people and developing a stronger skillset within the target area.
- Take action on an ongoing basis. Work to take some type of action that helps you to grow or tackle the problem. Then, keep going. It is rarely about one single problem or situation but building the ability to keep on going even when you're faced with challenges.
- Always look at the impact you're making. This works as a form of self-motivation, but it also can help you to consistently work to improve. How are you making an impact?
Dimensions of Personal Empowerment
Developing personal empowerment means considering its dimensions of it or specific areas of it that can play a role in your success.
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Work to become self-aware so you better understand how you will react in various situations. Know your strength and weaknesses.
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You have values and beliefs that are important to you, but you may not really understand what they are until you explore them.
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Use your specific, personal skills to help you determine your goal and then work towards it.
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Gather the knowledge and awareness you need of your environment to help you to build your skills.
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Set goals. It is one of the most important and impactful ways for you to empower change in your life.
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Challenge one behavior at a time to become more confident.
Language and Empowerment
The way you think and talk also impacts your empowerment. That is, surrounding yourself with the right language can help foster better outcomes.
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Always be positive. Your self-image is reflected in the words you think and say. Talk and think about yourself in a positive way instead.
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Be active in your language. Don't say "I can; or "I will." Instead, just do it now.
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Don't let others define your identity and set standards for you. Instead, choose words that define who you are on your own.
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Push negativity and criticism to the side. Instead, focus any negative as a way to improve rather than a setback.
It's a Long-Term Process Worth Doing
Personal empowerment takes a long time, as it is not something you can change by making decisions today. View it as an ongoing process that consistently adjusts to your thoughts and needs no matter what stage of life you are in.