You have Superpowers

When you think of superpowers, it’s easy to imagine things like teleportation, invisibility, time travel, mind reading, super strength, flying, or laser eyes.

Several themes accompany these superpowers in pop culture. One is that the superhero often has some darkness or foe they must overcome before fully realizing and harnessing their power. They must develop their superpower. Another is that the superhero generally has an Achilles' heel - some weakness that they must learn to mitigate or live with. Another is that in developing a superpower, a person transforms from an average human into a superhero and has an immense impact for good.

As humans, we have access to superpowers. Not traditional superpowers like in pop culture, but powers, nonetheless, that, when developed, can have an extraordinary impact on our lives and on those in our lives.

There are five things almost anyone has the ability to develop to the point of becoming a superpower:

1. Love
2. Mindset/Resilience
3. Focus
4. Listening
5. Speaking

These superpowers are so graspable! Every one of these things can be developed to the point of being a superpower! The power of these things is so great that they can change the reality around us - in fact, they can even change the realities of those that we come into contact with.

You don’t need to think of these superpowers as having an ‘on/off switch’ that you either have or you don’t. If you can speak, hear, think, and feel, these superpowers are for you (acknowledging that some people have hearing or speaking difficulties.)

Of course, any other capability, talent, or skill you have that, when developed, can be wielded or exerted in a way that can have an extraordinary impact or influence is a superpower (for example: singing, writing, humour, coaching, leading.) There is no practical or scientific limit on how much a superpower can be developed; their potential power, therefore, is infinite. The sum of your superpowers is your potential. Our access to superpowers is why the potential of each individual is so vast.

What conditions are most optimal for the development of our superpowers? In pop culture, we see a superhero like Thor only being able to fully harness the power of Mjolnir (his hammer) once he has proven himself worthy. He must first overcome some darkness in himself.

What is the darkness within that you must overcome to realize and harness your superpowers? Yes, your personal demons, that great monster, the dragon, your personal Goliath must be overcome before you can fully develop your superpowers. However, you do not magically acquire a superpower at the point of overcoming your darkness. Rather, it is the process of learning to overcome that is so instrumental in developing our superpowers.

Why is this so? The development of our superpowers must be grounded in humility and depth of character. Confronting and overcoming our darkness rather than avoiding or running from it teaches us humility and builds depth of character.

Here’s a little thought experiment: Imagine you are going about your life, but deep within you truly believe you are gradually developing a conventional superpower like invisibility or flying. How would this change how you view your potential? How would this change the potential you see for your whole life to change unrecognizably for the better?

Once you truly believe that you can develop superpowers (like love, focus, mindset, etc.), you stop viewing your potential positive impact on the world in linear terms - meaning that because you might’ve had relatively little impact on the world up until now, that it will always be like that. Instead, you view your impact on the world in terms of what you’ll be able to accomplish using your superpowers.

Love

The more loving things we do, and the more loving thoughts we think, the more we will become characterized and shaped by love. As we grow in our capacity to feel and experience love, love increasingly becomes the motive for everything we do - meaning that we do things because we love them.

We can learn to fall in love with everything we do. We can learn to feel love for everything and everyone in our lives. How does this happen? Our hearts can become so full of love that it colours everything. The power of love is the greatest superpower we have the ability to develop.

Mindset & Resilience

Develop a growth mindset that is constantly learning and growing. Train yourself to see any failure or setback as an opportunity to learn rather than something that defines you as a failure.

Focus

Set yourself goals that motivate you and focus your attention. Learn to cut off trivial things in your life that distract from your goals. Learn to use your time more carefully and purposefully.

Listening

Stop interrupting people, and stop filling the silence. Learn to listen because you want to listen. Become someone that people love to talk to because you are deeply interested in what they have to say. Learn about the different levels of listening.

Speaking

Stop using filler words and train yourself to speak more carefully and precisely. Become comfortable with silence and become someone that people want to listen to because when you speak you have something valuable to add.

I freely concede that I am nowhere close to tapping into the immense potential of each of these wonderful things. I still act in selfish ways and do things that undermine my capacity to feel love; I still struggle with elements of a fixed mindset and react to certain situations in an unattractive way; I still have many distractions in my life that interrupt my focus; I don't always listen carefully and still struggle to not talk over top of others; and I frequently waffle, go down rabbit holes, and fill the air with unnecessary words.

I have a long way to go, but I am slowly learning and developing the power of these things day by day. It’s a journey - one that is equally accessible to all.

These few thoughts don’t do justice to the vast nature of each of these things. I have written a separate post about the power of love and may write separate posts about the other superpowers eventually.

Learn more about each of these superpowers. Focus on them and learn how to develop them, and they will have an immensely positive impact on your life.