Empowerment has become a very popular buzz word and goal for all humanity in all aspects of life. A quick definition reads: The authority or power given to someone to do something. The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights. While I’m good with these definitions, I encountered another thought that caused me to stop and examine a particular facet of empowerment. That is the growing importance of empowerment in today’s global economy, driven by rapidly changing technology.
Economic Empowerment
Join me in wrapping our minds around this definition: Empowerment is gaining greater confidence in the outcomes of our decisions. This thought focuses on feelings or beliefs about the outcomes of financial decisions. It causes me to reflect on whether I am becoming more or less self-assured about my own abilities to make good decisions.
For me, the key concepts of economic empowerment center on two elements: (1) Having choices to make decisions and (2) Being confident in the ability to predict the outcome of these decisions.
Choices
The first concept is simple to understand and rarely disputed. Wealth is desirable because money opens doors to a greater abundance of choices. When our choices are limited, we feel less empowered.And so we naturally engage in the pursuit of wealth because choices are empowering.
Predicting
The second concept is becoming harder to grasp and increasingly more problematic. Predicting the outcome of decisions is generally rooted in an expectation that the factors driving the outcomes tomorrow will be the same as those that drove the processes yesterday. However, everyday life is becoming more digitally driven. We are experiencing cultural and financial transitions at the speed of light when compared with the lumbering pace inherited from the past industrial age. Rapid change erodes our confidence. When faced with new choices, new opportunities, new threats, massive amounts of data and conflicting “expert” opinions, we can get stuck in the weeds. We lose all confidence in our own decisions. Individuals struggle to know what to believe, who to believe and what to expect.
Pursuing Empowerment
How do we continue pursuing financial empowerment in times like these? I suggest beginning by breathing deeply, mustering up old fashioned courage and joining forces with others in community. Yes, the new age of technology is pushing us back to old school values.
Breathe Deeply
Breathing deeply is more than just a convenient metaphor reminding us to slow down. I find that learning to breathe literally helps me face the madness and make decisions with confidence. My breath coach has become a valuable addition to my financial network, working right along with financial advisors and other consultants in the empowerment process. When facing anything stressful, whether physical exercise or a tough decision, I have to stop and remind myself to breathe. Deep breathing relaxes my body, energizes my brain and generates the positive energy I need to feel confident, especially before making a decision. This simple, physical act enhances the mental and emotional power I need and causes confidence to inflate like a hot air balloon.
Courage
Mustering up courage is an act of self-talk for me. A favorite quote rises to the surface, and I repeat it often: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to act in the face of fear.” Strategies for combating fear differ from person to person, but I’d like to offer three that have been helpful for me.
First, I remind myself of all the times I’ve confronted fears, taken a bold step into the unknown and lived to tell the story. Wrestling with the initial fear, I managed to pump up my faith and pin fear to the mat. I make mental notes and even written lists of victories won, which would not have been possible had I stepped through the fear. Next, I reflect upon past failures. Though painful at first, over time ultimately result in a wealth of new learnings. These become the seeds of future successes. Finally, I recall the times I failed to act with courage, succumbed to the paralysis of indecision, missed a once in a lifetime opportunity and landed in awful pit of self-inflected of pain. As a good, born-again, Texas girl, I’d rather die with my spurs on than live in safety with regrets.
Community, Community, Community
Not surprisingly, I always circle back to the importance of finding, creating and being in community. Individual effort is vital to empowerment, but rarely can a needed skill be mastered or applied in isolation. An empowered person will always draw others into networks and create realms of mutual success, lavishing the attention and energies on things that work out to everyone’s advantage. Data and details are uncovered and tested in community. Fears are address and conquered when the confidence which overflows from one becomes a nourishing meal for everyone. Members learn from the successes and failures of other members. Safety is established in numbers. And, maybe most importantly, working in community is just simply fun. Because we now live and work in a world of digital media, the communities we form or join will include authors, analysts, certified and licensed professionals, teachers, trainers and their followings on YouTube and podcasts.
Re-structuring
The year 2025 will usher in political and economic elements that most of us could never have envisioned. A new, radical U.S. President gears up to implement strategies aimed at improving efficiency in governmental organizations with an expected major focus on expenditures, even as many are wondering aloud if the very term “government efficiency” is an oxymoron! Individual states are announcing their own separate plans, which sounds to me like governmental civil war. And across the globe nations are resetting economic laws and strategies. This chaotic re-structuring will create options for us to empower ourselves in ways never imagined before, once we learn the skill and create a habit of developing confidence in the outcomes of our decisions.
Connect with Gail on her website or read more from her on Plaid.
