Am I valuable if I am not providing value

For anyone who travels for work, you know it is nowhere as glamorous as it seems to be. So I have developed coping mechanisms after about 15 years of this. The biggest one is packing for work and looking at it like a fun adventure, and using my Friction Formula for said packing.

This was a travel week for me.

• Monday: Short flight LAX to the Bay Area, meetings, dinner

• Tuesday: Meetings all day, dinner

• Wednesday: Meetings in the morning, then volunteer work, then dinner, and then drinks with a friend

• Thursday: Meetings, fly back to LA, more meetings

• Friday I was back home and boy oh boy did I have fun with my fit that day

Also, as I am trying to write this I am having the biggest internal struggle. Anyone else just cringe at the thought of journaling? I was a big fan of morning pages back in the day, and now….ughughugh…something about it just makes me cringe on the outside. It is the feeling that my life by itself, minus frameworks, minus trying to share a tip or a trick…isn’t worth writing about? I am sure my somatic healer would say that is the exact reason I SHOULD write about it.

Which also reminds me of a super interesting discussion I had with Stevie (somatic healer). You know how reels without catchy text etc. do worse on IG these days? I was REALLY feeling that and telling her how it is making me feel like I don’t have value in just….existing. I do not want to derive value from being ‘of help.’ And I usually don’t. Yet, something about content creation flies right in the face of that. Because, VALUE…is why people keep coming back. So how do you do this thing without attaching your own inherent value to how much HELP you are providing?

I don’t have answers y’all, just wondering if anyone else considers the same stuff!

So ok back to fits?

Monday

I gotta be honest, I do not feel great in casual-casual. So if I am wearing these Brancusi jeans, I am adding a striped blue shirt.

Also, WARNING, I wore this damn red jacket like literally every day this week. You know when you buy something and it is just SO YOU! This jacket is that. My…’neutral.’ Ok so anyway Monday was that. Worked perfectly for the agenda.

Tuesday

Oh how I adore this Martine Rose graphic tee. So yall ok I usually try to tone down my style, without losing myself whenever I am in the bay area. Watch this video to see what I mean:

And I felt SO FUCKING GREAT in this fit. I mean the colors??? The silhouette??? The friction of the freakin duct tape with a trouser skirt????? Chef’s kiss, chef’s kiss, chef’s kiss.

Also, these Alohas sneakers are freaking boss. I almost did not get them coz I am not a sneaker wearer BUT it is such a good tool while I travel for work.

Wednesday (ew)

OK, ngl this was not my fav outfit. Because of what I had packed, this ended up being a casual (tee)-casual (jeans)-casual (sneakers) day. If I did not have the volunteer thing, I would have worn my Nora Lozza white sandals to offset the casual-ness. Oh well, it is what it is! It worked out perfectly for all practical purposes at least.

Thursday

Oh shit she is an outfit repeater!! It was just such a perfect airport fit, I figured why not! I really like this shirt. It has this GORGEOUS red stripe. I gotta admit I am a blue and white striped shirt ‘collector’ (sounds better than hoarder, roll with it).

This day TOOK IT OUT OF ME. Meetings, run to airport, fly back to LA, run home to do more meetings, write an entire strategy doc somewhere in there, get some bad news on a legal issue I have been dealing with (unrelated with anything here)….ooof.

I did a live try-on as soon as I was done. Husband asked me if I really needed to do it since I had a long day but ya know what, that is EXACTLY why I had to do it. Energized me greatly.

AND THEN FRIDAY, FUCK YEAH!!

Ok, so I need to write an entire post on this red fringe skirt. Girl! I bought it, returned it. Bought it again, returned it. Bought it in turquoise, returned it. Bought it in red again, ALMOST returned it. But then figured I better keep it this time so I stop burning down forests in some region somewhere on this ridiculous ordering and returning. And then I tried to style it for an art gallery opening and failed.

And then Michelle Obama wore it.

And then I FINALLY styled it for work on Friday!!!!! OMGGGGG how can an item go from ‘this is weird but I love it’ to ‘this is weird and fabulous and amazing and I love it and I want to live in it’ as soon as you unlock the ‘thing’? What is the thing I unlocked? Coming in a dedicated post.

But for now, y’all should know I also styled it AGAIN for brunch on Sunday.

Saturday

Here’s my Saturday fit. Massage. Brunch. Husband. Coz why not! Super easy, super fun. Something about colors makes my heart sing.

Is there a plan for my fits next week? Super not. Let me just make up a theme on the spot while I am at it. How about we do colors, colors, colors coz summer!! Hold on, let me start scrolling on Substack and see if I can find a theme/inspiration.

Well, here you go! I guess our theme is graphic tees for the upcoming week. Thank you, my love Angela Jones for the inspiration.

That’s it, y’all. See you next week in graphic tees (also should I do a post on graphic tees do we need a FRAMEWORK!!!??). I am suddenly stupid excited about this idea..ok that’s it for real now bye!

Okay, that’s a wrap for this one!

If something in here made you nod, send it to the friend who would also nod. That’s genuinely all I want, along with a few more things of course:

🔁 Restack or quote the part that hit, it helps more than you’d think. Especially since I don’t do paid subscriptions, Substack won’t push this one out without your help

💖 Like or comment if you have feelings (I will read every single one!)

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Find me on Instagram @astahearts for more outfit overthink-ery!

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