Last year was emotionally draining!

Covid caught most of us by surprise and with it came unexpected challenges we weren’t prepared to handle.

Did it leave you feeling powerless to reach your goals or control your life?

If you’re like most people, you spent the year trying your best not to get sick, lose your job, go hungry, lose your house or business. 

At times, you couldn’t eat where you wanted, shop where and when you wanted, travel when you wanted, or even go out in public dressed the way you wanted.

And if you’re a parent, you may have struggled with zoom calls and virtual learning. Trying to keep your kids caught up while worrying about how all of this might affect their future.

It was a stressful year, to say the least, and has left a lot of us feeling powerless to control the direction of our lives.

Have you also been wondering how to regain your sense of control when you are feeling powerless?

No one enjoys feeling powerless.

And I suspect most people feel powerless in one way or another at this time of year. Especially after the year we just had.

But guess what…

Feeling powerless is normal

I experience bouts of powerlessness almost daily.

For example, sometimes I feel powerless to control my eating habits as well as I want to. Especially during stressful times.

Other times it’s the lack of productivity that has me feeling powerless to move forward in my life. It creeps up in the form of… “If I don’t get enough writing done each day I’ll never make money with this blog.”

Or another big one centers around my money spending habits and debt.

Once again I self-sabotaged through holiday spending. And undid most of the financial progress I’d made throughout 2020.

Can you relate to any of these scenarios? 

I’ll bet you can. And that’s why you’re reading this article.

But aren’t you tired of feeling powerless all the time?

Wouldn’t you rather feel empowered enough to overcome the problems that are making you feel powerless?

What does it mean to be empowered?

Maybe you want to feel empowered to:

• Discover your life’s purpose and add more passion and meaning into your life

• Change your life in ways you know you need to but have been putting off year after year

• To succeed in your personal and work life through this Covid crisis no matter what you have to do to make it happen or how many times you get knocked down or face setbacks

• Launch your blog or get your side-hustle, coaching practice, freelance or online business up and running THIS YEAR no matter what obstacles come your way

• To reach your 2021 health and fitness goals even if your gym keeps closing

• To handle your home life and kids virtual schooling even though it means learning (and relearning) so much yourself before you can even help your kids. 

• To get more clients, even if it means dropping excuses, making more calls, sending more emails, and dealing with more rejection than you ever thought you could handle 

• To grow your social media influence, get more followers, rank on page 1 of Google, and build an active email list

Or maybe your reason runs deeper than that, and you want to stop being powerless so you can be brave enough to help protect the people you love.

I understand that from a powerless state these all seem like wishful thinking and only possible for confident people … but I assure you, you’ll be able to stop feeling powerless and crush your goals easier than you think.

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to turn your inner critic into an inner empowerment coach.

So keep reading.

I know what it’s like to feel powerless and don’t want you to have to feel this way any longer than you need to. 

First, you’ll gain a better understanding of why you’re feeling powerless to reach your goals. And finally, you’ll learn six methods to help you stop feeling powerless so you can take full control of your life.

Why Do You Feel Powerless?

Have you ever wondered how some people can act assertive and confident no matter what’s going on in their lives?

They face the same problems and obstacles as the rest of us, but breeze right through without slowing down. 

Obviously, that isn’t true for most people. Most of us feel powerless in some way on a daily or weekly basis.

So how do we overcome powerlessness?

To stop feeling powerless, you’ll have to get to the root of what’s making you feel powerless.

You can start by understanding what’s happening inside of you when you experience powerlessness and by finding out what’s causing it.

What does it mean to feel powerless?

Here’s a question that comes up often… “Is powerlessness an emotion?”.

I’d have to say powerlessness is more of an emotional experience and a state of mind more so than a singular emotion.

For example, powerlessness can be experienced as…

■ Not being able to motivate yourself to workout at home consistently, even though you feel bloated, you keep gaining weight, and you can feel your muscles getting weaker.

■ Watching the world change around you while you feel like you’re getting left behind. You feel powerless to keep up with what life is demanding from you.

■ Hearing about another blogger making 10k a month, but instead of feeling inspired, you feel like crap because you haven’t made a penny yet on yours and you’re losing hope that you ever will. 

Not because you aren’t willing to put in the time and patience, but because you don’t have the same level of talent or experience that they have. 

