Practical ways to empower yourself and achieve your goals

Have you ever struggled with finding the motivation and confidence to achieve your goals? Then you may need to embrace self-empowerment. Self-empowerment is the process of taking control of your life to make effective decisions that help you reach your goals. This process can be extremely transformative and lead to personal growth. 

People who are self empowered are usually more confident and have high self-esteem. This is because, through the process of becoming more self-empowered, you get to know yourself better. You learn your strengths and weaknesses, become comfortable navigating life’s difficult decisions, and create positive change in your life.

Eight ways to claim your personal power 

The foundation of self-empowerment is being able to trust yourself to make decisions and life choices that are beneficial to your overall goals. To build on that, the steps to self-empowerment will start with you recognizing that it’s an ongoing and intentional practice. It’s possible to develop self-esteem and self-empowerment over time with the right support.

As you work toward greater self-empowerment, you will gradually increase your self-awareness and self-confidence. If you want to build greater self-empowerment, try:

1. Acknowledging your achievements: Remind yourself that you can do great things by celebrating both your big and small wins. This will help you develop a belief in yourself and your ability to accomplish things. Use an “anchor item” that reminds you of your achievements, like a trophy you won or a picture from a family vacation that you saved for. These items will help remind you of your wins throughout the day.
   
2. Setting attainable goals: Help yourself see that you can do whatever you set your mind to by creating measurable goals. These are similar to the goals you make in therapy, where you set goals that you know you can achieve with time and dedication. In doing so, you will see progress and evidence of your success.
   
3. Avoiding comparison: We can often fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others. Even though it can be a normal part of the growth process, it often comes with negative consequences, like devaluing our own achievements. If you must take a peek at others’ wins, do so in a way that allows you to learn, grow, and add value to your process.  
   
4. Developing self-trust: Learning to listen to and trust ourselves can feel hard sometimes, but it’s a cornerstone to feeling empowered. Start by using mantras to provide additional support, like “I am learning to trust myself,” “I will listen to what my body is telling me,” and “even though this did not go as planned, I am proud of myself for taking brave action.” 
   
5. Developing your skills: You most likely have amazing skills that can contribute positively to your life and the lives of others. By exploring what unique traits you have, like a love for woodworking, you can begin to feel more empowered by refining and utilizing them.
   
6. Being more assertive: Verbalizing your needs to others will enhance your relationships and your ability to have more control over various aspects of your life. You can do so by setting clear boundaries with others and holding firm when people try to cross them.
7. Using positive self-talk: If you’re engaging in negative thinking, use positive self-talk, like affirmations, to reframe your mindset. Changing how you think and talk to yourself will help you believe in yourself and what you’re capable of. Therapy can help you reframe negative self-talk and develop more self-compassion.
8. Practicing self-care: Developing self-care practices that help you be more mindful and focused on yourself will increase your self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Signs you need to boost your self-empowerment

When you lack self-empowerment, you may feel powerless and have low self-esteem. Feeling powerless is usually the result of feeling as if you don’t have control over certain areas of your life, like your work, health, home, relationships, or finances. This can go hand-in-hand with low self-esteem, often decreasing your motivation to pursue your goals. 

You may benefit from developing more self-empowerment if:

• You’re unable to set boundaries with others.
• You regularly compare yourself to others.
• You have frequent negative thoughts and engage in negative self-talk.
• You feel excessively worried and regularly doubt yourself.
• You have trouble making decisions without input from other people.
• You focus excessively on pleasing other people, even if you have to sacrifice your own needs.

Mental health benefits of self-empowerment

Developing self-empowerment skills has the potential to greatly improve your mental health. When you feel like you are more in control of your life and have more confidence in yourself and your abilities, you will likely feel more motivated to go after your goals and create a life of joy and fulfillment. 

Self-empowerment can lead to many mental health benefits, including:

• Higher self-confidence and self-esteem
• Being able to establish and achieve your goals
• Increased mental resilience and self-awareness
• Improved decision-making and goal-setting skills
• Ability to verbalize your feelings and needs better with others
• Greater sense of purpose

Find care with Rula 

Developing self-empowerment techniques requires intentionality and hard work. But you don’t have to go on your self-empowerment journey alone. If you’re struggling with low self-esteem and self-empowerment, consider seeking help from a mental health professional.

At Rula, we’re committed to helping people access quality mental health support when they need it most. Rather than waiting weeks or months for an appointment, you can connect with a therapist who takes your insurance and has expertise treating your symptoms as early as this week.

Find a therapist with Rula