Are you a puppet? No offense, but seriously, is someone controlling you? Is someone conjuring your life and making you play along? Is someone else writing you in as the unwitting character of your own story?

Well, I’m hoping that by the last one of those questions, you were shouting a resounding, “Noooo!” But put more subtly, I wonder if you might find yourself frighteningly less disagreeable. What I mean is, you may be willing to resist being called a puppet, or being outright controlled by another, but are you giving away your power in other less obvious situations?

Here’s a good way to check – answer these few questions:

If you responded to any of the above questions with any answer other than, “By my choice and intention” or a variation thereof, then you are giving away your power.

How, and to what degree, we take responsibility for our lives and what is showing up in them right now, are fantastic indicators of how much power we currently have. If we are aware that we are responsible for everything, then we are already more powerful. If we own that responsibility and make it our motivation – well then, our power becomes immeasurable.

A place to begin taking more responsibility in your life is by refusing to ever play the victim again.

I don’t mean become a bully, take self-defense classes, or increase your vibrato in adversarial scenarios. I mean stop blaming anyone else for anything that happens to you. Stop saying that the universe doesn’t want you to have something. Stop saying that you “can’t” because of someone else. Stop pointing the finger at coworkers, bosses, spouse, lovers, friends, kids, or strangers. Don’t let them have that power over you.

Take that power back! Own every aspect of your creation. Delight in the surprises that you have made for yourself. Revel in the opportunities for growth, and exploration, and change. Savor the many chances to bite the dust on your own volition, by virtue of your own power, and at the end of your own choices.

Sounds hard, but you begin with one choice. Make the one choice to own your power. And then, just don’t stop using your ability to chose, recognizing that your life is all your choice.

∞

Be well, powerful choosers.