You Don’t Need to Try Harder

My relationship with running has changed drastically since having kids (promise this isn’t all about running… hang with me).

Before kids, I was a distance-ish runner. I’d run several half marathons and had a very rigid definition of what “counted.”

If I walked? Didn’t count.
Stopped to catch my breath? Didn’t count.
Under five miles? Barely counted.

Then I got pregnant with my oldest after a harder road to pregnancy than I expected, had a C-section, and eventually had to learn how to distance run again.

Except I slowly realized I didn’t actually need to get back to running the way I had before.

I needed to figure out what taking care of my body looked like now.

I had to change what “counted”

A five-minute run counts. A ten-minute walk counts. Walking laps around my house while my kids play counts.

I also started listening to people who know a whole lot more about health and fitness than I do.

I hired a macros coach. I started lifting weights. I added intervals and HIIT instead of running the exact same endurance pace over and over.

And I learned something that feels extremely obvious now:

If you want a different result, sometimes you have to give yourself a different stimulus.

Even before kids, distance running wasn’t really working for me anymore. I was bored. I wasn’t improving. I just kept doing it because it was what I knew.

So I outsourced.

I hired someone who knew more than I did. I let go of some of my made-up rules. I tried things I wouldn’t have chosen on my own.

And things started changing.

Sometimes you don’t need to try harder. You need to try differently.

We tend to assume that when something isn’t working, we need to buckle down.

Do more. Research more. Be more disciplined. Figure it out ourselves.

But sometimes you can’t muscle your way out of a problem.

You just don’t know what you don’t know.

Which is exactly what I see with my 1:1 styling clients.

I don’t expect someone coming into my Signature Process to know how to fix her own wardrobe. If you knew exactly what to buy, which brands worked for you, what silhouettes were best, what needed to leave your closet and how to make everything work together, you probably wouldn’t need me.

What I do want is someone willing to do something differently.

Someone willing to outsource something that isn’t her area of expertise. Invest in solving the actual problem instead of continuing to throw money at random purchases. Try something she wouldn’t have picked herself. Let go of a few arbitrary rules. Be proactive instead of waiting for the next event, trip or work function to create another problem.

You don’t need to know exactly where we’re going when we start.

That’s my job.

You just have to be open to the possibility that the way you’ve always done it might not be the way that works best anymore.

Your life moved forward. Your approach might need to catch up.

The way I ran before kids made sense for that version of me.

Then my body changed. My schedule changed. My priorities changed. My life changed.

Of course my approach needed to change too.

And clothes are no different.

Maybe the way you shopped worked perfectly well in your twenties. Or before kids. Before your career changed. Before your body changed. Before you started traveling for work. Before you became the person giving the presentation instead of sitting in the audience.

It doesn’t mean you were doing it wrong.

It just might not work for you anymore.

Sometimes progress isn’t trying harder.

Sometimes it’s finally being willing to say:

This isn’t working anymore. I’m ready to learn a different way.

That willingness is everything I want in a client.

I’m currently booking my 1:1 Signature Process about a month out. If this feels a little too familiar when you think about your wardrobe, you can apply at the link below! I would love to chat with you.

info + application here