By Pranav Tigura | 10th August, 2022
Oftentimes, we vie to be the center of attention, the most powerful who may get their tasks done without any objections, with no questions asked no answers given. That being said, how do we reach this level of power and respect from others?
As humans, a topic engrained within our minds is willpower, the will to do something, the motivation, the will to overcome fears, or simply the will to keep others quiet and focus on one’s path. Many times, we confuse this will with power. Then, we must wonder, what is power?
What Is Power? 🤔
As children, we often become influenced by pop-culture references to power where one may possess a superior trait, leading to more physical attributes, whether it be specific, upgraded forms from animes, or simply an acquisition of a new “blaster” or “ray-gun” from an old sci-fi cartoon. However, in a world that values societal power and sway of society, the definition of power has slightly changed, but the fundamental idea remains the same.
From an archaic view, this man, the Liver King, would be considered powerful. His beard alongside his physique is considered impressive and his sheer power would be able to “influence others.”
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, power is defined as “possession of control, authority, or influence over others.” Fundamentally, the definition has remained the same but the means to achieve it have changed. In older epochs, one who had the most survival ability would be declared more powerful, the leader, which is often what we see in old tv show depictions. Albeit, as society advanced, we look more into mental coercion and the mental ability to show oneself as prominent, and a slice above the rest. As time has progressed, power has become something that isn’t necessarily an in-born trait, where the strongest person, physically, wins, rather it has evolved into a complex mind-scape that one, who is considered powerful induces on another. A mental scape that may be developed.
As controversial as he is, Xi Jinping, objectively is one the most powerful people of his time. Certainly not because of his physique, but rather because of the fact that he is a communist leader of one of the world’s largest growing countries economically. His political decisions could sway the tides of the world.
What Are The Attributes? How Can I Develop Power?
- Control your Arrogance👈
- Fix your vocabulary👈
- Consistently assess yourself.👈
Controlled Arrogance 😤
“Have faith in yourself, all power is in you, be conscious and bring it out.”
— Swami Vivekananda
All power is already residing within oneself, all it requires is belief, and self-assurance in oneself to harness this power with consciousness.
A common trait noticed in all powerful people is that they are quite self-assured, they simply do not accept failure or see themselves as any less than what they expect. Such is seen in the way they act, speak, and even walk. So, how is it that one develops such self-assurance?
Self-assurance is not an innate quality, rather it is one skilfully developed by the wins a person achieves during life. Self-assurance is not artificial, it is natural, but a way to speed up this natural process is arrogance.
Imagine arrogance as cogs for a machine, the means, the foundation, to producing confidence and self-assurance. This confidence is bottled up within a person and is used as a barrier to any mistakes or failure, it acts as a protective layer, but more so it emanates an “I CAN DO IT” attitude, one that commands respect and power, even during the darkest of times.
Arrogance acts as cogs for a machine to speed up the natural process of producing self-assurance.
📍 A Further Examination…
Elon Musk, one of the most influential, powerful people of our time is seen as an alien for his audacious, ambitious ideas…ideas that most humans immediately dismiss as impossible.
Nonetheless, this idea of overcoming the impossible, no matter what the circumstance, and consistently believing in his ability to achieve the impossible is what makes many gravitate towards Musk. Such confidence, which may very well be driven by his arrogance is what makes Musk one of the most influential and powerful people of modern times.
Specific Vocabulary 🔥
“Do not speak badly of yourself. For the warrior within hears your words and is lessened by them.”
— Old Japanese Samurai
Proverb
Looking at this quote, we understand that by speaking harshly of ourselves we suppress our natural power. It lowers our confidence and self-assurance, taking away our power which is fueled solely by one thing, our belief in ourselves.
Adding to confidence derived from arrogance, confidence can also be derived from words. We all understand the power words can have on others, however, we often forget the power OUR OWN WORDS have on ourselves.
Thus, with this, we can see two sides of where we may fix our vocabulary to further improve upon our power…vocabulary when speaking to ourselves and when speaking to others.
🤩 Changing Vocabulary During Self-Talk
💡 Reflect!
Think deeply! Have you ever messed up on something so badly that you felt stupid, daresay useless. You must have been so disappointed that
you kept insulting yourself repeatedly, not allowing for your soul to rebound and get another win.
Even if it is just for a moment, insulting ourselves could really bring down our confidence and self-esteem, leading to a lack of power. Without belief in oneself, one may not unlock their power. Consider a dull pencil, many throw it away simply as it cannot write as profoundly, we always gravitate to the sharper pencil, the pencil with power.
Without this confidence, you become a dull pencil who may no longer be able to influence yourself let alone influence others, which is what power truly is.
The sharpest pencil is almost always going to be chosen, it has a greater ability to influence than the other dull pencils.
