Life Change 90

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Confidence is built on repeated experiences of success. A program that delivers repeated experiences of success, through daily pats on the back, affirmations of your self worth, consolidation and recognition of your achievements and teaches goalsetting as a way of life, is a vital and necessary component of any intention to gain empowerment for women and men. Finding your lesson from each day, acknowledging your successes of each day, gaining awareness of and control over your moods and emotions each day, breaking through the 0ld conditioning and patterns, learning to receive love as well as give it, these are critical to personal empowerment and are all built into the Life Change 90 program, designed especially for personal empowerment. Begin your journey to becoming a more Empowered Woman here, NOW!

Empowerment for Women

Empowered!
Image from laracatone.com

Empowerment for Women

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~Anais Nin – See more at: http://livingempowered.areavoices.com/2010/10/top-25-empowerment-quotations-for-women/#sthash.xjr8fBtb.dpuf

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~Anais Nin

In a previous era, women had neither the right to vote, nor the right to complain. Most women from before 200 years ago were treated like servants or objects. The wealthy classes in western civilizations held their women in higher esteem but they still had significantly less voice than their male counterparts. Even those who were loved, cherished and respected by their husbands were still second class citizens in the broader community, with neither voting power nor political influence. Their goals had to be pursued through subtleties and relationship influence. There was no #empowerment for women.

Empowerment?
Image from chersonandmolschky.com

In eastern civilisations and cultures, even today women still have limited rights, even where they have voting powers. Many cultures and religions do not allow their women to have an education. They insist on them being totally covered while in public. They are strictly forbidden communication with other men and their movements within their communities is also restricted. There is a huge rallying cry in the Middle East right now about whether or not women should legally be allowed the right to drive motor cars!

Empowerment for women throughout history.

If we look back thousands of years, Mother Earth was The Goddess and many societies were matriarchal. Rather than the patriarchal societies which most of the world has now, women were at the head, especially in religious and community leadership. The men were the hunters and muscle, while the women were the nurturers and spiritual and community leaders. Some words in common use now attest to this, words such as Amazon – referring to a tribe of female warriors, Gaia, a Mother Earth deity worshipped by many, and the Gods of mythology, Athena, Aphrodite and more. Women had great influence in Egyptian societies from time to time, ruling equally with their Pharaohs and even without them. The Iroquois Confederacy or League created an American Indian ‘constitution’ called The Great Binding Law of Peace dating from about 1000 AD but unwritten until the late 1800s. This enshrined women in governing roles of the society and is a powerful document to read and assimilate. Ken Carey wrote about it in some chapters of “Return of the Bird Tribes”.

Indian Artifact
www.webwinds.com

However, in Christian societies, the patriarchal model was adopted from the dark and middle ages and we now see the Pope as the head of the Catholic Church. Women are not even allowed to be priests, despite their once traditional roles as Priestesses! The great exception from this rule was established by the various Queens of England and consolidated by the current Queen Elizabeth, with a continual reign of over 60 years.

Empowerment for women in the modern era.

Back on the home front, in our modern day-to-day communities, women still face a “glass ceiling” in the workplace, lower wages for the same employment roles and a smaller proportion of women in management. They are publicly lauded as having equality in everything and various anti-discrimination bodies are set up around the world and even within the organisation of the United Nations. However, should a woman ‘make it to the top’, it is headline news because of the rarity of the event. Many men still feel threatened by having to work for a woman boss!

Burning a Bra
uncyclopedia.wikia.com

In the mad rush for equality and empowerment for women through the 1960s and beyond where ‘burning the bra’ became the standard for the liberationists. Unfortunately, women created a rod for their own backs in many ways. Rather than celebrating their differences, many tried to ignore them and claim total equality where in truth, women and men have differences in areas of strength and weakness. Had the push for equality of status been along these lines, perhaps the male segment of the population may not have felt so threatened and either openly or covertly tried to crush the movement. As it is, covert discrimination still exists. It will exist for another couple of generations, regardless of the progress of any anti-discrimination laws.

