The Direction of Intention

260.
Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

Here’s another snippet from the workbook (you know, the workbook that is trying to tell me that it aspires to be more; it knows in its heart that it is a book-book. For the first time in my life I am trying to write less instead of searching for more to say. This problem would have come in handy all those years in school. Alas, all my efforts at containment are futile):

When people believe they need to control what other people see, think or feel they are creating stories of power-over-others or fear-stories of others having power over them. People play power-over-others stories (or the reverse) when they’ve lost their true power; they put it down somewhere. They can’t remember where or when. They are afraid others can see that they’ve lost it. They’re afraid others will see the hole in their being. When people are no longer the source of their own power the only option left to them is to drink power from others.

It is a fantasy story born of the fear of being seen; no one wants other people seeing behind their mask. No one wants others to see that they are missing a piece of themselves. In the midst of so much fear, attempting to control what others see is an imperative. So much potential shame! So much danger of being seen as lacking! So much emptiness groping for the feeling of fulfillment!

How can so many people be trapped in the same tiger pit and yet believe that they are in it alone? It is a form of hell: a community of people so enrapt in their individual stories of need that they can’t really see the other members as allies. No one realizes that everyone is in the same trap. Everyone is hiding so no one can see. This kind of Separation is one of the side effects of Control. People trade their true power for control fantasies every single day.

It’s a paradox: what’s really happening in the control story is that people are giving their power away. In trying to control other people’s perceptions they’re actually giving away the only thing that they can control: what they think, feel and see and believe about them. They are dancing according to what others might think, they are changing themselves based on what others might see, and stifling their growth based on what others might feel or think. It is to practice the art of giving themselves away.

Are you playing an inner story of diminishment? Are you reinforcing in yourself the notion that someone else has your power? Are you trying to get your power based on others responses to you? Are you drinking your power from others or letting them drink their power from you?

You might not yet see it but it’s a waste of your energy, a drain on your creative potential. It requires you to manipulate others instead of dedicating your energy to the creation of what you want. Your thirst for power from others is, in truth, a series of actions dedicated to reinforce your powerlessness. It is a vicious cycle.

All you need to break the cycle is a boundary.

Filed under: Power, Truly Powerful People |