In defense of power

Power has a bit of a negative connotation in our day and age. Power is often associated with bullies, geopolitics, and social media. But power isn’t just the strength to dominate another being. Power is a quiet confidence in your ability to do hard things. Everywhere we walk, everywhere we turn, our culture has a way to drain it.

These power drainages come when we move our attention away from the task at hand. We lose power when we wish we are somewhere else rather than in the state attention. We lose more power when we are avoiding the hard thing that we know that needs to be done.

Inversely, we gain power when we tackle these things rather than avoid them. One thing I think we could use more of in our culture is power for workers, or power for children, or power for parents, and so on.

It’s worth thinking about: will this gain or drain my power? Will this conversation or use of my time or this thought help or hurt it?