You’re already putting your best effort in and it hasn’t been good enough. That’s where feeling powerless comes in.

You can’t seem to create content as fast as them or get the shares and comments they do. You can’t even get accepted into the Pinterest group boards they rave about to have a chance at gaining traffic. 

This is one of the reasons why I feel powerless lately. If you run an online business or blog, you can probably relate.

Some days I’m in the mindset to feel inspired and motivated by their success because it shows what’s possible for the industry.

But as much as I want to write daily and be as productive as my mentors, I don’t have a strong background in my niche to pull from. My blog is a journey blog, so I have to learn and apply the information before I write about it.

Your experiences of feeling powerless may be similar or different, but hopefully, you can relate in a way that puts you on the same page.

So now let’s figure out what’s causing you to feel powerless. 

What causes people to feel powerless?

Powerlessness has its roots in our emotional patterns, mindset habits, belief systems, and especially within the storylines we tell ourselves.

Our reasons for feeling powerless are many. 

For example, you might feel powerless to change your habits, income, relationship, or living situation.

Or maybe it’s career-related, and you want to stop feeling powerless to grow your email list and social media accounts, write content that gets ranked, get coaching clients, make your first affiliate sale, or finally make money online. 

Whatever the reasons, the main causes of feeling powerless to achieve your goals can be grouped into these five categories. 

1) You’re feeling powerless because you see your goals and dreams as impossible

Do you believe your goals are only achievable by other people? By certain kinds of people? 

If so, you might be putting those “types of people” on an unreachable pedestal. Believing that you’ll never be like them, have what they have, or get what you want. 

By seeing your goals and dreams as wishful thinking or fantasies, you’re less likely to reach them.

2) You’re feeling powerless because you don’t feel confident or competent enough 

This is probably the most common cause of feeling powerless to reach life and business goals. 

You lack the confidence and/or skills to become the person you want to become or to accomplish the goals you want to accomplish.

This is completely normal.

There’s so much to learn and you don’t always know which path to take. Especially when you’re following your purpose or carving out your own entrepreneurial path.

But guess what…

We all have to start at the beginning and learn as we go, no matter what goals we set for ourselves.

3) You’re feeling powerless because you have a scarcity mentality 

Unless we are taught differently growing up, our natural inclination is to think small and play small.

Most of us are afraid to take risks and we’re addicted to feeling comfortable. 

And to make matters worse, we’re afraid of what others will think or say when we start trying new things or behaving differently. 

In other words, it’s human nature to feel powerless when criticism and failure are at stake.

4) You’re feeling powerless because you don’t spend time each day exercising your motivational, Inspirational, or abundance mindset muscles

How do you expect to grow in life or overcome the obstacles preventing you from reaching your goals without a persistent and resilient mindset?

Not only do you need to develop your belief in abundance and your faith in yourself, but you also need to nurture your sense of purpose and determination.

Obstacles are inevitable and it takes a resilient mindset to get up after rejections, setbacks, and failures.

This brings us to our last powerless cause…

5) You’re feeling powerless because you haven’t upgraded your mindset yet

Have you taken the time to upgrade your mindset to a growth/abundance mindset? 

If you haven’t, chances are you’re still working with a fixed mindset, and it’s sabotaging your efforts to reach your goals.

A fixed mindset means you’re holding onto the same beliefs, habits, and conditioning you grew up with. Views and attitudes you absorbed from the people around you.

And before you use this as another reason to criticize yourself … It’s not your fault if you haven’t questioned it or changed it yet. No one told you that you were supposed to!

But once you learn how to, your entire life can change for the better.

Imagine how much easier it’d be to make decisions if you could bypass your fears and comfort zone altogether and always choose the option that was most aligned with your vision of who you want to become and what you want to accomplish.

What do you do when you feel powerless?

We grow up watching the adults in our lives do so many things we can’t,  giving us the assumption that things will get easier as we get older.

But when we grow up, nothing is any easier. If anything life gets harder as an adult because we have so many new skills to learn and responsibilities to handle.

Eventually, we come to accept that life doesn’t get easier, we just have to get better.

But sadly, part of what causes people to feel powerless to change their lives is feeling powerless to get better, do better, or be better.

So what do you do when you’re feeling powerless to be better and make your life better?

In my experience, the best way to stop feeling powerless is to start investing in yourself. 

