Lauren Messiah - Style Therapy: 30 Days to Your Signature Style

Do you love the way you look right now? Are you feeling like a ten on the confidence scale? If you ran into an ex-boyfriend, an old friend, or a client, would you be embarrassed because of your appearance?

Do you feel comfortable in your clothes or are you dying to get out of them by the end of the day? Or maybe youre a little too comfortable because theyre baggy and oversized?

Whats the state of your closet? Is that clothes chair in your bedroom stacked high with your failed outfit attempts? Have you recently experienced a closet meltdown? You know, a wild outburst that would shock a toddler, because you cant find anything to wear.

Do you love everything in your closet or just a measly 20 percent?

I hope you didnt answer yes to any of these questions, but something tells me you did. Now I want you to envision your new reality.

You spring out of bed, fling open your closet doors, and feel inspired. You love everything hanging in your closet. The outfit possibilities are endless. You feel sexy, cool, and confident because you have the exact clothes you need for all of the important areas of your life.

This could be you.

I know getting dressed can be hard work. Sometimes picking out a stylish outfit gets so frustrating that its easier to say, Style is dumb and superficial. People should like me for me. They should like you for you, but real life is more complicated than that.

In order for people to like you, trust you, spend money with you, or date you, they need to get to know you first. How you look and what you wear is like the trailer to a great movie: The world needs to be enticed by your trailer before they watch the movie.

Plus, word on the street is it takes less than seven seconds for a person to form an opinion about you. Seven seconds isnt enough time to win people over with your personality. Lets get real. People are judging you by your looks, and this may sound crazy, but this is good news.

The way you dress is 100 percent in your control, which means you get to change the narrative. You get to fully express your best and most powerful self through your personal style.

You get to start dressing like the woman you were meant to be right now. You can look (and feel) polished and put together, without looking like you tried too hard. But, more important, you can dress for the life you want. Ive dressed my way into career success, body confidence, and even into romantic relationships.

Style is a powerful tool that can change your life, and thats exactly what youre going to do over the next thirty days.

Confession Time

Believe it or not, Im a hard-core introvert. For as long as I can remember Ive struggled to express myself, speak up, and take up space in a room. People scared the crap out of me, and given the choice, Id hang out with a pet over a person.

At five years old I learned how to sew, and the world of style opened up to me. I found that when I dressed up, I felt confident, people would talk to me, and I could finally express myself.

Style gave me life.

I went to college and earned my degree in fashion design. I had visions of running off to New York to become a designer, but the universe had other plans. As it turns out, designers dont make very much money and I very much wanted to move out of my parents house. So I did what any fashion-obsessed, college-educated girl with no job prospects in sight does. I started working retail.

My retail job was one of the best things to happen to me because I realized design wasnt my calling; it was dressing people that brought me joy.

Cut to me at twenty-eight, working as a celebrity stylist in Hollywood. The glitz, the glamour, the fabulous people... didnt actually exist. To my surprise, working as a celebrity stylist was awful. The egos, the long hours, and the vanity of it all just wasnt for me.

Obviously, this realization bummed me out because I thought Id finally found my calling, so I did some soul-searching. This is where my love for personal development was born. I read every book, went to every seminar (hey, Tony Robbins), and hired coaches to help make sense of my life.

Then my aha moment arrived.

I loved dressing people (just not celebrity people). I loved the internal and external results I experienced when I dug deeper into my psyche. What if I took what I learned as a Hollywood stylist, combined it with what I found on my personal development journey, and then applied it to everyday people?

Boom! A calling was born.

Style Therapy is a workbook designed to help you discover yourself and your authentic sense of style. In other words, your signature style.

Notice how the word workbook is underlined? I did that on purpose. I wanted to emphasize the work aspect of this book.

Im not your average stylist, you see. Im not here to tell you exactly what to wear and dress you up like a little paper doll. My job is to serve as your guide through the most epic style journey youll ever go on.

Over the next thirty days you are going to tap into the depth of your freaking soul and develop a sense of style that is unique to you.

When we go shopping and get dressed, an internal dialogue kicks in. What comes to the surface are old stories centered around money issues, body issues, low self-esteem, and relationship issues. That nonsense, coupled with a lack of basic styling principles, is the thing preventing you from looking your best and pursuing your true potential.

Enough is enough. Its time to look like you, only better. That means choosing the right clothes, sure. But it also means choosing new words to describe yourself, what you want to accomplish, and how you want to be perceived.

This is going to involve some work on your part. When I challenge you to do something, do it. When you are prompted to write, write.

Do the work. Get the results. Period.

Building Your Signature Style

I have a fun little formula that Id like you to keep in mind as we go through this process. It summarizes how all the daily exercises come together:

Character + Body Confidence + Goals
=
Your Signature Style

Im talking about looking at who you are on the inside. Your interests, priorities, tastes, and day-to-day life are the foundational building blocks of your personal style. Yes, were going for a style transformation, but the underlying result is to have you looking and feeling even more like yourself.

Youll make a commitment to work with your body exactly as it is right now! We all have to put on clothes, we all have to live in our bodies, and we all deserve to be seen. I know from experience that changing our relationship with clothing can truly shift the way we feel about ourselvesand that includes our bodies!