Building My Persona
But who is she?
At the risk of sounding horribly self-obsessed, indulge me in publishing this random stream of consciousness here. A few months ago, I set upon listening to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I have yet to set forth on my magic tidying journey, (stay tuned for next week’s blog for updates,) but I’m mentally preparing myself for this experience by getting in touch with my personal aesthetic.
Getting in touch with your personal preferences and style is incredibly important to begin the process of tidying.
There must be an end goal, after all, and accomplishing a sense of true self is a fantastic side effect to tidying a space. I’m a bit of a neat freak and can be hyper organized but admittedly, there are places in my house where things aren’t so picture perfect. I own far too many possessions and clothes and since embarking on this journey of entrepreneurship, I’ve been dying to organize my surroundings and start on a truly fresh foot.
I knew to start this process, I had to turn to this book.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been recommended to me for years and I never took the plunge until about August of this year. Now I recommend the book to everyone. I used to worry about my enormous hurdle of getting through organizing my sentimental items and now, I’m itching to get started.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about this week, and I knew this article would be somewhat of a challenge for me because it was an instance where I knew I would be forcing myself to write something… then the idea of my “goal aesthetic” came to mind and I knew I had something to talk about. (Honestly, finding something to talk about has never been much of a struggle for me).
Since reading the book in August, I’ve been re-reading it at my leisure just to keep the motivation until I can truly commit to taking a few days to do this. When I first read the book, I immediately launched myself into a powerpoint presentation that had all the elements of my “dream personality” and I worked on and off for weeks on coming up with my color palettes, styles, and new personal aesthetic. I’ve known for a long time that I’d like to embody a the “modern renaissance woman,” (yes, beauty lovers, I definitely took that name from the Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadow palette.) Over time, this idea grew to include “warrior” and then “queen”. I am a Leo, after all, and we are renowned for thinking so highly of ourselves. ;)
But what does this actually mean? Who is the modern renaissance warrior woman? I don’t know if I’ve given it a whole lot of serious consideration in terms of a literal definition so… work with me here… let’s brainstorm:
She is:
-brave and daring
-ambitious and audacious
-wise and educated
-strong (both in physicality and will)
-steadfast in love and resolve
-ruthless and powerful
-kind and charitable
-imaginative and inventive
-resourceful and artistic
-economical and charming
-practical and efficient
-disciplined
I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to embody all of these qualities as a woman living in the 21st century, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list. These are definitely words that stand out to me when I think about who I want to be.
I think the key to this however, is to not just strive to become this person, but to live as this person. I can’t get stuck thinking that “someday” I’ll be these things. I have to be them and live this life I want right now. I AM the modern renaissance warrior woman.
Let’s break this down.
What does Modern mean to me:
-Imaginative
-Inventive
-Artistic
-Daring
-Practical
-Economical
-Efficient
As well as…
-forward thinking
-fashionable
-at times, avant garde
-knowledgable
-current with technology/trends
-non conformist
What does Renaissance mean to me:
Firstly, I think about the definition of a renaissance woman which is:
a person who is well educated and sophisticated and who has talent and knowledge in many different fields of study.
To me, this means:
-Wise
-Well Educated and read
-artistic
-talented
-lover of history, music, art, poetry, literature, architecture
-charming
-resourceful
-audacious
-social
To me, these two words both embody someone who is learned in both past and present and who is invested in the future.
Now for the word, Warrior:
-brave
-daring
-physically strong
-willfully strong
-ruthless
-powerful
-resourceful
-practical -efficient
-disciplined
There is an element of grace that I see in this word as well, which may surprise some but to be a true warrior, I think there’s an element of making it look easy.
And lastly, Queen.
Obviously I can’t become Queen by snapping my fingers, but I think the word, “Queen” certainly suggests a certain type of person. This is what I associate with this mindset:
-ambitious
-audacious
-strong willed
-steadfast in resolve
-ruthless
-powerful
-kind
-charitable
-resourceful
-economical
-charming
-poised
-timeless
-respected
-noble
-authoritative
-gracious
-formal
Alright, all of this goes to say I’ll be keeping these things I mind as I clean my house this week.
Why on earth would I be thinking of this as I’m trying to clean out my pots and pans or my bills or underwear?
I think really considering these qualities every time I pick up an item that I own and questioning whether or not I see someone with these qualities possessing such an item is going to be how I justify purging the things I don’t need. This is probably pretty “extra” of me to do, but if this is the person I truly wish to become, shouldn’t I let that determine my choices in my life?
It’s a lot to think about and it may mean that I discard pieces of my personality that I once cherished, but honestly, it’s time for me. I feel like I’m still carrying around the old skin of my past and I need to let it go. I need to redefine who I am and what I plan to do in this world.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for this whole exercise, (you should see my powerpoint presentation!) and tonight I’ll be spending some quality time with Pinterest and just getting in touch with the dream of what I want in my future. It’s something positively motivating and invigorating to focus on and it has given me a lot of joy recently. Isn’t that what this is all about? Holding on to what gives you joy?
If you’ve made it this far in this post, firstly, thank you and why?!!!! You are too kind to read all of my spewings of internal dialogue!
Secondly, I promise next week I’ll have some actual interesting findings of how the tidying process worked for me and how thinking of this persona actually manifested.
Until then… thank you for reading. :)
And seriously... go read this book!
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