Have you ever received a compliment that didn’t fit?
Not because it was untrue—but because it pointed to a version of you that your self-image hadn’t caught up to yet?
That happened to me recently.
Someone called me sophisticated and stylish.
And my first thought? “Huh?”
I was utterly baffled.
Because I’ve always seen myself as grounded. Useful. Precise.
Simple and plain—but not in a self-deprecating way. In an honest one.
I like who I am. I trust myself.
But sophisticated? Stylish?
I had collapsed those words into a narrow definition—trendy fashion choices, curated aesthetics, the kind of luxe energy I respect but don’t often associate with myself.
And yet… that mirror was offered.
So I looked.
Have you ever done that?
Been handed a new truth about yourself and held it at arm’s length?
Not because it felt wrong, but because it felt… big?
Like maybe you weren’t sure you’d earned it yet?
Maybe someone told you you’re magnetic. Brilliant. Powerful.
And something in you recoiled—not out of shame, but out of unfamiliarity.
It can be jarring to realize how small we’ve kept the definitions of the words that could belong to us.
But what if your definition isn’t the final one?
What if that compliment was simply an invitation to expand?
That’s what I started to explore.
When I brought my bafflement to a few trusted friends, here’s what one offered me:
“Your sense of self, style, appreciation of fine art, music, food…the magic and articulation…the reading, the deep understanding beyond the surface of words…how else would one define style and sophistication???”
And it was another friend—a word witch who knows how to unearth the sacred in syntax—who reminded me that stylish traces back to the Latin stilus (or stylus), the pointed instrument used by ancient Romans to write on wax tablets.
And just like that, the word began to stretch.
To be stylish, then, is not about how you dress—
It’s about how you distill truth.
How you articulate your knowing.
How you carve meaning into the wax of the world.
Your stylus is the edge of your clarity.
The elegance of your insight.
The way your voice pierces the noise—and stays with someone long after the words have left your lips.
That kind of style doesn’t fade with seasons.
It deepens with wisdom.
Later that night, I sat with it.
Pen to page. My curiosity intact and my ego on pause. Here’s what I wrote:
“I’ve held a shallow and unsophisticated definition of those words. It’s fascinating to taste the resistance and the morphing realities as I let a new definition leech into my very bones.”
And that’s exactly what it feels like:
Something slow and sacred.
A gentle dripping of new awareness into old dry soil.
Not a reinvention—an integration.
Maybe you’re here, too—on the edge of a word you’ve kept at arm’s length.
A word that’s circled you for years… powerful, generous, radiant, visionary—and each time it knocked, you told yourself:
Not yet. Not me. Not quite.
But what if the knocking hasn’t stopped because it belongs to you?
What if the word is waiting for permission to root?
Let me offer this:
You’re not rejecting who you were.
You’re expanding what gets to be true.
And of course there’s resistance. Of course it’s disorienting.
Because your body, your bones, your brilliance—have always made sense in the language you know best.
Maybe that’s truth. Or service. Or survival. Or grit. Or giving.
But now, you’re being asked to let in something else.
Something softer. Wilder. More radiant.
Something you’ve admired from afar but never quite claimed as yours.
This isn’t about chasing a new aesthetic.
It’s about recognizing that the shape of your power has facets—some you’ve worshipped and acknowledged, and some you’re just now letting yourself see and adore.
Let it seep in.
Let it reshape you gently.
You don’t have to perform it.
You just have to let it.
So now I’m playing with a new question—and I invite you to play with it, too:
What have you decided you’re not?
Not stylish.
Not powerful.
Not radiant.
Not creative.
Not ready.
Not enough.
And what if that’s just… not true?
What if your current self-image is accurate but incomplete?
What if there’s a more expansive definition waiting for you to let it in?
Daily Affirmation:
I let the truth of who I am seep into my bones.
I receive the words meant for me—even if they feel unfamiliar.
I am ready to be seen through eyes that love me.
I expand beyond the limits of old definitions.
I am already becoming who I’ve always been.
P.S.
You don’t have to earn the words meant for you.
You only have to let them in.
This too is financial agency: Letting your full expression lead. Letting your power be felt. Letting your self-image rise to meet your soul’s reality.
Because when you stop shrinking to fit old definitions?
You make room for sovereign profits.
And that, beloved, is protest.
P.P.S.
To the beautiful soul who offered me such a lovely compliment and opened me up to this inquiry…
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! More, please!
(I’m officially receiving. Compliments, cash, and cosmic upgrades. All are welcome.)
Song of the Day: