How to Be Empowered

Contrary to common belief, the most effective control over one's life can be gained in an almost effortless manner. The truly empowered person "has it together", exudes a glowing poise that is apparent to others. Here are ten steps whereby you can begin experience empowerment in your own life.

1. Start from where you are and take one step at a time.

When you think about it, that's the only place you CAN start, i.e., where you are at this moment. Begin with your present perceptions, understandings, and strengths and move forward, one step at a time. In this world of objectives, goals and big plans, we often focus too much on the future with the result that our ability to concentrate fully on the present is severely compromised. Yet, it is only in the present that we can make a difference.

2. Examine your resistance points--the things that irritate you, limit you, or cause you to react.

We often resist what we most need to learn. The next time you find yourself resisting new information, a particular situation, or something someone else is saying, ask yourself: What is it that is really bothering me about this? Is there something that I need to learn?

3. Recognize that whatever you are experiencing at this very moment is appropriate to your need to grow.

Implicit in this "rule of appropriateness" is the concept that there is a larger plan of which you are an integral part. Until you're willing to acknowledge the possibility that such a plan exists, you will never be able to see it!

4. Stop worrying about whether others are getting theirs!

It's easy to become preoccupied about what the other person is doing, getting, achieving, etc. This kind of worrying is useless and wastes time and energies that are better spent on yourself.

5. Realize that it doesn't matter what happened to you or who did it to you; the only thing that matters is what you do about it.

What happened and who did it to you are in the past. You can't change the past, you can only change your perception of it. The ONLY thing that counts is what you do NOW in order to move forward.

6. Learn to withhold judgment.

To withhold judgment is to accept what is. How often in conversation do you find yourself mentally correcting, criticizing, or re-phrasing? when you do, you risk missing the real message which may not be in the words themselves. Rather than saying to yourself, "that's inaccurate" or "he/she is wrong", try accepting the statement as simply a representation of the way that person thinks, feels or what he/she intends to convey. This simple technique can open up a whole realm of hidden meaning, AND it enables you to respond more objectively and dispassionately.

7. Learn to operate holistically by opening up to the other possibilities that are always there.

There is always more than one way to solve a problem. You're most likely to get "stuck" when you foreclose your options by setting up conditions, demands, expectations, fears, positions and prejudices.

8. Complete your unfinished business.

Most of us have "unfinished business"--failures, a relationship gone sour, or a good deed left undone. Getting beyond ("completing") is not always easy, but there's a three-step process that, if followed, can do wonders for your psyche. It's this: (1) Acknowledge the wrong, mistake, screw-up, etc. to yourself, (2) Admit it to one other person, preferably the person you've wronged and, in the latter case, apologize and ask simply: "What can I do to make this right with you?" (Sometimes there really isn't much you can do, but the simple act of asking is healing in itself), and (3) Move ON. You've admitted your mistake, taken whatever corrective action you could, and now it's time to go forward. This third step takes discipline, but it works.

9. When faced with an apparently hopeless situation, take action, any action.

There's something called the "logjam" theory that applies here: when logs in a stream become all jammed up, moving ANY ONE log frees the others to move, because the act of moving a single piece creates space which in turn allows the other pieces to move. It's important to recognize that you're not trying to reach a final solution in a single move; you're simply taking "one step at a time" (Step#1)

10. Consider the wisdom of doing absolutely nothing!

As with the rule of appropriateness (above), there's a hidden assumption here, namely, that we each possess an inner wisdom that is always available if we know how to tap into it. Call it intuition, spiritual sense, whatever, the fact is that this "still small voice" is audible only when we are very quiet. It's a bit like a point in which you can see the bottom only when the surface is calm and the water nu-muddied. Doing nothing means exactly that: nothing physically, nothing mentally, nothing at all! The Japanese call it, "kokoro-no-mizu", literally, a "mind as water"--smooth, flowing and undisturbed. Try it. It works,and it's fun!

Predict Your Future. Don't use a crystal ball to make forecasts of your business. By carefully assessing the historical trends of
your business, as shown on your records for the previous five years, you can predict for the year ahead. Your listing of sales,
your experience with the markets in which you market, and your general understanding of the economy should enable you to forecast
a revenue figure for the following calendar year.