In the home, we see a huge proportion of single parent families, many women who are divorced single parents, raising their children alone. In many cases it is because they became personally empowered and escaped a toxic relationship. Others are because of desertion by their husbands. Fewer men are single parents and then it is often because of the loss of the mother through some tragedy, as in divorce court outcomes, more often than not custody has been given to the mother.

This suggests a societal situation that women are less empowered in general than men. Certainly women have less outright power. However, there is another way of looking at it.

If we consider a relationship where domestic violence is occurring, in most cases it is the woman who is the victim. The male is the aggressor. However, bullying behaviour, and that is what it is, mostly occurs because of a lack of empowerment of the bully. If this bully was a self confident person, with high self esteem and a feeling of security within themselves and about their lives in general, there would be no inclination to be a bully, or to try to overpower or exert their will by force on another person, spouse, partner or otherwise. Therefore, who is the person with a lack of empowerment?

Will empowerment for women change the issues of the glass ceiling and domestic violence?

Glass ceiling
www.globaltoynews.com

On a very personal level, empowerment for women will provide women with a greater sense of self esteem and confidence in daily living. That is vital. It will provide the strength women need to break down the barriers of societies everywhere, in all cultures, religions and countries, at every level of communities, to really enjoy the benefits of equality of relationships and genuinely shared, happy lives.

Empowerment for women will still threaten some men. That is an issue that will not go away any time soon. While ever patriarchal models are cemented in place, there will be opponents to the progress of women directly in community, national, corporate and global leadership.

How can personal empowerment for women be gained?

What can an ordinary woman, with little interest in politics or other leadership roles outside her family, what can she do to gain this empowerment for women? It’s always the little things that matter. Just as a house is made from thousands of bricks, so is empowerment, self confidence and self esteem. It’s the little success habits that build the character of a person, male or female, to give them empowerment in all circumstances.

Empowerment for women does not mean they are to become all powerful and domineering. Rather, it means that as an empowered person, they have the core strength of character to refuse to accept disempowering behaviour and attitudes from others! A critical distinction.

Can empowerment for women be misunderstood?

If you find you have to force, cajole, bully or manipulate people to get things done, you do not have empowerment; you are a bully or manipulator. If people flock to your leadership and are eager to assist you, then you have empowerment. That should be your goal.

At times, some women will take it too far. As a guy who was raised by a father who was chivalrous and respected and doted on his wife/my mother, I have at times opened doors for women without asking because it was the chivalrous thing to do. I have been told rather rudely, to perform certain almost gymnastic feats on myself for my efforts. I paid a compliment to a lady once on the incredible colours of her dress and the rebuke was “What the hell do YOU want?” Those women were not empowered – rather, they were suffering the same insecurities that a bully character has and that is precisely what they need to evolve beyond.

How will you know when you have ‘got’ empowerment for women?

I was once told by a woman that the absolute worst thing that can happen is to arrive at a function and find that another woman is wearing the same dress! An empowered woman will not be concerned. In fact, she will have the confidence and self assuredness to make everyone think the other lady was trying to copy her, but doing a terrible job! That is empowerment! That level of self confidence, that ability to walk into a room and know you created waves and not be concerned about it, that is empowerment for women. It is way beyond how you look, what you wear or weigh. Empowerment transcends.

An Empowered Woman
winthem.blogspot.com

However, we are not trying to empower just one woman to be a figurehead. Empowerment for women is a global phenomenon that most people wish for. Referring back to the Empowerment Tone Scale in a previous post, you can see that the personal empowerment of EACH woman is a small step toward empowerment for ALL women and only in this way can empowerment for women be gained.

More empowerment to you!