That way you gain the necessary mindset and skills you’ll need to become confident and competent enough to accomplish your goals that are currently out of reach. 

The rest of this article will guide you through the six best methods I’ve found to overcome powerlessness by investing in yourself.

How to Stop Feeling Powerless and Crush Your Goals

The journey to take back your power and regain control of your life is like a hero’s quest.

Your self-empowerment journey will take…

• Self-honesty
• Courage
• Conviction
• Bravery
• Selflessness
• Resilience 

When you’re feeling powerless, you probably don’t believe you can embody these traits. But the truth is you wouldn’t be here reading this article if you didn’t already possess these traits.

These heroic traits come from inside of you. I know it’s there and once you get going along your journey and get a few small wins, you’ll prove it to yourself as well.

Are you ready to stop feeling powerless and to start investing in yourself?

Most of these methods can be started with little or no money. But as with any investment, the more time and money you put in, the more likely you are to commit and take it seriously, and the more you’ll get out of it.

But before you click over to Amazon, Udemy, or Google up “how to invest in yourself”, here’s what you need to do first.

1) Accept that You Feel Powerless

Your first step is the most important. You have to fully accept that you feel powerless and commit to taking complete responsibility for your life from here on out.

It doesn’t mean that you are powerless … just that you currently feel that way.

In other words, surrender to the feeling of powerlessness and the situations of the present moment that are causing it.

If you’ve read my About Page or welcome post you already know I had knee surgery in summer 2018 after a fall and chest/shoulder surgery in summer 2019 when my chest tendons tore and I dropped a 350-pound barbell on my chest. 

Even though the wounds are healed and the therapy is done, the experiences and consistent pain lead to a form of PTSD. Starting with anxiety attacks every time I went to the gym or felt unexpected chest and shoulder muscle pains. The combination eventually triggered high blood pressure.

Fast forward a few months. The quarantine happened and gyms shut down. Doing easy home workouts away from the gym environment still didn’t help the problem. Anxiety turned to panic and digestive problems. 

Needless to say, I felt powerless to overcome my health problems and get back to a normal life. I didn’t feel safe inside my body no matter what I tried to do.

I came to the point where I had to stop fighting and stop trying to force forward progress (no matter how slow). 

Acceptance of my current situation and mindfulness techniques are what ultimately saved me.

Once I began to mindfully watch and experience everything going on in my mind and body without judgment, I began to feel comfortable in my body again, and my panic reactions started to fade. 

Once the quarantine lifted and I went back to the gym, I felt moderate anxiety the first few times, but this was mostly social anxiety. I went during less busy times, but with Covid still going on, I still worried about being in crowded places surrounded by people breathing heavily.

Self-empowerment is a journey

I’m a few weeks in now, anxiety has lessened, and endurance has gone up. I take it slowly but I work through the fears and minor pains. 

And I accept that at times I will feel powerless to control my progress and pains.

So I’ll continue to use mindfulness when any strong emotions come up.

At this point, you might be wondering what mindfulness has to do with investing in yourself.

Well, mindfulness is a form of investing in yourself because self-care starts with your inner self.

Meaning, your inner state of well-being, including your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about yourself. It takes mindfulness and self-awareness skills to effectively manage your inner life.

How do you know in which areas of your life you’re feeling powerless?

You ask yourself. 

An easy way to do it is to write down, “I feel powerless to ____ ” or “____ makes me feel powerless.” and make a list of everything that comes to mind.

The items that carry the strongest feelings show you where you should start with mindfulness and acceptance. 

Get as clear as you can on what you’re feeling powerless about, why you’re feeling powerless, and how it’s affecting your life before moving onto self-empowerment.

Otherwise, you’ll be attempting to build a new foundation on top of unstable ground. 

2) Empower Yourself with Motivational Videos and Podcasts

Motivational videos, inspirational speeches, and self-empowerment podcasts can help you defeat powerlessness.

Once you accept your current emotional state (feeling powerless) and life situation (external events contributing to the powerlessness), begin to consume motivational content daily.

Getting started is the hardest part.

Consuming motivational content will empower you enough to take the next steps by positively influencing your mindset. 

The inspirational energy is contagious. You can’t help but feel fired up and inspired to make changes to your life. You might even start believing you can do it.

“People listen to motivational speakers for a variety of reasons. They can help you with just about any life, business, relationship, or personal development obstacle you might be having.

