10 No Cost Ways to Present Yourself at Your Best – #2 & #1

So I hope you have gotten some easy ideas this past month for presenting yourself at your best.  Even better, I hope you realize how easy it can be to treat yourself well and to reinforce to yourself, others and the Universe, that you deserve to let others see you at your best and to be treated well – especially by yourself.

You simply don’t need ANY money to begin this process.  Starting out with the “little” things (“little” things that really are “big” things), changes your energy vibration and it enables you to attract a different level of attention to yourself.  Attention that says “Wow – look at you!”  vs. “Ugh, look at you”.  Sloppy appearance is a way to keep attention off of ourselves – it allows us to divert attention onto things that don’t work to enhance who we are or allow others to see us without distraction.  That behavior does not enable powerful connections between us and others.

Powerful connections are initiated by attracting harmonious attention to yourself and then exchanging positive regard with another.  Once this is achieved, you will attract more harmonious attention and more positive regard into your career and life.  Can you smell that?  Yes, it is a whiff of The Law of Attraction.

This week I offer to you 2 final no cost tips that can set the ball rolling of attracting harmonious attention and positive regard into your life.

#2.  Wear clothes that are clean and in good condition

“Hole”-y Cow! Stains, holes, worn-out material that has lost it’s shape – get rid of it.  Yes – throw it away.  This stuff is not fit for you or for charity.  “Why not give it to charity” you may be wondering?  Because we don’t rehabilitate someone (restore them to balance and feeling good about themselves), by dressing them in dirty, old worn-out clothes.

Ask yourself this question…

Do you feel better when you are in a new, flattering outfit (you know – the kind that still smells like new clothes) or in an outfit you bought 5 or more years ago that has been worn to death?

Of course, we all feel more confident and powerful when we look good in the latest fashionable clothing.  Someone who is in need of charity or has really low self-esteem deserves Versace and Chanel to help restore their confidence and get on a path to attracting positive attention to themselves.  Don’t send a message to the Universe that stained, old, worn-out clothes with a few holes in them is suitable for you or for anyone – that is how we attract more of that kind of clothing into our lives.

If you can’t bring yourself to throw it out – use it for rags – you know, like for cleaning the house (not like what you wear while you clean the house).

Just to pick on this point a little more, make sure the nice clothes you have are clean – that means no deodorant streaks, pet hair, and stains.  I actually almost quit my job once because of pet hair.

I once  worked for an organization who explained when they hired me that they were struggling with the concept of “dress down” Fridays.  I quickly realized why.  I was walking into the building one fine Friday morning and just a few paces ahead of me was a woman wearing black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt (at least the sweats were matching – right?).  But they were covered – COVERED – with white pet hair.  There was so much of it I actually stopped dead in my tracks.  I recovered, and continued walking towards the building and as I got closer to her I could see how badly her sweats were covered.  I stopped again and I actually turned around to face the parking lot.  I almost didn’t go to work because the truth was, she was not far off how some other employees approached casual Friday.   I made a decision to help the organization instead of jumping ship.  A few memos and training classes later, we were at least able to keep the pet hair on the employee’s pets.

An easy rule of thumb when considering the condition or cleanliness of our clothes is this – ask yourself if your favorite celebrity showed up at your house and needed to borrow some clothes, would loan the garment in question to them?  If so – keep it and wear it in good health (or give it to charity if you just don’t want to wear it anymore), if not, maybe it is time for it to go (and not to charity).

#1.  Be clean

I am not even sure I should reveal this in a blog because this is priceless information – but I am going to share with you how I got comfortable counseling employees who smelled badly.

So often it would come to our attention in Human Resources that an employee smells badly.  Every manager I have ever known ran screaming from this one – but they all want it handled pronto.  This is a tough one even for the nicest, most seasoned HR professional.  But I would simply tell the “offending” employee what I have been telling your through this blog series…

“I asked you to meet with me today to share with you something I have been hearing about you.  I want you to know about it because I know (or assume – I would say “assume” if I didn’t know the employee that well), that it matters to you to be your best and to have others think well of you and your work – but something is distracting others from noticing your best contributions.  I have heard others comment that they are aware of your body odor.  I am not sure if this is too much perfume or if it is the smell of clothes – you know, that smell from clothes that have been to the dry cleaner too many times – or if it is you – but it is what some people who rely on your work have been noticing – so that means they are focused on this smell issue and not on your work – it has become a distraction from your contributions.”  (I would then move into potential accommodation need discussions if the smell was due to health issues – but I won’t get into that here – I just wanted you to see how I opened the discussion).

We all need to wash everyday and if you sweat a lot at night, which we all sometimes do especially if we are not feeling well, we need to be sure to wash in the morning (even if we showered before bed the night before).  Our dry cleanable clothes often need the “sniff test” – that means someone else (not us), in our household needs to smell the clothes to see if they smell.  If you live alone, try to do no more than 2 appearances in an article of clothing before it goes to the dry cleaner.

Don’t let these little things come between you and others noticing your best YOU.  Your appearance can be a great inhibitor or a great conductor for how others regard your contributions.  Everyone deserves to experience the best YOU that you have to offer (even if you don’t have a lot of cash to look like a celebrity), and you deserve to attract positive regard and favor from yourself, others and from the Universe.

I wish you all harmonious attention and I wish the Universe to experience the best YOU ever!