Whatever business development or promotion and marketing workshop I go to the message that constantly rings out is that we will only be successful if we are passionate about what we do. That always made perfect sense to me. Of course, if we are passionate, people will experience something pretty special when they interact with us. They will want to get to know us better and will want to engage with us in what we do, what we have to share. That's the theory anyway.
The challenge is finding our passion. I have many things I am passionate about, but what animates my professional and business life is the passion I have to see people become empowered, energised and enthusiastic about what they are doing in their lives. So few people are.
Did you realise that every year in Australia, almost 800,000 adults experience a depressive illness? One in every 4 of these people will be women, and one in every 6 will be men.
Did you also know that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that by 2020 depression will be the second biggest health problem world-wide behind heart disease?
Did you also know that research released in July 2008, by the Gallup Organisation of Australia, found that 20% of Australian workers are disengaged, costing the economy $31.5 billion dollars per year?
So there are many, many people out there who don't feel good about what is happening in their personal, professional and work lives.
As a coach and workshop facilitator it is just so exciting to work with people who initially are feeling challenged, stuck or uncertain where to go next and help them to take the steps to empower themselves so that they can put meaning and purpose back into their lives. That's what I'm passionate about - helping people to do that.
I can't empower people. They can only do that for themselves, but I can facilitate the process for them. I can help them to remove the barriers that are blocking them from doing it. I can help them discover, within themselves, all the personal resources they need to make their own lives passionate and empowered.
You can do it too! Here are 11 tips for empowering yourself.
1. Know and understand yourself - develop self-awareness.
2. Believe in and trust yourself.
3. Surround yourself with other empowered and empowering people and live and work in empowering spaces.
4. Gear your values towards your authentic self.
5. Create an empowering vision for your life and empowering goals that motivate you to achieve great things.
6. Make your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being a priority.
7. Act assertively, but not aggressively.
8. Take risks to create a new future for yourself.
9. Work in an organisation that empowers its employees.
10. Really understand your job so that you can empower yourself to do it.
11. Build good empowering relationships with others.
If you want to develop these 11 tips out further, go to my business website - http://www.peopleempowered.com.au - and subscribe to my mailing list. You will receive as our thank you gift to you, a 28 page in colour e-book called "You Empowering You for Personal and Professional Success."
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24 February 2009 - 8:15pm Maree, I could not agree more. The passion I have for my work is not only the motivating force that allows my own empowerment, it is also my passion and belief in what I do that sustains me through the challenging times. The knowing that my core motivation is to make a difference, not only in my workplace, but in the world in general is the passion that drives my decisions and empowers me to remove the barriers that are blocking me from achieving any outcome. It is in working with people who are also empowered that helps release those blocks. I also know that when my passion wanes it is usually connected to one or more of your 11 tips for empowering yourself. Most often the balance between mind, body and spirit. My experience also tells me that passion often breeds energy in others and as a leader it is important to not only surround myself with other positive and passionate people but that I also have a responsibility and role in supporting others to find their passion. Looking at the statistics of depression it is quite confronting to think that so many people are lacking a sense of passion and empowerment. No doubt we all have feelings of depression at different times of our lives, but my questions are: 1. Why are we as a society/human race so fearful of taking the risks to fulfil or explore what we are passionate about? 2. What is depressed within us that prevents us from empowering ourselves to live a passionate and energised life? 3. Why is the treadmill so hard to get off in order to explore, reflect and enact what is most important to us and empowering for us? And finally, 4. How does one live and work in the margins or on the fringe of the norm or expected and sustain oneself within difference or a marginalised position?
5 March 2009 - 11:55am
Suzanne, Great comments. Am I meant to answer all those questions? Actually I think I should try because they are very important - even more so today. So I'll do that in the next few weeks. The point you make that I think is most important and that actually answers all your questions is the one about surrounding ourselves with people who are also empowered. Not only do they empower us and keep us focussed but it has a ripple effect out to all the people we touch. It is not easy to find these people and sometimes we have to be rather single focussed and committed to the task to find them. We often have to go to various networking opportunities and follow up on people until we discover those that really inspire us and with whom we can engage. We then need to add value to one another's lives to keep that empowering experience alive.
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