When you have a Sales prediction figure, make a budget showing your prices as a percentage of the figure. In the next year, you
can compare actual P&L amounts to your budgeted figures. Thus, your financial plan is an important tool for determining the health
of your enterprise.

Make Timely Decisions. Without action, predictions and conclusions concerning the future are not worth the paper they're written
on. A decision that doesn't result in action is a bad one. The rate of business needs timely in addition to informed decision
making. In case the owner-manager would be to stay ahead of competition, you have to move to control your destiny.

Effective Decision making in the small business requires a number of things. The owner-manager should possess as much accurate
information as possible. With these facts, you need to determine the consequences of all possible courses of actions and the time
demands. When you have made the decision, you've set up your business so the decisions you make can be transmitted into action.

Control Your Small Business. To work, the owner-manager needs to have the ability to motivate key individuals to get the results
intended for within the price and time limits allowed. In working to achieve outcomes, the small business owner-manager has an
advantage over large business. You can be flexible and fast while many large firms must await committee action before a decision
is made. You do not need to get permission to behave. And equally important, bottlenecks to implementing new methods can receive
your personal attention.

One of the Secrets is in determining what things to restrain. Even in a small company, the owner-manager should not try and be all
things to everyone. You should keep close control on people, products, money, and any other tools that you consider important to
keeping your operation geared toward profit.

Manage Your Folks. Most businesses find that their largest expense is labor. Yet because of the close contact with employees, some
owner-manager of small businesses do not pay enough attention to direct and indirect labor costs. They tend to consider these
prices concerning people rather than relate them to gain with respect to dollars and pennies.

Listed below Are Some Tips regarding personnel handling:

Periodically Review every position in your company. Take a quarterly look at the job. Is work being duplicated? Can it be
structured so that it motivates the employee to become concerned? Can the tasks be given to another employee or employees and a
position removed? Can a part-time individual fill the job.

Play A modest private mental game. Imagine that you must get rid of one employee, If you had to let 1 person go, who'd it be? How
would you realign the tasks to make out? You could get a true solution to the imaginary problem is potential to your financial
advantage.

Usage Compensation as a tool rather than seeing it as a essential evil. Reward Superior work. Look into the possibility of using
increases and bonuses as incentives for greater productivity. By way of instance, can you envision bonuses like morale boosters
during seasonal slacks or other dull periods?

Remember There are new means of controlling absenteeism through incentive compensation plans. For example, the owner-manager of
one small company eliminated vacations and sick leave. Rather, this owner-manager gave each employee thirty days annual leave to
use as the worker saw fit. In the end of the calendar year, the workers were paid at regular prices for the depart that they did
not use. To make up for the year-end pay, the worker had to prove that sick leave was taken solely for this purpose. Non-sick
leave had to be applied for in advance. As a result, unscheduled absences and overtime pay have been reduced significantly. In
addition, workers were happier and more productive than they had been under the old system.

Control Your Inventory. Don't tie up all of your cash in stock. Utilize a perpetual inventory system for a cost control as opposed
to a system just for tax purposes. Establish use patterns or buy patterns on the materials or items which you have to stock to
maintain the minimum number required to supply your customers or to preserve production. Excessive stock, whether it's finished
merchandise or raw materials, ties up funds which could be used to better advantage, for instance, to open a new sales territory
or to buy new machines.

Centralize your Purchases and avoid duplications. Be a comparative shopper. Confirm orders . Get the purchase price and amount
straight right away.

Assess what you Receive for condition and quality. Assess bills from suppliers against quotations. You do not want to be the
victim of their error.

You should, However, keep 1 fact in mind when you set up your stock control system. Do not invest more on the management system
than it will return in savings.

Control Your Products. From charge of stock to control of products is however a step. Make sure that your sales people understand
the importance of promoting the products which are the most profitable. Align your service coverages along with your markup in
mind. Arrange your goods that low markup things need the least handling.

Control Your Money. It is good policy to handle checks and cash as though they were perishable commodities. They are. Cash on your
safe earns no return; and it Can be stolen. Bank promptly.

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