Yesterday's post Instant Makeover Failure discussed how too much change in too short a time period is nearly impossible to maintain. Today I want to take that thought and extend it a bit to our habits of acquiring new clothes.
We are all creatures of habit, and we all tend to gravitate towards the things that are familiar and make us comfortable. This goes for most everything: what we choose to eat, who we choose to be around, what we choose to wear. And when life gets hectic, or our spirits take a nose-dive, we are even more prone to seek out the things which make us feel comfortable and secure...the things that we feel are comforting.
Let's examine the relationship between comfort and familiarity. Say you have two neighbors...one is a very close friend and the other a passing acquaintance. Who would you call first if you wanted companionship? Chances are, it will be your close friend. Why? Your familiarity with one another establishes a certain level of comfort that is not yet present with your other neighbor.
The clothes that you wear frequently...the ones you gravitate towards... are like close friends. You have a relationship with those clothes. You know how they look and feel when you have them on. A new outfit, however, takes a number of wearings before you begin to feel like it "belongs" to you. It takes a while to integrate it into your current wardrobe of clothes. And perhaps the new oufit never becomes fully integrated. It ends up abandonded at the back of your closet waiting for the "someday" that you plan to wear it.
When you purchase new clothes, you have to anticipate that there will be a period of "getting to know you" with each item. And if you go overboard and buy too many new things at once, you run the risk of never successfully integrating these new finds into your wardrobe. Bring new items into your closet a few at a time, and you will greatly increase the likelihood that your new "acquaintances" will become "friends".
Next time I'll talk about why it IS important to bring new clothes into your closet. See you then...same blog time...same blog channel....
(For more information on Wardrobe Planning, please visit my website.)
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7 comments:
This is so true. New clothes (unless a variation on a theme such as a different colour of the same style t-shirt) take time to adapt to and feel comfortable in. I find this especially with my jeans. I always wear my comfy ones if at all possible. It's a serious problem when they die.
www.SueCrutcher.com
never thought of it that way
Dr Helton, making your skin beautiful without surgery, nationally renowned Cosmetic Dermatologist
I kind of feel that way for shoes but not really for clothes. Maybe I need to push myself out of my comfort zone a little more.
Yann
Personal Coach
Comfort zone is also called the 'Dead Zone' wasted youth reading Stephen King.
'Familiar is the road to destruction'?
It is our breaking(replacing habits) that allows for this shift.
'TimBirch –Can it be better?
Again, comfort is my guide, but that helps in my case. I start wearing things right away because I pick things I felt comfortable trying on.
Aaron
OMG, jenn, this is so true and I am guilty of this all the time. It takes me so long to get used to new styles that they're practically going out of style by the time I'm comfortable with them. when flares came back in style and low rise jeans, I was still wearing 80's style levis for years. I haven't bought anything new this spring because I hate all the new styles. So I guess I'll be doing the "retro thing" for a while until I warm up to them! hahahaha
Lisa McLellan
Oh Jennifer, after WLS, it is the LETTING GO of old friends that was such a challenge and a surprise.
Just when you would have thought, "Oh, but you've lost so much weight GET RIDE of all that." Instead, I found myself hanging onto Old Friends.
Thank you for your encouragement here in your excellent blog to LET GO of MORE of those OLD FRIENDS.
I'm thinking, Good Will RUN this weekend. Or maybe SOONER! They're open until 8 pm where I live....
All the best,
April Braswell - Online Dating Coach, Romance Coach
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