Authentic Power:
On Realizing Your Full Potential
By Richard L. Roberts, PhD.
Joy is the impetus and your guide in realizing your true potential and being a fully functioning individual. It is joy that points the way to your personal awakening from the waking sleep as well as propelling you towards your true destiny. True personal power arises out of joy.
True, authentic power is not about being aggressive or forceful. That is the illusion created by ego. Working from the personality always brings in an element of struggle, forcing, resisting, and controlling circumstances. Conditioned by our culture, we learn to seek predetermined goals not always of our own choosing. This creates an imbalance leading to the need to control circumstances in order to get what we want. This is often mistaken for personal power.
Fulfilling your mission is not about reaching a goal, as the conditioned ego may have you believe. It is about the process of fully expressing yourself, enjoying each present moment, awakening to the joy of creative expression. Following your bliss demands that you be true to your highest self, performing for the joy of it. It means you must take a stand, in consciousness, in being, to act from the best and highest within you. Joy is not the end result, it is the journey itself. This aligns you with true personal power and self realization.
Granted, staying aligned with the intention of your highest self is not always easy. Silencing the inner confusion created by the conditioned mind, it requires a day by day refocusing to the present, listening to your intuition and following your heart. Pursuing goals based on the dictates of the ego only lead to burnout and a lack of inner satisfaction. Unfortunately, we normally do not receive reinforcement from society in following our higher, spiritual calling.
Your primary challenge then is to trust that Life will present you exactly with what you need to unfold your innate capacities. This will align you with the magic of universal support, when the pieces naturally fall into place in their own right time. The universe always guides us in the direction of our greatest good. Flowing with universal source allows us quite naturally to become all we can be. Rather than forcing, this requires allowing and acting on the inner prompts that come often daily.
One such opportunity that presents itself on the path of higher calling is paying attention to challenges that appear. While our habitual tendency is to retreat from problems, challenges, and fears, this will not strengthen our creative muscles. See challenges for what they are — hidden opportunities, gifts in disguise to stretch beyond our present abilities and take a quantum leap forwards to fulfilling our mission in life.
Fear will arise inevitably. The path of authentic power requires a reprogramming regarding fear. Rather than allowing the automatic response — fight or flight — when encountering fear, instead, learning to have fear be your ally. Avoiding the situation or fighting it does not allow us to spontaneously work with the circumstances and bring our genuine creativity to bear. To avoid that which we fear is simply to avoid life and to remain empty and thirsting for fulfillment. In contrast, the use of authentic power means welcoming fear as a signal to move forward in harmony with fulfilling your mission.
Fear is something we must face if we are to self actualize and fulfill our life’s work. Of course, fear itself is not really the problem, the problem comes when we allow it to stop us from acting on what we want to create, which is when we lose our true power. We then take the victim stance. To face our fears is a requirement if we are to stretch and become what we have the potential to become. Courage to act in spite of our fears brings out the best in an individual. This activates authentic power. It strengthens our creative muscles, and allows us to discover the magic inherent in life’s many hidden opportunities.
Self-actualizing individuals, those who are fulfilling their calling and walking the vertical path of authentic empowerment welcome fear. Fear offers a means not only for self discovery, but points the direction to personal liberation. Often, the direction that we fear the most is also the one that holds the greatest possibilities and excitement for us. In addition, intimate to fulfilling our mission and becoming all we can be is breaking through self-imposed limitations. Fear highlights these obstacles.
The challenge put before you is — do you make your decisions based on old, programmed habitual personality patterns, or answer that call of your Highest Self (no matter what).