Politics is about gaining power. Period.
In life, we are all, in some shape or form, trying to achieve power over our situations or attain it to feel more control. It’s having authority and dominion over our existence; it is the governance of our own space. And with it comes the conflict from individuals or other parties who are hoping for the ability to rule over us.
This is the eternal struggle.
We may not like to admit it, but we are wrangling with the process of politics. Yes, exactly what is occurring in the realm of our elected officials. The current political arena is quite a spectacle. It’s actually a lesson on how not to behave as we go about the day-to-day management of our own power struggles. Their display feels like a veritable asylum as we watch the different personalities and styles making headlines in full-view of their constituents. In many cases, shame on them! This is who represents us? But I digress. I’ll leave more commentary about that in another piece.
The question remains – What contributes to achieving a sense of control over our lives to retain a feeling of personal power?
My opinion is simply this – it requires an individual who possesses critical thinking skills.
Being a critical thinker means a person will make reasoned judgments that are logical and well-thought out. This leads to making better decisions. And this, in turn, makes for situations that are more desirable, and more in your control.
Of course, there will be situations which will be out of our hands. The unexpected, unfortunate tragedy and chaos that can randomly take a perceived path or plan in a completely different direction is just that – out of our control. These situations just happen to us for no reason. Other factors which can contribute to a person’s inability to retain their power are devastating medical situations including mental illness. But what sets people who have critical thinking skills apart from people who don’t is that their reactions are inherently different.
Reasonable and logical approaches to any situation will help you to remain calm and collected. The opposite of that reaction is hysteria and giving into emotional impulses without assessing the situation. This is not being in control, nor is it demonstrating having power over an event that is impacting you. And will likely have further consequences from reacting “out-of-control.”
It would seem that some individuals are just adept at life or endured a lot of personal adversity and decided enough is enough. They have the confidence to accept challenges which would attempt to take away their power. It’s as if instinct just kicks in and they anticipate what solution every situation requires. There isn’t a hesitation or misstep in what to do next. But I would say that I can almost guarantee these people had influencers. They could have been teachers, parents, mentors or have taken a hard beating from life. Also, it’s likely (but not necessary) they were given a solid foundation of empowerment in their early childhood. Good parents and teachers would insist on raising up a child to utilize their learned critical thinking skills at all times. My personal opinion is that these types of thinkers also remember to take away something from every situation in their life. Every challenge to navigate for control only added to their already substantial foundation of empowerment.
So you want to be a human in control of your personal power?
Learn how to think critically!
