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Bad Style Habits and HOW to break free from them

 Last week #OTB, I shared some of the most pervasive and key Style Habits that I want women to pay attention to and break free from.  It is easy to fall into a "stuck" feeling with style.  Because it is a living thing and is always evolving, one day we turn around and feel very dated.  It is common.  I liken it to technology.  If you don't keep up with what is happening, one day you wake up and have NO CLUE how to use it.  As a Stylist I'm here to help!  (And if you would like to go back and read last week's blog, it is linked here).

Because I love my readers, I didn't want to drop in and say "Hey!  You have lots of style bad habits.  Good luck with that!", so as promised, this week I want to discuss HOW you can break the hold that these bad habits have on you.  Whether you see yourself in one or multiple of these bad habits, you CAN break the chains of them!

HOW to Break Free

Just like with ANY habit that you want to break, the first step is to recognize the problem.  Many times this is the most difficult step.  As humans, it can be difficult to see where we need to make a change within ourselves because our life is so busy that we live on auto-pilot.  When you actually take the time to see or FEEL that something is amiss, you have taken the first step.

Next, you need to decide how motivated you are to change your current situation.  No one says change is easy and the pain or frustration that you are feeling has to be enough for you to go through a bit of discomfort to get to your new way of being.  Nothing great happens inside of our comfort zone.  This is where you can take out a piece of paper and write the style bad habit on the top and then list all of the things that you are missing out on or the negative way you feel about yourself now and if you continue down this path.

As an example, let's say your Style Bad Habit is that you buy all of the cute things you see on others.  Some of the negatives this may bring to your life include:  feeling down on yourself because they just don't look cute on you, feeling like you are too old to make this work, a feeling of hopelessness because you will never be stylish, self-doubt that you just never buy the right things, wasting time because now you have to return it, wasting money because you FORGOT to return it and now it's taking up valuable space in your closet.  You get the idea.

Now that you have imprinted the pain of your bad habit into your brain, the next step is to continue this mindfulness.  The next time you feel called to act on your bad habit, STOP and think about it.  Feel into it.  

In our example above, when you see that super cute influencer wearing that adorable dress, before you press BUY, stop and think about it.  Would you actually wear it?  Go through your list of pain points.  This step is not meant to scare you out of buying something, but to really think about it and if you do decide you want to buy it and give it a try, not to make yourself wrong for it.  If it doesn't work, make yourself a promise that you will take the time to return it.  Commit to treating yourself with kindness.

The next important step is Support.  Who is your life can you trust to keep you honest about your goals and the bad habits you want to break?  Make sure this person will be 100% honest with you, either way.  If you get through being mindful and still want to make that purchase, in our example above, reach out and get the opinion of your support person.

The next step is to switch it up.  What is your style bad habit and what new habit can you replace it with?  It could be just a small tweak.  Small steps over time lead to big change.  With our example, we could replace the habit of buying cute things we see on other people with making a list of items we really need or want in our closet.  Then, as we are seeing ads for clothes in Facebook or the 'gram, if we see something that is on our list, we should definitely buy it and not feel badly about it!

The next step is to be patient with yourself.  Change takes time...and it's hard.  Remember, when we have been living our bad habit for awhile, you have to re-train yourself.  You will slip up and you have to know that.  Just don't let yourself spiral out of control and make a promise to yourself that you will reign it back in and get back on track when you do buy that cute piece that influencer was wearing.  

Finally, don't forget to reward yourself.  When you make a conscious choice to step away from the Buy button, celebrate! I'm not saying go crazy and buy a Chanel purse, here, I'm talking about a small reward.  Go get yourself that yummy coffee or play your favorite song to dance to and have a little dance party celebration!

Bonus Tips

Remember that it can take anywhere from 21 days to 3 months to break a habit.  When it comes to style bad habits, they will definitely vary depending on if they are bad habits you encounter on the daily or rarely.  The less frequently you encounter them, the more mindful you will need to be and the longer it may take.

What works for you to break out of a bad habit will be different than for someone else.  You need to dial in to what motivates YOU to make an intentional change.

Keep a journal or a notebook.  Keep track of your successes.  Write down how you are feeling.  It's a powerful process putting feelings to paper.  This is for your eyes only, so whatever you are feeling is okay to write here.  You can be vulnerable.

In the realm of Style Bad Habits, I love the idea of creating a vision board of what you want to accomplish.  Use pictures and words that direct you to how you want to feel, look, and what you want to experience when you reach your goals.  Add to it often and look at it frequently as a reminder of where you are headed!

I really hope that you found this post helpful.  It's so easy to get stuck on the gerbil wheel of feeling badly about ourselves and not making lasting change.  Make the decision to break free and go for it!  A beautiful life full of style awaits you!

Stylishly Yours,




PS - If you are ready to explore inside of your closet, get signed up for my free Challenge that is happening in October.  Click here to get on the list!

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