How to Super-Charge Your Self-Empowerment

How we feel about ourselves largely determines how others see us. When we think well of ourselves, so do others. When we’re down on ourselves or angry at the world, others feel that—and are likely to reflect those feelings back to us. The more empowered we feel, the better our outlook will be and the more people and success we’ll attract. Here are a few terrific tips for empowering yourself.

• Each morning, tell yourself you are a strong, deserving, capable person who can accomplish whatever you put your mind to. Over time, this self-affirmation will become part of your mental “DNA.”
  
  
• Take advantage of things you’re good at, whether it’s coordinating a meeting or playing a sport. We tend to undervalue things that come easy. Yet those are strengths we’re most likely to be able to build upon.
  
  
• Write down your positive qualities, for example, “integrity,” “empathy,” “hard worker,” as well as your negative ones, i.e., “impatience,” “quick to anger,” “easily frustrated.” Work on improving the good qualities and eliminating the negatives ones. For example, should you feel yourself becoming angry, take deep breaths and stay silent until you feel in control. 
  
  
• Try to stay optimistic. A positive outlook will lift your spirits, help you resolve problems and attract people toward your sunny self. 
  
  
• Stop negative self-talk. “I can’t” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Don’t say it. To begin to feel more in control, work on the things you believe you can’t do. You may be surprised at what you actually “can do.”

• Avoid negative people. They’re sure to make you feel second-rate or incompetent. Cut them out of your life or, at least, avoid them as much as possible.
  
  
• Learn to see the upside of setbacks and challenges by focusing on what an experience—even a bad one—can teach you, rather than on what it may cost you. 

• Sit up straight! Really—sitting or standing straight, holding your head up and making eye contact projects outer confidence, which eventually becomes inner confidence. 
  
  
• Think about how you can be a better friend or colleague to others. Are there ways in which you can be more supportive of those you care about and work with?  

Take ten or fifteen minutes a day to disconnect from the things that may be bringing you down. Sit, meditate, take a walk. As you do, choose a goal and visualize yourself achieving it!