success

wardrobe planning? winter’s checklist

            When you’re having a good hair day, take a picture. When you’re having a decent outfit day, take a picture. When you’re wearing a new pair of shoes, like I’ve mentioned before, take a picture.

            One of my favorite writers once said that she remembers events through outfits. I cherished that quote, not because of the honesty but rather the mere bliss of having that certainty that there’s an outfit ready to go without spending valuable minutes pondering of its level of functionality and/or avant-gardeness. That level of confidence of the quantity of your wardrobe brings about a certain level of satisfaction that only a handful are able to fulfill. Which reminds me that the long grey days of the winter season are up ahead that means I need to replenish my winter wardrobe asap, but this time I’m not going shopping without a preplanned list of the items that I want and need. 

            One of the first items that is officially off of my shopping list is a multi-functional pair of black sneakers that will last me through the season. Although these Nike black high stop air forces need comfortable matching pairs of solid black high-rise socks to match because if not, my ankles will be spotted with unwelcomed blisters. Next up, a pair of leggings that are more than multifunctional but rather multi-faceted with the serviceability of “around-the-house” use but paired with a great over-sized blazer or jacket, can then become “internship-ready”. I had found my favorite pair in Zara and will probably go back to source some interesting pair of bottoms. The next item on my list is to find the best quality basic selection of plain colored t-shirts for my budget. Needless to say, basic or essential, solid colored plain tee’s are not hard to find in the market, but these days quality is and then factoring the one chance that I can choose from a brand or garment that is sustainable is something important. Lastly, the most widely used item in my closet will be the cardigans, blazers, or jackets. My plan is to purchase no more sweaters for the season because sweaters are for squares lol just kidding. Sweaters are an essential part of one’s winter wardrobe, how else will you say to the world that you didn’t want to leave your comforter that morning lol. 

            Wardrobe planning is a balance, like everything done in life, but a carefully planned wardrobe list can yield that much more satisfaction and hopefully end the outfit decision fatigue. If you haven’t felt it, it’s that feeling of prepping before an interview when you’re asking yourself if I have something to present myself with. Although the combinations of outfit ideas are set determined by the business staples and casualwear is whatever is available in your wardrobe, the choices are influenced by your feelings. Therefore, if you feel like you look presentable or good, then you’ll go the extra mile to do more. 

Please, don’t stare at my stats

It’s interesting how psychologists and mental health gurus preach about not placing value on the number of likes or views on social media, but if academic success is based on a number. Is it not the same thing? Both could be argued are irrelevant to each other, yet both have an underlying concept; that personal value or worth is derived from a number. personality and charisma contribute as well, but what makes you shine or stand out from the rest are the stats or specific quality so refined that can be measured by some metric. sports are all about analytics and major trading franchise decisions are based on those numbers and in one of my classes titled industrial psychology, the professor had a whole lesson on resumes and cover letters. It was surprising to hear that most hiring decisions are again based on the number of points that a resume generates by decision maker and just recently, my mother-in-law, had expressed to me that she needed to review resumes for a new hire and she based the applicants worthiness by the number of points she gave the resume… it went full circle and told myself isn’t that interesting. If even resumes get graded by number of points, what isn’t measured by a number? And is it possible to grow in a career without tracking success through numbers?

I understand that not everything is based the numbers, but why do we spend most of our lives working to achieve those targets. In the United States and in other countries in South America, for many of us, unless some unusual circumstance, we’ve gone through the twelve plus years in school and have only ascended to the next level because we achieved the requirements that was measured by specific target numbers. I am starting to believe that it’s not wrong or a negative to compare a skill or success by a number, but it’s odd to me how there are mixed messages about the topic. It’s important for people to focus on other traits like those involved with, I don’t know, behind human, understand how to show respect and how to act when you are getting respect, being nice to whomever you happen to interact with and not just because they might be an important person, but because it’s the right thing to do, even if you don’t feel like it.

In some ways, measuring stats is an easy identifiable way to get an overall view of skills or achievements and makes those great achievements that much more recognizable to someone who may not know you yet. Besides this logic, since I started my bachelor’s degree, I’ve challenged myself to be ultra-ambitious. I’ve placed this pressure on myself to achieve all A’s in all of my classes. I’m stepping up to the challenge of aiming for all As, cause truth be told, I’ve never been that student or that studious to be worth As. I’ve got to admit that has always been a contributor to me believing I couldn’t amount to anything. Deep down, I know it wasn’t true, but my confidence would dictate something else. perhaps this is the reason why I do correlate success with numbers because for so long, seeing my status and lack of academic achievements, I would get partially depressed over them and it would make me feel insecure about my future.

It’s definitely a debatable topic, but what do you think? do you believe we are valued by our stats? if we shouldn’t care about the number, why are we constantly evaluated with numbers? do our paychecks resemble those numbers? what do you think?