If you have ever had a problem with a person, place, or thing over which you have absolutely no control then you’ve experienced lack of power. This is a problem for most people because we don’t know how to deal with our frustration when these things occur. There is a solution and it’s a lot more obvious and also easy to execute than it seems.
First let’s break this down in the most obvious way. If lack of power is my dilemma then my solution is that I need power. So where and how do we find this “power?” By searching fearlessly within ourselves. The problem here really is not with the lack of control – there is nothing we can do about that. The problem is in how we deal with the lack of control. There are many things that we can say and do which give us the illusion that we can control other people, but it is just that, an illusion. We can manipulate people and that could work for a time, but all it takes is for that person to get sick of us and then we lose all control. Like a hit off of a crack pipe, manipulating people is not a permanent solution to the problem. And if you’re a real control freak like me then you want a permanent solution.
Next I have to believe that everything that is happening now is happening for a reason whether I can see it or not. If I really believe that then I can begin to realize that someone doing something that I think they should be doing, or not doing something I think they should be is based on my arrogance. Who am I to presume to know anything about another’s experience in life and why they may or may not be ready to accept what I have, or not accept what I haven’t.
Simply put, if I just focus my attention on being accountable for my own actions and behavior and if I truly believe that I have something to offer then all I really have to do is live by example. If someone cares enough about what I am doing with my life (and they will, especially if I am doing “good”) then they will ask me for help. If someone doesn’t ask me for help then it isn’t worth my time trying to teach them anything. My time is better spent elsewhere and what really comes out of this is that now I am focusing on how I can be useful to others instead of focusing on how others aren’t being useful. When I am focusing on how I can be useful then I am tapping into the power within me to actually do something. Forcing my opinions and feelings on people who don’t want them is not useful. Moreover there are lots of people out there asking for help with lots of things that I have experience with. That’s where I want to focus my energy. That’s where I can find that I DO have power. It’s a power greater than any human power and it exists within each and every living being.
