by: Iain Legg
When you’re feeling unsure of yourself or your capabilities, your options in life can seem few and far between. Not only do you have trouble recognizing opportunities to improve your life, you also resist taking action and end up feeling stuck and defeated much of the time.
Empowering yourself is a simple matter of switching your perspective and choosing to believe that you are not powerless or stuck. For example, you may currently have a perception that you’re not talented or resourceful. Such a belief will keep you locked in a cycle of fear, futility and inactivity because you won’t see the point of trying to improve your life, or you’ll be too afraid to try.
Regardless of the perceptions and beliefs that may be holding you back, there are specific things you can do to transform them and embrace more empowering beliefs. Below you’ll find three easy ways to help you switch your perspective from disempowerment to empowerment:
1) Challenge your limiting beliefs and fears. The most difficult thing about perceptions is that they appear to be undeniable truth in your own mind. For example, you may have held a belief for years that you’re not good at a particular task or activity, but when you begin to explore that “truth” later, you realize that you never gave it your full effort or didn’t allow time to fully master it. Once you do, you realize that you’re capable of much more than you ever suspected!
In order to fully empower yourself, get into the habit of questioning and challenging any limiting beliefs, fears and doubts that come up about you or your capabilities. Are they really true? Why do you think so? Have you ever tried to prove them wrong? By asking questions like this and being willing to expand your perceptions, you quickly realize that you are the only one holding yourself back!
2) Affirm your strengths and capabilities frequently. Along with disempowerment usually comes a belief that you’re weak and powerless, which is simply another perception! Begin changing this perception by affirming frequently that you are strong, powerful, talented and capable. Build up yourself up with encouraging words and thoughts and you’ll begin to believe in yourself more and more each day. Over time, this belief continues to grow and you’ll be able to do things you never would have believed you were capable of before.
3) Take action. Feeling disempowered usually causes you to hold back on taking action, either because you’re frightened, or because you believe it’s futile to try to change anything. Your first impulse might be to wait until you’re feeling stronger before you take action, but did you know that taking action can make you feel stronger? That’s right, taking action can empower you!
Be willing to take action in order to build up your confidence, even if you have to take very small steps. Come up with one small action you can take, push your fear aside and then go for it! Then keep that positive cycle going by taking small action steps and moving forward bit by bit, and eventually you’ll realize that you are anything but weak and powerless!
