Eyes off the Toe Ring

This morning when I walked out of the house on my way to campus, I looked down at my hands and felt excessively ... bejeweled. All I have on are two rubber wristbands and a silver ring; but it's still a lot more than usual. I am not much of a jewelery person. So I remembered that there was a time many years ago when I used to wear toe rings, occasionally. I suppose I was going through some things because I can't figure out now why I ever did it. So why is it that now the idea of wearing a toe ring seems so preposterous; so not... me? Clearly, at some point in my life it was cool but now I realise that if I was around people, and I had one on, they would most likely see it and draw conclusions about my personality or character. And then I would have to spend an excessive amount of time tryna undo those conclusions and subtly explain myself, apologising for a toe ring I should never have been wearing in the first place!

I don't really think that the whole toe ring thing is a thing. But it is the seemingly irrelevant and miniscule things that add up to the sum total of how you express yourself and ultimately, how people will see you. Yeah we all wanna act like we don't really care what people think of us but the truth is life is one big marketplace and you attract the customers you're after by the way you present your brand. Creating a brand is something I suspect real market players invest a lot of time and thought into. For me; it's just a feeling. Sorta like an epiphany. I tend to sorta wake up on an alien side of the bed and decide that something no longer defines my brand. And so it is with the case of the toe ring. I could have one lying around on my dresser and feel pressure to wear it because, I don't know, it's hot; im gonna be wearing sandals and the poor thing has been neglected for years. But is it really worth the hassle of having to punctuate all of my interactions and my body language with an apology for how much i have misrepresented my brand today?? I don't think so.

For you maybe it's not a toe ring. Perhaps it's a phrase you say a lot; a lifestyle; a decision; or a habit. It can be anything really. It certainly isn't just the toe ring for me. If there's one thing I hate it is being obscure, misleading and misunderstood. I hate having to explain myself for something clearly visible to everybody when I can just eliminate it and save everybody the broken telephone - a frustrating state of affairs for both the communicator as well as their audience. I believe in branding yourself not just according to how you want others to perceive you but, more ESSENTIALLY, according to how you really are. In order to be real you have to do more than just say and do whatever you feel and think; you have to stop the stuff that doesn't effectively, closely and truly represent who you are.