Find Your Power: Boost Your Inner Strengths, Break Through Blocks and Achieve Inspired Action

312 Pages·2006·2.36 MB·English

by  Chris Johnstone

Praise for
Find Your Power
“You are going to love this book. It is fun and encouraging
as well as being full of good tips and activities. It brings the
complex notion of personal power to life, offers insight into
our errors as a species and invites a sense of soul and pur-
pose to our journey. I can't recommend it more highly."
Jane Reed, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Education,
University of London
“Chris Johnstone is inspiring. With this book, he has made
agreat contribution to our culture and society.”
Malcolm Stern, co-author of The Courage to Love,
co-presenter of Channel 4’s Made for Each Other
"Have you ever been told: ‘You can't change it, you just
have to accept it’? This book turns that view on its head.
Chris Johnstone focuses on helping people access their own
motivational force; redesigning elements of the way that
they think so they arenot held back; integrating positive
visionary thinking, planning, doing and reviewing; and
developing trust and confidence in oneself.
Iwholeheartedly recommend this book.”
RichardVelleman, Professor of Mental Health Research,
University of Bath
“I have read many,many books relating to the concepts of
personal power/change, and I think this is by far the most
helpful and useful one I’ve read.”
Patricia Gaya Wicks, lecturer in leadership studies,
University of Exeter
"This book is amazing value. Packed with effective exercises
that work! I shall use it when I coach high-flying profes-
sionals because we all need more personal power to discover
and lead the fulfilling life we're all looking for."
John Nixon, business coach, Countdown UK
“Find YourPoweris a different kind of self-help book. It
describes, in detail, how we can move into our potential,
helping ourselves and the world at the same time.”
Mary-Jayne Rust, psychotherapist, London
“In this well-written volume, Chris Johnstone shows us how
to move towards our most important goals, how to nourish
power and courage and to liberate ourselves from indecision
and confusion and deal with the obstacles that block our
way.Do yourself a favour: read this book.”
John Seed, director, The Rainforest Information Centre,
Australia
“This is one of the very few books I always want to have by
my bedside. With each chapter I’ve had further insights and
breakthroughs. It has given me practical encouragement
with many areas of my life, helping me with personal issues,
my work and in responding to my concerns about the
world. I can’tthink of anyone who wouldn’tbenefit from
the tools in this book.”
Linda Crook, family doctor and artist, UK
“I couldn’t put it down. The way Chris Johnstone builds and
develops ideas throughout the book is just excellent. He offers
averyhelpful distillation of many years’ experience working
with the psychology of change. I can immediately see how I
can use this in my own life and in the groups I run.”
Nick Wilding, The Centre for Human Ecology, Scotland
Find Your Power
Boost Your Inner Strengths,
Break Through Blocks
and Achieve Inspired Action
Dr Chris Johnstone
First published by
Nicholas Brealey Publishing in 2006
3–5 Spafield Street 100 City Hall Plaza, Suite 501
Clerkenwell, London Boston
EC1R 4QB, UK Maine 02108, USA
Tel: [phone] Tel: (888) BREALEY
Fax: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.nbrealey-books.com
www.chrisjohnstone.info
© Chris Johnstone 2006
The right of Chris Johnstone to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-10 1-85788-359-4
ISBN-13 978-1-85788-359-4
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the
prior written permission of the publishers. This book
may not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed
of by way of trade in any form, binding or cover other
than that in which it is published, without the prior
consent of the publishers.
Printed in Finland by WS Bookwell on
Forest StewardshipCouncil certified paper.
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
The journey of finding your power 3
What this book is based on 4
Thinking differently about power 6
My story 7
Turning things around 9
Finding power in the way you read this book 11
Part I: The Power to Begin 13
1 The Call to Adventure 14
How to energize yourself 14
Understanding motivation 16
Motivational awareness 18
Asking yourself what you really want 19
