Human Resources Pathways to Self-Empowerment

Human Resources

Pathways to Self-Empowerment

Self-empowerment is a way or a means to a way that a person can gain strength within their selves in order to overcome obstacles or challenges that they face in their daily life. These problems can be anything from addiction, obsession, and destructive behavior to feeling powerlessness. The first step to self-empowerment is: to know one's self. A person's weaknesses, their characters, their fears, their obstacles, their wisdom, and their strength can be answered by the question that they ask them self: Who am I? Once one knows who they are, they can pick up any area that you want to improve and work on it, and move to the next one and so on (Cheung, n.d.).

There are essentially four levels of empowerment:

Physical Empowerment -- this includes a person's life, their health and their physical environment

Emotional Empowerment -- this consists of a person having emotional balance

Mental Empowerment -- this consists of one having power over the thoughts that are in their head

Spiritual Empowerment -- this consists of a person having alignment with their spirituality (Self-Empowerment Guide, 2009).

When people are born they are given guidelines from society in which to follow. These guidelines indicate which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. A system of rewards and punishments is set up in order to support people to serve and hold up the existing social order. This controlled indoctrination is a necessary part of building a social order that allows a steady and sustainable civilization. If it wasn't for this structure, anarchy would reign. It is the indoctrinated mass who forms the backbone of a society, maintaining the social structure and brings about its values. Yet, this pervasive indoctrination demands a toll on the autonomy of the individual that becomes evident very early in life (Landrum, n.d.).

By the time a person reaches puberty, they have become used to surrendering their individuality to the collective will. This can be seen most transparently in the behavior of adolescents within their peer group. Unconfident in their quest to assert their independence from the adult world, youngsters follow the behaviors and fashion dictates of a harshly judgmental and ruthless peer group. The workplace often reinforces the magnitude of fitting in. Those who are not perceived as team players are regarded as mavericks and either purged from the staff or passed over for promotion (Landrum, n.d.).

In addition to retribution for not complying, there are substantial rewards that society offers those who function within the current of accepted practices. People who take the path of least resistance are less likely to become involved in a life of conflict. Their lives are more conventional and less burdened with struggle than the lives of those who march to their own tune. Monetary rewards, elevated status and social acceptability often accrue to those who perform well as part of the herd (Landrum, n.d.).