Your Personal Empowerment Is Knowing "Who You Are Makes A Difference"
https://www.ispeech.org/text.to.speech
I believe that we all have been endowed with the seeds of greatness and that no matter where we find ourselves we are always in a state of becoming more. Part of the process of living our dreams and becoming what we came here to become is to recognize our personal power, that is, who we are makes a difference.
I talk to many people in my coaching practice, who are, as Emerson says, leading lives of quiet desperation. They know there is something more to life than they are experiencing but the can't seem to get their arms around what it is. I wonder how many of you have desired to make some major change in your life or had ambitions and goals you've always wanted to achieve, but you've decided to settle for less than what you know in your heart that you are really capable of achieving.
It is my pleasure to share with you some ideas that have had a powerful impact upon me and generations before me, the common thread for each of us is the recognition that, Our Power is in Our Thoughts!
In one of the latest versions of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen's Chicken Soup for the Soul, entitled Life Lessons Living the Law of Attraction, co authored by Jeanna Gabellini and Eva Gregory, I share my story of a woman who had no idea at the time that who she was could make a difference to anyone she was trapped in her own misery.
That woman was me. I did not know the meaning of personal power. I certainly did not believe that who I was could make a difference in my life nor in the lives of others, nor did I realize that I had unintentionally orchestrated every negative condition I was experiencing.
My life was a mess! I married at 19 right out of City College. A marriage that was plagued with problems from day one. Soon after we were married his children due to circumstances beyond their control came to live with their father and I and our 2 new babies in our tiny 2 bedroom house. The pressure of trying to make ends meet on a minimum wage even with my husband working 2 jobs was almost unbearable.
I was constantly consumed with worry as I went to work everyday as a bank teller, a mother with 7 children ages new born to 14 years of age.
I would worry whether in the Spring I would be able to celebrate the Easter Holiday and give the kids baskets and new Sunday shoes and prepare a decent meal.
I would worry in the summer time whether when it was time to go back to school that I would be able to afford back to school clothes and many times I couldn't.
I would worry in the winter months whether the tattered roof on our house would be able to withstand the rain and whether I would have enough money at Christmas to give the kids a decent Christmas, and I couldn't.
I began unknowingly cultivating an attitudes of hopelessness and powerless. It seemed as if whenever we'd make the slightest bit of progress something awful would happen to throw us back further. Our home was burglarized 7 times. But the last time was a defining moment in my life. It caused me to take a look at where I was in life and wonder what was happening to me and ask ... why? Why me? Have you ever found yourself at rock bottom, living in a way that you never imagined you would and then stepped outside of yourself and asked what is going on with my life?
If you're reading this and are at that place right now, CONGRATULATE YOURSELF! YOU ARE AT THE PLACE WHERE SOLUTIONS AND NEW REALITIES ARE STRUGGLING TO GIVE BIRTH IN YOUR LIFE!
Michael Beckwith reminds us "You can break yourself free from your hereditary patterns, cultural codes, social beliefs; and prove once and for all that the power within you is greater than the power that's in the world"
So next, I am going to present to you 4 very simple but profound strategies that can empower you in ways you never imagined possible.
Strategy # 1 - We Must Understand Our Power
Do realize that if you can think and feel you are creating? That you are either creating by intention or by default. In other words you are either unconsciously creating circumstances you may or may not want happen in your life, like I was, or through deliberate focused thought and feelings you are intentionally creating that which you desire.
Claude Bristol reminds us: To create power is like a magnet. This is true because this creative power operates like a magnet. Give it a strong clear picture of what you want and this creative power starts to work magnetizing conditions about you, attracting to you things, resources, opportunities, circumstances and even the people you need to help bring to pass in your life what have pictured.
Until we fully understand our inherent gift of creative personal power we become like the elephant who was eventually freed from the 20 foot leash after decades and never knew he had the power to break the leash at any time. He could have gone anywhere his heart desired but he did not know, and he did know he did not know. Today YOU KNOW!
