Self-empowerment is all about taking control of your life. When you feel empowered, you’re confident about your decisions, have the courage to follow your dreams, and are overall happier. You can leave worry and self-doubt behind and be unapologetically yourself. If you feel like your life has been chaotic and you’re not embracing your true self, there are things you can do to take back control and live a life you’re proud of. Take a look at 9 ways to empower yourself and live a life you love.
9 Ways to Empower Yourself and Take Control of Your Life
1. Understand Your Strengths and Abilities
It’s important to understand yourself- your strengths and abilities, along with your weaknesses. Write them down, analyze them, and really be honest with yourself. Once you have a good understanding of your strengths, ask yourself how they can help you accomplish your goals. You have the ability to change your circumstances if you want to. And you can use your strengths to empower you to make those changes.
2. Continually Educate Yourself
One of the best ways to feel empowered is to educate yourself on different topics. Knowledge is power and continuously learning new things can increase confidence, help you make decisions, and be more open-minded about people and situations. You can educate yourself by reading, committing to a new hobby, joining a class or course, or going to a weekly trivia night. However you like to learn best is the way to do it.
3. Prioritize Your Time
When we try to be everything to everyone we can end up losing ourselves. If you’re someone who says yes to everything, you probably don’t feel in control of your life. You likely feel exhausted, burnt out, and like you’re hanging on by a thread. By prioritizing your time, you can organize your schedule in a way that works best for you. Make a list of your tasks and activities, and prioritize them based on their significance. This will show you where to put your energy, and where you can cut back in order to relax and recharge.
4. Create Goals
Goals are really important as they can help give our lives meaning, purpose, and direction. If you’re feeling lost or like your life isn’t in control, goals can help you find your way. Ask yourself what you want to achieve in life and create an action plan with concrete steps that can move you toward your goals. Be honest with yourself about how much you’re able to tackle- reaching your goals takes commitment, time, and energy. But striving for something more and having an actionable plan can make you feel incredibly empowered.
5. Get Organized
Getting organized is one of the best things you can do to take back control of your life. It can be really stressful and overwhelming when things feel chaotic. Consider which areas of your life bring you the most stress. This may be a messy home, not eating healthy meals, or feeling like you don’t have enough time for yourself. In these cases, you may need to set aside a weekend to declutter and organize your space, start meal planning, or actually schedule “me time” into your day as you would a meeting. Being more organized can make you feel empowered to live life like you want to!
6. Practice Gratitude
If you want to boost your happiness and confidence, you need to be practicing gratitude regularly. Gratitude urges you to focus on the good things in your life rather than dwelling on the things that could go wrong or aren’t going the way you’d hoped. It brings clarity and courage, and minimizes fear. The more often you practice gratitude, the more you empower yourself and the less energy you spend on worrying. You can practice gratitude in a number of ways. List out five to ten things you’re grateful for in your head each morning, start a gratitude journal, or do gratitude meditations.
7. Move Your Body in a Way That Feels Good
When you feel good physically, you feel empowered and in control of your life. Physical activity benefits our physical and mental health, and when we start to see and feel the results of our workouts, it’s encouraging. It’s important to find exercise that makes you feel good about yourself. This could be walking, Pilates, kickboxing, HIIT classes, cycling, or weight training. Regular exercise requires discipline and creates mental toughness that you can carry to other areas of your life.
8. Positive Self Talk
Positive self talk is so important, because many of us have a default mindset that favours negative thoughts about ourselves. The way we speak about ourselves has a huge impact on our self-esteem. Try repeating positive statements to yourself daily, such as “I am beautiful and I love my body”, “I deserve to be happy and loved”, and “today is going to be an amazing day”.
Part of this process is also stopping negative self talk when it pops up. If you notice that you start talking/thinking poorly about yourself., take note of it, stop it, and change your thoughts. For example, if you look in the mirror and start picking apart your appearance, recognize what you’re doing and replace it with positive self talk instead. This can take some practice, but the more you do it, the easier and more effective it will become.
9. Self Care
If you’re busy, exhausted, and overworked, it can be easy to let important things fall by the wayside. Things like getting a good night’s sleep, eating well, spending time with people you love, and wearing clothes that make you feel good. When we feel our best, we’re more likely to lead our days with confidence. It’s wonderful to put others’ first, but you have to put yourself first, too. Make sure you’re looking after yourself, you’re resting when you need to, and you’re practicing self care on a regular basis.
We hope you enjoyed these tips on empowering yourself and taking control of your life!
