Empowerment -- the act of investing oneself with more authority and control over one's path -- is a vitally important process that I teach and explore every day as a career transformation coach. I've personally witnessed the transformative effect it can have when an individual takes control of the reins of his or her life and decides to no longer be a victim. Yet many still say to me that "empowerment" is a cliché, an overused term that's new-agey and silly. Try as I might, I can't find a more appropriate word to describe what I believe is required to live well, meaningfully, and purposefully, and to align your activities in life and work with who you really are. Empowerment means accessing and marshaling all the passion, power and purpose you have inside you, so you can live and work as you truly want to.
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So Who Really Cares About Empowerment?
Everyone should care, but most don't have a clue about it. Understanding how to empower yourself more and more each day is critical to a life well lived. You need to know how to access more power and self-authority at the precise moments you feel you have none of it -- when you believe that you have no control over what's happening around you or in your life, career, and your relationships, and when you can't seem to get off the ground the initiatives you care most about. Empowerment is critical to you when you feel exhausted and depleted, lacking in hope and optimism, feeling all is lost. Empowerment is critical in times like these.
An empowered life has a completely different quality from one that's fraught with hopelessness and resentment. When you're empowered, you are fully aware of the challenges you face -- and you see them with eyes wide open -- but you know in our heart that you have what it takes to navigate through them successfully. You know too that you are the master of your own ship, not deluding yourself that you're in complete control (because, of course, we aren't), but you realize that you "co-create" what's occurring in life, and therefore can shift what's happening by generating the right changes within yourself and acquiring the right kind of support to move you forward.
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Are You Living an Empowered Life? Here Are the Seven Ways to Know:
You're living an empowered life when...
7 Hallmarks Of An Empowered Life
See GalleryIn reading this list, where do you stand? Empowered, or needing some help to close your power gaps? You can call empowerment a cliché all you want, but the happiest, most successful and fulfilled individuals I've ever met (and lately, I'm meeting a lot of them), are truly self-empowered, and have grabbed the reins to ensure their lives and careers are moving in the direction they authentically want to go.
Where do you stand on the empowerment scale? Is it finally time for you to power up your life and career?
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(For additional support to identify and close your professional power gaps, download my free Amazing Career Project homework tool "Assessing and Closing Your Power Gaps.")
For more by Kathy Caprino, click here.
For more on success and motivation, click here.
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