You Will Never Wear Shabby Clothes After Reading This, If You Are Smart.
Do you have a colleague who throws grooming to winds and turns up at the office on a Friday wearing a worn out round neck t-shirt and trousers that never saw the inside of a washing machine for awhile? Do you do it yourself? See the dress down Fridays as a license to be shabby? It is not just a bad taste in dressing down, there is more to it.
The clothes you wear influence your feelings and behavior. Clothes you wear not only make an impression (subconsciously of course) on others about the person you are but also make you feel and behave in a particular manner. What we wear on the outside affects how we feel on the inside. Shabby clothing ruins the impression you create on the outside and also ruins your attitude.
”The clothes you wear change your behavior and can either add or subtract from your mental abilities” says David McRaney in his fantastic book ‘You Are Now Less Dumb’.
Quoting research by Adam and Galinsky he says that the physical act of wearing certain clothes (like lab coats, formal 2 or 3 piece attire, business casuals or shabby clothes for that matter) actually made the people wearing them in a particular way, consistent with the type of clothes. Other researchers had similar findings from different settings. This is called ‘Enclothed Cognition’ in psychology.
Uniforms worn by Police, Judges, Doctors, Priests, Soldiers, Sports teams and so on are not just symbolic, these uniforms affect how these people feel and behave, aggressive, compassionate, ethical, courageous, attentive etc. as the case may be. You may not be wearing any of these uniforms but what you wear still has power over your feelings, attitudes and behavior, besides affecting how others perceive you to be.
Tomorrow when you put on your attire, just be aware of how you feel through the day and make a note for yourself. Next time you feel like going easy on a Friday, think again!
Your profile pic on social media has a similar effect on you too, speaking of which I specialize in headshots and portrait photography and this includes guiding you in what to wear and presenting yourself in the right manner to your audience through your profile photos. Get in touch with me if you need help: 10kportraits.com/contact