“Always dress like it’s the best day of your life.”

“Always dress like it’s the best day of your life.”

How often do you stand in front of a wardrobe, bulging at the seams, and decide that you’ve nothing to wear?

Our stuff overwhelms us so much that most of us wear 20% of our wardrobes 80% of the time. We can order items so easily online, from our sofa, so quickly, that we accumulate more and more and are living in a world of abundance, a world of clutter.

I have met women who buy clothing items they already have but had forgotten about. I have met women who buy clothing items which if they don’t fit or don’t work, they don’t bother to return. I have met women who repeat buy and end up in a 'uniform', reaching for the same style of clothes over and over again.

Sadly, I also regularly meet women who don’t wear their ‘good’ clothes, saving them for … well, I don’t know exactly. Many of these women fall into the “I am not enough” or “I’m not worth it” or “I don’t deserve to” mindset. This mindset keeps the good clothes in our wardrobes, and the good shoes in the shoe boxes. (By the way, it’s also the mindset that keeps the good china in the china cabinet – which gets passed down to the next generation to keep locked in their china cabinet.)

We love to shop for items that we feel are missing from our lives, for the items that will fill a gap or that will fulfil a future promise to ourselves.  I’ll wear it when .. I lose the weight, I get the promotion, I need to feel smart or important. Once an item is elevated to a ‘too nice to wear every day’ category, it gets put back in the box or left unworn in your wardrobe, waiting for that special day which often doesn’t come.

“Dress like you’re going somewhere better later.”

The people we spend most time with, at home, regularly see us at our worst. We get dressed up for people we don’t know and see infrequently. We can and do relax with the people who see us every day, and are comfortable wearing clothes that are more casual. And, of course, I don’t expect everyone to dress every day as if they are going to a wedding.

However, I do believe that life is what you make of it. Shift the mindset. View yourself as enough and wear all your clothes. Put yourself in control of your wardrobe. Before you buy more, wear what you have. (The most sustainable option is to shop in your own wardrobe.)

When you live with excuses, you are allowing joy, confidence and your value to escape. In the words of a well-known advertisement, you are worth it. You are enough.