Law of Power

I fell in love with Chopra’s Law of Power chapter. After reading this chapter I wanted to loan out this book to a few people who need to realize the true definition of power. There was a single paragraph at the bottom of page 61 that summed up power:

“On the contrary, the truly powerful live in a state of never-ending calm. They are not fearful of the future, but rather comfortable with uncertainty and prepared at all moments with the infinite choices at their disposal provided by the unknown. They do now stew in regret, feel guilt over the past, or get trapped by old conditions and habits. That’s not to say they are not thoughtful and reflective, but they’re not imprisoned by emotions and circumstances that have already come and gone and cannot be changed. As a result, their body language demonstrates the ease with which they interact with the world. Powerful people are comfortable with themselves, prepared at any given moment and confident in their ability to react with creativity and grace to every situation. Who among us doesn’t want to master this skill?”

It’s almost hypocritical of me to want to make others read this chapter. For me, as I can assume for many others, power means control. Not once does Chopra mention control.  One could argue that a person with power as defined by Chopra has the control to be comfortable with themselves, has the control to be prepared, has the control to react, but there’s a difference is having these sort of controls and being in control. More often than not, being in control is seen as being powerful like in the instance of President Obama or your boss. Chopra has set my head straight on the definition of power and I wish I could share it further.

Of course Chopra’s characteristics of powerful people have limitations. For instance you have a “powerful” person who is too comfortable with themselves, over prepared, and overly confident. I wonder, except for the few Superheroes, if it’s even possible to be considered powerful. One needs to be comfortable enough, prepared enough, and confident enough without overdoing or underdoing it in any one of those categories. How can one even try to achieve all those characteristics while still living “in a state of never-ending calm” ?? Power must be a power within itself only attainable by our superheroes.