HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE POWER?
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by saconway
Question:HDYKYHP? How Do You Know You Have Power?
This is an important question.
It is worth answering.
Write down your answer. If you’re following with the worksheet, there’s a space for your answer.
Be honest!
How do you know you have Power?
How do you know you are powerful?
How do you know you have significance?
For some people, they feel they have power when they can refuse to do things someone else says they should do, and they can do things other say they should not do.
For some, power is about being able to get what you want when you want it for no better reason than you want it.
Some feel power is about getting away with things.
That’s some people.
What about you?
What makes YOU feel powerful?
Answer: I feel powerful when…
Whatever your answer, it’s your answer.
You might have developed it with adult maturity, or you might have had it spontaneously arise as a child.
You might have acquired it by example, by experience, or simply by emotion.
Whatever it is, it is.
You may be proud of the real answer, or you could be a little ashamed at it.
It is important to know the real answer, though.
The real answer is where you’ll run any time you feel like you’re losing power.
The real answer is where you will go when you want to feel powerful.
My Answer: I feel powerful when I really, really want to do something wrong and there is nothing stopping me but my own sense of right and wrong, and I do not do it.
I feel especially powerful when there is something I really do not want to do, but I know I should, and nothing makes me do it but my, and I do it.
When I can hold to my code when, emotionally, I want nothing more than to break it, I know I have power.
My history shows that this really what I do when I need to feel powerful: I do something I should.
TILaaPPL: The Initiative List as a Personal Power List
7. Do It.
6. Do It and Report Periodically.
5. Do It and Report Immediately.
4. “I Intend To.”
3. Recommend
2. Ask
1. Wait Until Told
-0. Wait Until Told Twice
-1. Wait Until Told Three Times
-2. Wait Until Nagged
-3. Make Excuses
-4. Wait Until Punished
-5. Dragged Kicking and Screaming
-6. Do Not Do It
-7. Open Defiance, includes broken promises, lies, deceit, manipulation.
IM: P=n, N=(n+1)•4: Initiative Math: Positive equals number, Negative equals number plus one times four.
How Old Do You Have to Be…?
To use “-6 Power: Do Not Do It”? Infant
To use “-7 Power: Open Defiance”? Toddler
If we go back to some people’s definition of “Power,” they think that Power is being able operate at -6 “Do Not Do It,” but infants can “Not Do It.”
To operate willfully requires a little more sophistication, which is toddler level maturity.
Toddlers can willfully declare “No!”
A great irony, is that many people feel they get power this way.
They feel that when they can do a sophisticated version of infant behavior or toddler behavior, that they are “Powerful.”
Impact of the Point System: TiPP: Trust in Personal Power
It takes Power to Keep Promises.
It takes Power to have Trust.
To say “I trust that this person will keep his promise so long as he feels like it” is not trust!
The Phileo Math Rules apply.
A memory is worth 1/8th of the experience.
Some people feel Powerful because they can do what they want or not do what they do not want, and Make Excuses.
So long as they at least use TE: True Excuses, they are operating from -3 Power (-16 points!).
What many of them do not realize is that WYL: When You Lie about your excuse, you’re actually using -7 Power.
You are saying “I have no true excuse, so I’ll lie.”
It’s the same as broken promises.
It’s words that do not match up with reality.
It’s dishonest, just as broken promises is a lack of integrity.
Even True Excuses are a declaration of a lack of power, though.
When you make an Excuse, you declare, TEHMPtM: “This Excuse has more Power Than Me.”
Sometimes that is true and very reasonable.
If my excuse for not being in town is because the airport was shut down, that’s an excuse.
I am saying that the airport being shut down is more powerful then my power to get here.
I think that is usually going to be understandable.
When I lie, I am saying “I have no excuse.”
It is saying “It takes nothing at all to be more powerful than me.”
When I make a flimsy excuse, I am saying “My power is flimsier than this excuse,” basically declaring my powerlessness to all.
How Old Do You Have to Be…?
To use “Level 1 Power: Wait Until Told”? Old enough to UWYAT: Understand What You Are Told (and be able to do it).
To use “Level 4 Power: I Intend”? Old enough to MYOP: Make Your Own Plan (and be able to do it)
To use “Level 7 Power: Do It”? Old enough to be R: Responsible
R:DWYStDWBT: Responsibility: Do What You’re Supposed to Do Without Being Told
Note that Level 7 Power is NOT to do it without being told because you know that if you do not do it, you’ll lose (or not get) what you do want or get what you do not want.
If you do what you do in a job primarily to avoid being fired, you’re operating from “Wait Until Punished.”
Wait Until Punished is being motivated only or primarily by TC&TS: The Carrot and The Stick
Operating from Level 7 Power takes Responsibility.
It is proven more strongly when you have an excuse, and you choose to not avail yourself of that excuse.
It shows “Not only am I responsible, I have more power in my responsibility than this excuse has the power to stop me.”
That’s why we are so persistently impressed with people who succeed despite great obstacles.
Filed under: Agathos Beliefs
Leave a Reply