Robert Greene defining power (3:33) – “The gist of it is controlling yourself – self-mastery. Power begins from within. If you’re aware of who you are, if you’re aware of what you’re good at, what you’re not good at, if you’re able to see how emotions govern your life, if you can learn what your weaknesses are and how to control them – you can’t ever get complete control, but awareness is almost enough. Slowly though this process of knowing who you are and understanding other people and how they operate so you don’t make stupid mistakes in life, you can increase that little tiny margin [of power] more and more and more, and you will be a person of power.“
In writing The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene describes the laws to cultivate power over the world. Although The 48 Laws of Power has valuable information, even Greene himself has said it is more of an explanation of how the world works, rather than a guideline on how to live. Several of Greene’s 48 laws actually work against the mastery of one’s inner power and if the laws are followed exclusively, inner power destruction will likely result. Power over the world has meaning, particularly to create positive impact, but your inner power must be brewed first and focused on. If not, upon seeking power externally, you will probably lose power over yourself, become unauthentic, and be a lost soul. In this post, I will put a spin on Greene’s 48 laws and disclose the 32 Laws to actualize the truest power form – power over one’s self.
The 32 Laws of Power
Law 1 – Reign and Rein In Your Inherent Power
Do not search for power outside of yourself. You already have had it since you were granted breath at birth. Reigning yourself effectively starts with recognizing that and taking pride in the fact that no human has the capabilities to grant you power or reduce it. Only you have access to and can measure the power within you. Focus on protecting it and don’t underestimate it. For the rest of your life, rein it in and live it.
Law 2 – Know Your Race and Stay in Your Lane
Chase after what you truly want, while neglecting who is or isn’t in the race with you. What that means is whatever internally drives you at your very core – stay true to that. Have the self-awareness to know that although most people are chasing XYZ, you’re going after ABC no matter what. Follow your mothership. And though your actions may seem confusing to those that assume you’re chasing XYZ, don’t give into the temptation to join their race. Your power is unleashed in your race and only your race.
Law 3 – Establish Your Weaponry and Keep It Close
As you are battling through life – and perhaps almost defeated – you must be able to quickly access weapons to fight back. Do not be searching at the last minute for the correct ones; distinguishing artificial weapons from the real ones should have been done at the beginning. Have actual matches nearby to ignite your inner fire. Have your motivations and igniters so authentic that they never lose impact. Strengthen your why continuously to avoid a future scenario where your why isn’t strong enough to get you through.
Law 4 – As the Captain of Your Ship, Lead It Responsibly and Go Down With It If Necessary
Taking responsibility for everything in your life empowers you to own every power fiber in your being. Understand that no human can measure your life but you; no person can see the full scope of your authenticity but you; no person is you. Develop real pride in everything you do – you own your ship. And any fault or crack in its foundation, own it. Even if another person/event led to it and had brief control over a part of your life, taking the blame reinforces your total control of your power.
Jocko Willink explains ownership in his TED Talk (12:08) – “Take extreme ownership. Don’t make excuses. Don’t blame any other person or any other thing. Get control of your ego. Don’t hide your delicate pride from the truth. Take ownership of everything in your world – the good and the bad. Take ownership of your mistakes. Take ownership of your shortfalls. Take ownership of your problems and then take ownership of the solutions that will get those problems solved … “
Law 5 – Be a Victor: Squash Opportunities to Become Your Own Victim
Nobody should relish in victimhood. It’s unproductive to dwell on your own flaws, adversities, unfairness, etc. because it takes away from the victor attitude needed to maximize your power. In specific situations it can be positive to battle for others’ oppression or injustices in a constructive way, but your mind must not negatively give in to any of it. You must recognize, reject, and resist everything in your life attacking you and never grab excuses like they’re candy on Halloween.
Inky Johnson on overcoming his paralyzed arm, rehabbing, etc. (25:51) – “So I went back to school the next week after they had just saved my life. I was back in class. I had to learn how to write all over again. I had to learn how to walk all over again. I had to learn how to tie my shoe all over again. I had to learn how to bathe all over again. I had to learn how to live life all over again, and never one time did I say, ‘Let me go home. I need a break.'”