They are especially useful (and sometimes life-changing) when your mindset is preventing you from moving forward to reach your goals.”

Choose the type of media that works best for you. Here are three options.

Videos

If you’re a video person, check out these 22 motivational YouTube channels.

They were the best ones I could find. I picked the channels whose videos I liked to listen to first thing in the morning when I felt powerless to handle everything on my plate for the day.

Watching (or listening) to these kinds of videos boost my confidence and energy level.

Podcasts

If you prefer podcast format, try a few of these. Just look them up on your favorite podcast app or ask Alexa.

• LifeMastery with Monica Bey 
• DarrenDaily On-Demand
• Limitless Life with Melyssa Griffin
• High Performance Mindset with Dr. Cindra Kamphoff

Quotes

If inspirational quotes and infographics are more your things, head over to my Instagram page at @georgemcmillanjr. 

I post motivational, mindset, purpose, inner peace, and personal development quotes daily.

And here are a few Instagram accounts I follow who also post motivational quotes and images.

• Grinders_Empire
• Empire_Growth
• Positive Energy Plus
• Gloriya Andler
• Mindhaven_Official
• Mindset Therapy
• Fearless Motivation Official

3) Read Books that Make You Feel Powerful

A great way to begin to take the power back from your powerless state of mind is to read self-empowering books.

Reading the right book can make you feel limitless.

Like you can dream as big as you want to and have the power to overcome any blocks or obstacles that get placed in your way. 

There are so many genres to choose from that you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a few books that speak to you.

For example, you can read motivational stories, inspirational stories, spiritual stories start-up and origin stories, or even fictional hero novels.

And they come in hardcovers, paperback, audiobooks, or digital books.

Success Stories

Entrepreneurial success stories are a great place to start.

Just think of a person whose accomplishments have impressed or inspired you. Someone who has achieved what you want to achieve. A person who seems confident and embodies the traits and values you want to have someday.

There’s just something about reading an origin story that takes the person off the pedestal and makes their journey relatable. So many “successful people” were at the same place or even worse off than you are now.

Most of them will be the first to admit that there’s nothing special about them. And believe that if they could do it, then anyone can.

An unexpected example of what I just wrote, is a personal development book written by rapper/entrepreneur 50 Cent.

I stumbled across the audiobook version on Youtube a couple of weeks ago and listened to a few hours of it while I showered, dressed, drove to the gym, worked out, and drove back home. 

It was an interesting look behind the curtain of his life and was filled with relatable struggles and solid mindset advice.

He talks a lot about how to live your life fearlessly by running towards uncomfortable situations, not away from them. If he fails at something or loses money, he lets it go, learns from it, and keeps moving. That and outworking everyone else have been the keys to his success. 

He said he finally agreed to write a personal development book, not because he has life all figured out or because he has newly discovered personal development information (he doesn’t) … but to hopefully present the information in a relatable voice for people who can’t relate to the other books out there. People who grew up how he did and who talk like he does.

Mindset Books

Mindset books are my new favorite genre of self-empowerment books. 

Some are about general mindset work, but most of the ones I come across have a money mindset or abundance mindset somewhere in the title.

A mindset book teaches you how to think bigger, be more grateful, eliminate limiting beliefs, and change your scarcity (small/negative) thinking into abundance thinking. 

An eye-opening and inspirational money mindset book I just finished reading is called, “You’re a Badass at Making Money” by Jen Sincero. 

I loved it. It was inspiring, motivating, empowering, and educational. Her example stories were relatable and hilarious. 

I’m a person who likes to know everything about everything, so I especially liked how much detail she went into about her thought processes, fears, and experiences as she narrated her journey.

Learning about the journey from where she started from and who she started as to where she is now and who she became helped me to reframe the way I’ve been looking at my own life.

Having a positive mindset is one of the biggest determinants when it comes to conquering your goals. Believing that what you desire is already yours helps to pull it to you like a magnet. Whereas you repel it and have to work harder for it when your mindset isn’t aligned.

In other words, learn how to think like the people you want to be like. So you can reach the goals that they’ve reached.

4) Stop Feeling Powerless By Learning a High-Income Skill

Have you committed yourself to life-long learning? 

When you’re empowering yourself and investing in yourself as a lifestyle (not just as a means to an end), powerlessness has no choice but to take a back seat.

