“Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. The real power is inside and is available to you now.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
At first glance, the words strength and power may seem to go together. Since we live in a world where it has been programmed into us to see the strongest person, the country, the political figure, the family member, etc. as also the one with the most power.
It may be more difficult for some of us to discern the difference between the two things. (and strength can be defined by a number of things, such as physical strength, the most money, the highest job position, etc.)
Those who live within the parameters of third-dimensional belief systems can still resonate a lot with the phrase “might equals right”. And even emotionally, how many times have we heard someone say “I’m a strong person, I’ve been through a lot”? Now replace that sentence with the word power, and you can immediately feel the difference in energy between the two.
A strong person needs an enemy or opponent to build strength, while a powerful person needs no opponent. Coming into alignment with power versus force is the direct result of our own inner mastery. Here are five ways to distinguish a strong person from a powerful person:
Table of Contents
1. Strength means comparing to others, power means comparing to your former self:
“Successful people never care what other people do.”
~ Unknown
Strength needs a certain level of resistance to continue to become “stronger”. A “strong” country needs “weaker” countries to compare itself, a strong person needs harmful circumstances to feed themselves.
And it is because of this fact that strength is not at all strong on its own, it must be compared to others. A powerful person needs no one and nothing to align with power. And it is because of this that power does not demand that others be weak in order to shine.
2. Strength uses fear, power uses love:
“The most humble is the greatest. The best listener is the most powerful person in the room. The most altruistic always win (even if it looks like they don’t).”
~ Robin Sharma
Whenever we see someone using fear-based tactics to manipulate or control the actions of others, it is a sure sign of an entity that does not reside in its own power. A powerful person does not need to scare others to earn their respect, he only loves them and sympathizes with them because they know that there is, in fact, no force more powerful than love.
It is not that a powerful person will not take appropriate action if, for example, they have seen someone being abused or threatened by another, it is just that power does not need to live life under threat of attack at some point. Power uses strength when necessary, but does not live in fear of hypothetical situations or scenarios.
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3. Strength requires followers while power doesn’t:
A strong person needs their image to be reinforced. It does this by attempting to gain followers, subjects, people to manage as evidence of their real strength. Strength uses others as a commodity to promote its own image, while power is not interested in numbers.
It doesn’t matter if someone or 5 million “follow” them, their message is always the same. And this message has everything to do with themselves and their own inner integrity and nothing to do with winning popularity contests.
4. Strength searches for answers outside, power searches within:
“Stop looking for answers from strangers. The answers to your life are within you. Only you know what makes your heart feel at home. Only you can hear your inner voice. The key is to ask the right questions.”
~ C. Nordyke
Strength always needs external reality to rely on its own image enhancement and to maintain its position on others, while power always trusts its own intuition before anyone else.
Sure, there will be times in our lives when outside reality will give us an answer to something we were looking for or explain something to us in a way we hadn’t thought of, but a powerful person is always testing all theories against their inner guidance system and chooses to follow that instead of blindly following or believing in anything.
5. Strength is loud while power is silent:
Strength tells us how strong they are. Strength boasts of its external possessions or material acquisitions while power does not need to do so to feel powerful. Since strength needs followers, it requires others to “believe” in them at some level.
It uses all of its achievements to present evidence of its strength. And the achievements are not bad, nor is being able to buy nice things, but power does not need to talk about these things to gain a kind of admiration. Power finds the most confidence and security in its own inner silence.
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