Second-Guessing Positioning, Elegance, Confidence, and Purpose

Let’s poke on a sensitive spot today, but before we do, I would like you to underline this word: AWARENESS.

Awareness goes far beyond just having an idea of something. Especially in our personal lives, awareness is the foundation of any change you want to make. You cannot be an extradiegetic protagonist and expect to have full knowledge and awareness of your own world.

This will be quite long, but let’s move step by step to get to the point.

With awareness comes responsibility. You already know your predicament — financial constraints, obstacles, challenges, what is at stake, what you can afford and what you cannot. You are fully aware of all those things: the weight of not being able to do anything at a particular time, feeling like movement is slow, and the possible consequences if situations do not change. You know all these things very well.

But there is an interesting part. You have goals, you have ambitions. You are not just folding your arms and joining the queue of people waiting to see what tomorrow brings. You already know that if you do not take action, tomorrow will still bring nothing but desperation and anxiety.

Now here comes another interesting part. Apart from your goals, you have plans for those goals. You have been thinking, drafting out approachable measures toward your aim. You have a list, and you are already moving toward executing them. 

But because of external opinions, you postpone some movements, some actions, waiting for the right time because you think doing it now may not look cool. You want to leave it until you are done refining it, making it perfect before you can bring out that talent of yours, that plan of yours — whatever it is — so that by then people would have nothing to criticize about it.

Does what I say sound familiar? You are wondering how I got to know about it, right? Yes, it is because I had been exactly at that spot. I was once like that. I was well aware of the cons of my life, and I thought now was not the time for me to push forward into my career. I worried about how it would look, or that I may not be able to represent myself fully with confidence and show what I had to offer.

But this is where intentional presentation comes in, especially if you are trying to build something that needs people’s attention to flourish. You need to draw the interest of people to your craft. Trust me, you don’t want to show up too much or too little.

Polishing yourself, no matter whatever is going on in your life, is not fake. Polishing your brand is not trying to cover up or pretend. When you become aware of yourself, responsibility kicks in. Next is clean composition, because you have to position yourself as someone with trustworthy knowledge.

When you want to build something, start with what you have, but don’t start from anyhowness. You don’t want to put yourself out there and trigger a pitiful reaction instead of a “he knows what he is doing” reaction. Don’t aim for perfection, but aim for authority. Aim for elegance. Aim for a very strong and consistent persona.

That is how you become authentic, strategically create your identity to fit your vision. Don’t care about what anybody who does not matter thinks you are trying to achieve with the way you present yourself, especially if you recently changed your presentation. Sometimes, they are simply intimidated by your personality and aura.

When you want to be relevant, you must have self-acceptance, develop intellectual trust, and remove distractions so that the substance you are trying to offer can stand out. It is not vanity. It is called strategic confidence, positioning, and defining elegance.

Though sometimes you may think you are doing too much — improvising, looking too refined for your current reality, or not even meeting up — ask yourself: what do I gain from showing up tacky? 

What do I gain from carelessness when I can present clarity?

Or from constantly telling your life story and excuses so people will pity you? What will you gain from that?

I know you already know the answer to that… Nothing.

Princess Ella