If you feel this post has contributed to empowerment for women, please share and reblog amongst your friends and associates. So many people are crying out for empowerment, yet don’t understand that it is within easy reach. Perhaps your sharing will change the life of another – everyone deserves personal empowerment and this could be the day you make a difference!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” ~Mary Wollstonecraft

Please also refer to my related posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Empowered by Love

Empowerment

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Teens

As you work on your daily self development program, you will see that you are continually moving your emotional and mental state up to empowerment, from where you can change your world and the world and lives of those around you.

Image from edelomahony.com

Empowerment for Men

Strength and gentleness
Image from epicanthic.blogspot.com

As we look ahead into the next century, our leaders will be those who empower others. — Bill Gates

Empowerment for Men

There is a subtle distinction between commanding respect and loyalty, and demanding it. The actions and words may be exactly the same; the distinction lies in the heart of the one desiring it.

King Richard the Lionheart
Image from www.themiddleages.net

Throughout history, great leaders have been loved and their legacy lives on down the ages, with fond memories of them and their deeds. They commanded the respect and loyalty of troops, nations, families and congregations.

Throughout history also, dictators have commanded great armies and nations but are reviled and their memories and legacies are of hate and revulsion. Idi Amin, Hitler and many more whose names you will know. These dictators are not limited to presidents, they occur in families also and the hate and revulsion felt for them is the same except that at this level, it is very, very personal.

So what is the distinction?

Empowerment for men is about the place us guys come from when we face the world.

If we feel the need to bully to get what we want, what we are really saying is “I’m not feeling confident or secure so I need to take what I want from people less powerful or able to defend themselves than me”. This feeling of insecurity is the root cause of most of the bullying and dictatorial behaviour on the planet.

What is the option?

The Butcher of Africa – Idi AMin
Image from www.barnesandnoble.com

True #empowerment for men comes from a place of humility and service orientation, where we ask the world “How can I be of service? How can I make this a better place? What can I offer?” Oddly enough, people rarely take advantage of a man who is strong and humble enough to ask these questions. Instead, his open-mindedness and leadership is recognised. People flock to him for his leadership, his strength and guidance. Whether in a family, a congregation or a nation’s armies or parliament, leadership and strength combined with genuine humility is recognised, loved and admired.

When these two men pass, the dictator is reviled and the leader revered. Empowerment for men is the distinction. Guys, remember this – your legacy is already under construction. People are already making judgements on how you will be remembered. Think about it; if you don’t like the legacy they believe you will leave, it’s time to start over.

And yes, it can be done. Empowerment for men is not an event. Empowerment for men is a way of life, if it is to mean anything at all.

Empowerment for men is not an accident. It is a state of being that is chosen as a way of life. Sometimes the choices are unconscious, based purely on the conscience instilled in us by our upbringing – whether good or bad.

Many great leaders had miserable, poverty stricken and abusive childhoods, yet they rose to prominence despite, or was it because of their poor start? When one is so low that there is nothing left to lose, many have thrown down the gauntlet and aimed for the top – knowing any progress at all is a step off the bottom rung of the ladder. Look at the likes of Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Philippines, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the recently deceased Nelson Mandela of South Africa. These men grew up through an era of incredible racial hatred and vilification in nations divided by race – between different warring tribes, by colour, between blacks, whites and other coloureds and cultures, and by wealth and poverty levels. It is a melting pot from which you could not imagine any winners but these men shone through and created legacies that affected not only their own families and country, but the global communities as well!

The Kennedy Brothers
Image from www.pbs.org

Some great leaders were born into the roles, such as the Kennedy brothers. Wealth and power were their birthright. However, it was the birthright of other men also who abused it and became monsters. The Kennedy brothers created a legacy that has become mythical; they virtually created a royalty class in the republic of the USA.

How can the average guy, like you and me, gain empowerment for men?

It’s not hard, but it requires conscious effort if it is not already in evidence. It requires us to be aware of these distinctions and consciously choose humility and service, it requires putting our leadership out there on offer, and it requires action to follow through.

