Power to Decide – Part 2…

Hi everyone,

How are you all finding this Power – are you finding the practice helpful?… I am certainly finding it helpful even though I’m being challenged by it – fortunately challenge motivates me to try something different. If we are on a Self Transformative Journey then change must be often and constant, opening various opportunities to practice this Power. When we forget our own strengths and abilities we will somehow find a way to complicate matters no matter how positive we try to be, making change appear impossible. When we allow ourselves to be affected by the behavior of others, we get distracted and lose our momentum… And before you know it, we’re back where we started.

Since returning to Townsville we have been hit by another wave of challenging situations – unrelated issues yet somehow all link up due to the insidious nature of worry and stress – interesting how that happens… Using my courage to look beneath the surface, I noticed I still carried some deep destructive beliefs about myself that no longer served me – so my health has been getting a bit of a beating. My Power to Decide (and Discern) have been weak and once find myself ‘re-sitting’ some life-tests!

My addiction to people pleasing had re-surfaced, finding myself placing my own needs last again (a repeated self-offending habit so deep, sometimes hard to recognize till it slaps me). Hence a good reminder for me to pay attention! Of course, there’s nothing wrong with helping others but when we compromise our own health, wellbeing and power, then there is~ Blaming others was a waste of time though, so I had to ‘check’ myself to see which other Powers would be useful. I felt uplifted as I remembered that I had many to draw on 🙂 The Power to Withdraw, the Power to Pack Up, the Power to Judge, to Discern and definitely Tolerance, Courage, Faith and Determination, to name a few… (These ‘Master Powers’ are discussed in detail in Will to Wonder, while copies of the first ‘Powers Study Group’ can be read on my blog willtowonder.com.au)…

I realized that every decision I make, comes with a conscious awareness that I must take a step of action towards that outcome – both daunting and liberating – imagine the possibilities 🙂 Let me be motivated by this challenge to do something different, because if I insist on continuing down the opposite direction by resisting, my inner power is rendered ineffective and my decisions will be of poor quality. My decisions become emotion-based and I will continue to make the same mistakes. And if I keep making the same mistakes, I start to believe that I cannot change – that I can’t be trusted – which somehow translates into mistrust of others. Powerful decisions are made with a practical mind, backed by courageous action. You know, we can always play it safe and take no risks so we don’t have to decide – but that’s NOT living! Making and taking decisions is part of life – it opens the way to many chances and many paths – to live life to the fullest 🙂

I would love to hear your experiences with this or any other power you are finding useful in your life… Just a reminder that there’s only 3 parts to this email from now – instead of 4. Within the next week is a good time to send your stories along to be shared in the last part of this Power (part 3).

Questions to churn on:

– Do I respond powerfully (take responsibility) or react poorly (blame others) when I’ve made a poor decision?

– Do I learn from mistakes and move on or do I ignore or deny it and keep making the same mistake?

– Which other Powers can I use to help me get a particular lesson right?

Lesson: Lessons keep coming till the day we die – in various forms (different faces & places). We must keep ‘spinning the wheel of knowledge’ – in other words, we must put into practice (take action) what we learn intellectually, otherwise it just remains useless, stored information… Applying what you know is to decide how to live your life!

Feeling disheartened is very disempowering, don’t give way to self doubt and insecurity. Instead remain light by making and taking powerful decisions and by having an action plan, you can stay on track once a decision has been made. There is much fear in deciding yet decision-making opens the way to contentment!

Lots of love Annemarie