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PP – GROWTH (Part 3b)

2. HOW TO GROW Personal Power (cont)

🍃a. Take Responsibility for How you Feel
PP means accepting that it is up to you to identify & admit what’s going on inside, so you can manage how you behave. Thoughts —> beget —-> emotions. Together, they —> beget actions.

Regardless of how others behave, your emotional responses are yours alone. How you feel about some action or comment will depend on your personal history & what you’re thinking about the event.

🍃b. Be in Charge of Disruptive Emotions & Harmful Impulses
Personal Power includes the ability to tame &/or redirect emotional reactions, and therefore the actions that result. Drowning in intense emotions & negative behaviors are self-sabotaging forces which need to be dealt with. (‘Acting out’)

Overcoming / outgrowing unhelpful habits that hold you back from being your best means developing emotional intelligence that promotes self-care so you can pursue your talents & dreams. (Self-regulation)

🍃c. Commit to Self-Development
To nurture Personal Power requires a commitment to self-development – first & foremost as a mindset – a driving desire to grow your intellect & emotional resilience.
This includes :
√ developing self-confidence, self-worth & self-esteem, and
√ a devotion to lifelong learning, progressively & consistently gathering needed knowledge, experience & skills that help propel you toward your goals.
√ having a growth mindset, which means being curious, listening & learning from others. You can’t be an expert in everything, but making an open mind strengthens PP.
These can transform you from an “If only I had….” fantasy-hero, into the True hero of your life.

🍃d. Recognize & Nurture Innate Gifts
PP is not arrogant, & therefore is not ashamed of admitting & valuing who you are. It never minimizes things you do naturally, easily & well – as ‘unimportant’ – such as the ability to absorb info quickly, listen well, make others laugh, be creative, want to ‘grow’, do math / science easily, have excellent intuition.….
Growing innate gifts raises your self-esteem & circle of influence, showing how resourceful you are, & which can lead to opportunities you didn’t expect.

Remember that the brain will stay ‘fresh’ well into old age IF you keep learning new things! Repetition & boredom kills.

🍃e. Form Healthy Boundaries
An important aspect of Personal Powers’ self care is having good boundaries (not to loose or too rigid). This requires that you know what your needs are and provide them – as much as realistically possible. Only then can you decide how much to let in from your environment, & how much to let out of your knowledge, time & efforts.
Establishing healthy PMES boundaries gives you control over how you spend your time & who you spend it  with.

🍃f. Have Clearly Written Goals
Personal Power included internal mental & emotional clarity. which eliminates or minimizes inner confusion & conflict. Setting clear goals is absolutely critical because it’s the foundation for pursuing any objective. They can be both short-term & long-term.

They provide a sense of certainty that you can use the skills, knowledge & practical experience you already have, as well as identifying any you still need to gather. Once you list them – based on your own needs & dreams – you can lay out a plan to accomplish them.

🍃g. Record Your Achievements
PP allows you to keep track of & validate your accomplishments. It eliminates thinking of yourself as a fraud!
If you have trouble with this – you can reframe your perspective -so you can see & appreciate what you know & actually have done, showing that you’re already powerful.

Suggestion: Record 5 or more positive actions / accomplishments at the end of each day, no matter how small.  And circle the big ones – personal growth, end of a project, a special event…. On days when you feel powerless, flip back in your notes, to be reminded that it’s based on a cognitive distortion rather than facts.

NEXT: PP – Implement