There is the old saying you have to look the part to be successful, or simply put you have to dress for success. For example, if you want to be a corporate successful CEO you have to look like one. And from the outside that may certainly be true. Us humans are very good at making interpretations about someone’s suitability for a role in our lives (be that a job, relationship or other) by assessing someone’s appearance. But there is something else that we humans look for that you cannot see and this is what I want to focus on today. This is how to dress for success and feel fabulous with a twist.
What Makes You Feel Fabulous?
Okay so really there are two parts to dressing for success the clothes and the person. There is a common saying – clothes don’t make the man… or woman. And I feel like this is very true in many respects.
Feeling fabulous and confident in your own skin is the best way to ensure you are dressed for success. Think of it like this your clothes are just the wrapping paper you wear and can be a reflection about how you feel about yourself but not always.
Clothes can be used as a shield to mask what you’re feeling on the inside.
Sometimes we use clothes to help project confidence though we don’t actually feel confident or fabulous. We may wear clothes to gain attention by being revealing or very bold. But how can we build our confidence from the inside out?
What can we do to avoid using clothes as a shield, a cloak, or a disguise that hides who we really are? Because you are awesome and shouldn’t want to hide the real you.
The Twist – Feeling Fabulous Comes From the Inside Out!
The good news is feeling fabulous from the inside out is free! You don’t have to be able to afford the latest and greatest from the runways in Paris, New York, and London to start dressing for success.
How to dress for success starts with meeting your internal values
If you want to dress for success and feel fabulous ooze confidence and really be comfortable in your own skin the first thing that you need to do is be able to look yourself in the mirror. To do this you need to know what your values are and be living up to them.
In general, we’ll talk about how being a good person as values that we can all share. This means being kind to the people around you and treating them with respect. Doing unto others as you would have done to you. So, if you wouldn’t want to be cursed at for accidentally looking at a person in the wrong way, then don’t do it yourself. If you value friendship then be friendly. etc…
Take the time to work out what things you are doing that aren’t quite sitting with you right. Maybe it’s something you’re hiding or keeping a secret about something you’re doing that you wouldn’t be proud to tell your friends and family. Imagine these things on the front page of a magazine or popping up on social media, would you be comfortable? If not this is a good gauge for areas where you might want to work on getting rid of that baggage that you are carrying around.
Because carrying these kinds of things around is heavy and lonely and destroys your own internal confidence more than you would care to admit.
The way you feel about yourself
Building on top of your internal values is the way you feel about yourself. This is more of an effect of being at peace and at ease with your conscience. You feel lighter and less worried about being “found out” or “caught out” if/when your secret gets exposed. But it’s a critical aspect of dressing for success from the inside out.
Your confidence
Needless to say one of the most evident and yet understated piece in your wardrobe is your confidence. No matter what you’re actually wearing if you don’t have good positive self-confidence you’re never going to walk into a room and feel like you belong.
Being your best self means owning who you are and being ok with what you bring to the world (which is different from everyone else). Having confidence also means knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and being willing to try new things and take risks even if it’s scary!
How to build your confidence
There are so many ways to help you build confidence. So here is a list of just a few!
- Take care of your health (See posts about: eat, sleep, movement, mindset, hydration)
- Surround yourself with people who love and support you
- Smile
- Give compliments (check out our post about why this works here)
- Take time to do what you enjoy
What really matters is that you know you are worthy of being who you are. And when you know that you don’t have to hide or pretend then that is when you really do feel fabulous.
Having people around you who see the potential in you is incredibly powerful and important though your self-confidence should never be solely defined by external means even those closest to you.
Your own fulfillment and comfort in your own skin
Feeling fabulous is all about you. At the end of every day and when you wake up in the morning you are with you 24/7. If you don’t like who you are then no amount of external wrapping, disguise or glitter is going to help. When you walk into a room you won’t feel ready to tackle whatever might come, be that good bad or otherwise.
There is also a difference in being cocky and confident, and being confident and complete in owning who you are is not about putting others down, or being on an ego trip. When you are comfortable with who you are you won’t mind whether you are the center of attention or a supportive cheerleader for those around you. Your confidence will allow you to be ok with both and let circumstances allow you to act appropriately.
For example, you don’t want to be that person who is so uncomfortable with who they are that they can’t be happy for a friend when something amazing happens in their life.
You have the power to feel fabulous!
So, I hope this how-to has helped you to see that dressing for success comes from the inside out. When you feel fabulous and confident there is nothing that you can wear that will make you more or less than you are. You don’t need to be defined by what your budget can afford and you don’t need to use clothing as a way to hide or disguise your real self from the world. Using appearance as a defense mechanism to hold people at bay isn’t healthy and seriously has negative effects on your confidence.
It’s important that you are able to look yourself in the mirror and be ok with the person looking back at you. If you can’t then there is something wrong! And it’s important to figure out what is holding you back. Once you do this you will be able to build confidence bit by bit. But of course, this is a process! (Learn to start from where you are with this post.)
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not where you want to be right now. That’s ok. You can change and every day is an opportunity to do better. Don’t hang onto the baggage from your past regrets either, it will drag you down. Instead, learn from your mistakes, gain the lessons, and keep moving forward (more about this here).