Not all of this is going to come naturally, especially the part about it being a ‘state of mind’. We need to stand guard at the gateways to our minds, to ensure that what we feed our minds is healthy. We need to remind ourselves constantly, daily, that we are not here to harvest, but to plant the seeds that will become the harvest. We do this by creating within ourselves the desire to become more, and better at being ourselves.

Catch, Dad!
m.inmagine.com

For a father, be a better, more considerate parent, who takes time to parent his children. This can be as simple as reading bedtime stories to your babies and toddlers, changing their diapers when they need it, cuddling them and kissing them goodnight. As they grow, it means teaching them to play ball in the park – not because you want them to be a champion ball player, but because it’s fun for them and it teaches them to run and enjoy life and grow fit and healthy. It gives them hand/eye coordination and a sense of achievement when they catch the ball. When they get to school, attend the school plays, the sporting events, the parent and teacher meetings, show an interest so that when they enter their challenging teen years, you are already an important part of their life to them, and you don’t have to fight to get your message heard. You already have their trust and love and now when they need you, they will trust you enough to come to you for guidance and help – not just cash!

For a husband, be thoughtful and considerate. Study what it takes to be a better partner, lover, friend and

Date night!
Image from blamebilly.com

confidante. Earn the trust of your wife, encourage her to feel a sense of achievement in her life and be proud of her, the amazing woman who was incredible enough at some time in your life, to win your heart and accept you with all your faults. Share the workload with her. That doesn’t mean offering to wash the dishes and breaking them all and creating more work! No, contribute what you do best, whatever that is, to take the load from her. That will definitely mean diapers, taxi driving kids to sports events and sharing the discipline roles. And be a great lover – one who takes her on date nights, surprises her with flowers and gifts, and sometimes leaves a lovely card around for her to find and show her you really do think lovely thoughts of her all through the day.

As a community member, stand up and be counted when it counts. Wallflowers get nothing and give nothing, community leaders are in the middle and up the front, looking first to the betterment of conditions for their family, through making their community better.

Elected leaders take an oath of office, but less live it than take it. However, genuine leaders are already living way beyond any oath that could be taken. The oath that is sworn is the minimum expectation of the elected official – the true leader is always going the extra mile!

How will you know if you have gained this elusive ‘empowerment for men’?

You will look around you and see the evidence. Success leaves clues, but so does failures. Look at the faces and in the hearts of the people around you and you will know if empowerment for men has been your way. Your people will admire, respect, love and follow you to hell and back. It is either empowerment for men and everyone around you, or you became a dictator and have a group of “yes men” or servants – you can’t have it both ways. The evidence will be there. If you can’t find the evidence, just check to see if you are a wallflower, still waiting to make your contribution to the world.

On a personal level, how can you gain empowerment for men?

Empowerment for men and in fact, anyone, is best done through a structured program that puts you on a course that teaches you the self-discipline and self development necessary to change your life. No, it’s not hard – just constant, and being human, we can forget. We can slip up and before you know it, a month has gone by and you realise you haven’t set or checked off a goal, made an affirmation, or acknowledged a lesson from a day passing. A simple program, a few minutes morning and evening is all it takes to reshape your thinking and feelings to empower you to make new, better and conscious decisions about your life and the people you care about. That program could be Life Change 90.

I wrote about this recently in a post called EMPOWERMENT and it’s worth a revisit, to review the EMPOWERMENT TONE SCALE.

Worth considering. Empowerment for men, and any guy who wants to become one! Start your journey to becoming a more Empowered Man here, NOW!

If you feel this blog has provided empowerment for men, women and their families, please reblog it and share it with other men and families around you. The world needs empowerment for men to lead it out of the morass of apathy, violence and destruction we seem to be plagued with. Only empowered people will have the strength of leadership necessary to take us forward. Perhaps you will be the one who puts this in front of such a person and makes the difference.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“The power to change your life lies in the simplest of steps.”
― Steve Maraboli

Please also refer to my related links on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Empowered by Love

Empowerment

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens

It’s worth empowering yourself to do it.

