If someone asked you to define yourself in one sentence, what would you say?
Would you base it on your relationships with other people? What you do for a living? Your sexual preference? Your religious affiliation? Your life philosophy?
However you choose to define yourself, the most important element in this decision is making sure the definition comes from YOU, and you alone.
Society has a funny (well, sometimes not so funny) little way of attempting to determine a person's abilities based on their gender, nationality, sexuality, and personal life choices. Certain stereotypes have been perpetuated for so long, they have actually become a part of the mainstream's belief system. The danger here is when the people targeted by these generalizations begin to believe the hype and subconsciously start putting their own limitations on their dreams, and what they believe they DESERVE.
And that is the most POWERLESS position anyone can ever allow themselves to be in.
You can always claim - and KEEP - your power by clearly understanding three things:
WHO you are
WHAT you stand for
HOW your presence impacts others
Knowing WHO you are goes beyond just defining yourself by your gender, race, or social class. Knowing who you are means understanding your emotional, psychological, and spiritual make-up, and having the ability to tap into a power that is greater than yourself. When you know where your TRUE strength comes from, and that the source of that strength is one of infinite abundance, there can be very little room to ever entertain self-doubt.
Knowing WHAT you stand for is crucial to your survival. We've all heard the phrase, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything" and that is the truth. If you don't have your own personal beliefs to define how you feel about yourself, you risk being at the mercy of adapting someone else's values that may not align with what you feel in your heart is YOUR truth. Of course you will always encounter like-minded people during your journey, but only YOU can determine what you feel most strongly about and what you feel is worth fighting for and preserving.
Knowing HOW your presence impacts others is not for you to obsess about what others think of you. It is actually to reaffirm how much of an impact your presence has on this earth. Newton's law states: "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Everything that you do directly affects anything you come into contact with, and vice versa. Understanding this leads to a more CONSCIOUS thought process. You will be less likely to act in haste or do things without deliberate thought because you understand that your actions will eventually make their way back to YOU, whether good or bad. This knowledge will help you direct your thoughts and create POSITIVE actions to make sure what comes back into your experience is always beneficial to your well-being.
If you haven't already done so, it's never too late to define yourself, FOR yourself, to reclaim your limitless power. So my question for you is.....
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF?