Power

I was having a very difficult conversation with someone who advised me that I should watch out when talking to people more powerful than me.

This set me thinking on how we understand power. The most commonly understood definition of power is the ability to influence. But this is incomplete as it doesn't speak of the subject. Influence whom?

Perhaps it remains unsaid, but depends on the context. The subject is typically an organisation, team, or even the world, and typically the situations in these contexts. Not surprisingly, many well known journals publish the list of the 100 most powerful people and so on..

But is it necessarily so? Why should it be something external ? I wanted to tell her that those are powerful who can have the greatest influence on the self. Influencing external situations is easier than influencing the self. The situations are ultimately the means but the state of mind is the end. Far more powerful that  those who think they are set to change the world, are those who can change themselves. And the most powerful are the ones who see beyond the I-ness of the body, mind and the intellect and hit at the roots of the ego which causes these illusions.

The next time you speak of power, watch out!