My Wardrobe, Myself

Being Deliberate with Our Wardrobes and in Our Lives

Debbie Roes

February 10, 2015

NOTE: This post was originally published on my previous blog, Recovering Shopaholic.

Many personal development experts recommend selecting a theme for each year to help guide our focus and direction. Some even advocate doing this in lieu of creating specific personal and professional goals. Last January, I selected two words as my guiding focus for the year, simplicity and joy. Without comprehending the irony in my doing so, I also laid out fairly extensive lists to govern my wardrobe and shopping as well as my overall life during 2014. That wasn’t exactly simple, was it?

While I experienced some success with simplifying my life and increasing my sense of joy last year, I think I diluted my focus too much by having two themes, as well as a large number of goals. Thus, I have decided to do things differently for 2015. In the spirit of both simplicity and joy, I have opted to only have one single theme for this year. At first, I selected “flow” as my word/theme for 2015, but I soon felt myself inextricably drawn to another word.

Have you selected a word / theme for 2015?

The End of Year “UN-Bucket List”

Debbie Roes

53 comments

December 2, 2014

NOTE: This post was originally published on my previous blog, Recovering Shopaholic.

There is just one month left in the year. Even during this busy holiday season, many of us also start to think about our goals for the year and how well we did or didn’t do with them. I don’t know about you, but I often find myself feeling bad about what I didn’t accomplish over the course of the year. Such ponderings generally leave me feeling bad about myself, which is something I’m trying very hard to avoid these days.

A Different Way of Looking at Goals and Accomplishments

I recently came across a blog post that presented an alternate way of looking at goals and accomplishments. While many people compile “Bucket Lists” of things they want to do over the course of a year or lifetime, this author created an “UN-Bucket List.” As she wraps up 2014, rather than focusing on her failures and the things that didn’t go as planned, she shared the accomplishments she has made since January 1^st.

We’ve all heard of a “Bucket List,” but how about writing an “UN-Bucket List”?

We Don’t Have to Try So Hard

Debbie Roes

120 comments

November 21, 2014

NOTE: This post was originally published on my previous blog, Recovering Shopaholic.

I’m a big fan of the singing competition television show, “The Voice.” Last week, right on the heels of my “Who Are You Dressing For?” post (that was hard for me to write and helped me to turn a powerful corner), one of the competitors on the show sang a song that cut right through to my soul. I knew the moment I heard it that I needed to write a blog post about the thoughts and emotions it evoked in me. The sentiments expressed in the song not only affect me personally, I know they also impact thousands – and likely millions – of other women worldwide.

Trying too hard

The song is called “Try” and it’s by Colbie Caillat. The cover version was sung by the youngest competitor on “The Voice,” Reagan James, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday (watch her performance here). As she sang the song, I could tell that she felt the words deeply. Yet I –at age 48, three times her age – felt them equally as strongly, if not to a larger degree.

“Full Life Project” Update – August 2014

Debbie Roes

75 comments

August 15, 2014

NOTE: This post was originally published on my last blog, Recovering Shopaholic.

I’m long overdue to share an update on what I’ve termed my “2014 Full Life Project,” as the last time I wrote about this at any length was back in April. Today’s update is going to be a bit different from the last one I gave. Instead of going through each of the goals I made and reporting on the current status, I’ll be doing more of a “stream of consciousness” update. I’ll write about how my life is going today – what is working and what is not working, as well as highlight the areas in which I’ve made progress since the beginning of the year.

Road to a better life Continue reading

Dealing with FOMO and Information Overload

Debbie Roes

80 comments

August 1, 2014

NOTE: This post was originally published on my previous blog, Recovering Shopaholic.

I was planning on doing an update on my “Full Life Project” today. However, as I read through my initial post on that topic and my April follow-up, I realized there is another subject I’d like to explore first. As you might remember, the words I selected as my theme for 2014 were “simplicity” and “joy.” Unfortunately, I don’t feel I’m doing very well in manifesting that reality for myself and there is one big reason for that.

In today’s post, I explore two topics that have been adversely impacting my life for a long time, fear of missing out (FOMO) and information overload. I know that I am not alone in this struggle, and I understand that FOMO is often a big driver of compulsive shopping behavior. I don’t have all the answers and am still very much in the midst of the fog, but I hope that writing about my battle will help shed some light on it for both myself and others.