Gathering Your Power

Our cultural fascination with superheroes has got me thinking.

What if we gave up the fantasy of having superpowers and accepted the gifts that we already have? Especially those gifts that we may not recognize, may not have claimed, or haven't yet developed?

Folks, we are already equipped with awesome personal powers. With conscious attention, discipline and a little hard work we can use these resources to manifest our goals and support our families, organizations and communities.

Personal power is the sum total of our knowledge, skills, gifts, talents, aptitudes, character qualities, resourcefulness, creativity, and experience. When supported by commitment, engagement and readiness, a human being is said to be sufficient, or in their power.

That's a potent combination!

Some of you might be saying: "Yeah, right. I'm working on that." But personal power is not a project, not something that we work up to or earn over time.

It is something that we claim.

A claim is "an assertion of the truth of something." It is a declaration that we are well matched – NOW – for the inevitable encounter with life's experience.

Many of us wait for proof that we are sufficiently empowered to pursue our dreams. Remember Wayne's World, where Wayne and Garth declared their "unworthiness?" Well, that's how many of us live our lives, like a small dog rolling over on its back, in supplication.

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THE CONFIDENCE DEFICIT

If there has been a surprise for me in my career it has been the confidence deficit of leaders.

In mentoring and coaching sessions, what often comes to light is deep insecurity and concerns about measuring up.

When the discussion turns to the foundations of personal power- our singular gifts, talents, character qualities, knowledge, skills, and experience – many leaders cannot identify their internal resources.

What they can tell you about, and in a New York minute, are their faults and failures.

There is something radically wrong here. I don't know if it is because of how we are raised, educated or mentored, but we must strive to overcome the confidence gap. When we doubt and second-guess ourselves we undermine our personal power. That results in a performance gap.

A commitment that I have made to counter this situation is to offer a new weekend program called "Gathering Your Power." For more information, please click here.

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