How Inner Power Leads To Outer Power

The more inner power, stability, and strength you have, the more OUTER power you can hold and command.

So far we've focused on building your inner power and designing ways to activate it in the world. There's a reason for that. Without a solid base of INNER power, there's little way you can consistently hold OUTER power in the world.

You can have considerable authority ("the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience"1), but not have the inner fortitude, willpower, or strength to really command the area you have authority over. You can have factual knowledge of how to negotiate, but not be able to leverage the inner energies that give you a secure, stable base from which to drive your bargaining. You can be named leader of a meeting, but continually be overtalked by an energetic, outspoken participant who ends up directing the flow of what's covered. You can be offered that prime opportunity, yet not have the core strength -- the flow of power -- to step up and claim it with confidence. You may even be offered lucrative options, yet somehow feel you can't accept or aren't worthy of accepting, and let them fall through the cracks.

Certainly, when given an opportunity that is supportive, you can grow into your power. It requires internal support (you supporting yourself) as well as outward support (e.g., your new position/boss/company gives you the leeway to apply your best skills and learn, while growing your value).

But if you're the one seeking to create your vision of life and the world, cultivating your own Inner Power comes first so that you can step right up and into those opportunities when they arrive, rather than agonizing, worrying, or even passing them by feeling you're not enough. It's a bit like the instruction "dress for the job you want, not the one you have". Cultivate your power for all the things you WANT to do, so that you're ready when they present themselves to you.

Cultivating your own Inner Power comes first so that you can step right up and into those opportunities when they arrive, rather than agonizing, worrying, or even passing them by feeling you're not enough. Click to tweet.

Here are four ways Inner Power leads to Outer Power:

• Cultivating a stable power core on your own decisiveness leads to being able to manage situations quickly and efficiently, making you a key player in leadership and team participation. A powerful you is decisive in wise ways, and practices with large and small decisions to build a track record of experiences in trusting your own judgment. Decisiveness leading to good result is a key quality of leadership; waffling or avoiding decisions is not.

• Having the power to know, claim, and stand up for your own value leads to being able to negotiate benefits, compensation, and opportunities from a strong position. Coming from your own inner power to claim your worth creates a completely different energy than the scattered, anguished rollercoaster of worthlessness, fearing you're rocking the boat, and feeling guilty for asking for what you're worth.

• Owning your own inner power - that unshakeable vision of your strength - leads to being able to create collaboratively with others who can support your vision in a win-win partnership. Owning your inner power supports speaking up in meetings, proposing new projects, pioneering new initiatives. When you don't own it, you can get lost in a maze of hesitation, keep holding back from speaking up, or hide your skills for fear the others involved will judge you.

• Building a calm inner power core, unshaken by others' negativity, challenge, or difficult personalities, leads to being able to effectively take on bigger and better roles. As the risk of negative emotions or challenge to your role rises along with your scope and responsibility, you'll be able to meet it wisely and effectively, instead of turning down opportunities or burning out trying to please everyone.

Like anything, cultivating your inner power is a journey. It takes energy, the energy of change, that of learning, and that of exploration and iterative results (i.e., failure as feedback). But, it is an essential foundation to creating the real-life, outward results that make you a more powerful contributor in life, work, family, and world. In fact, quite often when you work on building up the inner power aspect that underlays each situation, the outer manifestation begins to just happen, normally and naturally in response to your changes.

Engage with your own inner vs. outer power with the following prompts:

• How does building my inner power open me up to the roles and opportunities of outer power I'd like to explore?

• How many times have I turned down a profitable or intriguing opportunity because I was worried I couldn't hold enough inner power to maintain the role?

• Do I feel I have the inner power from which to negotiate a new opportunity, salary, bonus, etc. to match the current value I'm bringing? If yes, what gives me that confidence? If no, what aspects of strength do I need to build up so that I have the power to do this?

Explore on your own! What aspect of Inner Power would let you build the area of Outer Power you authentically want to be part of your life?

Download the worksheet for today's blog post here.

Keep Growing,