Most people think their biggest barriers are external:

Difficult people, slow systems, economic pressure, unpredictable environments. But far more often, the real barrier is internal: the things they’re pretending not to notice.

Avoidance looks passive, but it isn’t. Avoidance is an active choice—one that silently hands authority over to patterns, habits, and dynamics we’ve stopped examining.

Hannah Arendt wrote that human freedom doesn’t come from discovering a “true” or “authentic” self buried somewhere inside us. Freedom comes from the will—the moment we pause, face the tension between where we are and where we want to be, and choose consciously rather than automatically.

But most people don’t pause. Everyday life becomes a momentum of unexamined choices.

And in that momentum, unnoticed forces begin running the show.

When you don’t look directly at something…

• the misalignment grows roots
• the habit becomes identity
• the discomfort becomes normal
• the drift becomes your direction

And soon, the thing you avoided becomes the thing shaping your decisions.

Not because you chose it – but because you refused to choose grounded in awareness.

We love the idea of “authenticity” because it promises ease: Find your true self and everything will fall into place.

But Arendt warned against this. She believed that the self is not something we discover — it’s something we decide.

And decision requires tension. Decision requires noticing….decision requires the uncomfortable truth:

You cannot ignore something and expect it not to shape you.

In organizations, this shows up as:

• cultures that tolerate behavior they claim not to endorse
• leaders who postpone hard conversations until the consequences arrive
• teams who blame circumstances instead of acknowledging the patterns they keep repeating

In personal alignment, it looks like:

• handing your energy to situations you don’t actually value
• calling misalignment “stress” instead of naming the real source
• confusing routine for certainty
• mistaking familiarity for clarity

Avoidance always promises comfort. But it quietly removes your freedom.

Because without noticing, you cannot choose. And without choosing, you cannot lead — not yourself, not your team, not your life.

Strategic alignment is not about finding yourself. It’s about facing yourself:

• Facing what has been running your life behind the scenes.
• Facing the drift you’ve been rationalizing.
• Facing the truth you’ve delayed acknowledging because it requires a shift.

Arendt believed that the will — not authenticity — is the organ of freedom.
The moment you stop pretending, the will activates. The moment you look directly at what you’ve been avoiding, your options multiply. The moment you name what’s true, your agency returns.

Noticing is the first act of alignment. Choosing is the second. Everything else follows from there.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

What have you been pretending not to notice — and how has it already been shaping your decisions, your relationships, or your direction?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — writer, possibility thinker, musician, Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, and MCODE Legacy Coach. I help leaders and soul-driven professionals decode the deeper patterns shaping their business, work, identities, and results especially when it look like a performance issue but it’s really misalignment in disguise.

If something in your life or business feels off and you can’t quite name it, message me. Sometimes one conversation is all it takes to see what’s really going on.