Empower Yourself: What That Word Actually Means

Empowerment is one of those words that gets used so often it starts to feel hollow. So let me say what I actually mean by it.

To be empowered is to believe — genuinely, not just intellectually — that you have agency over your life. That your choices matter. That the way things are is not necessarily the way things have to be.

It sounds simple. It isn’t.

Most of us carry beliefs, absorbed in childhood and reinforced by experience, that tell us the opposite. That we’re not the kind of person things work out for. That the good stuff happens to other people. That we’ve already had our shot and missed it. That wanting more is selfish or unrealistic.

These beliefs feel like facts. They are not facts. They are old stories, and they can be changed.

What empowerment actually looks like in practice

It looks like catching yourself in a victim narrative — “this always happens to me” — and asking instead: what’s my part in this, and what can I do differently?

It looks like taking an honest look at your life and deciding what you actually want, instead of what you’ve settled for.

It looks like making one small choice today that’s aligned with who you want to be, rather than who you’ve been.

It looks like deciding — maybe for the first time — that you are worth the effort.

Empowerment isn’t a feeling you wait for. It’s a posture you practice. Every day, in small ways, until it becomes the way you move through the world.

Now available: ‘Get Out of Your Own Way — A System for Living’. Right here. Where you are. Listen to part one — as a gift to get fully started — or get all 5 sessions (and bonus session and workbook) at GOYOW. Enjoy!