Danielle LaPorte - Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design

What's Your Style Statement?

TWO WORDS TO LIVE BY

Your Style Statement defines your authentic self. It is a compass for creating a life that reflects what's true to you in every way. From your wisdom to your wardrobe, from your longings to your living roomyour Style Statement is where your essence meets your expression.

THIS BOOK IS AN EXPERIENCE

Through a unique series of inquiries into what you long for, what inspires you, and what you're attracted toas wel as what doesn't work for you Style Statement guides you to discover the two profoundly descriptive words that capture your essence. Based on the 80/20 principle, the first word represents your foundation, your 80%. The second word is your creative edgethe 20% of your image that motivates and distinguishes you.

THE POWER OF STYLE

Applied with intention, your Style Statement wil become a tool for making powerful choices that inspire the spirit, look, and feel of your lifea life that genuinely shines.

Copyright

Copyright 2008 by Carrie & Daniele, Inc.

Photography 2008 by Gregory Crow

Al rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

First eBook Edition: December 2008

ISBN 978-0-316-05560-4

for our sister

We are women entrepreneurs, A designer and a writer, an athlete and an artist, One of us wears pearls; the other wears dreadlocks. Different styles, shared values.

We think big, We do our homework. We'd choose love over logic any day. We love a good deal.

We have branded companies and rallied causes: designed Web sites and books and business plans. We have styled homes and styled people, and

what we know for sure is that

style is a language.

We help people to articulate.

We inspire authenticity.

We see possibility everywhere.

C & D

Contents

Copyright

What's Your Style Statement?

for our sister

Manifesto of Style

A Map of the Journey

Part 1: Explore

THIS IS AN INVITATION

THIS IS YOUR BOOK

REFINED TREASURE

SACRED DRAMATIC

Inspiration & Authenticity

Using This Book

CHERISHED PLAYFUL

The Purpose of a Style Statement: Making Powerful Choices

Your Style Statement is

ORGANIC TREASURE

The 80/20 Style Statement Principle

CULTIVATED STORY TIMELESS CONSTRUCTIVE

Frequently Asked Questions

CONTEMPORARY FLOURISH

What Is Style?

GENUINE LEGACY

Part 2: Inquire

WELCOME TO THE INOUIRY ROCESS

The Lifestyle Map

SIMPLY CRAFTED

The Spirit and Look & Feel of your life

CONSTRUCTED PLAYFUL

GENUINE ELEGANCE

CURRENT SENSUAL

INNOVATIVE FEMININE

ENDURING BOLD DESIGNED EASE

NATURAL COSMOPOLITAN FEMININE DRAMATIC

GENTEEL VITALITY

CLASSIC HARMONY

Part 3: Define

DEFINING YOUR STYLE STATEMENT

The 80/20 Style Statement Principle: A Refresher

It's All About You: Defining Your Style Statement

Part 4: Design

DESIGNING YOUR LIFE SEE IT FEEL IT, BE IT

Perspectives & Practice:50 Ways to Express Your Style Statement

5 Guiding Questions

3 Simple Things a Week

Ask Yourself: A Journaling Exercise

A Few Reminders

Life Walk-Through

Go Forth and Live as Art!

Style Vocabulary +

Foundation Words

Creative Edge Words

Ask-a-Friend Survey

Gratitude

Behind the Scenes

Manifesto of Style

Carrie & Danielle's

1. Communicate who you are in all you do. Consistency is power. When the various parts of your life reflect your essence, your life moves in the direction you want it to.

2. Style is multidimensional. Visual and sensual choices are driven by self-perception. Our image is a composite of our beliefs, history, and desires.

3. Style matters. The design of your life can inspire you or mire you. Every aesthetic and material choice sends a message to the world about who you are, and the world responds accordingly.

4. Authenticity is energizing, economical, and efficient. The better you know yourself, the clearer your choices. Self-awareness leads to true style.

5. Accentuate the positive. Give your attention to the best in you and around you, and the best wil flourish.

6. People are like snowflakesuniquely beautiful because of the details. To compare snowflakes is not very productive. Instead, celebrate what sets you apart, what's most particular and true for you, and your own specialness wil become clear.

7. Pay attention to what attracts you. One of the most powerful questions you can ask is, what am I drawn to?

8. Working from the outside in can create deep transformation. Surface changes have the power to alter your inner landscape. (So yes,

sometimes a new hairstyle or a work of art can change your life.)

9. Feel free to change. When you discover something true about yourself, put it into action, regardless of who you were yesterday.

10. True style is not dependent on wealth, and wealth does not necessarily create taste. Authenticity is not dependent on funding. On a budget, or on easy street, you owe it to yourself to find a way to be genuinely you.

11. Cheap is expensive in the long run. Why buy twice when you can buy once? Commit to quality and it wil commit to you.

12. Use your best every day. Life is too short to wait for a special occasion to bring out your finery, your treasures, your briliance, and the best of your love.

13. Choose from your heart, and your life will fill up with things you love. What works is what feels right.

14. Beauty transforms. Its capacity to generate pleasure, healing, and connection is divinely powerful. Beauty affects its maker and beholder every time.

15. It's always a good time to be yourself. And it's never too late. Possibility exists al of the time, everywhere. You haven't missed your chance to be your most beautiful.

16. Only love is freeeverything else costs. Whether it's with time, space, emotion, or earthly resources, we pay for what we choose. Be selective about what you need.

17. Creativity + restraint = beauty. Overdone style leaves little room for newness, appreciation, or reciprocity. Hold back a bit. Alow for breathing space. Trust in the power of subtlety.

18. Contrast makes things interesting. Too much sameness duls the senses. Create a twist.

19. Living is sensual. Engage life with al you've got.

20. Make more choicesmoment to moment, day to day. You are the designer of your life. Be selective, creative, and intentional in every possible way.

A Map of the Journey

EXPLORE: PART 1

The first part of this book is an introduction to the many expressions of style. Here, we hope you'l begin to recognize that style is much, much more than what you wear and that authenticity is a mighty powerful lifestyle concept.

The Style Statement profiles and snapshots are beautiful and inspiring views but also instructive true stories about how a Style Statement is reflected in one's life.

INQUIRE: PART 2

This is the must-do to part of the trip. First, you can warm up your creative thinking and ease into some self-exploration with the Style Stretch questions on page 90

and the Style Run on page 92.

Things realy kick into gear within the Inquiry sections. There are eight of them, each based on a part of the Lifestyle Map (see page 89). Every section asks you to reflect on and respond to questions about what works wel and what does not work for you in the fundamental areas of your life.