Asking questions out of curiosity and then searching for the answers is a passion of mine.

Something that keeps me up late and wakes me up eager to keep going. I get passionate and excited when I want to learn about (or how to do) something and see potential benefits in the answer.

The benefit is usually either something that’s satisfying my need to know or it’s something potentially Life-changing … in a good way.

How do you decide which skills you should learn to empower yourself?

Well, what do you need to learn to grow as a person? 

What are the “parts” (mini-goals) that make up your goal? 

Meaning, what skills will you need to learn and what are some of the related subjects you’ll need to understand?

For blogging, I had to learn content writing, copywriting, and internet marketing like I mentioned, but I also had to learn how to build, design, and manage a website, use new graphics software, do basic WordPress coding, and how to start an email list.

See what I mean about parts?

When you begin to read motivational and inspirational success stories, chances are you’ll read about certain skills and career paths that resonate with you. As well as the related subjects and skills the author had to also learn about to reach their goals.

As an example, when I read Dan Lok’s book, F.U. Money, he mentioned his first high-income skill being freelance copywriting. It resonated with me because I had already been fascinated by internet marketing, copywriting, and those long, persuasive online sales letters.

So that’s where I began. By researching copywriting, content writing (blogging), and digital marketing. Then I added in life coaching recently.

Some other high-income skills are:

• Sales
• High-ticket closing
• Public speaking
• Consulting
• Coaching
• Photography 
• Designing
• Investing
• Freelance blogging/content writing

And most of these skills can be applied to any niche you choose to explore.

How to begin learning a high-income skill?

Start by researching general information about the skills, topics, and niches you’re interested in. You can read blog posts and join email lists to get their free information. 

Once you begin to develop a passion for a topic, you can move on to reading books, taking online courses, joining classes, or getting a degree in that area. 

When you take control of your own education, your options are limitless. You can choose to learn whatever you want, in whatever form you want, and at whatever pace you want.

Books, online courses, blog posts, and YouTube videos are my go-to’s.

For example, when I decided I needed a trustworthy beginner blogging course, I invested in myself and bought Create and Go’s Launch Your Blog Biz course.

They went into so much more detail than the free material and cheaper courses. It was worth the investment.

At home learning is great, but once the pandemic lessens, I plan to take a few seminars and even attend a blogging conference.

I’m not a big group-learning person, but I feel like it’s a chance to learn from the best, meet like-minded people, and grow by going outside of my comfort zone.

Hopefully my examples gave you some ideas to start with.

So to sum up this section… 

Decide to learn whatever it is you need to learn to start moving towards your goals. Upgrade your skills and upgrade your mindset. 

So… what’s one thing you can do today to move closer to one of your goals?

Keep your answer to that question in mind as you read the next section.

5) Empower Yourself By Taking a Leap of Faith

Way too often our sense of powerlessness comes from a self-defeating pattern of “playing small” and not living life the way we truly want to. 

In other words:

• Living by some else’s standards/rules/expectations

• Living the life someone else planned for you

• Living in a way that isn’t aligned with your heart/soul/purpose/inner longings/values

• Being afraid that you’ll upset the status quo by going against the norm

• Being afraid to stand out or be  different from your peers

• Sacrificing your dreams for comfort

• Not being who or what you want to be because it’s not what people ‘like you’ normally do

• Toning down your individuality and personality to plain vanilla while your inner peacock screams for release

Is this you?

If so, don’t beat yourself up about it. It turns out most of these are survival instincts and herd mentality. Leftover from our ancestors who needed to conform to stay alive.

They’re programmed into your subconscious mind and believe they’re there for your protection.

“Playing small” keeps you safe inside your comfort zone. From that perspective, any attempt to grow or change outside the limits of your “scarcity contract” is seen as a threat to your safety. And even as a threat to your relationships or social status.

Related article: How to Stop Playing Small and Expand in Life

How do you overcome a powerless mindset?

The treatment for a powerless, risk-avoidant mindset is to invest in yourself by taking some risks!

It doesn’t need to be anything too extreme. You can start by doing something you’ve always wanted to do or been afraid to do. It just has to feel big to you.

In other words, you need to think bigger than you normally do.

Give yourself permission to dream and go outside of your comfort zone.

Try something new and don’t give yourself an easy out or a second option. No plan B. 

Commit to something, take action right away, and go all in.

