++
Leadership Lesson #5 is about maneuverability and personal power. This lesson suggests that having gas in the tank and money in the bank will reduce the possibility of being taken for granted or abused by anyone. In other words, individuals with resources and flexibility have more choices regarding where they live, where they work, and what they do in their lives. When you feel like you have some control over your life and the choices you make, others are less likely to take advantage of you.
++
For example, financial resources are critical to maneuverability. You don't have to be wealthy to maintain some control; you just need to have enough money to allow yourself options. Even those who have relatively small salaries can choose how they live to create the financial cushion needed to be maneuverable. During the economic downturn, many people felt trapped in jobs because they had bills to pay and families to support, and they feared they couldn't find another job in a recessed job market. Wouldn't it be incredibly freeing to be able to make life decisions that aren't tied to your next paycheck?
++
Personal power, then, means having the ability to change the direction of your life if you want to do so (Pathway to Happiness, n.d.). Harper (n.d., para. 2) agrees, noting that "knowingly or not, many of us have given away our personal power (or part thereof) and allowed situations, circumstances, and other people to dictate, direct, and control our reality for far too long." In doing so, we give away our control, hope, and happiness.
+
"Money is important because it enables you to have more control over your life, more freedom to carve out your own path and less constraints on your choices. How many of us are stuck in a career or in a job we hate, but cannot afford to lose, because losing our job would mean losing our house and our health insurance?"
-Vered Deleeuw (n.d., para. 9)
++
In fact, I often share a personal situation to bring this point home. At the time, I was a relatively new staff nurse working in a critical care unit of a hospital. Like many new nurses, I couldn't wait to put school behind me and start bringing home a paycheck to buy what I considered to be the nicer things in life. Within a few years, my husband and I were proudly sporting a new mortgage, a car payment, and a lifestyle that spent what we were making. He went back to school, and I was the primary breadwinner. I shared all these new things in our lives with the people I worked with. Little did I know that I would soon regret this.
++
After I had worked on the unit for about a year, the supervisor announced that someone would have to work rotating shifts for a few months to cover an RN ...