This is a very good question: what does it mean to be empowered? We toss out the word empowerment for all kinds of things about courage, giving strength to others to self-improvement. So the concept is a bit hazy. Each of us has our own interpretation of empowerment.
What does it really mean, empowered?
As defined by dictionary.com their definition reads: “to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means”.
But we have taken the literal definition and have begun to apply it to our own power, our ability to create power of the self, from within. True, we can give power to our attorney to act on our behave. But that definition doesn’t really encompass the more general meaning we’ve created in this Self-Help Age.
It seems we tend to use the term, empowered, today to mean that we’ve given someone the courage to act, do or think in a way that would help her benefit herself. You empower someone by teaching her to believe in herself. True, this is a definition that could work as well.
But it seems that the term, empowered, nowadays comes more from within. We use it to talk about the journey of developing our inner-strength to act in ways that would best serve ourselves. Today, empowered means teaching the self to follow one’s inner voice and be true to her own true nature.
A More Modern Definition of Being Empowered
Therefore, to be empowered would mean, ‘having the personal ability to create the necessary courage and confidence to act and live one’s life in her own best interest”.
This definition seems to resound better with the idea that we are looking to be empowered in order to succeed in life, follow the path that is laid out for us despite our fears and the obstacles that others throw up in our way. It’s about learning to conquer the self-doubt that we are not worthy or strong enough to stand up for ourselves.
Being empowered is really about learning about life through our own limiting beliefs. We don’t think we have the strength or courage to face a problem, a conflict or a bad relationship. Yet, those are our self-defeating beliefs born from a very conflicted Ego.
We want to believe that others are bringing us down when in fact it’s our own thoughts about ourselves and our faith in our own strength that keeps us from rising above the fear of confronting our own limiting beliefs.
Being empowered is learning that the only real power we have is over ourselves. We truly get to choose what we want to believe about ourselves, our capacities and our limits. Being empowered is really about the journey to discovering who we really are.