Empowerment

“If there was one wish I had for you, one gift I could give you, it would be empowerment. People without empowerment act from a survival basis and must do whatever they can or need to do, just to survive. Empowered people act from their sense of what is right and wrong, their conscience guides them. Empowered people don’t get up in the morning wondering what they can do wrong or to hurt others; they look for ways to make the world better. I wish for you #empowerment.”

Excerpt from Executive Mastermind Program 2001

Break free to Empowerment
Image from theindianuprising.blogspot.com

The daily news shows graphic images of people living in fear, striving for survival, hungry for love, affection, even just acknowledgement. These are people who are not empowered.

Less often we see images of people walking purposefully, striding out, or relaxed with their families, feeling confident, happy, secure. There are two reasons for that: Firstly, it’s not graphic news and it doesn’t sell newspapers or TV airspace time, but secondly and sadly, there are fewer people living a life of empowerment.

If empowerment was a choice, why don’t people take it?

There are probably three main reasons.

Power-hungry bullies, including governments, corporations and others in positions of power and authority find it easier to govern or rule people who fear them and don’t know that they can choose a better life.
Ignorance. They have been conditioned to living in fear or survival mode for so long, it’s not part of their reality and they neither know nor understand it, nor do they believe there is anything in life for them other than what they have.
Challenging life situations, where people have been born into or acquired a challenging situation such as poverty, chronic illness or accident causing a massive life and/or health change or other similar circumstances.

Let’s look at these reasons, and their contradictions.

Under pressure from big brother!
from gscblog.typepad.com

Power Hungry Bullies oppressing people over whom they have a measure of control. It is far easier to herd sheep from horseback than say, a pride of lions. Why is that? Because the lion is not afraid of a man on horseback! If you are in the ‘herding people’ business, it pays you to have them frightened of you! It’s that simple.

The ‘people herders’ are governments, large corporations (think Monsanto, Halliburton, General Dynamics, etc.), employers where there are dictatorial bosses, and even within families, a spouse might dominate their partner. These bullies think they need to exert massive and overwhelming power to get what they want. However, in most cases, they are coming from a level of fear and insecurity also, where their fear is that if their “subjects” become empowered, they will rise up and overthrow them!

The contradiction is that empowered people don’t really need to overthrow anyone else. They feel confident and secure within themselves and are already in control of their lives.

MONOPOLY ON FOOD SEEDS
Image from worldtruth.tv

Ignorance and conditioning. These are the people held down by their conditioning and the bullies they ‘live under’. Conditioning is one thing – education and positive experiences can, in time, overcome conditioning and in the right circumstances, enable empowerment. Getting out from under a genuine bully is another – their fear of losing control can be extreme and their actions to retain control can be extreme also.

Awareness is the first step for those living under oppression. Only once the awareness is there, the long trek out can begin.

Challenging life situations. Let’s break these down into poverty and poor birthright, and accident and illness causing an acquired chronic situation.

Poverty in a developed country may be an income of $200 per week. It may be as high as $500 per week, depending on the location and circumstances. However, in some developing countries, $200 per year is a fortune, it is fabulous wealth! Poverty is relative to the location and circumstances, but just as real in any circumstances. Where there is education, there is a way forward. Where there is no education, intervention is often necessary.

Poverty from birthright, caste and cultural status
Image from secularpakistan.wordpress.com

Poor birthright can mean a person born into a caste, race or class situation where they are deemed to have no rights. Many developing nations have this problem. The crazy thing is that when a person of poor caste migrates or is relocated to another country, often this condition vanishes because that caste or class distinction is not recognised outside their own culture. Education can be the starting point for this transition.

