Empowerment: The Power You Didn’t Know You Needed

What is empowerment? By definition, empowerment is the process of becoming stronger and overall, more confident, especially when controlling one's own life and claiming one's rights. I've always defined empowerment as the altering of your perspective in which you stop at nothing to achieve your goals no matter how strenuous, insufferable, or tedious the journey may be. Empowerment is what you feel when things are going well and suddenly take a negative turn, because although you are aware of the struggles you currently face, you feel motivated to get through them. You are aware that just on the other side of these current struggles is the success that you have been longing for the entire time. Today, I will give you all 3 of my own personal strategies on how to become empowered or stay empowered if you have already reached that state of mind.

Keeping Things in Perspective

What I'm about to say is going to come off very bold, but there will never be a point in life where things get so deplorable for you that your goals become unattainable. The saying goes; "Where there's a will there's a way", and I have always been a firm believer in that. Just because difficulties come about does not mean that you cannot regain control of the situation at hand or your life in general. Weeping in negativity only stalls the preparation needed to correctly address and solve the problem, so keeping things in perspective is absolutely crucial to developing an empowered mindset. Keeping things in perspective is simply acknowledging that this “problem” will not last forever. It is a level of awareness in which you master staying out of your emotions and thinking critically and logically in order to figure out what you need to do moving forward. This is key to becoming and remaining empowered because this type of thinking focuses on problem solving rather than overreaction and sulking in a tough situation.

Know Yourself

One of the most common forms of empowerment is self-awareness. Being self-aware is so much more than just knowing what you do and don't like, but rather understanding the way you think, how you react to every kind of situation, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and finding ways to improve your overall character. All these levels of understanding are essential to self-awareness, and they build an empowered mindset because they help you figure out what you want out of life. Having a clear mind about who you are and what you want builds an empowered mindset. Part of empowerment is that feeling of being motivated in the face of adversity. Knowing who you are contributes significantly to the development of that motivation. In order to know who you are, you have to have some deep conversations and self-reflect. Get to know yourself.

Stay the Course

Once you have taken the time to figure yourself out, you know what you want out of life, and you have created goals that help you pursue what you want out of life, all that's left is for you to do is one thing: stay the course. This requires a significant amount of discipline, manifestation, and self-motivation. Avoiding distractions is not enough to stay the course, you need to concentrate effort into keeping and maintaining distance from any and everything that could get in the way of your goals and aspirations. This does not mean treating people however you feel it is necessary to get what you want, but rather keep yourself out of unnecessary situations. Examine your day-to-day habits and ask yourself if these things align with your goals. Develop new habits if your old ones are a detriment to you. Make sure you lay a brick every day, meaning you take at least one step towards achieving your goals every single day. These can be little steps, as long as you keep going. This is how you stay the course. Doing so will generate a sense of confidence that can help you build an empowered mindset.

Remember that change doesn’t happen overnight. Getting to a point where you are empowered to achieve great things is a process, but the second you decide that you want a better life, nothing can get in your way. You don’t have to do it alone either. Tap into your resources, consume motivational content, surround yourself with positive people and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals.

Written By Kameron Brown, Marketing and PR Intern at SSAB and Senior at NIU

Edited By Gabrielle Sims, Founder and Executive Director of SSAB