#200: Power isn’t freedom and sometimes it can actually be a trap…..
Changing The Story with Lana Dingwall
Release Date: 03/07/2022
Changing The Story with Lana Dingwall
I believe that our education systems and how our society is structured traps us. We are taught to fit within a mold so that we are ‘employable’ and can hopefully find a job that allows us enough pay to live comfortably and gives us a few weeks off a year. Yet inflation is skyrocketing, the cost of living is outrageous and people feel disconnected from things that genuinely make them come alive. We need change. I know for many of you reading this, you feel that way too as entrepreneurship is about taking a step away from all of that. For...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
Have you ever found yourself anxiously anticipating something? Maybe it’s small like a task you need to complete or maybe it’s a large goal that requires you to push big-time out of your comfort zone. No matter the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, anxiety, fear, doubt, all exist primarily in the anticipation of something- not the act of it. Why is that? It’s mostly because when we’re in the act of doing something we’re present and in action mode - which leaves little cognitive space for fear and anxiety to show up. This means that when we’re doing hard things...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
If you’re on social media and work in the space of entrepreneurship and/or spirituality you’ve most likely heard the term self sovereign over the past few years. I wanted to dive a little deeper into what I feel it means and why it is directly connected to community care - because sometimes when I hear people use it, it just comes off as inherently selfish and not empowering at all. Self sovereignty and community care are highly interconnected. The more empowering and expansive a community is, the more sovereign you become. Why is this? It’s because they...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
I believe that our education systems and how our society is structured traps us. We are taught to fit within a mold so that we are ‘employable’ and can hopefully find a job that allows us enough pay to live comfortably and gives us a few weeks off a year. Yet inflation is skyrocketing, the cost of living is outrageous and people feel disconnected from things that genuinely make them come alive. We need change. I know for many of you reading this, you feel that way too as entrepreneurship is about taking a step away from all of that. For...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
I am getting a lot of people in my dms saying they are very interested in learning more about web3 - blockchain - nfts - crypto, but have no idea where to start. They are telling me they grasp that there is potential in this emerging space but truly do not understand most of it. If you fall into this category, that is totally okay and let me tell you why. You do not need to understand on a fundamental level how this technology works, you only need to know how to use it. Most of you are probably reading this email on your phone. If you listen to my podcast or follow me online,...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
A few weeks ago IG announced it was beta testing integrating NFTs onto its platform and so far things are going well. Youtube, Meta (aka facebook), Amazon, Shopify, Stripe and other content hosting platforms and commerce based businesses now officially all have web3 teams who are using, building, and integrating blockchain technology. What the heck does this mean?! It means that many of the platforms, applications and tools we use in our businesses are taking web3 seriously - which means that we should too. This doesn’t mean drop everything and...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
It is very common for us to view ourselves as 3 separate people. There is our past self, our current self, and our future self. The reality though is there is only one us. This isn’t to say we stay the same, we know we are constantly changing. What I mean though, is that without changing something today, nothing will change in the future - except that time itself has passed. Sometimes by thinking our future self will somehow be more equipped, more motivated, more responsible than our current, self tricks us into forgetting who we are right now has to make the shifts...
info_outlineChanging The Story with Lana Dingwall
Many of us can feel as though we’re in a race to reach ‘the finish line’ in our business and lives. We look to those around us to determine if we’re ahead or behind and this can create a sense of urgency. The reality is that we aren’t actually in a race, we will most likely never feel like we ‘crossed the finish line’ and we aren’t competing with anyone either. When this feeling is used in a healthy way to motivate us it can be motivating, however many of us use it to stress ourselves out. There are so many different ways to build out and get to where...
info_outlineMany people (myself included) pursue the illusion of power, because under the surface what we desire is freedom and we think this is the only way to get it.
The only way I can be free is to have so much power, that no one can have authority (ie control) over me. Because we live in a world of haves and have nots, I need more power, money, status and things than other people to ensure I am one of the ‘haves’, someone at the top of the pecking order. *(having power and being empowered are not the same thing)
I am happy to say that years ago I gave up that ideology and way of relating with the world and others - but I'd be lying if I said it still doesn't creep up on me from time to time.
I believe that true freedom means freedom for all. This doesn’t mean getting to do whatever we want, whenever we want, without any regard for others and without consequences. We are so vastly interconnected in ways we can’t even comprehend, that we need to respect each other and part of that means understanding that I will have some peramatures where my freedom might bump into someone else's, and that freedom isn’t an all or nothing thing.
Power though, well now when I have power I don’t need to respect anyone, I can just squash bulldoze right on over them because I have more power.
You might be asking what the heck this has to do with entrepreneurship, and I would say everything.
Many of us (as I did) build out our businesses and lives wanting more power and often what can happen is it leads us off course. It leads us away from the things that bring us joy and instead have us focusing on accumulating more because more = power and we confuse power with freedom.
Freedom means the beautiful space to be you - to live the life you want, not the one others tell you to want - to be able to express yourself in ways that light you up vs the ones ‘you must do to grow your business’.
We dive deeper into this philosophical discussion on this week's podcast episode which you can listen to here.
I still want to be powerful (AND empowered), I just know that the power I seek comes with significant responsibility and I never want it to come at the expense of someone else ‘having to lose’.
I believe that pondering certain kinds of questions helps us better understand ourselves, what we desire and what we’re truly looking to create.
Are you potentially confusing power and freedom? Have you maybe been living in a paradigm where there needs to be losers in order for there to be winners? Or do you live in a world where we’re all able to win, we just need to work together to get there?
Keep being awesome my friend and together we can, will and already are creating a different world together.
- Lana
- THIS IS EPISODE 200 of the podcast?! That is crazy to me. Thank you so much for being a part of the journey.
If you enjoy these conversations, check out The Lighthouse Collective. It’s a community for socially and spiritually conscious entrepreneurs building a better world together. We talk about topics like this in even more interactive and supportive ways.
If you are interested in working 1-on-1 with me to help grow your business, I would love to connect with you on a free coaching call here. Learn more about my coaching services here