Chronic illness and acquired injuries forcing changed life circumstances. An insect bite can change your life. A momentary lapse of concentration while driving can do it too. A sporting injury can take a person from Olympic glory to total dependency on a full-time nurse. Life can change without warning. There is no easy way back from this and lives can change forever.

However, empowerment does not rely on wealth, power or influence. Empowerment is firstly, a state of mind, preceding the physical changes that can occur because of it.

Nelson Mandela
www.thetruthseeker.co.uk

Look at Nelson Mandela’s example: Imprisoned by a brutal regime for 27 years, he emerged as a man ready to be president of a nation emerging from possibly the darkest period in its history. When he passed away recently, he was revered as a leader, an example of a man who empowered and united a nation by his example. How could that happen?

The Empowerment Tone Scale

Empowerment Emotional Tone Scale

In the EMPOWERMENT TONE SCALE image, the TONE SCALE is shown on the left of the image, with the emotions listed in ascending order beside the scores. Empowerment is shown as an emotional state, a state of mind on the image, at the top end of the scale.

The broad blue vertical arrow shows the emotional range in which most people live. You can verify this by walking on any street and noting how many people are smiling from the inside, happy and carefree, and how many are walking with heavy hearts and steps.

The challenge of empowerment becomes one of understanding how to raise the emotional state of a person from their state of concern to where they take an interest in the world around them, and are no longer concerned with fear or survival. There is a simple, standard starting point.

Ask the question of yourself: HOW CAN I….?

What this simple question does is propel your mind from wherever on the tone scale it is, up into the region of creativity, as your mind automatically tries to answer the question. Eventually, your mind starts to live up in that area of the tone scale, as you repeatedly bounce it from down where you asked the question, to where you want it to be.

However, note that between wherever you are on the tone scale, and where you want to be, you need to traverse, and experience all the other emotions on your journey to empowerment. If you have been living in a state of ‘covert hostility’ for example, you will need to pass through and manage anger and pain and the other emotions on your way up.

At first, it will frustrate you and anger you, but perhaps that is just part of the journey. Along the way you will experience many emotions and soon understand that you travel up and down this emotional tone scale many times daily. However, you will soon find that by understanding it, being conscious of it and working with it, you will learn to live in the conscious, empowered part of it.

How can you train yourself and your mind for Empowerment?

A little intervention to get started!
Image from weheartit.com

Empowerment must be from within you, but intervention and education is usually needed to spark the fires of creativity and imagination alight. Once the inspiration for and understanding of the principles of empowerment are held, it’s up to each person then to continue the empowerment journey. A supportive environment is preferable and will speed the process. If that is not where you live, then you need to create that through the empowerment process you use.

The most effective way is to take on a program that sets out an empowerment routine for you each day. A routine that sees you establish small, achievable goals daily, for you to congratulate yourself on their achievement each evening. A program that gives you an affirmation each morning to carry you through. A program that teaches you awareness and an understanding of what really goes on in your life, your heart, mind and soul as you make your way through your day.

This all happens, regardless of whether you are aware of it. Being aware just means you can control it and create in your life those dreams and goals and experiences you want.

In coming blogs, I will be discussing more on empowerment, on topics such as:

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for children and teens

We will refer back to this post also, because this is the foundation of empowerment, the fundamentals on which true empowerment is based and built. Until and unless the process of empowerment described above occurs, nothing else can change!

Begin your journey to Empowerment in your own Personal Empowerment Program; Click HERE, NOW!

If you feel this blog has empowered you, please feel free to share and reblog this information to your friends, family and other people in your network. Every person on the planet desires empowerment and every one of us deserves the opportunity for it. Please help.

Til next time, fair winds and full sails,

Ray Jamieson

“Don’t confuse poor decision-making with destiny. Own your mistakes. It’s ok; we all make them. Learn from them so they can empower you!”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Please also refer to my related posts on Empowerment:

Empowerment through Emotional Intelligence

Empowered by Love

Empowerment for Men

Empowerment for Women

Empowerment for Teens