Question Four

Coming to the realization that power is not what we have always imagined can have an immediate impact on your life.

Children see power as a characteristic of some other person. That person got their power either from someone else or as some great gift from heaven. The power is theirs. The power is in them. Or it is in the thing they wield.

Adults will strategize about getting power. They have no real plan because they do not really know where the power comes from. They continue into their adult lives seeing power as an attribute of someone's position or wealth.

They criticise those with power and say they would act differently if they had power. They dream of a day when they could have whatever they want. A day when they can get people to comply with their wishes.

Many simply give up and say I have no power. I will have no power. I am powerless and it is my life to avoid or submit to those who will rule my life.

But our insight changes that.

Knowing that the source of all power lies in the needs within the targeted subject of that power dynamic, opens doors to new methods. These are the Methods of having power.

It always tickles me to think that this little tiny fact can change one's life.

In this insight sleeps a thousand significant ideas that will dramatically impact our lives and the world around us.

Here is the first such idea.

If the source of power is need, then to stop the power against us, to overcome someones efforts to control , influence or seduce us, we simply need to understand which of our needs is operating and then do what we can to depower it.

Simple but not easy.

Understanding ones' own needs is not a common effort in our society. Our society teaches us to act on our needs. It encourages us to have what we want now. It facilitates us getting things. Our society says to have is to be happy. This, of course, is illusion.

But our society also teaches that those who can forbear such actions tend to have the upper hand. Those who can defer gratification of their needs find themselves in a position to satisfy greater more meaningful needs. Those in control of their needs have power.

Now we know why that is true.

But keeping to the Method of having power, we must follow a first step - know your operating needs.

What is the need, or set of needs, which are being accessed by the mechanism of power the Actor is utilizing now?

And that is our next question...


The Method

Q IV. WHAT IS MY NEED?


Identify your operating needs.
All of them.
Look to your feelings.
Control, Influence and Seduction
Fear, Anger and Excitement

Look to the Mechanisms they are using.
Is it directed at you or someone else?
Does it help or hinder?
Is it actual or potential?
Identify them as Requirements, Desires and Attachments.
Identify how they are Complex, Compounding and Competing.

Clearly articulate your Needs and state the Dynamic.