That being said, there are a few common phrases you will be able to change to garner more confidence, leading to more power.
| Old Phrases | New Counterparts |
|---|---|
| “I can’t do this.” | “Yes, I can.” |
| “I’m too stupid.” | “I can do anything as long as I focus and put in the effort.” |
| “I’m hopeless.” | “I can do anything.” |
| “I can’t win.” | “I WILL win, no matter the odds.” |
| “The conditions are not right now.” | “I will make the conditions right for my success.” |
| “This is impossible.” | “I’ll make the impossible, possible.” |
That being said, power is not only what you form internally, but a combination of the power and confidence you ignite within yourself, and the way others see you externally. Speech and the mannerisms we have around others greatly affect if we have the power to influence anyone and make things happen.
Using Powerful Speech
💡 Reflect!
Have you ever tried to speak but immediately got shut down, never getting your point across.
This may come off as a shock, but the problem is seldom with the audience or opposing speaker being aloof to your point, rather it is because your speech doesn’t demand respect from your audience, leading to no influence over your audience, and a subsequent lack of power.
So what must you be missing? Here are a few of the most missed aspects of speech that will lead to more power within one’s speech.
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Projecting Oneself
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Oftentimes, we yell to gain attention, leading to a foolish appearance, an appearance where we yell, yet gain no attention, further feeding into a lack of power over others and over ourselves. Rather, we must project. Imagine projecting as an increase in bass, it’s more strong and comes from deeper within. Contrarily, imagine yelling as a surface-level shriek, which does nothing other than encourage the audience to further stray away from your thoughts.
Projecting is an increase in bass, where the audience feels a stronger voice speaking, a stronger influence over them.
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Being Succinct
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When we speak to retort to any point or simply keep talking away, we lose value in our words. It is similar to spending, initially, the first few words one utters in pertinence to a topic tend to be the strongest, however, we keep talking up to the point
where we have spent so many words that they lack true value. This consistent speaking makes you lose control and further lose power. The power of your words is depleted and you lose your audience.
- To mend this, we must speak only when necessary. If not we must compensate for our limited words through actions: a true facet of powerful people.
- This is made worse through the use of filler words, such as “but, like, so, and umm.” On top of this, we aren’t direct and beat around the bush. To gain more control and influence over the audience, we must eliminate filler words and make sure our point directly attaches to the audience rather than being covered by too many words.
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When we speak to retort to any point or simply keep talking away, we lose value in our words. It is similar to spending, initially, the first few words one utters in pertinence to a topic tend to be the strongest, however, we keep talking up to the point
where we have spent so many words that they lack true value. This consistent speaking makes you lose control and further lose power. The power of your words is depleted and you lose your audience.
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Being Relaxed And Smooth
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When conveying a point to an audience, it must flow smoothly with relaxation. An audience immediately knows when one is rushed due to rapid pace, accidental stuttering, etc. This conveys a feeling where the speaker, you, who wishes to have power over
yourselves and the audience, is nervous and lacks knowledge. It leads to a slip of influence over the audience.
- To amend this, deep breaths and calculated moves during speech between yourself and anyone else are often helpful.
- Confidence in your words and yourself, utilizing arrogance and positive self-talk will also ensure that you don’t slip up due to second-thinking.
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When conveying a point to an audience, it must flow smoothly with relaxation. An audience immediately knows when one is rushed due to rapid pace, accidental stuttering, etc. This conveys a feeling where the speaker, you, who wishes to have power over
yourselves and the audience, is nervous and lacks knowledge. It leads to a slip of influence over the audience.
Constant Assessment 🤯
Humans have a natural tendency to mask their flaws and play to their strengths. They feel a lot more successful than they actually are and basque in false glory. Contrarily, powerful people do quite the opposite.
Although powerful people have consistent self-assurance, which is primarily external, they have a strong internal desire to constantly develop themselves. To do so, they regularly assess themselves and truly understand that they might be horrible and require development in some areas, yet they outline their wins to consistently maintain their motivation.
One such example of embracing mistakes and moving forward is by Eric Yuan, the CEO of Zoom. Take a look:
In our school lives, many of us have studied for tests, specifically utilizing practice assessments. We take the practice assessment, identify where we are weak, and improve on those specific portions. Similarly, constant assessment of one’s internal nature and skills leads to better preparedness.
A valid opposition is that by embracing his flaws and consistently assessing himself, Eric Yuan lost his edge of confidence, which, as mentioned before, is a proponent of powerful people. However, we must understand that through constant assessment, we gain the assurance that we are upgrading ourselves, and making ourselves better, which, in turn, leads to greater confidence.
Think of upgrading yourself as a ladder: as we climb up the ladder, we reach greater levels of confidence, leading to greater power—a positive feedback loop. We can sit on one ledge with the confidence we gain, but to increase our confidence and power we must upgrade ourselves.
📌 Key Takeaways
1. Power can be developed, it is not an innate quality.
2. Channeling and controlling arrogance into confidence develops an “I can do it” attitude, which increases your power.
3. Changing your vocabulary to more powerful
and assuring language, in regards to self-talk and whilst talking to another is important to garnering power.
4. Constant assessment and embracing yourself allows you to level up and further develop power.
5. Power is
something that you feel internally when you acknowledge your ability, and externally when you are able to influence others.
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