Awareness of your own mortality 20
Taking steps to become clearer 21
Inspirational dissatisfaction 22
Finding the want behind the should 24
What comes before how 26
What is your call? 27
Power points 28
2 A New Story of Power 30
From control to influence 31
From physics to psychology 35
From big to small 38
From noun to verb 43
vi Find Your Power
From ‘they should’ to ‘I will’ 44
Power points 45
3 Combining Vision with Pragmatism 47
Realistic optimism 47
The dream cycle 50
Flow experiences 53
Review 55
What doI feel good about? 55
What’s happening here? 56
What feelings do I have here? 57
What needs my attention? 59
What really matters here? 60
Dream 61
Plan 64
Intention 65
Working out how 67
Do 71
Review (again) 73
Power points 73
4 Developing Trust and Confidence 76
Seeing a bigger picture in time 77
Static thinking 78
Self-fulfilling prophecies 80
Personal evolution 83
The phase of disbelief 86
The importance of pauses 87
Crisis as turning point 88
Moving away from all-or-nothing thinking 89
The way we think about goals 91
Process goals boost confidence 92
Cultural shifts 94
Find Your Power vii
From optimism to breakthrough 95
Power points 95
Part II: The Power to Move Through Blocks 97
5 How to Find Courage 98
Understanding the comfort trap 98
Threshold guardians 101
Dealing with dreamblockers 102
Recognize your resistance 102
Remember your call to adventure 105
Challenge your objections 107
Identify small steps and take them 108
Prepare yourself 109
Find allies 111
Feel the fear and do it anyway 112
Power points 114
6 How to Have Breakthroughs 116
The first step is to challenge your disbelief 116
The second step is to develop frustration
tolerance 118
The third step is to think outside the box 123
Placing ourselves in a box 124
Boxed in by rules 127
Doing the unthinkable 128
Stepping-stone ideas 129
Thinking outside the box about power 136
The power of looking differently 138
Power points 138
7 Shifting Stuck Patterns 140
What is a stuck pattern? 141
viii Find Your Power
Different ways of understanding
what’s going on 142
It’s just the way things are 142
It’s down to luck 143
Who or what is to blame? 144
What’s the pattern and how do I
participate in it? 145
Understanding loops 150
The 3Ps behind the pattern 152
Predisposing causes 152
Precipitating causes 155
Perpetuating causes 158
Become the change 162
Power points 170
8 Bouncing Back from Failure and Crisis 172
See failure as an inevitable part of life 173
The way to succeed is to double your
failure rate 175
Turn a minus into a plus 178
PO: A tool for creative thinking 179
When it hurts, say ‘ouch’ 179
Forgiveness 180
Use the dream cycle 182
Learn to change your state 185
Shock 186
Panic 186
Defeat 189
Denial 190
Engagement 193
I can’t, we can 197
Trust in something larger than yourself 198
Power points 199
Find Your Power ix
Part III: The Power to Keep Yourself Going 201
9 Connected Vision 202
What is connected vision? 203
Foreground and background 205
Will it make any difference? 211
The three circles of influence 212
Learning to see the five mountains 214
Layers of context 216
Turning things around 218
Seeing your power to change things 219
Power points 221
10Believing Mirrors 223
The roots of self-belief 224
Reference groups 225
Toxic reference groups 227
Cultivate support around you 228
Identifying your support network 229
1 + 1 = 2 and a bit 231
Creating support structures 234
Asking someone to be your
support person 235
Mutual support agreements 236
Support groups 236
Principles of constructive feedback 237
Start with the positives 237
Always speak the truth 237
Use process thinking 237
There are different ways of being right 238
Be specific 238
Changing group culture 239
Power points 240
11The Power of Deeper Purpose 242
How to have a fulfilling life 242
Four stages of development 245
Being part of a larger story 249
See your life as an adventure story 250
Seek out the truth 253
Allow yourself to feel disturbed 256
Understand about level shift 258
Use personal power tools 260
Let your deeper purpose act through you 262
Power points 266
12Making It Enjoyable 268
A both/and approach 269
Power with yourself 271
Keeping an eye on the process 272
Having good reasons 273
Experiencing mini-victories every day 277
The right level of company 280
Finding your passion point 282
From maximizing to optimizing 284
Power points 285
13Continuing the Journey 287
Harvesting the gifts 288
Review 289
Dream 290
Plan 290
Moving on 291
Notes 293