True Power is Found in Simple Actions
What is power, you might ask.
It might be tempting to see power is something grandiose. Worst still, we might conflate power with material wealth. When we visualise someone who is ‘powerful’, an image of a CEO, a president or a billionaire might come to mind. While people of these categories might possess power, all this visualisation completely misses the point when it comes to defining what power actually is.
The very essence of power is agency. When you have power, you have the choice of living life on your terms in accordance with your personal ethos. You have the choice of pursuing an education, of stepping away from a job that is deeply unfulfilling, of going home on time. More fundamentally you have the body, the mind and the intelligence to pursue things of interest to you.
How, then, do you become truly powerful? To have power, you need to have choice, and most importantly, you need to have the capacity to make good choices. This capacity is honed through small, simple actions that compound overtime to give you true agency. These simple actions not only involve mundane things such as telling the truth, looking after your body, and following up on your promises; they also involve reigning in your ego, saying ‘sorry’ to those you have hurt (unintentionally or not) and deeply realising that there are people better than you are out there.
Yes, these simple actions may seem strange when talking about power. Some of them might seem repulsive, particularly if we think we have ‘earned’ our position as the ‘best’ employee, the best graduate, or the best writer. Nonetheless the point is clear. By subjecting yourself to the whims of your emotions and your own self-perception, you are a perpetual slave to your own ego.
It becomes quite easy to see how even the most ‘powerful’ sometimes aren’t powerful at all. The workaholic CEO has no choice but to work themselves to the bone to maintain their reputation. The omnipotent president has no choice but to listen to lobbyists and political donors if they want to stay ‘respected’. The young professional that is ‘going places’ is perpetually insecure and perhaps scared of their rivals ‘overtaking’ them in the harsh journey of careerism.
This is not power for these people lack agency. They lack control over their own psyche.
Indeed, true power is having mastery over yourself, including your many strengths and failings. As Lao Tzu wisely noted:
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.
Power is not found in material wealth; it is found in the simple, mundane, day-to-day actions – The heartfelt apologies you make to people, the compromises you make, the times you admit that you are ill-prepared to take on a particular task.
Acts such as these preserve your personal integrity. That is the ultimate power of all.
TRUE POWER IS FOUND IN SIMPLE ACTIONS
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We have never been so materially prosperous yet spiritually bankrupt. We see this everywhere: Ethnic conflict, egotistical behaviour, the complete abnegation of personal responsibility. It is hardly controversial to say that we have forgotten how to live well.
How can we be good people? How can we live a ‘good life’? What is a good life?
These are the questions I shall be answering in my next five letters 'on life'. This is the first of five letters to come on this topic.
Be sure to drop a comment below! I'd love to know what you think... or if my view on things is wrong.
