I’m in the process of writing my final exam paper for my Master’s degree. The assignment was to write about a challenging feeling that you grapple with—something deep—and apply the psychology skills we’ve learned to investigate it.
 
I decided to write about powerlessness.
 
Do you ever feel a sense of powerlessness in your career or life? As though you’re on a treadmill getting nowhere, no matter how hard you try?
 
There have been so many moments as an entrepreneur where I think: “Oh, that’s a big project—I hope someone handles that.”
 
…And then I realize, shoot that person is ME! I’m in charge of that.
 
Somewhere along the way, business ownership felt overwhelming… And there were many times where so many plates were spinning in the air that I would feel a sense of powerless sink in.
 
As I sat with my friend at the beach the other day, she asked me, “how are you, Ash?”
 
“I feel powerless,” I told her, “there’s just so much to do, and I just can’t do it all or be it all. It’s almost like no matter how hard I work, I’m always behind. The emails are coming so fast, they own me.”
 
And as I heard myself talking, I remembered one key truth: how you relate to the issue is the issue. The problem is not the chaos, the problem is how I’m relating to it.
 
She looked at me with compassion and said, “what would it be like if you just surrendered?”
 
It was in that moment that I realized that powerlessness is actually incredibly powerFUL. That there is a freedom of letting go, a freedom in acceptance, a freedom in receiving things where they are.
 
Since then, the chaos has probably been the same, but I’m different.
 
I just relate to it differently.
 
How you relate to the issue is the issue. Powerlessness allows you an opportunity to surrender. And there is so much freedom in that.
 
In fact, this video reminds me of that freedom and the JOY available in the surrender.
 
With love,

Ash           

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