Bethany Siggins Image Consulting | Personal Stylist | Dallas, Texas

Bethany Siggins | Personal Stylist | Dallas, Texas

happy new year

2016 – What’s New with You?

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newyear - 2016 - What's New with You?

I honestly have been avoiding the “New Year” topic for several weeks to give you an opportunity to recover from the barrage of “New Year New You” e-mails and product endorsements.  I find it very tiresome.  It is the same story each year.  What will I do differently this year?  What improvements will I make?  And more importantly, though cynically, how long can I keep these promises before abandoning them altogether?  We have the best of intentions.

I do not make New Year’s resolutions.  Rather, I like to take a personal inventory.  I like to look at how I improved (or did not improve) over the past year.  And then I like to look forward, both personally and professionally.  What are some things I would like to learn this year and what are the steps I can take to do that?  How can I positively impact the lives of others?  What do I love to do and how can I make time for those things?

Rather than making resolutions, just take a little time to plan for good things for yourself in the New Year.  What did you find yourself missing last year?  Maybe you wished for more time to yourself.  If so, sit down and plan a few outings for yourself or for yourself and a few friends.  If you do not plan it, it will not happen.  Maybe you would like to feel better.  If so, visit your doctor, a dietitian and a personal trainer who can give you a plan of action.  You get the idea.  Planning is the key.  With no plan, there is no change.

Do not sit there and wait for whatever life will throw at you.  And believe me, it will.  Make a few plans and steer the ship for yourself.  Of course your plans may sometimes be thwarted.  That’s life.  But if you do not have a plan to thwart, isn’t that worse?

Make a few new things happen this year.  Happy 2016, everyone!

Dance Like No One Is Watching

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womanheadphones - Dance Like No One Is WatchingLast summer my then 2-1/2 year old son Nathan was standing beside his twin sister Vivien as she rode on the mechanical horse at a local Mexican restaurant.  As the horse began to move and the music started to play, Nathan bobbed his head and gyrated to the tune unaware of and unaffected by others around him.  Behind Nathan was a young boy older than Nathan who was waiting with his family for their table.  He gave Nathan an odd look as if he were thinking, “What are you doing?”  Nathan never saw him, and I wished with all my heart he would never know the scrutiny of others and never feel like he had to conform to what was expected or “normal.”

Eventually, all of us become aware of how we look to others, and we make adjustments to fit in.  In the process, we often lose a bit of ourselves in an attempt to be like everyone else.  The problem is, none of us is like anyone else, and we were not created to be like anyone else.  Even identical twins have physical differences and each twin has a unique personality. My wish for you and for myself in the New Year is to better connect with who we are and then present ourselves in a way that is an authentic reflection of it, regardless of others’ opinions (good and bad).  Let’s stop making adjustments to our personalities, our manners and our dress that are not genuinely reflective of our values and our core being.

Let’s make a pact.  You be you, and I’ll be me.  No questions asked, no judgment.  Deal?  Happy New Year!  Here’s to much joy, success, happiness and a lot less judgment of ourselves and of others in 2014.  Much love to you all!