One of my favorite things to do is to have deep talks with people about purpose, passion, philosophy, and self-actualization. My personal coach, Dayna Lisa, invited me to have one of the discussions on the topic personal power. 

These are unscripted talks where we explore our own personal definitions of these ideals and how we integrate them. Her definition of personal power surprised and delighted me, which I will share in the video seen below. But, to give you a little bit of what I want to show to you, let me share how I define personal power so that you can mull it over and see how it applies to your life.

For me, personal power is almost like an equation. You add up the ability to honor commitments that you make to yourself + emotional intelligence then you get personal power as the sum of these two.

I first applied this equation to my own life with my desire to exercise/move my body regularly.  I had struggled for years to show up for myself in this way until I learned how to honor the commitments that I made to myself and not allow self-sabotage, self-doubt, and fear to make my decisions. 

The extent to which you honor your commitments to yourself and others is the extent to which you create your success. It’s simple: You either keep your commitments to yourself and others or you don’t. When you break your word, you have sabotaged your success. And by keeping being in control of your emotions, you let yourself drive these emotions and not them driving you.

I reframed how I thought and felt about exercise from a burden, to a gift that I was giving myself and everything shifted. My relationship with myself improved because for the first time I wasn’t bailing on myself, I did what I said I would do for ME, not for anyone else. 

For the past 20 years I have made movement a daily part of my life and I am able to allow negative feelings to be there, without them making my decisions. I feel like I have tremendous personal power within this part of my life and have used this equation to find increased personal power in other areas of my life that are equally important. I use it in business, in my relationships, with my food choices. 

Where would you like to honor commitments that you make to yourself and have the emotional intelligence to allow any feeling and still do what you said you would do? If you would like to watch Dayna and I explore this topic organically, watch this video. 

https://youtu.be/Yi0PwZnaopQ

If you would like to apply this concept to an area of your life, I invite you to schedule a time to chat with me to see if we can utilize coaching to get you the result you crave, schedule here.

Mind Your Strength,

Melanie Shmois