Freud insisted that all human motivation was based on the sex drive.
His pupil, Dr. Alfred Adler, disagreed. He thought that mastery over others was the main drive in human affairs.
Interpersonal power is the capacity to influence others while resisting their influence over you. Dozens of books are written each year on how to gain control and mastery over others.
Professor David McClelland studied the power motive in thousands of subjects. He concluded that the will to power as a human necessity much like the need for recognition, achievement, or love. In the course of his extensive research he identified three characteristics of people with a high power drive:
- They act in vigorous and determined ways to exert their power
- they spend a lot of time thinking about ways to alter the behavior and thinking of others
- They care very much about their personal standing with others
If any of these characteristics sound like you, it might mean that you’re compulsive about having power over others. Take this quiz, which may provide some further insight into your motivation.
1. I strive to show competence in any group I join.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
2. I enjoy your job in which I can do things my way.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
3. I like to be the center of attention when with others.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
4. It irritates me when people try to dominate me.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
5. I don’t take embarrassments easily.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
6. I dislike taking advice from others.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
7. It’s important for me to do things better than others.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
8. I’ve always been good at selling others on ideas or a point of view.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
9. I like to ask tough questions that are hard to answer.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
10. At work, it would be hard for me to do a task that was meant for a subordinate.
a) False
b) Somewhat true.
c) Very true
Scoring
Give yourself one point for each “a” response, two points for each “b” response and three points for each “c” response.
A score of 10—14 points: you have a relatively low-power drive and are generally content with allowing others to control situations that involve you.
A score of 15—22 points: you have a more moderate power need and show flexibility in expressing it and, at times, yielding to it.
A score of 23—30 points: you’re motivated by a compulsive drive for power. Do you spend a lot of time wondering if others will “one-up” you? Do you find that people turn away from you? Try to get used to giving in to others once in awhile. You may be surprised to find that an occasional nod to submission won’t devastate your self-image, and it might gain you a few more friends to boot.
[From Who Are You? Test Your Personality by Salvatore V. Didato, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2012]
Towards Mastery
You can tell real power from the fact that individual does not have to exert it. Merely knowing that it is present is sufficient to create calm, confidence and authority. As soon as one resorts to exerting coercion, real control is lost.
Force is not the same as power. That’s a common misconception.
It makes me laugh when people screw up their face and grunt with effort when they declare an intention. They seem to think that adding effort will make it come true.
The exact opposite is the case: power is the lightest whisper of spiritual decision. If you want something, choose it and it will come. But affirmations and effort are actually counter-productive. If you need to affirm it, you don’t really believe it!
Will Is Power, Not Force
By real power, I mean in the head. That’s will coming in again. Harvey Samuel Firestone the tyre man (1868- 1938) just called it hard thinking.
The hardest thing you will have to learn, but the most rewarding, is to be able to make your thoughts dictate to the universe what you want. However—and this is a big caveat—it won’t happen for you unless you are where you should be, doing what you should be doing. It will propel you on your quest; it will not help you much if you are not on a quest or on the wrong one!
The most important prerequisite for this ability is to recognize you have already got it and stop counter-creating it. These counter-creations are very invasive and subtle. One tends to make them instantly right after once has made the key decision. “I’m going to get rich!!” then, “But I don’t see how”. Or “Everybody loves me!” followed by, “At least they do at first…”
In this way we are constantly opposing ourselves. We prefer to blame others or fate. But it’s our own self-inflicted wounding.
Better is to have a clean inner view of one’s self; no counter-creations.
Let me quote a simple case: in the 1970s Demis Roussos left his native Greece to come to the UK as a singer. When he first arrived he was interviewed for a newspaper. While he spoke with the journalist, he dodged from door to door and was insistent that if people spotted him he would be mobbed with adoring fans. The journalist took great delight in a sniggering account of this obsession and how, in reality, nobody had ever heard of Roussos and not one single Londoner appeared to notice this enormous fat man in their midst.
Yet within 5 years Roussos was known and mobbed by fans wherever he went. The journalist’s name I have forgotten; he or she or she was a carping nobody and has vanished into oblivion! Roussos wasn’t a great singer. But he was a great spirit and totally believed in his ultimate triumph.
Never compromise with your power not depart from your purpose. All the tools you could possibly need already exist within Supernoetics™. Just bury your head in it and learn… fast. Earth-time is running out.