Taking Deliberate Action: Personal style edition

Taking deliberate action. To move fast, go slow. This is one of the most counterintuitive things that I keep needing to relearn in new ways.

I have a client navigating some health challenges and so one of the things we’re working on together is doing fewer things better. We’re setting up go-to plug and play options, creating more lead time so she has room to maneuver around flairs, low energy days, and other surprises.

In some ways this looks like working slower. But what it really means is working more deliberately.

Working deliberately carries its own kind of speed.

Taking my time at each step, speeds up the process. Staying within my capacity expands my capacity faster than pushing outside of it. Deliberately slowing down goes a lot faster.

It’s frustrating.

And it’s one of those things that requires repetition after repetition after repetition to learn.

But it works. As counterintuitive as that is.

I suspect the magic comes down to building a solid foundation and getting things right the first time.

Rushing and pushing almost inevitably leads to mistakes.

Mistakes lead to troubleshooting. Troubleshooting and back tracking and fixing and getting back to where you were are time consuming.

​Building a foundation​, going slowly, staying within your capacity, and doing the very next right thing means you can focus on what is at hand. You aren’t jumping from the past to the future to the present. You aren’t zooming between the granular details and the big picture and the in between all within the next five minutes.

Slowing each step down means you can stay where you are, build the foundation, and focus on what you’re doing.

When it comes to style, I see this happening in…

Taking deliberate action with your personal style

Taking the Time to Practice – deliberately taking the time to practice your style helps you get your reps in, so when you need to get out the door in a hurry, you’ve already done it a hundred times.

Shopping – ​hasty shopping​ makes a mess of a closet while deciding on your style cues ahead of time gives your shopping a personalized filter.

Decluttering – a thorough clear out (going all the way to the back of every shelf and every drawer) takes forever, but pays off in the breathing space a complete reset gives you.

​Creating your Wardrobe Inventory​ – this process forces you to get clear on what you have, what you love, and what you enjoy wearing. It makes you pick out the patterns hiding in plain sight.

Preplanning Outfits – for tomorrow, or for the week, or for a trip, or just ​for when you can’t be bothered​. Slowing down enough to preplan, makes the whole plan move smoothly.

I know deliberate action is difficult in the short term, while doing the quick fix seems easier. Taking steps slowly seems slow, while speeding up seems fast.

It helps to remember that the tortoise won the race against the hare.

Of course this does require belief that the race you’re running is one worth winning.

But that’s a topic for another time.

That’s all for now.

As always, if you’d like to work together,​ schedule a call​ and we’ll get the process started.

And if you want to keep reading, check out ​Personal Style & The Eisenhower Matrix​ next. It’s a good follow up to this topic.