Power dressing is a synonym for dressing for success. No matter which milieu you choose, how you look reflects how you feel about yourself. Would changing your appearance make any difference in how you’re perceived? Would changing self-care influence your esteem? Dressing for success includes feelings you reveal and conceal.

For working women, power dressing can mean female versions of men’s suits or other workplace attire, especially if women are expected to behave like female versions of men. If any hint of sexuality is removed from sight, would you think women would get more respect? What about self-respect? Should yours change?

Men at work are also expected to fit a particular part. Dressing up or dressing down makes its own statement about authority or subordination. Society has expectations for men and women. Each person chooses to conform to standards or not, to be a follower or a trend-setter. Each choice will have consequences.

How you review your position, whether or not you feel comfortable  in your role, all give you hints about the suitability of where you are.  Are you listening to your dreams? Your work choices may not touch upon social causes. Your focus doesn't have to be the pursuit of justice to be right for you. What's important to recognize is whether your choices revolve around other people’s ideas of success or your own.

No matter what you wear, or how you contribute to society, you hide behind masks. As you gain insight into the masks other people wear, you also gain insight into your own. It is these masks of emotion that shape your ideas of success and whether or not you realize them.  Do your current path and clothes make you feel good?

Some people portray arrogant or assertive personas, but they’re really terrified of powerlessness. Other people hide behind sexism or discrimination to conceal their unsatisfied desires, impotence or unresolved anger.  Appearances can indeed be deceiving. Learn to discern what is said by others through their subtle nuances. Reinterpret your choices. Are you a walking contradiction of success?

Fear is always linked to unhealed wounds. Violence, oppression and any other treatment that holds you back from success tends to stem from pain. This could reflect your own as much as anyone who seems outside yourself. Success can be understood as discerning the inter-connectedness among compassion, patience and power. We can only ever choose to heal ourselves.