I can still remember as a young woman the feeling I had the first time I was told I had the power to change my circumstances. I felt that if this were true I had the key to great possibilities! It almost felt too good to be true. When there were times I just couldn't get myself to believe it, I could at least believe that my mentor and coach believed it, and sometimes that was enough for the time being. Finally, when I began to see that my power to control and direct my thoughts was also my power to recreate new realities, my life began to change almost immediately.
Strategy 2
Understanding How IT Works
It's not the words alone that have creative power but rather the emotion behind the words and thoughts that dictates the outcome.
Think about it, examine your life right now and trace back your dominate thought and feeling patterns over the recent months or years. Can you see an amazing likeness between your past thoughts and your current conditions?
As a young woman I would pray for better circumstances with my words but I was unaware that with my thoughts and feelings and beliefs I was praying for personal devastation, poverty, limitation and frustration because I allowed the negative circumstances in my life to dictate what I gave my focus to and that became my prayer. I like the elephant, did not know and didn't know I didn't know.
James Mitchell reminds us that "worry is like praying for something we don't want to have happen" The idea we give our mental focus becomes animated with life.
How can we create more abundance in life when we are focused on limitation? How can we create beauty, peace, security and self fulfillment when we are constantly focused on what we perceive to be missing?
Sarah Ban Breatnach says: "It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend, when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present, love, family, friends, work, joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure, the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth "
Strategy # 3
Activate YOUR Power
If you doubt that you have the personal power I'm talking about to make changes in your life, then how about considering that you do, in deed, have the power to think about what you want to think about?
I was giving a seminar and I asked the participants to pull up a memory that gave them joy, that made them smile when they thought about it.
I'm going to ask you do this now, close your eyes and just go deep into your treasure chest of memories and pull up a memory where you can remember how joyful or exhilarated you felt in your past.
OK what came up for you? Write it down. At my seminar one woman said it was the birth of her son and she felt as he lay in her arms 19 years ago. One person said it was her first love, she remembered the butterflies and the good feelings she had at that time. One man said it was during the times of connection with his God. He said he felt bliss and inexplicable joy. The whole energy of the room shifted as we were sharing, people were fanning they felt their body temperature seemed to rise as they basked in the joy of the moment even thought it was a very cold raining night.
You see, they were intentionally up-leveling their emotional energy and by doing so they were activating their personal power. You see as they felt lighter and lighter their good feeling thoughts were attracting other good feeling thoughts. Now they had energetically arrived at a place where that had access to inspired ideas and could attraction resources and support. Here's what happens. Have you ever had a fearful thought or worry? Your thoughts went something like this, what if this happens or that happens? Then you think if that negative thing occurs it's going have this or that negative impact and then your thoughts begin multiply like bubbles in a bubble bath. The same thing happens with positive thoughts.
It is essential in taking control of our lives that we begin taking control over what we allow ourselves to dwell upon! Why? Because our thoughts and emotions turn into our words. Our words turn into our beliefs and our beliefs turn into our behavior and our behavior turns into action which produces a result or a reality for us.
In my own personal transformation I began to read uplifting books and listen to inspirational and motivational tapes and think about these Universal Principals and as I did this I began to notice a shift in how I was feeling. I liked it! I read and listened more and more and began to believe that how I was thinking and feeling could make a difference in my circumstances. The unexpected bonus was this, if by chance there were no changes, at least I was feeling better inside. But things did begin to change, I have since learned that feelings have a major impact on the circumstances that show up in our lives.
So in step 3 Activating Your Power, ignite change by taking control over your thoughts. Monitor your thoughts by noticing how they're making your feel. When you realize that you are feeling down, irritated, angry or frustrated or any low level emotion, take a moment and track where your dominate thoughts have taken root. What are you focusing on that is making you feel dark inside? You may have noticed, I did say to take a moment track what is going wrong in your life. No take note on what you placing your focus, because circumstances are fluid and subject to change based upon where we placing our focus.
Now go to work refocusing on what feels better, always reaching for the higher thought. You'll recognize when you have taken control back because you'll feel better. Now you have arrived to the place where answers and solutions are available to you.
Strategy # 4
Notice, Anchor and Sustain the Positive Outcome
When we are able to maintain this higher feeling place of gratitude and expectation of good, knowing that regardless of the appearance of the conditions in life, answers and options are available to us and on the way. When we arrive at this place we have found the key to creating the circumstances which express our hearts desire.
The process in this strategy is designed to keep us moving forward, to assist us in maintaining the highest level possible in our emotional energy. So how do we do this?
We begin by keeping an Evidence Journal. An Evidence Journal helps us to actually notice that our desires, our goals our dreams are coming into reality, that our positive prayers are indeed in the process of being answered.
Have you ever planted a seed in your garden or in a pot? How does it feel when you see the first sign of the petals of a plant? Excited? Proud? Filled with wonder of how a seed could actually render a strawberry plant? Whatever good feeling thoughts that are generated when you see the evidence of your garden coming into form are supporting the blossoming of that plant. It is the same with your dreams and desires.
As I began to take control over my thoughts and emotions I noticed corresponding changes in my outer circumstances, they were small things at first. Like one day I received a small unexpected refund check from one of the utility companies, or my groceries would be less because of an unexpected sale on some item in my basket and because I was looking for new realities to take place in my life I would document the smallest blessing which caused me to feel more and more expectant that my desires were actually unfolding and right before my eyes.
Then one day something totally unexpected occurred. We receive a call from someone who we hadn't spoken to in years. This guy and my husband were both involved in security on a major department store in the area. He was now handling the awarding of contracts to small businesses for a big builder in town and he was in need of a security patrol company for a low income apartment complex which was being built in our area. He said to us that if we were able to get a private patrol license and few top guards, there was opportunity for us to launch our own small private patrol company and provide protection for his site. This would change our lives !!!
Wow this was the first big evidence that something was really manifesting! So we applied for the license and got it! I immediately began to feel this was it! This was my answer! This change of thought thing was working, I had activated my personal power by redirecting my thoughts and emotions and it was working !! My new thoughts were giving birth to new opportunity I was so excited because the process was working!
As we prepared to go into business. I began looking at myself with new eyes, like the person I could be rather than how I had perceived myself to be. I began to align myself with the spirit of the Creative Source of the Universe and embracing possibilities. I started walking differently, talking with more confidence and authority and something was happening and I had initiated it! This was huge !!
For the next several weeks my focus was completely on the possibilities about to unfold. I began to prepare for my good! I was going to need an office. I had no money, my house was going to have to do. I borrowed a desk from my mother and a typewriter (this is before computers) from my best girlfriend and I began walking and talking and most importantly feeling like the CEO of Wanda Elaine Incorporated! All I needed now was that contract and we were on our way. Our life was about to change, we were going to be able to fix the roof and buy the kids new clothes, get our car fixed and maybe even get a new one .. I had big plans!
Then one day the phone rang and it was him! Tears filled my eyes as I heard him say, "Sorry guys you did not get the contract, they awarded it to someone else". For a moment I saw my dreams disappearing right before my eyes. Disappointed? Devastated? Discourage? I think not! Because while I was waiting for the contract to be awarded, a transformation had taken place within me. You see, I was working on myself and somehow I had experienced an inner shift and had gained a new sense of self confidence and now I believed that I had the power within to go after and develop business on my terms. I went into action the next day prospecting for business.
Everyday brought some greater good some piece of the big picture, you see I had made an emotional pivot. Fear was turning into faith and faith was creating new realities. Ten years later my company had provided employment for over 3000 men and women and I was forever changed with a new awakening that who I was integrated with the Divine Power within and focused thought had no doubt made a difference in my life and the lives of many .
For many years I have share my story and these principles through private coaching and motivational presentations. My story received national coverage in US News & World Report and 7 other magazines, along with a documentary entitled "Women in Uncommon Businesses" as well as many appearances of television and radio.
It fills my soul to serve as a conduit for Spirit to support others on their journey to becoming all they were meant to be.
To own a audio download of this presentation please visit http://www.life-energized.com and click on "My Store".
By Wanda Peyton
by Wanda Peyton
Gloss