Have personal style

Personal style is far more than aesthetic preference — it is a form of embodied cognition that influences how you think, feel, and perform. Slepian and colleagues' research on enclothed cognition demonstrated that the symbolic meaning of clothing affects cognitive processes: wearing clothes associated with certain traits activates those traits in the wearer. Adam and Galinsky's seminal study (2012) showed that participants wearing a doctor's lab coat performed significantly better on attention tasks than those wearing the same coat described as a painter's smock. Personal style serves as a daily act of self-expression and identity reinforcement — what you wear tells both others and yourself who you are and who you aspire to be. Developing a coherent personal style reduces decision fatigue, increases confidence, and communicates authenticity in a world of first impressions.

• 1
  Your wardrobe consists primarily of default or convenience purchases with no intentional aesthetic
• 2
  You feel that your clothing does not reflect who you are or who you want to be
• 3
  You experience decision fatigue every morning because your wardrobe lacks coherence
• 4
  You admire others' personal style but have never invested time in developing your own

Consider these questions to understand where you stand: