E:M:P:O:W:E:R

"I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then, I ask myself the same question."

I love reading anything by Rachel Hollis. I follow her facebook and signed up to receive her emails. We all need positivity in our lives and she definitely helps make you feel like you need to wake up and kick ass. This weekend, I kept thinking about how amazing it must be to be so empowered and how I would love to achieve that state of being. I truly feel that we all need to do our part to empower those around us. Nerdy little me decided to a little research on just what "empower" means. We all have our own perceptions of what certain words mean and this word I feel gets a little misconstrued.

em·​pow·​er|\ im-ˈpau̇(-ə)r: To promote the self-actualization or influence of.

self-ak-choo-uh-luh-zey-shuh n, self-ak- : the achievement of one's full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and the grasp of the real world.

To promote the achievement of one's full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and the grasp of the real world.

The state of being empowered, the pursuit of happiness, chasing our dreams and opportunities- they are all right there- right in front of us. We all have the ability and the means to achieve, but how often do we all actually go for it? We are all free, but we stick ourselves in these tiny little cages based on our perceptions of what life should be like, what success looks like, and how happiness should feel. But it's right in front of us. Rachel Hollis has a different version of what empowerment than my version and mine is more than likely to be much different from yours.

Everyone is chasing their own perceptions and if that person's dreams are less than ours, then who the hell are we to discourage that? If someone isn't quite ready to fly out that cage, provide support and encouragement- don't taunt or criticize. We rise by rising others- a small smile, a hello, reaching out to an old friend, making amends, starting a blog, planting a garden- any of those gestures could be the type of encouragement someone needs to see to reach out in front of them, grab that empowerment and fly through the doors.

Rachel Hollis rocks at inspiring the world and doing her best to empower others, but it's up to us to chase our full potential and to live up to it. To break from our cages and fly like hell.