POWER: THE DRIVING FORCE
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will explore Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, under a modern Benshen-esque lens. Though one might believe that wealth only equals money, “rich” expands beyond that: it means being able to create prosperity in your life, which can take shape in many different forms. Money is just one medium. Prosperity goes so far beyond financial gains and Hill, with his 13 Principles of Success and teachings on the Laws of the Universe, pioneered a unique roadmap to excellence and how to unlock prosperity—one that focuses on how to program our mental faculties rather than lean on external circumstances.
Personal power: we all want it, yet, it seems that only a small percentage have been able to access it. This has made power become one of the most questioned and studied human traits, where the question always remains the same: what is power, can ANYONE wield it, and if so, HOW? And over here at Benshen.co, we want to learn how to access personal power for good - to feel empowered in our lives and be able to create lasting change, within and without.
Power is a currency in itself, and an intangible energy that also, when talking about the Laws of Energetics + magnetism, allows what we want to come to us, especially when we are deeply connected to our own worth. As we know, power is not quite something we can detect with our five senses. Yet, it's obvious when someone powerful walks into the room, radiating confidence and self-trust. They move and groove with that certain something, only detectable by the lasting impression they leave that has all of us wondering, “what WAS that?”
We can spend our whole lives chasing power (and many do), but the real formula, time-tested and proven to be true, is that the key to accessing power is from within.
In this newsletter, we wanted to explore power for many of us want it, maybe even secretly, and are too afraid to admit it. However, this confusion around wanting power and also being afraid of it comes from the fact that power has also been used in very, very detrimental and harmful ways. Yet, when we look at it through a different lens and take note of powerful people who are doing incredible GOOD in the world, we can remember that just as with many things, energy can be used for either positive or negative. Over here at Benshen.co, we are inspired by how cultivating personal power can not only invite us to embody who we are more fully but also allow us to become more of a magnet for what we desire to come to us as well as having enough energy, strength, and yes, power, to help make this world a better place.
Read on as we will share a transformational practice that could launch each of us toward our most powerful potential. This practice is built to foster the self-trust and elixir of faith necessary to know that your desires are chasing us too.
LAW No.9 | POWER
- THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND PROSPERITY -
“Power may be defined as ‘organized and intelligently directed knowledge.’”
—Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, 1937
Image: Mariko Mori's Wave UFO
Desiree’s longtime mentor Chris Chen once said, “What’s the quickest way to feel powerful? Keep your word. What’s the fastest way to lose your power? To not do what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it…” It really is that simple. What this profound practice—and it's truly a lifelong pursuit—teaches us, is that we can trust ourselves. When we trust ourselves, we stop seeking external validation from others. And that is the magic to power: our own capability to make promises and keep them, allowing us to believe in our ability to make our Visions come to life because we actually, in our bones, believe we can make anything possible.
Think about it: a vision is just a dream until it becomes a reality. And how we do make a reality? By taking steps in the physical world that will allow our dreams to come to life. For example, let's say we have a dream of running a marathon. Every year, we keep saying, I'm going to run the marathon. Then the race comes along and we still haven't even 1. trained, 2. signed up, or maybe even 3. gotten on the track lately during our free time because, well, you know, Netflix is pretty charming. Suddenly, we find ourselves feeling not so great about our ability to follow through as we see yet another race pass us by and maybe even friends running it in, exploding with victory on the other side. The negative talk and feelings start swirling around when in reality, the key here is to remember that we have the power to make that change and it literally begins with a single step.
Eventually, we muster up the courage and we finally decide to make the Vision come true. We take the physical steps, for example, of 1. signing up, 2. scheduling + committing to training, 3. buying those running shoes we know will give us just the right support. And yes, maybe the first few weeks are harder than we imagined as we begin to change patterns and level up - physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, when we keep up even when we want to give up, suddenly, eventually, we find ourselves on the other side of that resistance AND with a newfound confidence and personal power we can tap into and use in ANY area of our lives.
On the other hand, when we flippantly say things and make promises without any sort of follow-through, it allow us to not only doubt ourselves but we often lose the trust of the people around us. So whether we are working on keeping promises to our self or with others - be it friends, bosses, partners - it's important to remember, slow and steady really does win the race and overreaching with promises gets us no where fast. To feel confident in in our ability to take initiative and execute is the surest way to feel powerful.
Exercise: For the next two weeks, make a few small promises and do your VERY BEST to keep them. Have someone hold you accountable (the beauty of the PODS in Benshen Course). See what happens when you commit to something AND follow through all the way. If this is a new practice for you, start with something VERY small, like drinking 8 glasses of water a day. It might seem silly but if this is a new practice, it often takes practice to even commit to the smallest of goals! But this is how we start to build self-trust. And with self-trust, comes confidence and personal power. From the smaller promises we can begin to build upon our structure and set bigger goals that we already know we have the ability to commit to.
One thing to note along the way is that we might start to pick up on all-too-common patterns that arise—overextending, saying “yes” to things to satisfy someone else, allowing our boundaries to be blurred. If we observe how often we make promises without any sort of strategic and definite plan to make it happen, we might begin to rethink how often we say we're going to do something…and instead prioritize the things we will ACTUALLY do.
Additionally, we will begin to set realistic expectations for ourselves and others around us (hi, boundaries!) and begin to strengthen the muscle that what we say holds weight. Our words are that we speak eventually come into existence (literal meaning of bringing dreams down to earth), if we are ready to build the proper structures for them to come through.
Perhaps the most important part of this exercise is to let go of self-judgement or shame; so many of us want to people-please or be the enthusiastic helper in all situations. However, it can be overwhelming and leak energy when we don't set important boundaries about what we're capable of accomplishing. Instead, this exercise will allow us to prioritize exactly what we want to do instead of talking about it…and cultivate power as a result.
“At the very heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity. It is also the essence of our growth...As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
