It is late. I am hoping this makes sense. I have re-read it a few times,
but am not sure. I am still going to post. I will try to come back to it
at a later time to see if there is reason to edit it. This is just some raw
thought, and a work in progress. So please keep that in mind as you
read. Thanks.
Today I was thinking about "empowerment."
I found myself wondering if it is a myth that
we sell ourselves in an effort to feel better
about ourselves and our life.
I was thinking about it because, among other
things, there is an industry and a number of
businesses built around it. And while there
is this feeling that anyone can feel empowered,
and many will pay for that magic pill, the
effects are often short lasting.
If empowerment was "real," wouldn't it be something more tangible and
longer lasting than it seems to be? It seems to be like most anything else;
it seems to work for some, but for others perhaps not so much. At least,
not in the way it is taught it should be.
I say it like this because I wondered if we were OK with the things that
happened to us in life, and didn't feel a need to judge them as good or
bad, if we would have a need for something called empowerment. It
seems to me that empowerment in design is to take us away from the
things that are "bad."
I don't want to sound fatalistic. I am not sure I believe that there is only
one way for our life to go. At the same time, maybe there are certain
types of things that need to play out, and how they play out could occur
like an improv scenario.
I did improv for a few months once, and it was interesting to see a theme
acted out a number of different ways by a number of different people.
The theme was the same, but how it was acted out varied, sometimes
a lot.
So maybe we have things that will happen in our life. And maybe we
can play them out in different ways. And maybe the things that happen
are exactly what should happen. And maybe sometimes we may think
the theme sucks.
In improv you have to commit to the theme. In improv if someone says
something you can't go against it. You are supposed to add to it. For
instance, if someone said, "Did you see the purple tree?" you aren't
supposed to turn around and say, "Are you kidding me? There are no
purple trees. It must have been green." You would say something like,
"Yes. And it was so gorgeous against the amber sky." And you would
go from there.
Maybe if we stopped thinking some themes sucked, maybe we wouldn't
feel such an incredible need to fix things all of the time. And if we
didn't feel the need, we wouldn't set ourselves up by trying to find the
solutions to things that may not have any.
For some, it obviously "works," so I am not necessarily saying that things
like that shouldn't be available. But at the same time, if we are going for
events and books and courses and things just because we think it is the
magical solution, then maybe it isn't the best reason to do it. Maybe they
are the type of things that will not work for us. Maybe it it is the not the
direction we need to go.
In my experience, I tend to see many who are swayed by people and
things outside of themselves. That has happened to me many times as well.
It is something I think about a lot the last few years, as my experience varies
greatly from others who teach and from others who follow the teaching.
I can do exactly what they say and get no where.
Why is that?
Maybe it isn't the thing for me. Maybe it isn't the thing I should be pursuing,
and/or maybe I am pursuing it for reasons that aren't the best. It is too
common of a situation to chalk up to people "doing it wrong." I think,
I suspect there is something more yet to be considered. I think it is easy
to get caught up in the motivation and empowerment hamster wheel and get
no where fast. I think there could be elements that we don't fully understand.
Of course there is a part of me that is not happy with that answer. But there
is another part that thinks that I do know what I need to know, some of it
is just hidden in the framework, and not clearly evident, but necessary to the
essence of the frame and its content.
Maybe everything in my life is just as it should be.
And maybe when I can see that, and believe that, and act on that I
have power. Someone or something else can give me permission to act
on something and enable me to do it, but if I don't have the internal
piece, maybe that is what is lacking when things do not happen as I
am told they should, if I was doing it the right way.
Maybe it is not empowerment I should seek, as it seems to come from
external sources, but perhaps I should rather embrace the internal parts
of myself, and my power to act upon what is happening in my life and
what is right for me at that moment - which may, or may not include
those teachers, books, courses...
Maybe.
I am still looking to figure it out. The irony is that I might be trying
to figure it out, in the midst of an already known, yet unrecognized,
answer, especially if I believe all of what I just said.
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