3 Steps To Empowerment
When you empower yourself, you remove the old beliefs, behaviours, and habits that stop you from being you. Once you believe in yourself, you create your dream life. You stop letting the stories you created during childhood and the stuck energy from your family line unknowingly affect you.
What do you believe about yourself? Where did those beliefs come from? You have patterns of thoughts and behaviours ingrained in your body and mind. But are they serving you well, or are they past their expiration date?
Just like computer programmes, your thoughts and behaviours need to be updated. Don't let them hold you back or slow you down because they are outdated and ineffective.
Understanding empowerment
The word empowerment can be broken down into three specific parts:
Em - to bring into a specific state
Power- to act in a particular way
Ment - the result of an action
Therefore, to be empowered, you need to be in a specific state and act in a particular way to obtain results from your actions.
That can only happen if you know yourself by exploring your thoughts and behaviours.
What are the three steps to empowerment?
Step 1: Your timeline
Step 1 is surprisingly simple but probably the toughest to deal with. It requires you to get to know you, not on a superficial level, but at a deeper level.
Your timeline, from birth to now—the good, bad, and indifferent, is the easiest way to get to know yourself. It lets you visually see how you have been following your patterns —the beliefs and reactions you have created to protect yourself or to reinforce your greatness that you aren't recognising yet.
Your timeline consists of events in your life. Even the type of birth you had can cause you to believe something is untrue.
Such as a client who believed she was unwanted, thanks to being placed in a separate ward while her mother recovered from her birth.
Even at that young age, we create meaning in situations we experience because we don't know any better.
Events such as going to your first school, moving, or the death of a pet or loved one. Your parents divorcing. All have emotional attachments to them, but they also reinforce our beliefs, whether true or not.
It is also important to include the highs and happy events in your timeline, as they will give you insights into how you reacted in those circumstances compared to the lows.
Step 2: What do you believe, and how do you behave
Once you have your timeline, it is time to explore your patterns. What events have had the most impact? As you walk yourself through the lows in your life, ask yourself, what beliefs do I have about myself?
Reviewing your timeline will enable you to connect with your behaviour. We behave in a way that protects us rather than being vulnerable.
Consider whether you avoid risks or are a procrastinator. Do you struggle with confidence or find you attract people who bully you? Do you people-please?
Write down as many behaviours, habits, and beliefs you become aware of.
Step 3: Change your thinking to change your behaviour
The last step is to be conscious of your thoughts as they influence your behaviour and habits. With awareness, you can change your thinking by challenging yourself.
If you know you procrastinate and lack confidence. Start to build your confidence.
Whenever you start procrastinating, ask yourself, 'What do I need to know to get on? I am sure there is a lingering fear, such as I am not good enough or what will happen if I get it wrong.
If it is because you don't know what to do, ask for help or do some research. There are so many places you could check out that will give you the instructions or answers to get on.
Once you understand what you need to do, you become more confident, which allows you to get on. The more you practice building your confidence, the less you will procrastinate.
However, if you don't like doing something, you can decide whether to delegate or arrange for someone to deal with it for you. If that isn't possible, choose to get it done. That way, it doesn’t keep interfering with your progress in other areas.
However, to encourage yourself, you can sweeten the task by rewarding yourself once it’s finished. Or, you can reframe how you see the problem. Focusing on the benefits of completing it. When we focus on the problem rather than the solution or benefits, our lives are more challenging than necessary.
The benefits of empowerment
Consider the benefits when you stop procrastinating…
You would be less stressed.
You wouldn't need to be thinking of the problem.
You could get on to do something that you find enjoyable.
You have more time and energy.
What are you waiting for? Try it the next time you procrastinate or lack confidence. The second and third steps can be used for any situation in which you struggle with.
Empowerment is a state of being that requires action to achieve results. Only you can empower yourself.