Self Empowerment, Goals, and Priorities

By Cecilia Sarnowski

The definition of self empowerment by HuffPost is, “taking control of our own life, setting goals, and making positive choices.” Empowerment starts with you being confident in yourself and saying 'I have a lot to offer and I believe I can do anything I set my mind to.'

If you don’t feel confident in yourself now, you can start with something small, like walking with your shoulders back and your head held high. Although it may sound as if no one may notice this small change, it truly doesn’t matter as long as you notice and it makes a difference for you. Once you feel more comfortable with that small change move onto something a bit larger; it may be wearing something that isn't ‘in style’, cutting your hair in a way you usually wouldn’t, or even smiling with your teeth when you usually smile with a closed mouth. It doesn’t matter as long as it makes you happier.

If you have taken the class Independent Living or any class similar to it you may know a little bit about setting goals. Setting goals is a way to track your progress or even try new things. A goal, by my own personal definition, is something you want to see yourself accomplish. A goal can be something as big as getting a medical degree from Harvard or something as small as remembering to do your homework over the weekend. I find that it helps to write your goals down, and if you are creative you could make a vision board, which is a collage of pictures or quotes that have to do with your goals. If you make a list or a vision board it is crucial to put it somewhere that you will see it. An example of a place to put your list or board would be next to the mirror that you look at yourself in when you are getting ready in the morning or inside of your locker. Another crucial point of goal setting is giving yourself a new goal once you complete a task. If you are unsure of what kinds of goals you want to set think about what kinds of improvement you want to see in yourself. For example, If you are a swimmer an you show up late for warm ups your stroke will be slow during practice, but if you set a goal to be on time for warm ups your strokes will be more fluid during practice and more importantly at a swim meet.

Making positive choices takes practice, believe me I know, but you can start with a small thing just like in confidence. You could choose to study rather than taking part in a meaningless group chat or scrolling through your Instagram feed. The reward for studying would be a good grade in you class. Unfortunately, we only have so much time in a day and sometimes you need to use more time than you would like to in order to compete a task. Prioritizing is a good way to manage your time. By prioritizing you are saying this is more important than that is so I am going to finish this first.

A key role in self empowerment is picking yourself up when you get knocked down. When you fall you may feel like flying that white flag in surrender and saying, “I give up!” But do you really want to give up or are you scared of falling down? Yes, falling can hurt physically or emotionally but it makes it more memorable when you get where you want to go after you stand up brush yourself off and say 'I can do this!' People will always try to put you down. They don’t care who you are - you could be the smartest and most kind person in the world and media would still try to tear you down. So you should ignore the harmful words and actions and keep going. A while back someone shared a video with me and the video was about the Navy SEAL 40% rule. The video stated that when your mind is telling you are done you are truly only 40% of the way there an you have 60% left. I think that saying is a good way of seeing how far you can really push yourself and exceed your personal expectations. So when you feel like you are losing confidence in yourself or you feel like quitting on your goals and dreams just remember you still have 60% of yourself that believes in you and wants to succeed.