The way steem power works may not be 100% clear, so I decided to post a short explanation.
You vote with steem power, therefore the more steem power you have, the more weight it has when you upvote a post. You can power down to slowly convert steem power into steem. If you power down without claiming the steem that is until it's all steem power has been converted to steem, you will get it all in one year. Every time you claim some of the steem, the conversion process is slowed and the rest will take longer to convert.