Law 6 – Stand as You: Avoid Group Identity
Though it is understood that people have varied personalities, being an introvert or extrovert specifically, you must be comfortable alone in your thoughts – alone in your presence. It is okay to join groups, embrace a particular community, learn from others, etc. but your essence as a person should remain intact – your thoughts, presence, & actions should never conform to any particular group. You relinquish your inner identity when a group identity is adopted. Know that you were born into this world alone – powerfully – and that power is still inside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Law 7 – Put the Past in Your Back Pocket and Reach for Sparingly
Often, people diminish their power by contemplating negative and positive events or actions from their past. Of course sometimes you may go into your past to take a constructive message from it. But you must go in with clear intentions, stick to that purpose, and then snap back to reality swiftly. Aimlessly digging into your past is a surefire way to reduce your power. You must stop holding onto the past, lose your grips, and instead put it in your back pocket if needed for later.
Law 8 – Live Present: Concern Yourself with Current Reality
Right now you only have power on the current second – Not the second 10 seconds ago or 10 years ago, and not any second into the future. Learning from the past and planning for the future has value – it just must be controlled, for a productive purpose, and directly tied to a present situation. You cannot maximize your power if you are not even focusing on where it is. Therefore, focus on where it resides and live present.
Buddha – “Life can only take place in the present moment. If we lose the present moment, we lose life.”
Law 9 – Participate In and Win Your Marathon; Be Wary of the Sprint
Valuing the long run over the short run will give you the proper vision for every decision in life. It sounds paradoxical at first glance, but you must learn to live present in the moment while wearing your long-term vision goggles. Neglecting how the present dictates your future – and only seeking short-term gratification – will chop at your power down the road when your long-term vision goggles you forgot to wear before, become your present-moment goggles. View your life from your deathbed currently and reap the rewards when you’re actually on it.
* Article in which nurses reveal the top 5 deathbed life regrets *
Law 10 – Strive for Internal Gold, Not Actual Gold
Materialistic stuff should never be the end-all be-all goal of whatever you’re chasing. It can be a by-product, but focusing on acquiring outer things takes away from cultivating your inner self. And since one maximizes their inner power through commitment to self, there will be an “inner gold” deficiency. Seek to develop your character and dominate your inner world; the outer world dominance and success will come in time.
Law 11 – Diagnose Yourself Objectively and Prescribe Medication If Necessary
Analyze your character, actions, and even thoughts as objectively as possible. Don’t be delusional and have your confidence far outweigh your competence. Having a fake confidence not battle tested greatly diminishes power because it won’t fool the enemy. More importantly, it won’t fool your inner self. So utilize your 100 vision, look in your mirror, and grab windex to shine up certain areas of yourself consistently.
Law 12 – Indefinitely Make Progress
The desire to improve one’s self – have stronger character, be more authentic, accomplish greater tasks – must be present. Settling for mediocrity – and not prescribing necessary medication as advised in Law 11 – is a recipe for mediocre power. It is silly to proclaim “I have power over myself” when your character, actions, and mindset are stagnant. Therefore, always do more and want to be more. Discipline yourself to achieve goals and be a galion indefinitely.
Law 13 – Enter New Territories Open-Minded: Detach From Previous Thoughts
Do not resist new information, people, or the unknown. Use what is presented to inch your mindset closer towards your truth, even if you move farther from where you were previously. Being too attached to being right will lead to you distorting new information to match your previous world view – thus, you become a slave to your own thoughts. Instead, go into battle with a growth mindset and don’t cling to previous thinking for previous situations in previous times. Be open-minded to new ways of thinking.
Law 14 – Transform Yourself If Necessary: Embrace Unexpectedness
Though having an unwavering self-belief is necessary for power – what is believed should be opened to wavering. As explained in Law 13, viewing new things from a blank slate will sometimes lead to altering your beliefs. You must embrace the change and always feel free to think differently, do differently, and be different than your previous self. You have the capability to rebirth on command. Being unexpected – even to your past self – is a powerful trait that will widen your power scope and enable you to adapt to changing environments and new facts around you.
