A Source of Power (standard:non fiction, 2378 words)
Author: GXD	Added: Dec 17 2010	Views/Reads: 2920/1964	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Peace and Power are two sides of the same coin. Both can be found inside you. Here's where to look.

A SOURCE OF POWER 

In order to set goals you have to define needs and wants.  Heather 
tells me that she wants to feel secure; that the search for security is 
a driving force in her life.  Joyce set her goal as a model to fill her 
need for self-actualization.  Iris acquires possessions for the mere 
ego-trip of showing them off to others; this fulfills some of her need 
for self-esteem. 

Goal-setting, whatever its motive, is not a source of energy for
accomplishing goals.  It can be a trigger, releasing such energy, but 
the power to achieve comes from a different source. 

Some people accomplish a task or strive for a goal by manipulating the
efforts of others.  Other people find the energy for a task within 
themselves -- their physical fitness, their mental health, and their 
economic potential are all sources of energy to draw on. 

When you put energy to work, in order to make things move, this is a
measure of personal power -- precisely like the definition of power 
used in physics (one horsepower = the amount of energy needed to lift 
550 lb a height of one foot in exactly one second).  In order to bring 
a large amount of energy to bear on achieving a goal, some people 
gather energy by forming an enterprise, coordinating the efforts of 
others.  Individuals who know how this works can seek out and draw on 
their internal resources. 

Heather, Joyce and Iris are skilled at imparting feeling, compassion,
personal caring, listening and understanding to their clientèle for an 
hour or two.  As a token, the client leaves with a hair-do, a massage 
or a golden tan which recalls for her that pleasant hour every time she 
looks in the mirror.  The attention seems to improve the quality of her 
life ... for as long as the good feelings last.  When one of these 
skilled professionals runs into a client on the street, she gets a 
smile.  It is her reward for being herself.  Both gain power from 
asking for what they need, and from giving what they have. 

When I pondered these questions: o Why do some people need power and
pursue it? o How can an individual gather power? o What kind of power 
is needed? o Where does one go to get it? 

I came up with some good answers.  Food, shelter, health, security ...
the elements of survival ... can be achieved to a large degree by 
expending energy in the right way.  Nowadays, the right way seems to be 
"make a lot of money, you can buy what you need."  Beyond these 
elements, individual people need greater or lesser degrees of comfort, 
social interaction, freedom of choice, material possessions, and a 
sense of control over their environment (including people around them). 


These and many other intermediate elements cannot always be achieved by
acquiring wealth; they result from healthy internal attitudes and from 
a knowledge of how these attitudes influence the achievement of goals.  
Self-realization (Berne's "I'm OK") and self-actualization (Maslow) are 
not only goals in themselves, but the means to those goals.  It is a 
bootstrap process: self-esteem must be present, self confidence must be 
developed; self-reliance must become second nature. 

All of these personal potentials are built on sources of energy from
within -- energy that often has been gathered from the environment and 
from other people, and which lies inside you, latent, ready to be 
tapped.  How can it be gathered?: very simply. 

Good movies and operas demand a measure of excellence in order to evoke
enjoyable feelings from viewers and listeners.  In one movie, for 
example, an American Indian picked up tokens from all the places that 
meant something to him; they made up an amulet to remind him of 
energizing experiences.  In a well-known opera all the protagonists 
consistently abused their power -- suffered and made others suffer, 
until they destroyed themselves. From these examples I came up with a 
practical agenda: 

1. If you can recall when you experienced great love, were awarded for
an achievement, won a great victory, survived a life-threatening 
experience, felt a sense of accomplishment, on top of the world, 


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