True power is the currency of personal success. Successful individuals emanate a sense of confidence and power, and others desire to emanate such success by seeking more power in their own lives. We all desire the power to overcome pain and suffering, to change circumstances, or simply to fulfill our potential.

True power is available to everyone by virtue of their Divine origin. It is the result of aligning with integrity, truth and compassion. Those people who are willing to do the work of inner clearing and aligning to Truth, find true power flowing in their lives. Others look for quick fixes or magic solutions and settle for a counterfeit instead.

Society offers a cheap counterfeit for true power in the form of force: manipulation, fear, desire and anger are some of the tools that force uses to masquerade as power. Force always pushes for immediate results, and it does so with lots of overt ego, pomp and drama. However, force also has a down-side: it offers win-lose propositions at best, and usually leads to loss: loss of freedom, loss of joy, and loss of identity. Force never offers lasting results and cannot substitute for true power. At the merciless hand of force, manipulation leads to betrayal, fear leads to anxiety, desire drives addiction and anger leads to violence.

True power, on the other hand, leads to long-term results and win-win solutions. It brings about change without overt noise or drama, and it operates from the inside out. Here are some key principles for aligning with your true power.

1. Acknowledge Your Intrinsic Perfection

You are and have always been an intrinsic part of Divinity. Your intrinsic value has nothing to do with your deservingness, performance or limitations ? it has everything to do with the purity and perfection of your Source. Even when a diamond is dropped in mud, it retains its intrinsic properties as a precious stone. You are no different! Even at those moments when you do not live up to your highest standards, your intrinsic value is not diminished by your struggle.

2. Accept The Journey Of Your Soul

Every soul chooses to incarnate for the marvelous opportunity to evolve into the highest expression of its innate potential. Along the way, every event holds the potential to further your growth. Why resist the very lessons that you have come to learn? Resistance only brings pain and suffering. It is not what happens to you, but how you respond to the events that come your way, that determines what you become. When feeling resistant, consider that the most valuable lessons may well come from the very obstacles that you have been resisting, and surrender to the process.

3. Maintain Personal Integrity At All Times

Integrity is always found by aligning with the still voice within, not by aligning with the clamor of the ego or external goals. Personal integrity is the result of bringing about alignment in your core values ? aligning your actions, your speech, your thoughts, and your feelings with your core values. Do you know what your core values are? One of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is to identify your core values. Once you've done this, use your core values as a compass to align your responses to life with your inner truth. It will greatly support you in maintaining your personal integrity at all times.

4. Be True To Yourself

You are created of light, of grace and of love. When you try to be what you think others want you to be, you do a disservice to yourself. It is the ultimate betrayal of your inner truth! In fact, it is like going through life wearing a mask that hides your true identity. This masquerade cannot last for it is not based on truth; instead, it causes countless breakups, hurts and disappointments. When you stop trying to be who you are not and focus on embracing that which you are, you discover the Divine nature at the core of your being. Aligning with this Divine core of Truth brings healing and blessing to you and others.

5. Acknowledge The Value Of Your Existence

As an integral part of the holographic universe, you bring to the world around you unique gifts, talents and abilities. Nobody else on the planet has exactly the same combination of gifts and graces, for yours is the sum total of everything you have ever experienced. You are truly a unique expression of Divinity on this planet! This insight makes you neither greater than nor less than another and is not a cause for pride. Instead, it fosters a deep sense of awe to realize that you were created to be a unique vehicle through which Divinity can reach out to the world. You are the hands and feet of God on this earth to do His work, and your voice is the instrument through which others may receive words of compassion and comfort. Let the awesome beauty of this concept fill you with gratitude to be of service in your own unique way.

6. Accept Your Power

True power comes not from ego, but from alignment with the Divine. As Marianne Williamson has so beautifully put it, our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure. To fear or minimize your power is to deny the Source of that power. Acceptance of your true power precedes any meaningful action in the world.

7. Take All Of Your Being Into Your World

Gandhi said that we should be the change we desire to see in the world. All true change happens from the inside out: in other words, to bring about change in the world around you, you first need to embody the very change that you desire to bring about. It is the integration of higher principles that transforms one into a vessel of purity and power.

8. Let Compassion Rule

When putting into practice new principles, it is normal to flounder at times. This is an integral part of learning. When you flounder, practice having the same compassion for yourself as you would for another! It is in using the same yardstick for both self and for others that the Golden Rule becomes a way of life. True compassion for self and others opens up the doorway for forgiveness, grace and transformation.

9. Let Your Loving Nature Touch All You Encounter

Recognizing the Divinity in others generates compassion for their areas of weakness. Compassion for self and others conditions the heart to become more loving. Allow the radiance of Divine love to gently touch lives without your even being aware of it. Simply let that Divine love flow through you to others.

10. Learn To Discern Between Lovingkindness And Enabling

It is critically important to distinguish between lovingkindness and enabling. Lovingkindness is not wishy-washy; it does not condone, enable or tolerate lack of integrity in any form, whether in yourself or in another. Lovingkindness always seeks to align with Truth in all things; it does not compromise to accommodate lower egoic illusions camouflaged as truth.

The ability to identify and nurture these principles of power within you will enable you to disregard irrelevant distractions and to more fully align with your soul's highest potential.