Law 15 – Fight Every Battle Like It Will Decide the War
Too many people evaluate the magnitude of a given battle and depending on the importance given, fluctuate their effort level. But the evaluation should come prior because the question of importance is irrelevant once undertaken; you’ve already decided to do it so you might as well go hard. A life is an accumulation of moments. Therefore, each moment does carry weight – whether an ounce of pound – in creating your life. Recognizing that all things matter simplifies thinking and allows all inner powers to be focused on a task until completion.
Law 16 – Beat the Bush, Not Around It
Be direct and let your words match your thoughts. Indirect communication will leave your mind twisted processing why your words don’t match your thoughts. Everyone’s internal conversations are direct and ultimately due to a lack of self-belief, often become distorted when projected out. But when you believe in your character, your intentions, and your power whole-heartedly – you recognize there is no reason not to track down the bush and beat the shit out of it.
Law 17 – Look Intimidating Aspects of Your Life Right in the Face and Don’t Look Away
Intentionally avoiding challenging factors in life that lead to growth reduces one’s power greatly. Chasing discomfort is a key part of strengthening one’s confidence, competence, and in turn power. You must face everything and rise when tested and turn un-comfortableness on its head so it’s eye to eye with comfortable eyes not willing to dart.
Law 18 – Negativity: View With Real Eyes, but Not Negatively
See everything happening to you or around you. Recognize aspects as negative per-say, but avoid developing a negative or self-destructive attitude about those things. Adopt a Can’t Be Touched mentality, to where you are not afraid to bring negativity in because you know the energies will bounce right off of you. Your attitude is a significant part of your power and the goal is for nothing – no matter how severe – to negatively disrupt that. This includes being detached psychologically from negativity outside of your direct world. Do the math; there’s 7 billion + people in the world. Daily, there are millions of negative or evil things happening. Accept that positivity and negativity are a part of life and own what attitude you choose.
Law 19 – Guard Your Mind and Stop Infiltration From Outside Disruptive Forces
There will always be external chaos attempting to break inside of your head hoping to build anger, resentment, and negative emotional buildup. It is key to resist this and press the right chill button, even when someone on the outside is pressing your wrong buttons. Power is relinquished when external turmoil turns on the inside. You must remember you are invincible, too blessed to be stressed, and always the master of your internal peace of mind.
Law 20 – When the Crowd Is Hostile on the Road, Create Your Own Reality
Power lies in proper perspective. You have total control over your own perspective, even if it doesn’t necessarily match what is going on. In sports, when a team is on the road – the home crowd can be loud, agitated, and cheering for their team. This often can give the home team adrenaline to play better, but the road team can choose to have the same advantage and trick their mind into believing the crowd is cheering for them. To maximize your power in life, you must recognize power sources not intended for you … and use them anyway.
Law 21 – Be Your Own Personal Comedian
Everything you look for in the outside world, you must first find inside of you. That includes laughter and joy. Being silly, smiling at challenges, and finding humor in narrow crevices allows you to better control your emotions and own your demeanor. Light-hearted seriousness I’d call it, and it’s necessary to avoid burnout and have clarity of thinking during stressed times.
Law 22 – Know Your Enemy and Study Their Form of Attack
Self-awareness is not enough – You must have outer-awareness. In life, it is important to understand people’s or life’s strategies to entice you to conform or eliminate some of your power. It can be on an individual person level or society as a whole, but constantly parts of the world will be working in opposition to each of these 32 laws. Recognize that, study how the world works, and overcome opposition.
Law 23 – Demonstrate Outer Power Wisely and Use Sparingly
Your inner power will greatly affect the world, but it should not come as a direct power play on others. Any energy unnecessarily powering over others or controlling others takes away from your own power battle inside. And once it’s established that people have their own respective power, it is recognized that the ultimate dummy mission is to attempt to control another person. Once your inner power is built sufficiently, it will naturally extend onto the world in time. Let the forces be; don’t force it.
Law 24 – Know When to Surrender and Let Go Control
Resisting every advance will chop at your inner power greatly. It is critical to recognize the uncontrollable events in your life – move with the river if need be. You cannot go to war and train simultaneously, so surrendering to instances where there is an absence of power enables you strengthen your power behind the scenes. Always be prepared for battle, but don’t always be in attack mode.
