How to Slip the Grip of Reputation-Ep 02

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What we’re doing when we’re working on building up our reputation and focusing on the labels, and the status, and the things that we get to call ourselves is we are trying to gain power in the world. There’s nothing inherently wrong with seeking this kind of power, except that it isn’t necessarily connected to our own personal sense of worth. We constantly need to refill it, re impress and redo. Sometimes, rather than trying to find a sense of power through legitimate means, we seek it through the veil of prestige. Prestige is more of a false mask of reputation. It’s not actually true, we haven’t actually earned it. We are pretending. Maybe it comes with an office, maybe it comes with a role. And we play at this idea of power.

This too, is disconnected from any true sense of personal worth.

There are other false ways that people attempt to gain power.

They might do so through exhibitionism. Perhaps through control, or authority, or just having the loudest voice. Or maybe they have the power of persuasion, or even charisma.

But if these tools are put to use in a way that tries to put down others or demean others, or separate the world, and it is not the kind of power that we’re talking about in this podcast. In this podcast, I am talking about a kind of power that comes comes from within. A power that does not need to put anyone else down, that does not need to look down upon anyone else.

It is a kind of power that does not need to be constantly refueled and re upped. It is a kind of power that exists outside of our roles and our status. So I’m not trying to suggest that status and reputation don’t matter. What I’m trying to suggest is that if that is where we’re pinning our sense of power, and our sense of self worth, then it will never, ever be enough.