The power of permission

Renata Black, EBY Co-Founder & CEO

Permission to power. Granted.

Power. We celebrate that word. We etch it into our journals. We fight for it, we march for it, we won’t stand for it to be threatened. We worship at the altar of those who harness it.

We want it. But how do we get it? Dare we say, we need permission to be powerful?

Credit: Miguel Ángel García-Magariño

Permission.  To feel free is to be powerful enough to make our own choices, so who’s permission would we ever need? A mantra on repeat in our minds since each of us first heard the word feminism and finally found an anchor that grounded our experiences in a shared reality.

We don’t need other people’s permission to be confident and powerful. We need our own.

Why? We’ll let Brene Brown, researcher, author and expert on vulnerability explain it.

Her TED Talk, The Power of Vulnerability, explores the human need for connection and unveils the root cause of disconnection was shame.

Taken straight from her transcript:
“…shame is really understood as the fear of disconnection: Is there something about me that, if other people know it or see it, that I won’t be worthy of connection?”

So what does shame have to do with permission and power?

When we feel shame, we handcuff ourselves in our access to our personal power. We become scarcity-minded, fearful and timid. We start relying on peer and family approval for our sense of self. We stop thinking on our own.

When we feel shame, we think that by asking for others’ permission, we can do something we couldn’t do on our own. Too many days go by while we second guess our decisions, talk ourselves down and beat ourselves up for falling short of the high bar we set for ourselves.

Power tips:

1 – You are 1 in 7.8 Billion people walking this Earth. Give yourself permission to be yourself and see the value ONLY YOU can bring to this world.

2 – Become aware of areas of your life where you feel ‘not enough’. Explore why you feel this way and give yourself permission to feel ‘enough,’ well, because you are.

3 – Pick one project you have been thinking about launching for some time, but haven’t pulled the trigger because you’ve doubted yourself. Give yourself permission to move forward, even if it’s scary.

Real Talk

Imagine the possibilities, if instead of (wasting time and emotional energy) forever striving to be the woman you think you should be (based on other peoples’ approval), you embraced the innately capable woman you already are?

Imagine the woman you'd become if you knew you already had all the power to accomplish inside of you
Credit: Lindsey Stewart Photography

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