The Secret of Personal Power

Personal power is a popular concept and an elusive reality. We need to know, “What is personal power itself?” Is there a reason some people have it , seemingly without effort, while others can seek it for years without success?

I believe the secret of personal power lies in one thing: the ability to manifest your inner world. Powerful people create the situations where their beliefs, aspirations, ambition, and abilities mesh. There is a seamless connection between the life they experience "in here" and what is happening simultaneously "out there." This mirroring effect is part of the world's wisdom traditions, but let me discuss it in contemporary terms.

No one can say how it happens that events "in here" become manifest "out there." But even without an explanation, it's self-evident that some people actualize their deepest desires. To say that they "create" the result they want isn't quite accurate. The creative action is performed in consciousness alone. This is the insight that wisdom traditions have reinforced for centuries, that consciousness can manifest anything it wants. So why doesn't it? Why do some people experience the spontaneous fulfillment of their desires while others appear to be hapless and without power?

 The answers lie in each person's awareness. Imagine that instead of being a special, or even magical, ability, the connection between reality "in here" and reality "out there" is a natural aspect of consciousness. This implies that the mirroring effect--where what you experience on the inside is pictured forth on the outside--is occurring all the time. If this is so, then personal power can be explained more easily.

Personal power increases when:

You remove the inner obstacles and resistance that block the connection between "in here" and "out there."

You have clarity of purpose and intention.

You have first-hand experience of the silent depth of the mind.

You exchange allegiance to the ego for allegiance to self-awareness.

You understand that consciousness is impersonal and universal.

You stop struggling and allow awareness to carry out your intentions through its own mechanics.

You surrender ego-based needs like the need to control, to be right all the time, to win under every circumstance, etc.

You are open-minded and develop a sense of detachment so that awareness can expand.

You turn your core beliefs into actions that those beliefs support.

These are traits of personal power expressed as skills that can be learned. No one has control over your awareness. You can choose to live with expanded awareness or constricted awareness. If you choose expanded awareness, then the actions listed here will start to come naturally, and personal power will follow. On the other hand, any step taken toward constricted awareness will act against personal power, as follows.

Personal power decreases when:

You allow personal obstacles and resistance to persist by not examining them.

You hold confused or even contradictory intentions.

You experience your mind only at the surface level of constant activity.

You pursue "me first" and "more for me" as your chief motivation.

You consider yourself an isolated individual struggling against other isolated individuals, each pursuing their narrow self-interest.

You approach life as a constant struggle or a competition that selects out the natural winners and losers.

You gratify ego-based needs like the need to control, to be right all the time, to win under every circumstance, etc.

You have closed your mind to other points of view and possess a certainty about your own viewpoint.

You have no solid core beliefs that are activated in your everyday life.

One could expand both lists indefinitely, because there's a world of difference between someone whose mind is growing and evolving and someone who has become complacent about living with limited awareness. In the end, it's a matter of experience. We all want to know what works and you can't acquire the benefits of expanded awareness until you experience the reality that lies behind the words. Personal power isn't the only benefit; in fact, it's not even a major goal so much as the automatic result of learning that your awareness has the power to create your personal reality.