Realise Your Power and Use It

I can do that
We all have dreams and we can all work towards refining them and making them real. Don’t sell yourself short or allow others to suppress you. Plot your own route to achievement and plan every step you can take towards achieving your goals. Don’t fall into the trap of constantly saying “one day I will…” without taking action. Only you can make the effort and make it happen.
Alan has a local government job that bores him. His dream is to be a script writer but for years he suffered from total inertia. He’d talk about becoming a writer but never take the first step. It took a serious row with his sister to make him acknowledge that there it was pointless him moaning all the time about his job if he wasn’t ever actually going to do anything about changing it. To prove her wrong, initially at least, Alan enrolled in an evening writing course at the local college and has since begun submitting articles and letters to the media. He has been published (and paid) for some of these pieces and has now decided to enrol on a screen writing course in the New Year to find out if he has what it takes.
Respect yourself and others
Before you label yourself as a failure, or as stupid or useless; stop and think about all the things you have achieved so far in your life and write them down or record them. We all make mistakes, we’d be inhuman if we didn’t, and we also need to respect ourselves if others are to respect us. And rather than dismiss people we don’t know that well or we think are different, for whatever reason… learn to respect them for who they are. That frail old gent fought a war for you, the old dear down the street who nursed for 30 years…
All the kids in the road used to make fun of Mr. Bennett because he walked awkwardly with a stick and always wore the same long overcoat. What they didn’t know was that he had lost one of his legs from the knee down in the Second World War and that his limp was caused by that. He wore the coat to try and hide the fittings of the false leg he used because he was conscious that it showed through his trousers. If the kids had ever taken the time to chat with Mr. Bennett they’d have found that he was a hero who lost his leg at the age of just twenty trying to save one of his comrades who’d been shot in an aborted escape attempt from a POW camp.
Mighty oaks from small acorns grow
Buying local helps support small family owned businesses and to keep traditional small scale production alive in your community. Buying local keeps profits circulating in your community instead of going straight out of area into the coffers of supermarket chains and conglomerates. Buying local reduces the impact on the environment as food miles are dramatically reduced. The more you buy locally the more vibrant your choices will be and the more dynamic your local community. Your personal choice to buy locally carries far more influence and delivers a far greater positive effect than any political campaign.
The Ellis family runs a small bakery which has been in the family for more than a hundred years. A decade ago the business was nearly forced to close as supermarkets moved into the area and cut swathes through the takings of local independent businesses. Faced with a near empty High Street and surrounded by boarded up shops, two staff were let go and the business had to set about restoring its fortunes. Today it is still struggling, but growing support from local customers including restaurants and cafes helped it to stay in business. It is now leading a petition for a major business rates reduction for all the independent businesses in its area. Your choice to buy local can help hundreds of small businesses like the Ellis family’s to stay in business…
It is fine to say no
Society is made of givers and takers. There are those that take and take and take without ever considering that they might give anything back. Don’t allow the selfish takers to dominate your life and control you, or take what you cannot afford to give. You have an absolute right to say no if requests made of you are unreasonable or if you lack the time, money, resources or energy to help. Your life is your own to live and your choices are yours to make. The best gift you can give to a selfish taker is the knowledge that they must find their own way in life.
Mary has always worked but has never been a high earner. She currently has three part time cleaning jobs and just enough money coming in to cover her modest outgoings. Mary’s daughter is a selfish woman who is continually dumping her two children on her mother and expecting that Mary will feed, look after and clothe them while she spends her days lolling about and doing nothing with a a group of equally lazy single mothers. Mary’s daughter receives twice as much money in benefits as her Mother earns and spends it on drink, cigarettes and clothes for herself. Mary needs to say no to her daughter and to say no to being used as a free babysitting service and source of money or her daughter will never grow up, or support herself and her children.