Power

Many of us tend to think of "power" as something belonging to a select few; say, leaders of countries or CEOs or folks who have a lot of influence in one form or another.

However, this perception of power -- that it's coveted by a precious few -- is quite...well, it's quite wrong.

Yes, those people do have power -- and we can't deny that. That's not the wrong part.

The wrong part is the belief that only those people have power, and "the rest of us" don't. This is just not the case.

It doesn't matter what you do, how much money you have, who you know, or anything remotely connected with your personality or what you currently identify with (e.g. your job, your status, your whatever). You have power.

Want proof?

Go into a little store or a coffee shop, or anywhere else "ordinary" that you've been to a hundred times before. When you hand your money over to the clerk, you are exercising your power. You can do it -- hand the money over -- very miserably if you want to. You can be rude or even hostile. You can be....well, you can be a real jerk!

OR

You can hand your money over with a smile, with gentle eye contact, with a simple "thanks" or whatever else springs forth from you that is simply a more evolved use of your power.

Every day you have numerous opportunities to use your power. But because you don't see it as power -- you don't see that when you order food at a restaurant, you are expressing a kind of power -- you miss the opportunity. And, as such, you may use your power very incorrectly; you may use it to dominate, to humiliate, to "put people in their place" or any of the other awful -- but very common -- uses of power.

Remember: power doesn't corrupt. Some people are already corrupt and power simply activates that corruption. Why blame power? Power is just energy. Power is like the sun. If the sun shines on a scene of one person harming another, why blame the sun for "lighting" that scene? It's the people -- not the sun.

Same goes for power.

Starting NOW, be more aware of the power you have in your life. It could be (and likely is) power over a family member -- say, a child or maybe even a spouse. Or at work, you may have power over some of your colleagues -- maybe the ones that you don't consider "important" to you and your career. How do you treat these people? Do you treat them with contempt? Would you treat them like this if, say, tomorrow they became your boss? Or would you change...

Be aware of how much power you REALLY have in your day -- you will be amazed at how much there is. More than you ever thought possible!