How to feel like an empowered woman

What does it mean to be an empowered woman?

An empowered woman is a confident woman – a woman who makes her own decisions and controls her own life. She does not compare herself with other women nor does she feel burdened by inequity in a patriarchal world because she knows perfectly well that everyone has something to contribute and she is in charge of her destiny.

From a young age, we scrape our knees and then stand up again and become stronger from the struggle. It can be difficult to be resilient all the time but we must remember that experiencing fear and failure helps us to fight for our dreams, to be satisfied with what we have achieved and to be content with our place in the world.

Empowered women are also imaginative, innovative and daring but this is not easy for everyone. The key is to have self-confidence, set goals and celebrate your achievements.

Being confident

Having confidence in ourselves gives us a strong foundation to face each day and allows us to face any difficult situation that might arise. We are not born with confidence and it can be diminished by our perceptions of failure. To build our confidence we need to take risks and get out of our comfort zones to follow our dreams. If we do nothing due to fear of failing or of being ridiculed we cannot build trust in ourselves.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start developing self-confidence. The first step is to think about a time when you thought and acted well. It could be anything – maybe a project you worked on for long hours, a relationship that you created or perhaps just a small favour that made someone less fortunate happy. The key is to recognise that you trusted yourself and made the right decision to create a great outcome.

Now, think about the skills you used to achieve that result, what your attitude was and how much effort you invested to achieve it. Doing this will remind you that you can trust yourself so you can start your day feeling happy and capable and that, when you do, awesome things can happen.

Setting goals

The next most important thing we can do to become empowered is to set goals so you know where you are headed. Being able to visualise the path to your goals will help you work hard and efficiently to get what you want while ensuring that you keep all aspects of your life in balance.

So you must ask yourself what do you want to achieve? What are your dreams? What is realistically achievable? What will make you happy and what can you do without?

It can take some time from your busy routine to work out a plan but now is the time to start!

Celebrating achievements

We must acknowledge what we have achieved – all the things that we have built throughout our lives and the things that make us happy. Just like the thing that you focused on to grow in confidence, you might remember graduating from a course, getting a great job, losing some extra weight, quitting smoking or even just something as simple as swapping alcohol for water when out with friends.

The other side of this exercise is to avoid negative thoughts. Beware the “imposter syndrome” which occurs when a person is unable to recognise their achievements and is convinced that they are a failure and do not deserve to be successful.

Enjoy, feel proud of what you have achieved and dare to live. Women who understand and value their inner strength are the ones who enjoy true satisfaction.

Following the tips above can help you to improve your self-esteem and to be a foundation for increasing your sense of empowerment.