There are absolutely unfair systems in this world. There is discrimination, bias,
trauma, inequity. Real barriers that impact real people every single day. We should acknowledge that honestly.

But I worry about something else happening right now too. I worry that we are teaching people to see themselves only through the lens of powerlessness. Because once people believe they have no agency, no influence, no ability to change anything… they stop trying….and that benefits broken systems and those people trying to maintain them.

I’m not talking about toxic positivity. I’m not saying “just work harder.”
I’m not pretending everyone starts from the same place. I’m talking about reclamation.

The moment where someone says:
“This system may be flawed… but I still have power.”
“My circumstances affect me… but they do not fully define me.”
“I may not control everything… but I can still influence something.”

History has never changed because people believed they were powerless.
It changed because ordinary people decided they were not powerless and I think we all have a little bit of magic in us.

We have the ability to create, influence, connect, imagine, build, lead and change things…not alone all the time, not perfectly or instantly….but power grows the moment we stop surrendering it.

I have to admit part of this aha came from reading Fareed Zakaria’s Age of Revolutions. The realization that history’s greatest revolutions relied on every-day people coming together to create change and I realize that we’re stuck today because of the divisions that have been stoked (on purpose) between us.

What language do you think keeps people stuck today?