You will prove to yourself that you can trust yourself to make decisions and take action when a goal is important enough. Show yourself that you already possess the power to change your life. This will empower you by building confidence.

Self-empowerment action plan

If you’re not quite ready for the impulsive action taking exercise above, here’s a self-empowerment action plan you can start with. 

I won’t go into too much detail in this article. Feel free to rearrange the order and adapt it to your needs.

The only thing that matters is getting yourself to take risks and venture outside of your comfort zone so you can reach the goals you set for yourself.

1. Don’t wants – What don’t you want or like about your current situation? What have you had enough of? What’s keeping you feeling powerless?

2. Wants – What do you want? Or at least, think you want. An easy method is to write the opposites of your “don’t want” list.

3. Set goals – Turn your biggest wants into goals. You can start with one goal or combine some of your listed wants into a goal.

4. Deal with your limiting beliefs and objections – Why can’t you reach your goals? What’s stopping you? What are you lacking? Write down all of your excuses and objections. Do a brain dump and complain away.

5. Let go – Trust it to happen but let go of control of how it has to happen. Commit to taking responsibility for the parts you can control and letting go of control of the rest. You can control your efforts and mindset, but not the results. Trust yourself to do your part and the Universe/God/Infinite Intelligence to handle the rest. 

6. Make a concrete plan of action – You don’t need to see the entire path to begin planning. Just plan out the first few steps and go from there. Add to the plan as you learn and grow.

7. Take action today – Don’t wait until you have all the information (you never will) or until you feel inspired enough to start. Take action on one thing you can do today. Take risks. Try something new. Sign up for a free course. Do something self-care related that you usually neglect. Start your business or blog.

8. Daily mindset work – This is where you read inspirational books, watch motivational videos, recite affirmations, write your goals daily, do your success journaling, and visualize yourself becoming who you want to be.

9. Change your habits or environment – Your life won’t change until you start to behave differently. Different actions lead to different results. Don’t try to make too many changes at once (they won’t stick). Just make one or two changes at a time. 

10. Consistency – Work your plan and stick with it. Keep up with your habit changes. Do the daily mindset work, make it a routine, and don’t skip days. Be consistent and persistent. 

11. Don’t give up – Keep moving forward. Slow progress is still progress. Obstacles will come but every time you overcome one, you’ll feel less powerless and more confident in your abilities. Your self-belief and sense of empowerment will grow.

For solutions to obstacles you’ll face along the path of personal growth, read: 7 Common Obstacles to Personal Development (And How to Overcome Them!)

*Bookmark it now, so you’ll have it when you need it.

6) Stop Sweating the Small Stuff and Take Back Your Power

Chances are, a lot of what’s making you feel powerless is small stuff. Meaning, stuff that seems “big” to you because of your thoughts and feelings towards it.

When you’re trying to take back control of your life, it’s natural to assume that forces beyond your control are stronger than you. But have you questioned whether that’s true in your current situation?

Here are a few tips to overcome this type of mindset.

• Develop the mindset that it’s all small stuff. Challenge your mind to come up with a list of reasons why it’s smaller than you were making it out to be.

• Treat your problems and fears like they’re minor inconveniences.

• Think about how your future self would see them. Not as the insurmountable mountains that you see them as right now.

• Stop separating yourself from your desires and goals. The fact that you desire and imagine them means they are a part of you and achievable for you. Some would go as far as to say that because the desires come to you it means they’re meant for you.

Do you remember times when you’ve overcome similar problems? When you look back on them now, do they seem as big and as scary as they did at the time? 

They don’t, do they?

Here’s a paradigm-shifting quote from manifestation expert @GinaMcNairOfficial that explains this point perfectly.

“The Universe does not perceive things as “big” or “small”, it is simply responding to YOUR vibration. Your vibration is made up of your thoughts + emotions. If you think to yourself something is big and it will take a long time, you are putting that desire on a pedestal. When you do that you create resistance between you and your desire.”

So do yourself a favor and stop making yourself feel powerless by putting your goals and obstacles on a pedestal. Empower yourself by reframing the situation and work on developing an abundance mindset instead.

Success Journaling

An empowering activity to help with this is to keep a daily list of your successes or a Success Journal. 

The main purpose of this exercise is to remind yourself of how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished.

Personal development author Benjamin Hardy calls this the “gain”.

