POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
        • Anxiety and power
      • B >
        • Bureaucracy and power
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Buddhism
        • Binary thinking
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • (Power to) change how you see things
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
        • (Power to) enjoy the moment
        • Entropy and power
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
        • Human brain and power
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • (Power to) improve your mood
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Collective Power
        • Main theories of power
        • Making an effort is a prerequisite of using power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings and power
        • Micropower: Individual power
        • Mindfulness
        • Media and Digital Literacy as Forms of Individual Power
        • Mental power
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • N >
        • (Nature) Power of nature
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Power vs. powerlessness
        • "Power" in language
        • Physical power
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Self-awareness and power
        • Snapshot power
        • Socialization and power
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Using power is rewarding
      • V >
        • Vector power
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
    • Completed pages
  • Author
    • My creative process

Making an Effort is a Prerequisite of Using Power

PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power. Initially empty, this page will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! 
Robin and Sky can use self-regulation and they do so very well outside of the house. Everybody think they are the nicest kids. At home they do not always behave well. Why? It takes an effort to self-regulate. Self-regulation is a form of personal (mental) power. At home they do not want to make this effort, so they behave differently.

We can use only individual power, which requires intentionality. I believe that there is misconception that having/using power equals "having it easy". If you think of it, it is when we make an effort to lift a heavy stone, that's when we can talk about having physical power. It is easy for me to pick up a grain of sand, but I do not count this as having power. A lot of things that do not require efforts are just functions of our body, something that we naturally do or need to do to survive or be well. Like walking is a function of our body on the most basic level because if we do not use our legs, we will get sick. It is when I am intentionally make an effort to keep walking that I use my power.

Making an effort requires intentionality, which is combination of awareness and choice. By definition, making an effort means making a self-aware choice to put your energy into doing something.

We can talk about "having a strength", which means being able to make an effort and use our power to achieve a certain result. 

Using our power to change the way we see things is another example of individual power because it requires an effort on our part.

Subtle but important nuance: make an effort but not force yourself or shame yourself

Direct vs. indirect effort
Sometimes power is more efficiently used by applying indirect effort
e.g., in a conflict situation, it might seem easier to use physical power, but using mental power to get to a compromise might get to a more sustainable solution
another example: trying to will yourself into breaking a habit, while it might be more efficient to use mindfulness (see Unwinding Anxiety)
If you are interested in getting updates about this project (e.g., when new pages are published), please sign up for the newsletter on my main website.
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • Absolute power
        • Anxiety and power
      • B >
        • Bureaucracy and power
        • Benefits of understanding power
        • Buddhism
        • Binary thinking
      • C >
        • Circumstances and Power
        • Choice
        • (Power to) change how you see things
        • Choosing meanings
        • Corrupted by power
      • D >
        • Discovering your power
      • E >
        • Empowerment
        • (Power to) enjoy the moment
        • Entropy and power
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
      • G >
        • Gender and power
      • H >
        • Having power and using power
        • How everybody is powerful
        • How everybody is powerless
        • Human brain and power
      • I >
        • Improving mental abilities
        • (Power to) improve your mood
        • In control
        • Inequality
        • Influencing each other
        • Intentionality and power
      • L >
        • Language has power over us
        • Limited resources
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
      • M >
        • Macropower: Collective Power
        • Main theories of power
        • Making an effort is a prerequisite of using power
        • "May" power
        • Meanings of power that are not directly related to social power
        • Meanings and power
        • Micropower: Individual power
        • Mindfulness
        • Media and Digital Literacy as Forms of Individual Power
        • Mental power
        • (Mis)understanding of power in media texts
        • Money and Power
        • My synesthetic perception of "power"
      • N >
        • (Nature) Power of nature
      • P >
        • Power and knowledge
        • Power as ability
        • Power as a chess game
        • Power as influence
        • Power vs. powerlessness
        • "Power" in language
        • Physical power
        • Power is not a thing
        • Power of speech
        • Power on/off
        • Privilege
      • R >
        • Responsibility, blame and power
      • S >
        • Self-awareness and power
        • Snapshot power
        • Socialization and power
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Using power is rewarding
      • V >
        • Vector power
      • W >
        • What is power?
        • Willpower
    • Completed pages
  • Author
    • My creative process