5 Ways to Empower Others
Marscella Ling | Unsplash.com | Teaching empowerment
5 Ways to Empower Others
Empowering others
Empowering others to be their best selves is a lofty goal for 2021. Merriam Webster says being empowered means, “having the knowledge, confidence, means, or ability to do things or make decisions for oneself.” This is clearly different than being dependent. A dependent person doesn’t do things themselves; they need someone or something to enable them to do it or to do it for them. If you are empowered, you are confident and have the ability to do what you are doing. Most importantly, you decide for yourself, you identify the facts, and make the necessary decision.
Unfortunately, we start out in our infancy as very dependent. We don’t come with manuals and as we grow older training us to be independent and empowered is very difficult. This is especially true in children who grow up in broken homes, are food-deprived, or have an abusive parent. But they can learn to be empowered and feel worthy, however, it takes a village to help make that happen.
Who needs to be empowered?
Everyone needs to be empowered. They need to be able to think, make good decisions, and find the truth. If everyone were empowered, we would see through conspiracy theories more quickly and perhaps be able to have meaningful discussions with those who disagree with us because we could agree on the facts. To be empowered we have to recognize facts as different from theories and wishful thinking.
5 ways you can empower others.
1. Encourage others to think- Unfortunately our education system has gotten away from the concept of teaching students how to think and reason critically. We teach people to recite facts from the material. In colleges, we dive deeply into a specific topic. But we don’t have time to dip into philosophy, literature, cognition, and debate. You have to force yourself to delve into these topics
2. Keep everyone informed- If you are working with others don’t keep information to yourself share it with everyone. This tells them they are an important part of the team, not just cogs in a machine. It enables them to think, make suggestions, and help get everyone to the endpoint together.
3. Encourage risk taking-Encourage others to think, figure out the consequences, and go ahead. This could lead to a teaching movement if they forgot to think of 2nd and 3rd level consequences. But if they take a risk or make a decision on their own, don’t lose your cool if it didn’t work, otherwise, they will never try again.
4. Don’t tolerate bullying- If you see bullying happening, intervene, and get it stopped. Nothing will defeat empowering more quickly than getting bullied either mentally or physically. Speak up when you see others making fun of someone. It hurts the victim and the perpetrator.
5. Encourage learning- We can’t learn enough about thinking, decision making, and determining truth from falsehood. Reading and discussing books is a great way to learn. Ask someone to join a group with you.
Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. — Harvey Fierstein
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. — Roald Dahl
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -Winston Churchill
No situation is good or bad. It becomes good or bad when we give it some meaning. This is one of the most inspirational quotes on life.
