"The desire for the power to control the conditions in one's life is a basic need possessed by virtually everyone. Power is sometimes associated with the desire for personal safety. It is also referred to as closely associated with free will, the ability to choose, and the degree to which a person can influence others. In individualistic societies, personal power is a primary value of the culture and is considered more important than the priorities of the group. This book is about "power with" rather than "power over" others - but also addresses power within oneself. We have written with the intent to help leaders to more effectively empower others within their organizations - but we have focused as well on the critical importance of self-empowerment and the ability of individuals to take control of their own lives to become the best persons that they can be. It is painfully evident that today's leaders have failed badly at empowering their employees - resulting in relationships that are frequently strained and generating employee commitment that is often "marginal" at best. Worldwide, empowerment and employee engagement are both low and employees have lost trust for leaders in organizations of all types. The inability of organizations to engender employee commitment and extra-mile performance detracts from the ability of companies to compete in today's global environment - but "old style" command and control management policies nonetheless prevail in many companies - to the detriment of the companies, their customers and employees, and to society at large. Self-empowerment is equally a problem. Employees who wish to grow and progress on the job are common - but 70% of all employees today report that they are actively looking for a new job and many have a low regard for their companies and their companies' leaders. Opportunities for growth are often diminished as managers and supervisors fail to involve their employees in decisions critical to their companies' success. Yet the status quo prevails. We focus not only on employee self-empowerment but on the personal self-development that many individuals yearn for as they strive to "find their voice" and become the best possible version of themselves. We cite scholars from a broad variety of disciplines in offering their wisdom and add recommendations that can help individuals to acquire the traits and qualities so important to self-improvement. We encourage the readers to invest their time and effort to not only reading this book but to reflecting on its insights. Our intention is to help every reader to discover within themselves abilities and opportunities beyond their expectations as they strive to achieve the success that empowerment and self-empowerment make possible"--

This self-paced workbook will help you create the future of your choice. You can use it to structure your thoughts, images, and actions in ways that are likely to maximize the chances that your dreams will be realized. It will give you a structure for envisioning your desired future and writing an inspiring vision statement. It will help you determine whether or not you have enough personal energy to fuel your journey, scan the landscape ahead to identify obstacles, and identify and nurture relationships with those who will be important to your success. Finally, it will help you develop a plan for turning your vision into reality and find ways to strengthen and sustain your will to succeed at executing your plan.

Within these pages, you will find catalysts for self-evaluation and self-empowerment. Since we control our choices, we control our power and therefore control the measure in which we apply that power. Everything you have been, everything that you are now, and everything you will be all comes down to the choices you have made. Choices are very powerful, just one good one or bad one could be life-changing. This book is meant to be a reference guide; something you can come back to periodically after you have finished reading it and can hopefully assist you in making the right choices for yourself. When you realize that your destiny can be steered in whichever direction you choose, you are taken one step closer to self-realization. Choices gets deep into real life issues that we all face, such as, the influence of family and friends and how they affect your choices, how important setting goals is because it gives you something to reach for, what achieving happiness means to you as opposed to what it means to someone else, and at least a dozen more subjects that seem to either hold us back or push us forward. This is not a self-help book, nor a self-development book, this is a self-empowerment book. It is time that we empower ourselves because at the end of the day, our own abilities, our own ideas, our own work-ethic, is all we have to propel us toward our destiny. Even though this book delves into many different subjects, there is one primary objective, to provoke serious thought about the choices we are making and seek out ways to make better choices in order to make a better world. What we become in life is a choice and this book gets into how these choices affect us and how the smallest choices can make the biggest difference. This is a self-empowerment book for any age, race, background, or religion. These are universal principles that we all must live by and that we have experienced at one time or another. Touching on subjects such as the influence of family and f

Serene Khader's book on adaptive preference is a book that should be read by anyone interested in oppression and how to struggle against and overcome it. According to many feminist theories of oppression, a primary problem for overcoming oppression is that the victims become accustomed to their circumstances and even come to prefer them. Their preference for their oppressive conditions then form practical and moral obstacles to changing them, since the oppressed act in ways to further those conditions and it seems cruel or unfair to take from the oppressed what they claim to prefer. Such preferences are called adaptive preferences, and transforming them seems to be an important goal of institutions that aim to improve the lives of the oppressed. This book is about how and why public institutions should intervene in the lives and societies of oppressed persons with adaptive preferences to encourage their flourishing. Although Khader explicitly targets impoverished and oppressed women in the global South, her arguments should apply equally to other contexts of oppression and deprivation.

‘Empowerment’ is a term in widespread use today and one that is often considered to be a self-evident good. Here, McLaughlin explores its emergence in the 1960s through to its rise in the 1990s and ubiquity in present day discourse and interrogates its social status, paying particular attention to social policy, social work and health and social care discourse. He argues that a focus on empowerment has superseded the notion of political subjects exercising power autonomously. This innovative volume: - Discusses the relationship between concepts of empowerment and power, as they have been understood historically. - Analyses changes in the conception and meaning of empowerment in relation to the shifting social and political landscape. - Acknowledges the positive impact empowerment strategies have had on those who have campaigned to be empowered and also on those who have saw their role as being to help empower others. - Highlights ways in which talk about empowerment can actually work in such a way as to further disempower those already marginalised. Critically examining how ‘empowerment’ has become embedded in contemporary social and political life, this work offers a discussion of the term’s multiple meanings, what it actually entails, and how it constructs and positions those being empowered and those empowering.

"Just Decide It! Wellbeing is a Choice", is about the power of decisions and choices. Happiness and wellbeing is a constant, ongoing, choice. Circumstantial happiness is temporary. Happiness is like a fire that needs to be constantly fueled. This book will consider the examples of prolific decision makers like Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and Will Smith. Their lives, deeds, and life choices will be explored. In addition to providing a literature review of the subject of happiness, the book will also provide examples of choices that lead to wellness and personal empowerment, including using affirmations. So, "Just Decide It! Wellbeing is a Choice."