What is Power?

Many people often strive to achieve power. But what exactly is power?

Power apparently seems to be a facet of Human Experience. When one feels the possession of the ability to a certain thing, he feels the availability of that power or feels powerful in that aspect.

Based on this, there are different types of power people generally go after. There is money power. There is brain power. There is the power of knowledge. There is physical muscular power. There is weaponry power. There is political power. There is organisational power. There is people power. There is mind power. There is emotional power. There is creative power. There is influential power. There is endurance power. The list goes on. And then, there is the Ultimate power of being.

Money Power

Money gives the power to buy what they want. The more money a person has, the more is his buying power. This is one of the most common thing people go after. This often is thought of as the most deterministic factor in the scheme of things. But as discussed here, Money, can't buy everything.

Brain Power

Having more brain power means to be more intelligent. It means having more capability to think and arrive at better outcomes. Having better capability in problem solving and producing solutions. Either for himself or for the society and the world. Such people may be sought after by people having more money power or other kinds of power but have lesser intelligence to compliment their own weakness. Other people seek them to use the power of brainy people to figure out ways to move ahead in their own aspirations.

The Power of Knowledge

Of course, the more you know, the more you can do. One can also say that, the power of knowledge is largely made irrelevant in today's world. Mainly because of overflowing of information in the internet. Almost everyone has access to almost all the knowledge the world has so far acquired.

Muscular Power

This refers to strength in the physical body one possesses to carry out physical work. The ability to engage in physical skirmish and win over. The raw muscular power to carry out large amount of physical activity. Also to protect and safeguard assets by means of physical presence.

Weaponry or Tool Power

Weapon power or tool power is only a slight extension of the muscular power. It refers to the possession of certain weapons or certain tools which enhances the capability to accomplish certain tasks to multifold levels.

Political Power

This is power of people in politics or of people who rule a society. It can be a rule within a small group of people or a province or a whole nation or the whole World in some way. Possession of this kind of power gives people access to certain kinds of choices and actions.

Organisational Power

Organisational power or positional power as it can also be called, is the level of power entitled by virtue of the position held in an organisation. At different levels of hierarchy in an organisation, different people will have different levels of power. Here, it can be financial powers, which means the quantum of organisational funds the individual is allowed to spend at his own liberty. Or it can be the quantum of number of people within the organisation one can command. It can also be the quantum of the facilities allowed to an individual for that level of position, if that is one's aspiration.

People Power

Having a lot of people under their disposal makes certain individuals to feel powerful. The people under them may serve them due to various reasons like money, position, fear, love and simply due to the dominant nature of the personality. Using people power, one can gain many things like political power, money power, muscle power etc.,

Mind Power

Often mysterious, mind power is the ability to make things happen in life by using the power of mind. It is being told and claimed that it is possible to manifest things using mind power. Lot of things are spoken and written about this. But it is not widely known as to how many people have really been able to harvest it.

But a much known variant is the one which is commonly addressed as mental strength. Which enables people to go through peaks and bottoms of life situations with minimum disturbances and see through life with minimum efforts.

Emotional Power

There are quite a few people who have the knack of making things happen emotionally. They strike the right chord in communication to invoke the right emotions in people and getting things done. The famous example can be that of Winston Churchill. In the same note, the infamous example is of course, Adolf Hitler!. One other variant which many people have successfully employed is the 'emotional blackmail'. People are hostages of their own emotions and are forced to do things which they don't want to.

Creative Power

The power to create! When one talks about creativity, it is often related to fine arts like music, paintings, dance etc. But the power to create is really the power to create anything. The power to create a large business house. An academy. An institution. A nation. Or even a small germination. With true creative power, one can create anything. At the top of it, is the ability to create things out of absolutely nothing.

Influential Power

Influential power the power to influence certain behaviour in individual person or small or large groups of people. It is a skill, art and craft to do this. It can be done in so many ways. It can be done by persuading people. It can be done by setting a role model or living bg example. It can be done in subtle ways or it can be done in gross ways. Interestingly, it can be done even silently, without the knowledge of the people being influenced.

Endurance Power

Whatever power one may have, there is always the question of how long it can be sustained. Because whatever power one may have, one does not have any power over 'time'. Time is unidirectional. Time keeps on slipping away. Thus how long one can sustain power is also a measure of power one possesses.

There is also another kind of endurance power. This is sort of an idea of how long a person can endure a weakness or vulnerability or, in this context, let's say, lack of power. How long a person can endure the effects of not having certain power for himself. That before he gives up or collapses. Because enduring itself needs certain amount of strength. Endurance is a strong indicator of a person's strength.

Perceptive Power

It is highly subtle and sophisticated power to perceive what is around. As complete as one can. The more true perception one has about the things that are around, the more effective one can craft his choices and actions towards the end that he wants. One needs to have sharp sensitivity to sense and perceive the things that exist in the surroundings. The level of development of such sensitivity can be a game changer among equals who all have similar level of strengths in all other aspects. It is a truly powerful and effective instrument to make headway in one's aspirations.

Skill Power

Certain people have mastery over their own unique skills that makes them powerful. For example highly skilled magician can wield lot of power over people who will be willing to yield to him. There are cases where a highly skilled sports star or a cinema star can more deterministically decide a state's political leadership than a seasoned politician. To such an extent that the state's leaders will be at the whim and fancy of the star.

Use of power

Whatever kind of power one possesses, it is always possible to use them in a positive way or a negative way. In a good way or a bad way. In a supportive way or a detrimental way. Towards well-being or ill-being. While 'power' itself can do so many things, what it actually does depends on whose hands it is.

Bottomline

From a wholesome perspective, all the above are not independent of each other. One type of power can often be willed to yield another type of power. For example, it is possible to acquire the power of people by luring people with money power or forcing them using muscular power or weaponry power. But as mentioned earlier, it is not always possible also. It requires certain level mastery and application to play with different combinations of power.

With the existence of these kinds of powers, how does one really acquire them? Is it inborn? Can one learn to achieve them? Can one train to acquire them? Well the answer is, it requires a combination of factors, including but not limited to your own efforts and striving, to work in favour you.

The power of being

The ultimate power one can attain. The power of being. The power of simply being. The ultimate source of who you are. You! For, the potential of who you are is limitless!