A success list helps while chasing goals because we tend to spend more time thinking about everything that we haven’t accomplished (the “gap”) than about how far we’ve made it from where we started.

This is a type of scarcity thinking that makes us feel powerless like we’ll never get there.

So, it’s helpful to look back each day or every couple of days at what you have already gained, accomplished, learned, and overcome.

When I write in my success journal regularly, I feel more centered, confident, and grateful.

Also, take notice of the accomplishments that you are most proud of. As well as the ones that are the most meaningful to you. These are the ones that are most in line with the person you want to become.

Related article: 5 Ways to Develop Your Self-Awareness Skills … and get the “What’s My Life Purpose?” question right… the first time

Bonus Tip: Take a Break!

If you’ve tried all of the suggestions above and the feeling of powerlessness persists, maybe you need to separate yourself from whatever you’re stressing over for a while and put your mind on something else.

“Amazing things happen when we Stop. We create space to Formulate, to get a clear picture of where we want to go and what we want our lives to become. We take the time to Evaluate, understanding exactly where we are and what our current situation looks like. And we take the time to Rejuvenate, investing in ourselves and our energy reserves through intentional steps forward in our rest, health, and relationships.”

– Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus, p. 87

In mid-December, while I was writing this article, I went through my own period of powerlessness.

(The irony..)

I had pages and pages worth of notes, a rough outline, and I knew what I wanted this article to say … but when it came to organizing it all together with the right keywords, headings, focus, and title, I felt powerless to get it done. 

Every time I sat down to write the draft, I froze, powerless.

How did I know I was feeling powerless?

I knew because I was procrastinating, getting frustrated over every obstacle, and imposter syndrome kept creeping in.

Meaning, my self-esteem had dropped and I didn’t feel qualified to write the article. Even though it was my idea, my experiences, and I had overcome feelings of powerlessness plenty of times.

Exhaustion can make you feel powerless

Turns out, I was exhausted. It had been a long, stressful year and I had already written twelve long articles. So forcing myself to write more, stay motivated, and get another blog post up before the new year wasn’t what I needed.

I needed a break.

So I gave myself a few weeks off from the most stressful parts of blogging. And just kept up on my Instagram quotes, sharing my previous posts, and networking with other bloggers.

I let writing, emailing, and website work go for the rest of the holiday break.

I spent more time with my family and enjoyed our time off together. For me, that meant being more present and appreciating the parts of my life that are most important.

But what rejuvenated and renewed my spirit the most was a course on Udemy called Life Purpose Coaching.

I’ve been exploring the idea of adding coaching services to my blog for a while now but didn’t think I had the time, training, or experience. 

Well, it turns out there’s a niche of life coaching called Life Purpose Coaching and I have (unknowingly) been training for it for the past 15 years! 

How synchronistic and exciting is that?

I loved the course and it felt like the instructors were reading my mind.

When they described their purposes, beliefs, and why they started their Transformation Academy, it sounded like they were reading from my About Page or Welcome Post. 

They really “got” me since we have such similar visions for our lives. It reconfirmed that I’m on the right path. 

The result … I felt empowered to get back to work on this article and on fulfilling my purpose through this blog.

So take a break if you need to. Explore some of your other hobbies and interests or just take time to relax and reflect. 

Then come back and overcome your powerlessness when you feel ready and refreshed.

Conclusion – Stop Feeling Powerless and Invest in Yourself

Great job making it to the end of this article!

I hope this process has helped you realize how committed you are to learning how to stop feeling powerless and how much you care about your life, health, and well-being.

You should be proud of yourself for taking this empowering first step. 

By now you should understand that the best way to take back control of your life is by investing in yourself. 

Life doesn’t get easier as you grow older … no matter how much you want it to. Our goals, responsibilities, and problems just seem to grow right along with us.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that you’ll feel powerless from time to time.

It’s natural. And happens to us all.

But feeling powerless doesn’t have to mean the end of the road when it comes to reaching your goals or changing your life.

In most cases, it’s a signal for you to get better or learn something new in that area of your life by investing in yourself.

So now that you understand what to do when you feel powerless to change your life, it’s up to you to act on it and apply it to your situations. 

In time, you’ll be able to summon enough confidence, optimism, and resilience to take on whatever you need to do to conquer your goals this year.

I hope this is your best year yet!

P.S. – Do you want to explore this topic further?

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