Robert Greene (2:53) – “Most of the things that happen in life you have no control over. You don’t control your parents, where you’re born, when you were born, what era, really what schools you go to … just things happen to you, and so the way I look at it, maybe 95-96% of what happens in life you have no control over. It’s just circumstances coming at you. But you have a little margin of control. And power is about trying to increase that tiny little margin … “
Law 25 – Bury Victories and Keep Them Underground Permanently
Everybody has secrets; a hidden edge in power though is having positive ones. Having victories and intentionally or unintentionally hiding them from the world strengthens your self-belief, confidence, and in turn power. There should be positive moments in your life – a physical accomplishment, a display of character, a mental achievement of discipline, etc. – that you tell nobody. Feeling the need to share 100% of the positive or worthwhile parts of your life will distort your power in the long run. Most likely, you will get overly wrapped up in your outside identity and let your guard down on your inner identity. The percentage of victories buried can vary greatly, but have some that go under.
Law 26 – Mind-Body Connection: Never Neglect the Physical
All mind training without physical training will leave certain power untapped. It is not necessary to exercise intensely per-say, but daily challenges physically will increase preparation for mental challenges. On a literal level, proper exercise leads to better health. And know that even understanding how to breathe properly can lead to better emotional management and clarity of thinking.
Jay Shetty (32:31) – “The first thing that you learn at Monk School is learning how to breathe … the only thing that stays with you from the moment you’re born to the moment you die is your breath … notice when you get stressed, what changes? Your breath. When you get angry, what changes? … every emotion is experienced with a change in the breath. When you learn how to navigate and manage your breath, you can actually navigate any situation in life … the priority is on the root of things, not the leaf of the symptoms.”
Law 27 – Treat Every Person New
View people as unique individuals no matter what – not as their race, not as their political party, not as their appearance, not as any group. Recognize that you have no idea who someone is upon first meeting them, so enter with an open mind. This openness also extends to people you already know. This means if person XYZ (or situation XYZ) gets on your nerves, don’t take it out on person ABC an hour later. Recognize that every person is different and should be treated accordingly. Grouping and connecting unrelated individuals together reduces your power because it distorts your reality to not match actual reality.
Law 28 – Unless You’re on the Stand, Put Down the Gavel
Energy should not be wasted judging the faults or thinking of other people. Because if someone is the judge of themselves – having total power over one’s moves – it’s apparent that judging others and gossip is a fool’s hobby that serves no productive purpose. Constructive criticism of a personal peer is different, but you must avoid having a superiority complex and always having a gavel within arm’s reach upon hearing information.
Malcom X – “Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.”
Law 29 – Disregard Misinterpretations of Your Attack Plan
There is a consequence or ripple effect to everything that you do. If you know yourself, have positive intentions, and believe in your path, then opinions of your plan do not matter. Though recognize that negative effects of actions is different than just negative opinions. So be open to constructive guidance or potential drive destruction, but do not let unwarranted criticism or group-think rattle you into changing how you go about things.
John Wooden – “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
Law 30 – Positive Power > Negative Power
Good trumps evil in the long run – the only race that matters. Having moral integrity, genuine intentions, and creating positivity in your/the world will strengthen your power. A literal example is if you commit a crime, going to jail will by definition imprison your power over yourself. Also, a piss poor heart will imprison your mind from seeing the sunshine outside your cell, and as a result limit your imagination to what’s possible. You may think you house indestructible power, but eventually you’ll have to face your judgment day.
Martin Luther King Jr. – “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumph.”
Law 31 – Surround Yourself With the Powerful
Be allergic to those powerless people that do not own themselves – that do not follow these 32 laws. As you strengthen your inner power, it becomes easy to spot those people that lack adequate inner power. Because when you’re XYZ (real, positive, un-rattled) it is easy to spot the opposite ABC (fake, negative, easily angered). And by connecting with similar spirits, there will be less resistance to your own inner power domination.
Proverbs 27:17 – “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
Law 32 – Protect Your Power: Abide to Your Laws
What good are laws if they are not followed and strictly enforced? You must have the self-discipline to protect your power and hold yourself accountable to maximize it. Do not be a bystander in your own courtroom. You are the judge. Dictate what goes down in your life. And never look to the outside world for validation, encouragement, or to be led. It is up to you to follow through and hopefully say to yourself “well done” when the final verdict is read.
