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THE POWER OF THE ELDERS

August 7, 2023

THE POWER OF THE ELDERS

Part of our mission at The Contemporary Elder Institute (CEI) is to effectively increase the power of elders to cause sustained positive change in the world.


To enable elders to acquire the power needed to be seen and heard as significant value-added is fundamental to the mission. For elders to have the power to be seen as an asset, not seen as a liability, requires a particular way of being in the world. To have the power to deliver higher wisdom so that interactions turn out differently demands a unique way of existence.  


Power is more than a concept. Power is a phenomenon. Power occurs in people's awareness and experience. Power can influence, control, or affect behavior, action, and decision-making. Power allows an individual to shape outcomes, influence opinions, and make a difference in the lives of others. Power can and does have far-reaching consequences.


Power can change the course of events. Elders with great power could change the course of many conversations at every level. Move the conversation from right-wrong, good-bad, mine-yours, selfishness-selflessness. With an elder's input, the outcomes of most conversations would be vastly different.


The most difficult challenge is the culture has wholly collapsed elder with older. Given the attitudes and beliefs about older, elders have difficulty gaining invitations to participate in meaningful conversations.


But elders also know the only person you can change is yourself, so what needs to occur is an elder must be able to gain the power to impact how people think, behave, and relate to them. Elders need to become fully responsible for how they are seen and heard. Responsibility is their starting point to gain power. Who does an elder need to be to be heard as a sage?


"Who do I need to be as an elder to influence the listening so I am heard at the deepest levels of humanity? Because how I am heard determines the effectiveness of my speaking. If they can't hear me, nothing will change."



The models to understand the phenomenon of positive power is only available in singular form; Gandhi, Mandela, TuTu, Roosevelt, Goodall, Nightengale, Einstein, Curie, Erhard, and Ram Dass. They each had the power to make global change happen. When they spoke, people listened. When people listened, it changed their lives and the world.


So looking at the shared existential qualities of these individuals, all considered elders, was undoubtedly an excellent place to understand the source of power.


When examined, all these influential individuals possessed certain qualities, although they expressed them differently. These qualities were the infrastructure of their being.


These are also the very qualities that make an elder an elder. These qualities make elders worthy of being heard, appreciated, and respected. These qualities live embedded in their words, implicit in their speaking, allowing them to be heard as a sage.


If you see the following qualities expanding in your life, be careful, you may be on the path to becoming an elder.


  • Empathy and compassion are present for others. These feelings stir more deeply. These feelings have you thoughtfully consider how to make a difference for others. You understand their needs, concerns, and feelings because you are now conscious and aware of your own.



  • Vision and purpose are emerging as your pistons of power. You are all grown-up about the reality you are dealing with in the world, and, at the same time, you are on the tip of commitment, ready to heed a call of duty. The paradox between reality and possibility has much less tension than ever before.


  • Diversity and inclusion are opening wider. You find yourself more accessible to hearing different voices, listening more with curiosity than judgment. You hear new perspectives and insights. No need to prove yourself smart; you know it doesn't matter anymore.


  • Transparency and accountability. You are now making decisions after thoughtful consideration. You know, impulse gets you in trouble. Thoughtful consideration includes conversations with a few trusted people because you're no longer invested in being right. Not hiding makes you invincible.
  • Accountability is giving your word and being your word in action. Your word is your vow.


  • Collaboration and cooperation. You're noticing that people around you are more empowered. Collaborative power is the ability to create power in others. Power doesn't follow the rule of thermodynamics. It does not occur in a closed system and is not constant. It is getting people to mutually commit to a future so a collective voice is spoken. It is this voice that invokes real change.


  • Being Human and humanity gives you access to the ultimate power plant. You find yourself more accepting of your humanity – flaws, weaknesses, stupidities. You have far fewer qualms about being who you are. You have given up needing to be somebody else. You now have legitimate concerns about humanity's future and want to make an impact.


  • Adaptability and flexibility are more available. You can unstick yourself more rapidly. You're more masterful at applying power in the right places at the right time in the right way. You're not stuck in doing it "the" way, "your" way, or the" right" way – all past based. You know the solution always lives in the future.  


  • Tenured thinking and patience are part of using power more wisely, not releasing it too soon, streaming it when appropriate, and being highly aware of its long-term effects. You understand things take time, and the best work is done at the right time, not your time. 


  • Ethical and moral decision-making are showing up more and more in your everyday considerations. You recognize these moral and ethical signals moving you to a higher plane. And you recognize that ethics and morality are now loud voices overriding the previous thoughts of what's in it for me.


These qualities are an ensemble that enables a way of being that empowers your highest expression of being human. And when expressed in the deeds and the doer, it causes a state of attentiveness and affection from others so that your words profoundly resonate, stir the soul, and open the gate to the fullness of humanity, yours and theirs.


Your interactions bring forth higher wisdom, compassion, and equanimity, just what's missing in today's world.  

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