Month: January 2019

We can’t get away from her.

The woman in the mirror.

She tells us the brutal truth about our priorities, past and present.  She tells us things about our history.  Our moods.   Our coping mechanisms.

And every time you catch her eye, she asks you, “why do you make me carry this mess?”

The pain of disconnect, the disharmony between the woman in the soul and the woman in the mirror, the screeching discord that will not let up… it doesn’t leave you.  It never leaves you.   Not until you DO something about it.  And even then… you have to finish what you start.

You bear the weight of that disharmony until you match the woman inside with the woman outside.

You bear that weight until you put the clothes on that work for you.   Until you fix your hair.   Until you finally get to the gym.

And the weight costs you productivity.   It costs you confidence.   It costs you time.  It costs you tears.

You know who you are.

Are you willing to reveal the truth?

One of the blockades inside of the mind of every woman who is embarking on the journey of personal improvement is, “why bother”?

So – why do you bother dressing intentionally for work, when the dress code is business casual, and no one cares?

Why do you bother putting on makeup, when you work in a call center – no one even sees you?

Why do you bother accessorizing – it’s just “extra stuff”.

Why?

Because visual representations affect mental impressions.   “Oh, but I won’t be meeting anyone important today”.

Well.  Maybe so.  Maybe no.  But I did not say, “affect OTHER PEOPLE’S impressions”.   I said it affected mental impressions.  It affects how you think of yourself.  And after a lifetime of not taking care of these things, or hiding behind misrepresentations, it takes more than one day and one good outfit to get you sorted.

The point of makeup and hair and clothes is to reveal the you inside the flesh shell.

If you only get pretty occasionally – you tell the world (and the woman in the mirror) that being pretty is something you are only worthy of when you’re going somewhere special.  You tell the people you interact with that they’re not worth the bother.  You tell yourself that you’re not worth the bother.

If you get pretty, but you get fake – same thing.   You’re just hiding.

It’s hard to look like your inside self, because then the world can see you.   And maybe you’re not ready to be seen.  It is frightening.  But so what?  You will never accomplish what you’re meant to accomplish in life if you don’t allow yourself that first step – the first step of being visible.

Being visible to yourself.  Being visible to others.

No, getting pretty isn’t the most important thing.  But it is a first step that almost no one can skip, if they’re serious about inhabiting the change that they crave.