Yesterday morning I opened my email to find the usual glut of early-in-the-day promotions, mostly from companies I’ve bought from before so I wouldn’t exactly call it spam. It was the “stuff I click over and delete in a split second with barely a glance every morning” kind of emails. I’m sure you get a ton of them too. One of those promotional emails was from Title Nine, the women’s clothing store.
These days I always get a pang of sadness when I see their emails. Their clothes are amazing - they fit beautifully with just the perfect amount of stretch, they wear well, and they wash like a dream. They’re feminine but sporty and perfect for being out and about looking good but also feeling comfortable.
That’s the winning ticket to confidence right there - looking good yet feeling comfortable. And feeling sporty yet feminine? Jackpot.
But their clothes are also pricey. And now that I don’t have a job that takes me all over the city for meetings and events several times a month, there’s no way I can still justify buying them. I have plenty of clothes for my mostly at-home life now which, let’s face it, are not drastically different from pajamas. Comfortable, yes, but not the greatest for self-esteem.
So that’s getting me down.
But their email today really struck a chord, in an entirely different way:
The confidence gap. Ugh, that hits me right in the pit of my stomach right now.
It’s amazing how universal that feeling is, isn’t it?
It’s a great reminder to always remember how we’re speaking to our kids. Or better yet, how we speak to ourselves.
I read some tidbit a couple of weeks ago with the tip to change the password for an account you frequently log into (say, Gmail or Facebook) to a positive affirmation like “IAmSmartAndStrong.” If you log in a few times a day, you’re typing “IAmSmartAndStrong” several times a day to no one else but yourself.
Brilliant, if you ask me.
I love Title Nine because of the lovely and confidence-boosting clothes. Now I love them even more (even if I can't buy their clothes anymore).
Go forth and bridge a gap today. One for yourself, and one for someone else (bonus points if you look great doing it).
You owe it to them and you owe it to yourself and we’ll all be better off for it.